Cake Endeavours

 I love making lemon cake.  It smells incredible baking.  It's so fresh and the warm cut offs are so good!  I learned something new with this cake though; actually two things.  One, you can easily use the icing to make the drip effect.  I added some yellow dye, heated up the icing to make it super runny and poured it into a squeeze bottle to add the drip.  So much easier than making a ganache.  Second, for the lemon slices, pat them dry first, otherwise the lemon juice will run down the sides of the cake as seen in the picture.  Thankfully, they dripped evenly and I left it to make it look like I did it on purpose.  Ha!  As a bonus, the extra decoration on the bottom left was added thanks to me to cover up a nick when I put it in the fridge.  I did not have the heart to go back and smooth out all the icing, again! This was a 3 layer 6" super lemony cake with cream cheese icing.

Originally the little penguin character from RuneScape was going to be much bigger and made from fondant.  Unfortunately, I discovered too late that the fondant I had on hand was not good.  So, instead I improvised a little after checking with my sister-in-law as this cake was for her mom that it was okay.  Her favourite colour is hunter green.  I can't believe I was able to get my icing that dark for the leaves.  Woohoo!  I was able to use the only picture available on the internet that I could find of the penguin hiding in the cactus as part of the cake topper at least.    This was a 2 layer 8" marble cake with vanilla buttercream icing.

These cakes are so much fun to do.  There is so much to choose from in chocolate to add to a cake.  My family is never disappointed when I make a cake like this.  They are vultures waiting to see what extras are left over.  Ha!  This was a 3 layer 8" chocolate cake with salted caramel filling.  Covered with Oreo cookies, Hershey's chocolate, cookies'n'cream and uggets, and Ferrero Rocher.

 It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since my brother and I had a celebration for my parents' 40th anniversary in their backyard.  It was an amazing party and I am so glad we had a big celebration with all of their friends and family.  Fast forward 10 years and the big celebration we were hoping to repeat just couldn't be done.  Instead we thought it would be fun to surprise them with a celebration up at their trailer inviting the park residences to stop by to pick up a cupcake, or two and to wish them happy anniversary.  Bur first I had to bake the cupcakes.  In order to do that you need an oven.   Earlier this week, the oven out of the blue started beeping.  We were no where near the kitchen,  A quick Google search told us that it meant a wire had come lose.  I was able to find someone who could look at our stove; didn't realize that not everyone deals with induction stoves.  Of course the stove needed parts which meant I...

 I was asked to make these cupcakes for an outdoor backyard wedding.  I love being able to go to the venue to set up the cake or cupcakes.  It's so much fun to see all the decorations and set up for the reception.   The cupcakes were vanilla with vanilla buttercream icing.  I added some silk baby's breath for decoration.  So simple, but love the touch that it added.   Congratulations Don and Joan!

To celebrate my dad and brother's birthdays this year we went up to my parents' trailer to have a campfire dinner; hotdogs over the fire with a side of corn on the cob.  So good! To finish off the celebration I made one of the family favourites, carrot cake with cream cheese icing.    This was a 3 layer six inch cake with lots of cream cheese icing.  Hopefully, it was enough for Geoff this time.