Cake Endeavours

 My first Dungeons & Dragon cake.  The cake was the easy part for this one!  Though when I went to put on the edible gold dust I forgot that a little goes a LONG way.  It kept getting on the black cake board and when I went to wipe it away what you see is the result of that.  It keeps spreading!  So, I embraced that.  Originally Happy Birthday Allan was supposed to go around the base of the board but nothing was going to stick to "golden" base.  I switched gears and took out my Cricut machine again to do up a silhouette of a dragon and the lettering in vinyl. The D20 die was a fun challenge I gave myself.  I downloaded several templates before I found one that made sense to me.  Even then, I could figure out how to get my Cricut machine to add in the score lines.  I was pleasantly surprised that it came out as good as it did.  The template came the numbers showing in a certain order so that is how I added them on but then I...

 For the first time in several years we had a big family Christmas dinner and it was amazing.  I found this recipe for  Peppermint Fudge Cake  and thought it would be a great addition to the dinner. In between the layers of chocolate cake is a delicious chocolate peppermint ganache.  The cake is covered in a peppermint cream cheese icing.  This cake was so decadent! Peppermint Hershey's kisses, crushed candy cane,and holly/berry candies I picked up at Picard Peanuts to finish off decorations. Cake: 8" 3-layer chocolate cake with peppermint fudge ganache filling and peppermint cream cheese icing.

 This year's Christmas baking round-up. I haven't made these Peppermint chocolate cookies in years.  I forgot how much I love them.  I had extra peppermint icing left over from the Christmas cake I made and knew I could use it for these cookies.  As Miss E described them, they are more like a muffin consistency and the muffin top consistency to be exact!  I made the Newfoundland 5 star bars to bring to a Tbb's Eve party and added Christmas sprinkles to make them festive. Chocolate chip cookies, always a classic no matter what time of year. Peppermint crinkle cookies are messy with the icing sugar but are yummy. My all time favourite, Millionaire shortbread that I try to limit to only making at Christmas time.  

Delivered this cake today for Ashlyn and Cam's Papa.  Finally learned for black icing it is much easier to make chocolate icing and dye it then to try and dye white vanilla buttercream.  I also tried a new icing recipe which came out with an amazing fudge consistency and the black is perfect!   I cut the cake topper out using my cake topper and used some distress ink to colour the moon.  Added lots of white and gold dragees to look like stars. Cake: 6" 3-layer vanilla cake with chocolate fudge icing

 It's very easy to decide what cake to make for my father-in-law's birthday.  He loves anything chocolate. I know this cake never disappoints.  For some extra flare I added some silver sugar crystals. Cake: 6" 3-layer chocolate cake with chocolate fudge icing

 Originally I had planned out this cake with it being red wine as part of the decoration but realized after I had grapes that the birthday girl is a white wine drinker.  I sent Mr T back to Michael's to exchange the grapes for green ones.  Then set out to figure out how to do the look for white wine spilling out of the wine glass.  The look turned pretty good after lots of edible gold dust mixed in with the white chocolate ganache.  I bought the wine glass from Dollarama and added some fall silk flowers to finish it off. Cake: 8" 3-layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

 Today was anniversary Sunday at St. Paul's and I was asked to make cupcakes for the reception afterward.  We were also celebrating the Kemp family for their generous donation in honour of their amazing mom, Billie.  The theme of the cupcakes was apples as the Kemp family in well known for their apple orchards.   Apple pie cupcakes with whipped cream icing and dried apples on top sprinkled with some cinnamon.   Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

 Miss E and I watched Elemental a few weeks ago and loved it.  When I was asked to this cake and heard that they loved this movie too I knew I had to incorporate it into the cake.  They wanted a more mature fall themed cake but then mentioned Elemental as well.  You're never too old for any type of cake is my theory. I coloured the Happy Birthday as close to the Elemental logo as possible.  Then added some fall silk flowers and picks.  I love how this cake turned out. Cake: 8" 3-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream 

Today was my baby cousin's wedding.  Alexa was my junior bridesmaid 22 years ago.  I was so happy to be asked to do their cake and mini cupcakes for their special day. When I went to do the cake, I realised too late that I didn't have a black cake board which was what I was planning on using.  Fortunately, I had a thin silver one but it didn't match the vibe of the fall theme.  I was able to dive into my vinyl stash and covered the board in gold vinyl.   The cake topper I made using my Cricut.  Silk flowers and fall-themed picks were added to the top Caught the bride and groom in the background checking out the reception room while I was setting up the cake. Cake: 6" 3-layer chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing We moved to another room after the dinner for dancing and to my surprise the venue had already set up the mini cupcakes.  The vanilla cupcakes had rainbow sprinkles mixed in.  The plan was to add sprinkles on top when they wer...

 After the success of the Mocha Crunch cake for Thanksgiving dinner I made a pumpkin spice version that turned out amazing.  You can't go wrong with a cream cheese icing.  It's a family favourite. I never used to like having any kind of nuts in my cake.  I still don't but having them as an accent works for me.  Ha!   Inside view of the cake in its glory.  When I can, if I remember, I like to get a shot of a piece of the cake or a view with several pieces cut out. Cake: 6" 3-layer pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese icing

I had a team lunch today and volunteered to bring a dessert.  I found the recipe for  Mocha Toffee Crunch Cake  and thought it would make for a great dessert.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!  It is delicious! I was able to snag a piece to take home to Mr T to try. Cake: 8" 3-layer chocolate cake with mocha buttercream 

 I've known Abigail's mom since she was very little.  I was so honoured to be asked to do her birthday cake.  The family is thrilled to be able to celebrate with her in Ontario as they are here for a few months from overseas.   For the decorations I printed out the characters and creature power discs, cut them out laminated them.  The Wild Kratts logo I cut out on my Cricut along with the cake topper and the 5.  For the figureines, Abigail's mom dropped them off  and I added them on top of the "grass". Cake: 3-layer 8" chocolate cake with buttercream icing

 Keaton never fails to pick a fun theme for his birthday cake.  This year was no exception.  His request was to have an iPhone themed cake and Miss E was to pick out all the apps to go on it.   The app icons were fun to make.  I laminated them to make it easy to stick into the cake. Originally I had "Happy Birthday Keaton!" with a blue background but Miss E pointed out to me that he wouldn't be sending himself the greeting so I changed it to grey.  Thank you E :)  Cake: 6" 3 layer vanilla cake with buttercream icing

I was very excited to be asked to make a TMNT cake.  My first one!  I love doing cake toppers these days!  This one was one of the more tedious ones I've made but I am so happy with how it turned out.  Using vinyl instead of cardstock does make it so much more manageable though.  I swear I've seen the gummy pizza slices in the Bulk Barn or a dollar store, but when I needed them, they were hard to find.  Thankfully I only had to go to three stores to find these.  I'm sure they taste awful but they did the trick and Nick was very excited when he saw them on the cake. Cake: 8" 4-layer chocolate cake with mocha filling, buttercream icing, and chocolate ganache drippings.

For this sweet cake I pulled out piping tips that I don't use very often to make the very large sunflower on the top.  There was a lot of icing on the top of this cake; at least an inch thick, probably more.   The ombre effect on the sides of the cake turned out nicely!  For the centre of the sunflower I used chocolate icing for some extra flavour. Cake: 8" 2-layer vanilla with rainbow sprinkles and buttercream icing, lots of it!

I've known Joey since he was 5 years old!  I was so excited to be asked to make his cake for his 30th birthday.  He loves Marvel and Iron Man is his favourite character.    It was a cool day when I decorated this cake but we were coming off a crazy heatwave so the humidity was still very high in our place, which is why the red fondant is very shiny and very sticky.   The red and yellow decorations are gumballs which made for a fun addition to the cake.  I love how the cityscape cake topper turned out! Cake: 8" 3-layer cookies and cream with buttercream icing covered in fondant.

I haven't done a lot of fondant work lately as my style has changed and evolved over the past few years.  Also, the fondant I really liked is no longer available in Canada.  What I use now is great for covering cakes, it is not great for making decorations.  It can be really frustrating to work with.  I really wish I had taken a close-up picture of the lettuce/cabbage I did as I was really happy with how they turned out.  They should have been at the front of the cake.  Ha!  I did learn that the border around the cake board is called Greek keys.  I didn't know that they even had a name.  Of course, they have a name.   Originally, I hadn't planned on putting grass around the bottom and vines up the fence but as I was piping out the grass on the top my piping bag burst.  Icing was all over a portion of the fence.  Two lessons learned; one, stick with the more expensive piping bags and two, decorate the top first then the sid...

For this wedding I made 10 dozen cupcakes all topped with the same white buttercream icing.   I tested out my new acrylic cupcake stand that came with lights to take the picture adding the labels for each flavour.  My other cupcake stand is getting a little ratty.  Hopefully, this one will wear better! Cupcakes: Vanilla, Chocolate and Cookies & Cream with buttercream icing

Sweet, simple, classic cake for my neighbour's birthday.  I did the cake topper on my Cricut. Cake: 6" 2-layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing.

This wolf theme cake was a fun one to do!  The icing is supposed to look like the night sky and in person, the dark blue didn't look green like it did in the photo. Imagine it more like a night sky...or think of it as water covered in greenery...  For the decorations I cut out silhouettes of different wolves and trees and printed off the moon and the face of a wolf.  The rocks around the base are edible chocolate from Bulk Barn.  Warning, they do not taste all that great but do make for excellent decoration. Bottom cake: 8" 2-layer strawberry with strawberry filling covered in buttercream icing Top cake: 6" 2-layer cookies & cream with buttercream icing

An old coworker of mine asked me to make this cake for a new coworker of hers who was getting married.  I made a similar cake many moons ago for our coworker, who was getting married.  I was so happy that she asked me to do another one.  It's been a very long time since I brought a cake into work!     It's also been a very long time since I cut out so many flowers for a cake.  The decorations were all daisies so I used my medium and small cutters and lost count on how many daisies I ended up with on the cake.   Cake: 6" 3-layer lemon cake with cream cheese icing covered in fondant.

Making a cake for my dad is always easy.  He is not picky, he loves his desserts.  But I know he loves cheesecake and chocolate.   I made the cheesecake in my Instant Pot using this  recipe .  It's very easy and fool proof.  I decorated it with various chocolate goodies from the Bulk Barn. Cake: 7" Triple Chocolate Cheesecake

Celebrating my good friend Suzanne with our Friday night group!  Carrot cake is her favourite so of course that's what she was getting.  I was happy to get to use one my cake stands instead of a cakeboard but it is harder to decorate around it than I remembered!  Suzanne is an amazing artist so I tried to make the icing look like a swirl of colour! Cake: 6" 3-layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing

This is one of my favourite cakes to make.  And this was a big one!  The cake toper was done using my Cricut machine and cardstock. I used a stabalized whipped cream icing for the filling so it's not as sweet as my regular buttercream icing.  I also added extra Oreo cookies chunks between the layers. Cake: 10" 2-layer cookies and cream cake with whipped cream icing

One thing that I love about getting cake requests is that I never know what theme I'm going to be doing.  I love that it takes the decision making away from me.  I do love when I get a theme and can run with it.  For this cake it was 90s theme with an emphasis on the movie Clueless.  It hurts a little that the 90s is considered retro now.  Ha!  The cake itself reminds me of Saved by The Bell's intro which I watched every Saturday morning.  I had many troll dolls and I think I finally tossed my blockbuster card.  The cake topper I made using my printer and Cricut machine.   Cake: 8 3-layer vanilla with salted caramel filling.

 Celebrated my mom's birthday this weekend along with celebrating Father's Day with my dad.   Cake: 6 2-layer chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and chocolate ganache icing

 The weekend of celebrations continued!  Every few years our mothers' birthdays (same day) fall on Father's Day so it is a big weekend of celebrating crammed in.  Today we celebrate Mr. T's mom's birthday and Father's Day with his dad.  Version 2 of the cake! Cake: 6" 2-layer chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and chocolate ganache

Tonight we got to celebrate Michael's milestone birthday at the bowling alley and I was asked to do the cake.  Michael is a major Bluejays fan so of course that was going to be the theme of the cake.  I pulled out my Cricut machine to make all the decorations.  It was a surprise party and I really think he was surprised.  Sadly, I did not beat Mr. T in the bowling game we played. Cake: 8" 3-layer chocolate cake with strawberry cream filling (not my normal combination as I am not a fan of chocolate combined with fruit, but the birthday boy and guests thought it was great).

Miss E asked me to make cupcakes for Pride Week at school for students to decorate.  I was all over that! I made 3 dozen chocolate and 3 dozen vanilla flavoured cupcakes.  For the icing, I made two batches and divided into six bowls then dyed into rainbow colours.  E wanted more pastel colours which was fine by me as the vibrant colours can be tricky!  I had some extras that I decorated for inspiration with some rainbow sprinkles added.   Cupcakes: 3 dozen chocolate                       3 dozen vanilla        

I can't believe Mattie's one already.  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was delivering her baby shower cake.  Happy to have a part in her first birthday celebration. Cake topper and decorations are a combination of Cricut and printer cut outs.  For the rainbow, number one and lettering I cut out on white paper and coloured with my Copic markers to get the exact colours that I wanted.   Cake: 8" 3-layer lemon cake with cream cheese filling covered in fondant

A fun Moana themed cake with Encanto cupcakes.  Emma's mom was able to order the figurines on Amazon and have them shipped directly to me.  I still marvel that it's that simple these days! I picked up the flowers and greenery from Michael's and made some shells out of fondant.  The sand is from some crushed graham crackers.  Cake: 6" 3-layer strawberry cake with one layer of lemon curd filling and one layer of strawberry filling with buttercream icing Cupcakes: chocolate with buttercream icing

I'm so happy to do Elsie's birthday cake again this year.  It is always a pleasure and an adventure to do a cake for one of my favourite families!  This was my first attempt at making glass candy.  After the second attempt of making the glass I realized that my candy thermometre was most likely faulty.  Each time the melted sugar turned amber and thus made the blue turn green.  On the third batch I got it right.  A good thing because I was running out of corn syrup fast!     Cake: 8" and 6" 3-layer lemon cake with cream cheese icing.  

I made this yummy dessert to take to Easter dinner with Mr. T's family.  I love a no bake dessert.  I followed this  recipe . Instead of crushed Oreos as the topper I added broken Cadbury eggs.  Instant Easter dessert.  

This request for Sandra and Vaughan celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary at  Chronicle Brewing Company .  They have an amazing event space above the store. The cake waswas forfor the couple to enjoy after the party  Thanks to Miss E for taking these cupcake shots for me of them set up at the venue. I would have preferred to have used maraschino cherries with stems but they were not to be found!  Cake: 6" 3-layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing.   Cupcakes: 2.5 dozen chocolate with chocolate ganache icing                     2.5 dozen cherry with buttercream icing and a cherry on top 

I never tire of doing chocolate explosion cookies and this was one was extra fun as I found some really cool decorations from the Bulk Barn.  Unicorn covered Oreo cookies, giant unicorn covered marshmallows and candy melts covered in sprinkles.  All of the edible decorations came from the Bulk Barn.    They were celebrating three birthdays that happen within a few weeks of each other.   Cake: 8" 3-layer chocolate cake with whipped cream filling and chocolate ganache icing

Sweet Barbie cake for Sophie delivered to the Flying Squirrel.  I'm not disappointed that we are past that stage of kids birthday parties in our house!  It was a madhouse there.  The kids were having lots of fun, that's for sure.  I also dropped off a couple dozen cupcakes, which I forgot to take a picture of.  Cake: 6" 3-layer vanilla cake with buttercream icing.