Cake Endeavours

 This was a big one!  Delivered to Orono Town Hall on a very snowy day.  The horseshoes and JAMES I cut out of some gold stock paper on my Cricut machine.  James's wife Vicki had already purchased the other cake toppers, so I added them when I got to the hall.  I dyed chocolate icing black to add the border and some decoration to go with the theme of black and gold.  I finally learned that it was much easier to dye chocolate icing black than vanilla buttercream!   The cake was made up of 2 9 x 13 cakes.  One vanilla with chocolate ganache filling and one chocolate with vanilla pudding filling.  Covered in vanilla buttercream. In addition to the cake I made two dozen vegan chocolate cupcakes, half with vanilla icing and half with chocolate.  Both vegan icings. Dessert table all ready! 

 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.

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...

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).

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 

My Friday night friends night this week we celebrate Azrael's 16th birthday!  Any excuse to make a cake for friends night but happy to celebrate a milestone birthday with Az.  Cake: 6" 3-layer red velvet cake with cream cheese filling

Michelle and John renewed their vows today!  It was such beautiful ceremony.  To help celebrate I was asked to make cupcakes for the guests to take when leaving the church.     Purple icing continues to elude me.  One day I will master this colour and get the vibrancy and shade I want.  Until then, I will compensate with paper decorations!  6" 2-layer chocolate cake with buttercream icing Cupcakes: chocolate, carrot, vanilla and lemon Congratulations Michelle and John!

A big cake for a big milestone.  This one was two 9" x 13" cakes put together.  I rarely pipe on writing as I really need to practice more to be confident.  The 100 came out too wobbly for my liking so I added some embellishments to make it look like vines to make it look like that was on purpose.   Cake:   9" x 13" two-layer chocolate cake with buttercream filling               9" x 13" two-layer vanilla cake with buttercream filling

I had so much fun making this cake!  To supsend the M&M's bag I stuck a bubble tea straw in the cake and covered it in blue icing then added the M&M's "spilling" out of the bag and all over the cake. The letters I cut out with my Circut machine in vinyl. Cake: 8" 3-layer chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling.

 I was thrilled to be asked to do this cake for an amazing family celebrating their parents' 50th wedding anniversary.  I also love delivering cakes to the venue.  It's so much fun to check out new places that I've never been to before.  This cake was being delivered to the David Duncan House.  We pass by it all the time, but have never been.  It's a beautiful old house that is a fancy steak house.  They had a private space on the second floor for the celebration. I've never covered a cake in sprinkles before.  Watching youTube videos, they made it look very easy.  In theory it was, but I'm sure I'll be finding sprinkles for weeks to come in hidden spots in my kitchen and probably the living room too!  The bottom tier was much more relaxing to decorate with the edible gold dust.  The bottom tier was a 3 layer 8" chocolate cake and the top tier was a 3 layer 6" lemon cake.  Happy 50th Anniversary! 

Mr T and I took a drive out to Bowmanville this afternoon to deliver this surprise birthday cake.  It was a beautiful day for a drive and we were able to deliver the cake without the birthday girl knowing about it as her birthday isn't until tomorrow.  This cake was a 6" two layer vanilla cake with a raspberry filling decorated with vanilla butter cream icing.  The cake topper was made using my Cricut machine.

Finally getting to celebrate Miss E's birthday properly along with her friend who turned 16 today with a chocolate cake covered in chocolate fudge icing.  Added each a car with their initials to celebrate learning to drive.  I can't believe they are 16.  I really don't know where the time went.  Though I do not miss all the work that went into planning and hosting birthday parties!  

 Debbie's sister asked me to make a cake to celebrate her 50th birthday.  This was an 8" three layer marble cake with buttercream icing. I haven't made a fondant flower in quite some time.  I made it a few days before so that it had time to harden and then dusted on the edible gold dust. Cake topper was made on my Cricut machine with vinyl and card stock.  More gold was added with dust covered malt balls.  They are such an easy decoration to do and I love the look.

To celebrate this milestone birthday I was requested to make a carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  This was a 6" cake with 3 layers.    For the New York Rangers logo I printed it off and laminated it, then trimmed it out and adhered it to the cake with icing.  I used blue and red M&Ms for decoration.

 It was so nice to be able to celebrate this milestone for my cousin and her husband in person!  I was asked to make cupcakes and a special cake for the two of them as they are both celebrating their 60th birthdays this month.   This was a 4" four layer carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  The theme was black and gold.  I splattered edible gold paint all over the cake then topped it with black fondant flowers and gold dust covered malt balls.  We lost two of them on the ride over to the floor in the car, but it wasn't that noticeable.  This is why I usually take a picture before a cake leaves the house.  Ha! The cupcakes were carrot and red velvet.  I didn't check to see if I had red dye before I made the cupcakes, so they were more of a maroon/burgundy velvet colour.  No one complained, so that's good.  :)

 Friends is without a doubt my favourite TV show of all time.  I've seen every episode multiple times over and quote it daily.  When I was asked to do a Friends birthday cake I was so excited.  Finally, getting to do one on a show that I know everything about. This cake was a 3 layer vanilla with vanilla butter cream icing.  I also did 3 dozen cupcakes (chocolate and vanilla) to go along with the cake for the birthday celebration.  For the decorations I printed off the images that I wanted and laminated them to go on the cake.  For the lettering I cut them out in vinyl on my Cricut using the "Friends" font.  I haven't covered a cake in fondant in a very long time.  Of course, for this cake I decide to do it and it's so humid out as you can see.  The fondant is sweating.  It's so hard to work with when it's like that.  Plus, the brand of fondant that I am used to working I can't find anywhere.  So frustrating!  In the ...

 Last night we dropped off these cupcakes for Cachet's anniversary celebration today.  The owner is celebrating 40 years in business today.  I love getting to be a part of celebrations in my home town, Bowmanville.  It's always an honour. I made 4 dozen vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.  I added some flowers and leaves for a little bit of colour.  For the toppers I used the Cachet logo with 40 behind it and backed them with some black cardstock.

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...