Cake Endeavours

The last cake in my marathon bake off weekend!  I started the weekend off with my biggest order and ending it with a sweet 2 layer 6" cake.  I've been using a lot of flowers lately in my cakes and I'm certainly not complaining.  I punch out all the flowers and then get to sit down and methodically add them onto the cake while tonight watching the Oscars. I'm still going to bed way later than I had planned to, but the kitchen is clean and lunches are made for tomorrow!

Cake Order #3 this weekend was for a brother and sister combined birthday celebration.  They each got their own birthday cake, plus a couple dozen cupcakes.  When I dropped off the cakes, the party was in full swing and the Dora and Diego entertainment had just arrived.  I volunteered to drop off the cakes simply because it bought me a lot more time to get them decorated! Both were 2 layer 10" cakes covered in fondant.  Dora, vanilla with vanilla buttercream; Diego, chocolate with chocolate fudge icing.  The cupcakes were Oreo with orange coloured buttercream and coconut lime with lime flavoured buttercream. I had lots of fun making these cakes.  They are so cute.

Cake order number two!  Another order from a co-worker.  Actually all the orders for this weekend are for co-workers.  This is one is for a baby shower, obviously, but the sex is unknown, so my co-worker asked for the colours to be pink and blue. The top tier is cookies and cream and the bottom tier is vanilla.  Originally I was going to have the carriage standing but I couldn't get to work out. I always get nervous that it's going to break in transit anyway.  I added a bottle, rattle, safety pin and soother to the bottom tier for additional decorations.     I also made 2 dozen cupcakes to go with the cake.

This is the first of four cake orders this weekend that I am doing.  I definitely won't be taking on this many orders in one weekend again.  Two orders is the most I should be doing to remain sane. Ha!  I did take yesterday as a vacation day and was able to get a lot done, but I still procrastinated; some things never change. Oh well! The cake is for an 80th birthday party.  Both tiers and the 1/4 slab cake are all two layer lemon cake with lemon curd filling.  The top tier is 8" decorated with butter cream roses.  The bottom tier is 10" decorated with fondant and dragees.  The 1/4 slab was decorated in a similar fashion.  I used a quilting technique for the first time.  I found a great video on YouTube for a tutorial.  It turned out really well on the bottom tier.  On the 1/4 slab it was a little off on the sides.  Definitely should have done some more math to figure out all the measurements.

Last fall at work we had a silent auction for Run for the Cure and I donated a 2 layer 8" cake for the cause.  Our VP won the item and this week I got make the cake for her.  Her daughter is turning 2 and like any 2 year old girl these days is a fan of Dora.  I added two stars to represent turning 2.  However, Miss E informed me if I done them in the proper colours they would be like actual characters.  That tells you I never really paid attention to the show.  Went with lots of flowers.  I still cannot dye fondant to look like any proper shade of purple.  However, I do LOVE LOVE LOVE the Americolor dyes.  With the squeeze bottles it so much easier.  Miss E's opinion of the finished cake: "If I was still into Dora, I'd think it was a pretty cool cake." As an extra I was asked to make these cool Swiper cucpakes .  I was up for the challenge.  Normally I only use butter in my icing but for this exercise shortening usually works better for melting and avoidin

These cupcakes were made for a little girl's birthday party.  I made 6 dozen with 3 different flavours.  Chocolate using the cake and icing recipe from the Perfect Chocolate Cake . Lemon from Martha Stewart's  Lemon Cake  recipe with buttercream icing; instead of milk I used lemon juice and added some yellow dye.  For the 3rd flavour I used Martha Stewart's  Raspberry Cupcake  recipe with creamcheese icing dyed pink. The cupcake liners, I bought at  Flour Confections  to go with the Mickey Mouse theme. I bought a Mickey Mouse cookie cutter from  Cheap Cookie Cutters.com   I bought it specially for this order.  I also picked up a few other cutters for future projects.  The cutters arrived in the mail on Wednesday.  I had visions of hand cutting out 72 Mickey Mouse heads and was not looking forward to that!  For the birthday girl I added a little red bow and a number 2.

You know how I had mentioned in my last post that I had made the wrong flavour?  Well, now I had a cake in my fridge with no place to go.  Mr T's parents took Miss E for the night and invited us to come for dinner tonight.  Bingo!  I'd bring dessert. This is not the first time that they have benefited from one of my mistakes.  Way back when Mr T and I were dating in 1999, I was making the Perfect Chocolate Cake to take to a work BBQ the next day.  I was making it at his parents' house.  His sister and boyfriend were there too.  Everyone was so sad that I was making this cake and they didn't get to have any.  Fortunately for them, something went wrong.  When I was putting the cake together the layers started to split.  I quickly worked to ice the cake, because this icing when cold is pretty solid.  But no, it started to crack so I stuck a knife in it and another to try to stop it from moving.  I shut the fridge and hoped for the best.  When I opened the door again the

It's my 100th post!  Woot! I was very excited to make this cake for Pat's 60th birthday party.  I think her daughter booked me before Christmas.  So, I had lots of time to plan.  You'd think that would work in my favour.  The cake was to be a two tiered cake.  The bottom was a giraffe print, the top red with shoes and bow on top.  The flavour was to be strawberry.  I nudged Meghan to go with a chocolate cake on the bottom and salted caramel icing. This is a fairly long post, so, I won't force you to read or scroll through before getting to the pictures. Fast forward to Thursday night, while finishing the  Spotted Turtle Cake I baked the cakes. I was so proud of myself for being organised.  Friday evening before heading out to wine night I was all set to make the loops for the bow as they needed to dry over night.  I was so sure that I had an unopened 4lb tub of black fondant but after searching for twenty minutes I gave up.  We do not have a Bulk Barn c

  Bring Back the Wild Birthdays is an amazing concept for a birthday party.  When I was asked to make a cake that matched the invitation and included a Spotted Turtle I was very intrigued.  Rather than bringing a present each guest was to bring a toonie to donate.  I mentioned to Miss E that this would be a great idea for her next birthday party.  I thought since Gillian was turning 7 and Miss E would be 7 on her next birthday, that it would be a great age to start.  Miss E was all for the idea.  That is until she explained how she would see it work out.  After she bought what she wanted from the money everyone bought, she would give the left over change to the cause.  Hmm...fortunately we have over 6 months to work on the concept of giving back. Back to the cake.  It was a two layer vanilla cake with teal butter cream filling and icing; covered in fondant.  The cake matches the party invitation.  The Spotted Turtle replaced a butterfly.  The little owl is my favourite.  I bought a