Cake Endeavours

My good friend Joy takes great pleasure in assigning me the theme to her boy's birthday cakes.  She swears she doesn't bribe them, but I'm not sure if I believe her.  Nevertheless, Nelson's asked for a snake cake, and a snake cake he got. Nelson is quite versed in his knowledge of reptilia, so I thought it would be better to make up my own snake rather than try to replicate one.  I did give him fangs and nostrils with a snake tongue.  I used my doughnut cake pans to make the snake.  For once I was grateful not to have to cover the guy in fondant.  It was a pain in the ass to get into the curves with a knife to put the icing on.  Joy will be happy to read that. :)  It's okay, I'm kicking her butt in Scramble. This was my first time have to piece a cake together.  I avoid 3D cakes as much as possible but I am pleased with the result.  I think the birthday boy was pleased too. Hope you had a fantastic day Nelson!

I was so excited to be asked to make this cake.  I did Ruba's wedding cake back in June and now she's expecting a baby.  Last Saturday Ruba dropped off the results of her ultrasound revealing if the baby was a girl a boy.  The envelope was sealed.  I was going to be the only one who knew the results.  So cool.  I am so glad I only had to keep this in for a week as I am horrible at keeping secrets. Well, ones that are good news secrets! Every time I wanted to say something to someone I was worried if I said anything to anyone that everyone would know and it would get back to the family just like in the story The King of Togo Togo .  The story was on one of the Shell (gas station) cassettes that we got in the 80's.  I remember listening to it a lot in the car on our trip out to Vancouver in 1986.  The king has two horns and keeps it a secret.  I forgot who he tells, but that person just couldn't keep it in.  So he went far outside the kingdom and finally ended up whisp

Yesterday I made 5 dozen cupcakes for a birthday celebration.  One dozen was covered with Ninjagos.  I'm not even sure if that's the right terminology.  I know nothing about the Ninjago craze.  My Little Pony and Barbie, no problem!  Another dozen had the number 6 on each one.  The rest just had my standard iced decorating.

Earlier this year I made the Brink Back the Spotted Turtle cake for a little girl who turned seven.  I loved the idea of Bring Back the Wild Birthday Celebration through Earth Rangers.  I thought it would be a great idea for Miss E to celebrate her birthday.  So I set out on convincing her that this would be a great way to celebrate her special day by helping the Monarch Butterfly to save their habitat.  Just before her birthday they actually changed the animals that you can support but decided to stick with the Monarch Butterfly.  I had everything already picked out.  Getting black and orange decorations from the dollar store at this time of year was super easy! For the birthday cake I found my inspiration from Google.  I can't find the original picture though.  Miss E asked for a chocolate layer, a vanilla and a strawberry layer.  I never thought that I would be making a 3 tiered cake for my 7 year old's birthday!  The butterflies on the cake were not edible. 

I made two dozen of these cupcakes for a co-worker to take to a baby shower.  I love my co-workers because I get to experiment with different ideas and go outside my box sometimes.  She gave me a copy of the invitation for inspiration. I did my best to do my interpretation.  I'm not a fan of topping the cupcakes off with fondant.  It can be sketchy for me.  Not always a sure thing. I did half with the bird and half with the polka dots then dusted with some gold shimmer dust.

For Thanksgiving weekend I made 7 dozen of these pumpkin cupcakes.  Four dozen went to 2 co-workers that ordered them, two went to a family dinner and the last dozen was sent to Miss E's day care for her birthday celebration.  I love getting mileage like this out of one design.

Sometimes on a Thursday my co-worker (and you know who you are:) ) will ask if I can make her a cake for Friday.  This time as it was Thanksgiving weekend I got ahead of the game and asked her on Tuesday if she wanted to order something.  She asked for a 6" Perfect Chocolate Cake.  The great thing about making this cake so often I tend to play with how I do the finish on the icing.  I really like this look and was super easy and fast to do. Of course it was my fault that apparently a 6" cake was not going to be big enough to take to a family dinner so my co-worker kept it for herself and her family.  Next time I do a cake for her I have to remind her that she needs the regular size Perfect Chocolate Cake.

One of the teams on my floor had me make a cake for one of their co-workers going on off on mat leave earlier this month.  She doesn't know the sex of the baby so I made it as neutral as possible.  This was an 8" two layer chocolate cake.  I just used some circle cutters to make the polka dots and the lettering. The unofficial shot of the cake I caught Willow trying to get at the cake. She got pretty close before I shooed her away.

For Keaton, his request for his birthday cake theme was Spiderman and chocolate. This was a 10" two layer chocolate cake.   The first  Spider Man cake I did almost 3 years was very different!  I piped all the black and lettering with a pretty shaky hand.  This was before I discovered edible markers.  Using the black marker made for much smoother lines. For the boarder I did a city scape around and with yellow icing piped on the lighted "windows".

I am very behind on posting my cakes.  This last month has been busier with cake orders than I realised.  The first in my marathon of posts is from my works bi-monthly birthday celebrations.  This was for August and September birthdays and since my birthday falls in September, I picked what I was going to make.  So, of course I made the Perfect Chocolate cake.