Cake Endeavours

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...

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

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.

This was a very special cake to do for Miss E's godmother, my childhood friend, and neighbour that we traveled to Vancouver to do.  And celebrate.  We are staying at the most amazing Airbnb with a dream kitchen.  I swear the island alone is as big as my kitchen!  I brought some supplies with me and was able to buy all the ingredients needed at a Bulk Barn that I was able to find.  I did need to borrow a hand mixer from the owner's parents next door but everything else was already in the kitchen for me to use.   Mr T and I did go on a hunt for a cake stand and finally found one at Winners thankfully!  Nothing like a little stress the day before the wedding.  But it was worth it for what we were able to find which was exactly what I was envisioning.  Ironically, I have three of these cake stands at home. The bride and groom requested a naked chocolate cake. They sent over the Mr & Mrs cake topper and I added the greenery from the lefto...

The wedding theme was Great Gatsby.  I found this headpiece on Amazon that would work perfectly for the theme.  I did a very simple white fondant covered cake with some art deco lines. Cake: 6" 3-layer cookies n' cream cake with buttercream filling.  Cupcake Tower: Black Velvet with cream cheese icing Lemon with cream cheese icing Chocolate with vanilla icing Cookies n' Cream with vanilla icing All topped with some gold dragees and dust Congratulation Courtney & Jordon! 

A fun wedding cake delivered today.  No one is as surprised as me that the fondant ears turned out and survived the car ride to the wedding!  Cake: 10" 3-layer vanilla with vanilla buttercream               8" 3-layer vanilla with vanilla buttercream   Gluten-free chocolate cupcakes for some guests to be able to enjoy dessert!

 I was so excited to do this cake for a good friend's wedding.  Wedding cakes are so much fun to do.  I love being able to deliver it to the venue and setting it up.  This set up was super easy, especially when there was no casualties in the travel. Thank goodness as it's been over two years since since I'd done a two tiered cake. The bottom tier was an 8" three layer pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing.  The top tier was a 6" three layer lemon cake with cream cheese icing.  Both were covered in fondant.  The purple flowers were made a few days in advance to allow them to dry out.   Congratulations Tara and Jamie!  We are so happy for you both!

 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!

For this wedding cake Kendall, the bride sent me a picture of what she was looking for.  Four tiers, in white, grey and black.  The 2nd and 4th tier are real cakes and the other are dummy cakes.  Fortunately we were able to travel with this cake in two pieces so that the centre of gravity wasn't completely off kilter. The two edible tiers were covered in grey fondant to look like marble. For the dummies originally I was going to use strips of grey fondant but it wasn't working out, so I decided to paint silver lines on. In retrospect as these tiers that were not going to be eaten I could have used silver ribbon which would have been a lot faster and easier to do.  Next time.  There was a cake topper, but it hadn't arrived by the time we had to leave. When I'm going to be decorating the cake with fresh flowers, I ask that the florist leave me a bucket of leftovers to use.  These were the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen at a wedding....

For this cupcake cake the original design going off of a picture was to have 36 cupcakes on the board.  The "diamond" would have been have had the bottom layer of cupcakes in the ring instead of the 2nd.  However, there is no pre-made board big enough do so; so I improvised.  There were two extra cupcakes left over that couldn't fit.  The vanilla cupcakes were covered in buttercream icing.  I tried to get the grey icing to look as much silver as possible.  Adding some shimmer dust helped with that! For the lettering I used my Cricut to cut out vinyl.  I love doing this as you can size the lettering exactly how you want it and then print, in any font.  It's quick and clean!

This 10" 2 layer cake was for the day after the wedding for Alli and Spencer.  I am so late in finally updating the blog that I can't remember what the flavour of the cake was.  I do believe it was lemon with cream cheese filling; that's my best guess! Hopefully, this will teach me not to get six months behind in updating. :( Mr. T and I delivered this one to Alli's parents' house.  I love going along with Mr. T sometimes for deliveries as we get to venture into areas of the city we may not have been before.  This took us to Broadview south of the Danforth.  The century homes are so beautiful with tall trees shading the streets you forget you're in the city.

I love how this cake turned out!  I love doing wedding and anniversary cakes.  I also love adding bling. For this 25th wedding anniversary cake the 8" bottom tier was 3 layers of chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling.  The 6" top tier was 3 layers of vanilla cake with butter cream filling. As much as I love that it's finally getting warmer here, I do not enjoy the humidity.  As soon as you bring the cake out of the fridge when it's covered in fondant it starts to sweat and you have to be so careful not get anything on the cake.  Thankfully, it was too humid to finish decorating the cake.  All the non-edible decorations are tacked on with pins that are easy to take out when you're ready to serve.

Today was my 4th wedding cake this month and also a wedding that I got to attend.  The cake was a 6" carrot cake with cream cheese icing.  I think the bride and groom are saving it for themselves as we didn't see out on a table.   For the sweet table I made 13 dozen cupcakes: carrot cake and red velvet both with cream cheese icing, vanilla with butter cream icing and chocolate with chocolate fudge icing. Congratulations Jacklyn and Brent!

For this wedding cake I did a 6" carrot cake with cream cheese filling for the top of a cupcake tree.  I dry brushed the burgundy dye on the edges of the fondant For the 6 dozen cupcakes they were all cookies and cream flavour,  We delivered these to  Krumbs  in Newcastle for the wedding tomorrow.  It's always a crap shoot for me when I'm dying icing a dark colour.  It's supposed to be burgundy but in some light it looks chocolate.  A semi-pro tip: make sure your dye is fresh; if it's old you'll never know what colour you'll get.

I've known Cait since before she was born.  She's a cousin of a cousin if that makes sense.  For the longest time we were the only girls in the family and when our shared cousin Kim came along we were both super excited.  So when she asked me to do her wedding cake it was so much fun to get to reconnect with her and to meet her fiancee.  For this three tiered cake the 10" was lemon with cream cheese filling, 8" was strawberry with cream cheese filling and 6" carrot cake for the top with cream cheese filling.  On the front as per their request I drew on the Phoenix.  It was so humid in the condo that I couldn't trace on the design fist so I ended up free-handing it. Mr T and I delivered the cake to the venue along with cupcakes that I forgot to take a picture of.  We weren't setting it up so we were able to drop everything off and go. Fortunately Kim had her cell with her and was able to take a few pictures of the cake for me with the top...

Today is Mr. T and my 17th wedding anniversary.  Hard to believe it's been that long already!  Why not make a wedding cake and deliver it to Creemore as our way of celebrating?  Miss E didn't want to come for the ride so we had a lovely scenic drive up to Creemore.  The town is so nice.  The wedding was taking in place in their backyard.  It was spectacular with what I think is the Mad River running in the backyard.  This is the first of 4 wedding cakes I'm doing this month.  Crazy!  3 of the 3 have the birch tree effect as decoration. This cake was three tiers: 10" marble, 8" chocolate and 6" vanilla. After we dropped off the cake we took a drive up to Wasaga Beach to look at all the beach front houses.  I can't remember if I've ever been there before but there was lots to see.  Mr. T bought us some chip trucks fries for our dinner.  They were super yummy. :)

Melissa used to be a co-worker of Mr. T's.  She was an amazing help when Miss E was born.  She even took me to renew my G1 (learner's permit for driving) so that I would finally get my license when Miss E was a few months old.  So, when she asked me to make her wedding cake I was very excited! This three tiered cake had a 10" vanilla with salted caramel filling, an 8" cookies and cream with buttercream filling and a 6" chocolate with chocolate fudge filling tier.  All covered in buttercream icing. Our friend Liz was visiting this weekend and while I was making the cake she kindly picked out the silk flowers from Michael's to add to the cake.  She has awesome taste. :) For the topper I made it using my Cricut Air machine and cutting out "love" 3 times and gluing the layers together and then onto a skewer. Originally the plan was to have the verse from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 written around the bottom tier.  Unfortunately with the hum...

A coworker sent me the recipe for  Make your own Harry and Meghan inspired royal wedding cake  a couple of weeks ago.  Little did I know that I would actually use it so quickly.  This month's Admiral's Walk Ladies Tea in the Port of Newcastle is doing a royal wedding theme and asked for mini wedding cake to go with the theme.  As a royal watcher I was more than happy to do such a cake.  Grandma Winnie always had royal magazines in her house that I always read when visiting.  I loved pouring over the pictures. Baking without a/c right now from the 20th floor is not fun!!  The lemon curd filling kept seeping out of the side of the cake.  My brother came to pick it up and he couldn't leave until I was sure it wouldn't leak.  Even then I couldn't wait to hear from him that he had it in the fridge safe and sound. I was able to make this cake only having to use one cake recipe.  Each tier was 2 layers with lemon curd filling....

For this wedding cake the bottom tier is a 2 layer 8" vanilla cake with salted caramel filling covered in butter cream with fondant covering. The top tier is a 2 layer 6" chocolate cake with chocolate fudge filling covered in butter cream with fondant covering.  Even though it is very hot in our condo right now this cake went together very smoothly.  I wrapped dark grey ribbon around the bottom of each tier.  I love how ribbon finishes off a cake.  It can also hide lots of imperfections.  Final touches were some yellow daisies and roses in fondant.

Krumbs Breadery  is catering a wedding in Parry Sound today and asked me to do the cupcakes and cake. Actually they made the cake, it's a strawberry cheesecake and smells so good.  My job was to cover it in icing to look like a "regular" cake.  It was very easy to do.  Though because it was so cold the icing went on super smooth which normally I would really appreciate but because I was doing a rustic look I didn't want it to be smooth.  Figures! I forgot to take a picture of the cupcakes.  I made 2 dozen vanilla, 2 dozen lemon and 2 dozen chocolate.  To add a little more height to the cake I made the topper using my Cricut machine.  At first I tried it in gold but it was hard to see so we decided to go with black. Krumbs came to pick up the cake and cupcakes on their way to Parry Sound.