Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Twins' Birthday: In the Night Garden Cake

Ever since I posted about an In the Night Garden Cake that I made, it continues to be one of my most popular blog posts. This children's show from the UK is continuing to become more popular.

I never make a cake design twice - it always has to be different.  So, when I got a request for it again - I just have to change it up a little.

This 2-tier cake was for a twin's 2nd birthday party.  The top tier was Vanilla Butter Cake and bottom tier was Chocolate Sour Cream Cake.  All characters are handmade out of sugarpaste.



Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Workout Cake

Aside from making cakes, fitness is a big part of my life.  Many of you might not know this, but I spend half my time as a Personal Trainer.  So, when I had the opportunity to design this cake - I was so excited!  I feel like this cake defines me!

This cake was for the grand opening party of a new fitness club, Elements for Women, in the Yonge and Eglinton area of Toronto.
The yoga mat is Chocolate Blackout cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  The medicine ball was Strawberry Vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream.  The dumbbell was Vanilla Butter cake with swiss meringue buttercream.
I love receiving photos of my cakes from the party.  Here is the cake at the beginning of the night - does anyone notice the big hand impression on the yoga mat?  I guess someone wanted to see if it was real :-)
And here is the cake at the end of the night.   Looks like everyone enjoyed it!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Furniture Cakes

Many times I get really sweet descriptions from clients of their special occasion, the person or the cake they envision.

Here's what my client wrote:  "A cake to celebrate 25 years of movie nights.  In some respects her tolerance (although I know she loves them) for movies like Alien, our first movie date."   So, I made a collage of all the movies he listed for me as the cake board.  Then added in all the family members which I made with sugarpaste.  The beige couch and the TV are Chocolate Sour Cream cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
A view from the top.   Does anyone still have a TV like that other than me?  :-)
Here we have two white armchair cakes.  This was a joke birthday cake for someone who was pining away at the armchairs for a while and hoping to get them for her birthday.  Well she got them...... in cake!   Actually, she did get one "real" armchair for her birthday and then another one at Christmastime.
I've pulled one of my cakes from the archives.  This armchair birthday cake is from a few years back when I did not know how to make gumpaste characters.  The green armchair is cake and the Family Guy characters are plastic.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Surprise Birthday: King Tut Cake

I love all the fun cakes I get to create and I just adore surprises.  The birthday girl was spending the day with her parents and partner at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) exhibit of King Tut.  Then having dinner at the AGO restaurant called Frank.  I was asked by her partner to design a King Tut-themed cake and personally deliver it to the table - so it was a surprise to the parents also.

I had so much fun creating this cake and carving out hieroglyphics on that cake board.  Everything was edible on this cake - I didn't use any rice crispy treats or additional supports (other than regular dowels).  The cake was Chocolate Sour Cream cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
Here is a view from the top.  They did ask me what the hierogyphics said.  I replied "It says Happy Birthday Leah, of course".  But we all knew that it didn't say that :-)
And the birthday girl, Leah (far left), sent me some of her photos.  Thank you Leah and again, Happy Birthday!  Maybe next year you will get the Kermit the Frog cake from Costco.  (That is what she was expecting for this year!)
This is what she called "King Tut: Mid-Lobotomy"
She called this photo "King Tut: Exposed"