Happy Easter

Happy Easter to those that celebrate this weekend and those that celebrate next weekend! These fun cupcakes are chocolate velvet with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. Hope you had lovely sunshine like we had in Toronto!

An April Wedding

Last weekend, I attended my friends' wonderful wedding at Canoe. It is on the 54th floor of a building in downtown Toronto - what an amazing night! The wedding took place at 6pm and then we dined as the sun was setting - it was just perfect!

I had the pleasure of making their wedding cake - it was decorated with sugarpaste Peonies and pink sugar ribbon. The top and bottom tier were vanilla butter cake with swiss meringue buttercream. The middle tier was chocolate velvet with dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.

I also made the cutest mini-wedding cakes for their takeaways! These 2-tier cakes were vanilla butter cake with vanilla buttercream. They were 3 inches by 3 1/2 inches high. My friend Sam and I stayed up until 3:30 in the morning to finish them (Thank you Sam!). They were well worth the time and effort and matched wonderfully with the entire setting.


These mini-wedding cakes are definitely a Sweet Thing!

Sphere Cakes: For All Occasions

I guess I could have thought of a better blog title, but it is exactly what I'm writing about this morning.

When looking for simple, elegant, yet "different" cake - many clients love to top their cake with a very round cake. Or you can call it a sphere or an ornament cake topper.

I once created an elegant wedding cake with a baseball on top which I talked about in this blog post.  Here is a wedding cake I did last year.  It was a 5 tier cake with a round cake topper.  I remember it was alternating tiers of Lemon Sour Cream Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream and Chocolate Velvet Cake filled with Dark Chocolate Ganache.   And the cake topper was Lemon Pound Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream.


And for their 1st year anniversary the other week, I created this perfectly round ornament.  This was a lemon cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. So fun to make - the design possibilities are endless!

This cake was a re-creation of a company's logo in a 3D sphere cake.  It was lemon cake with swiss meringue buttercream.

Cake Decorator's Tip: These cake was made using the Wilton Sports Ball cake pan. I also have the Wilton mini-ball pan set and other sphere cake pans.   I also use a tougher cake like pound cake or a nice butter cake. You will have to test your batter to the pan to make sure it rises to meet the top. If it doesn't rise right to the top, then it will not make a nice sphere when you put the halves together.

Thank You

It's been quite an exciting few days. After my interview with the Canadian Press last week, I appeared in the Toronto MetroNews, the Globe and Mail, other Canadian Newspapers and also an online video. And then, another wonderful post came from the Torontoist.

So, now my story is out. It felt good to finally get it out. Along the way I kept looking for signs that I was taking the right path. And finally this week, I don't need to wonder anymore.

Thank you to everyone. Now, to be honest, it all sounds so positive, but it was a rocky road for me. Back in November, I was lost, angry, stressed and going through the same emotions that others in a similar situation would feel. But things that have amazed me along the way is:

1. How many people and connections I've made over the past few years. In the last few months, everyone has offered their help, ideas, advice and just referring me
2. It is very hard to run your own business, you are always working. But it is very rewarding to be your own boss.
3. I know I needed a kick in the pants to leave the corporate world - but it was the right time, I wasn't ready before. Everything I learned and experienced has been so useful in my new career paths.
4. I was lucky that I took the time to take courses, volunteer and do things for myself. I worked hard and I rewarded myself with those things. These helped to shape what I am doing now.
5. It is amazing to me how much support I get on my cake business with my co-workers at Goodlife Women's Club where I work. Even my clients and the club members. I really do have the 2 best jobs!

What has really stuck out in the last couple days is that strangers have sent me emails to tell me that the article inspired them or just to offer support and wish me success. Now that is a sweet thing! And I really do believe that if you want something, you are passionate about it and you are willing to work for it - you can definitely have it! Here are 2 of my examples:

1. I always had a fear of water and in 2005, I was determined to get over it. My first mini Triathlon was in Guelph where I had to swim 375m. I tried to drop out of the swim but it was too crowded to get help. I finished the swim 65th out of 68 women in my age group. In November 2008, I did my first Ironman despite being let go of my job 3 days prior.

2. My very first cake from Cake Decorating class at George Brown 2.5 years ago. Not the most attractive cake, but I loved every minute of making it. I hope this doesn't end up on CakeWrecks.


Enjoy your day everyone!

60th Birthday Cake: Motorcycle Cake

For some reason, I can hear Steppenwolf in the background when I think of this cake... "Get your motor running, head out on the highway..."

This past weekend I made a special 60th birthday cake for a client of mine who has a nice shiny red and yellow Motorcycle. It really is so fun to recreate someone's special bike or car. I get so excited to see or hear their reaction to the creation.

This birthday cake was 4 layers of lemon cake with swiss meringue buttercream covered in fondant with handmade sugarpaste decorations.

Heffalump Cake

This is a cake I made last weekend for my 1-year old nephew. He loves his Heffalump stuffed animal so I thought this cake would be perfect.

I thought he would immediately grab for the trunk of the cake but he went right for the chocolate cupcake!  He had chocolate icing all over his hands and face.

Although, I have to admit, I'm a bit scarred because it was his first taste of chocolate and he immeidately broke out in a big rash.  The poor guy is allergic. He was fine after about 20 minutes - but I was quite alarmed at his experience with his first cake.

I only have the one picture because I'm in the middle of renovations and didn't have a good shot. I was planning to take more pictures at the party but it was so busy. Well this kid is going to have the best birthday cakes - so I will definitely capture all future events better.

Update on August 2nd: I found another picture of the Heffalump cake. This was taken when I was getting ready to set up the cake. You may notice the cupcake looks a bit different as it actually fell over, so I had to smooth out the icing and put it back on top. I'm still amazed the trunk defied gravity, even though the cupcake did not.

Picnic Cake

I was reviewing some pictures of my older cakes and I came across this one. Isn't it the cutest? I made this cake a couple years ago - it was just after taking a marzipan sculpting course at George Brown College. All the characters and picnic items are made out of marzipan.

To be honest, this was a practice cake so it was just a fondant covered styrofoam dummy cake. I remember I kept this displayed in my kitchen for many many months - I just couldn't bare to throw it away. It was only the beginning of my career in cake - so sweet!

Kalen's 1st Birthday

For Kalen's 1st Birthday - he had 2 parties and lots of Sweet Things!

I love all the cake ideas you can get and share over the internet.  Clients are either asking me to create something unique or they give me a picture to copy.

The first cake was requested to be similar to Wilton's Amazing Amazon Cake and add in a bit of my flair.  The cakes were alternating layer of chocolate and vanilla butter cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. All the animals are handmade out of sugarpaste. And yes, those are tiny purple butterflies around the cake.

The second party was lots of banana cupcakes and sugar vanilla cookies.  The design for the cupcakes was based off of a great cupcake by Clever Cupcakes in Montreal.  I'm a huge fan of their absolutely creative designs. Make sure you check them out.

St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! Just a short and sweet post today. Today is another excuse for something sweet - these are lemon cupcakes for vanilla buttercream tinted a little green.

Wedding Cake Tasting - fun!

Wedding season starts next month. It is going to be busy! I had lots of wedding cake tasting appointments booked today - here is what I put together for my clients to enjoy.

I don't usually put on this type of spread for a cake tasting - but so far everyone is loving it and I may continue if I can book them all on the same day. Anyone for leftovers?