A Simple and Elegant Wedding Cake

Some couples like a cake that is a little "different" - like the Waterfall Cake I did last week or the Central Park Cake from last year. And some couples prefer a simple and elegant wedding cake. Last week was so fun (and very busy), as I did one of each.

This was a 4-tier cake based off a Martha Stewart vintage daisy design. Except the cake was much bigger than Martha's, purple sugarpaste ribbons and handmade sugarpaste calla lillies. The top two tiers were were vanilla butter cake and the bottom two tiers were chocolate velvet cake with swiss meringue buttercream.

A Waterfall Wedding Cake

It's definitely not your typical wedding cake - but so fun and meaningful for the couple. The Canadian bride pretended that they were cutting out the wedding cake to save money - then surprised the Brazilian groom with this waterfall cake.

There were lots of little birds and the mico monkey which is found in Brazil. The bride told me that he loved the entire 3-tier lemon butter cake. He even ate that little monkey and they also ate each other's flags... I'm not going to touch that one... :-)

Flowers for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is just around the corner. So, who is getting mom some flowers? Or if you are a mom, what kind of flowers do you think you will get?

Roses? ..... on vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream

Gerbera Daisies? .... on chocolate fudge cupcakes with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream
Or Calla Lilies? .... on vanilla cupcakes with rich chocolate buttercream. Enjoy your weekend and the flowers!

80th Birthday Cake

One of my favourite things about being a cake designer is being able to personalize that cake for a special person. I was asked to design an 80th birthday cake for a man who golfed, used to be a photographer for the London Free Press and also sailed a Lark.

We discussed some cake ideas like a golf bag, a boat and even the Rolleiflex camera he used to use - but then it came to me - what about what his desk would look like.

So, here's the final design with all handmade items - A desktop with The London Free Press Newspaper with an article about the Rolleiflex camera as the top news story, his current Canon Powershot A430 Camera, a golf ball and tees, a pen with his name on it and also a photo in a frame of his Lark. I loved doing this cake - its such a thoughtful, unique and special centerpiece for their event.

I just got an email from my client "The cake was a big hit! He was so funny – from a distance he thought we had bought him a camera and had it displayed – he couldn’t figure out why we would do that when he had a camera just like the one displayed – It was only when he got closer that he realized it was a cake with all kinds of stuff on it"

The cake was Sour Cream Chocolate Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream. The camera was also cake and the rest of the items were handmade of sugarpaste and the details were painted on with edible color.

Strawberry Anyone?

A short but very sweet post today. Last week I was doing some more recipe testing and finally happy with the newest addition to my cake menu.

These are Strawberry Vanilla Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream and topped with a fondant strawberry. Very yummy!

Elegant Boxes

This past weekend, I was tasked with designing a 40th birthday cake - it had to be unique, elegant, somewhat funky and rich pucci-style colours. I love designing cakes like that - I get a bit of freedom and it is also very challenging.

Here's the final design of 3 decorated boxes with pearl dusted sugarpaste peonies on top of a swirl patterned cake board. All three cakes were lemon butter cake with swiss meringue buttercream.


And now for some extra pictures that I took this weekend... Don't mind the terrible lighting - this is my newly renovated cake studio that has minimal natural light and I refuse to use a flash.

This is a picture of the 3 cake boxes in progress:


A lot of people ask me what I do with the leftover cake. This weekend I had a couple parties to attend, so I cut the leftover lemon cake into squares, put them in a cupcake wrapper, topped it off with some buttercream and a little fondant decoration - it makes a great thing to take along to a party.

Bees and Ladybugs

Summer must be around the corner, as I seem to be making lots of sugarpaste decorations with bees and ladybugs.  The lady bug cupcakes were Lemon with Vanilla Buttercream.

The bee cupcakes below were almond sour cream cupcakes with honey buttercream.  This isn't a regular flavor on my menu - I was recipe testing.  Next week, I will be testing out coconut cake and dulce du leche.
This cake was a 1st birthday cake topped with a tiara, some flowers and a couple bees - the colors and design were copied from a photo the client provided. I just added the tiara as it was a princess themed party and also a sugarpaste character of her daughter. The bottom tier was chocolate fudge cake and the top was vanilla butter cake.

1970 Chevelle Cake

I love making car cakes. However, I must admit that they end up being a little shorter or fatter because I hate carving off so much cake - but I was reminded that carved cakes are an "artists rendition".

So, here is the 1970 Chevelle Cake I made this past weekend for a 30th surprise party. This is the car that is on the Fast and Furious movies - see pic below.


This cake was 3 layers of chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream covered in fondant.  My favorite thing to make on cake cars is always the tires and its treads.

The weirdest thing was that after I delivered the cake - I swear I saw about 7 shined up Chevelles on the road.  They seemed to be everywhere.

Tea Anyone?

Well, there actually isn't any tea.... this is a Teapot Cake with a sugarpaste teacup and saucer. It is a 3-layer lemon butter cake with swiss meringue buttercream. Isn't it sweet?

When I got the call for this order, I was so excited! The teapot cake was to celebrate an 80th birthday - I think that is such a thoughtful gift.

I knew that this was going to be challenging, but I'm always up for a new cake design. Then I was very lucky because one of my favourite cake blogs had just posted a tutorial on this a few weeks ago. So, that really helped. So, who wants tea?

First Birthday or was it?

This past weekend, I made this wonderfully cute birthday cake for a little boy. The mother sent me a photo of her son so I could make a sugarpaste model of him for the top. This cake was chocolate velvet on the bottom tier and vanilla butter cake on the top tier. I was so happy with this cake, loved how the little boy turned out, the colours, the train and the clothesline. I can't take credit for the clothesline design - the client had found this on another website, I just added in my own flair with the rest of the cake.

I delivered the cake proudly. She opened the door holding her young son and when she saw the cake, she said "Wow.... but he is not 1. He is only 4 months" Ooops, I guess for some reason, I thought it was his first birthday, it was actually his first party. And somehow I didn't clue in with the photo that she sent - I felt terrible. Well, she was so very sweet and let me remove the 1 on the top and add in an extra toy that I made. I'm lucky she was so good about it.

And the next day, she sent me a lovely note that the cake was a hit and she looked forward to me making her sons 1st birthday cake. :-)