6th Birthday Cake: A girl who loves dogs

I receive a lot of requests to create sugarpaste characters of pets.  Whether it is peeking out of a wedding cupcake tower, part of a wedding cake topper or cupcake topper.  And since these are made out of sugar - you can save them for quite a long time as a keepsake.

Here's a 6th birthday cake for a girl who loves dogs.  All the characters are handmade out of sugarpaste.

The doghouse and cake are chocolate velvet cake with chocolate buttercream.

Unrelated to the event above... but I thought it was cute to share...

And here is a set of dogs that I made for a wedding cupcake tower.  Actually its their tails - which I think are so cute.  Have a great week!

50th Birthday Party: Saxophone Cake

What a super fun, but very hard cake I made this past weekend.  It was for a surprise 50th birthday party for a Saxophone player.  His wife contacted me over 7 months ago to book this cake.  We secretly traded emails over her son's email account to make sure her husband wouldn't find out.  She also developed photos and mailed them to me - I love mail!

The cake was to feed 60 people, but I think it fed way more than that.  It was heavy!  Strawberry vanilla cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and handmade sugarpaste decorations.

Here are some pictures on how the cake came together.  First was the template - it was 80% of the real dimensions of the real saxophone.

Then the first layer of strawberry vanilla cake and spreading on the vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

The final layer of cake after I carved the saxophone.

7th Birthday Cake: No Doubt... It's Cake!

A 7th birthday cake for a girl who loves Gwen Stefani and her band No Doubt.  I designed this cake with No Doubt's Rock Steady album cover in mind.  Her birthday party was a dance party where they had a dance instructor and were learning all the Gwen Stefani moves.  The birthday girl on top is handmade out of sugarpaste.

Here is a view from the top.  I just love how red, black and red work so well together.

Here's what the cake looked like before it was iced in buttercream and covered in fondant.  This cake was 8 layers of strawberry vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream.

3rd Birthday Cake: Captain Hook Cake

My clients were so pleased with their son Mason's 2nd birthday cake that I made for them last year.  This year they challenged me to the most difficult sugarpaste characters I have ever made - Captain Hook and Peter Pan.

I am happy with how they turned out - but they definitely were the most difficult as they were so tall and Captain Hook was very top heavy.  You can't really tell by the picture, but Captain hook was about 9 inches tall. All made out of sugar - except for a lollipop stick in each character.

The cake served 24 people and was 4 layers of strawberry vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream.

Baby Shower Cakes

Is it me or is there a baby boom?  What a special celebration which always needs a lovely cake or cupcakes!

This baby shower was rubber ducky themed and they did not know whether it was going to be a boy or girl.

The 2-tier cake was lemon cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  The cupcakes were a mixture of chocolate and banana cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese buttercream.

Here's a cute cake for a baby girl shower with sugarpaste character of the couple.  This is an idea that I first saw by an amazing cake company called Pink Cake Box in NJ.

Don't you just love the small pink cake on the cake stand?  This cake was 4 layers of vanilla butter cake with swiss meringue buttercream.

These cakes were for 2 ladies celebrating their baby showers together with their friends.  These cakes were both chocolate and vanilla layer cakes.  For more baby shower cake and cupcake ideas, you can check out the gallery on my facebook fan page.

1st Birthday Cakes

I know that I've said this in the past, but I love making 1st birthday cakes.  Maybe it is how the parents glow as they write or tell me about their child or what makes their child laugh.  They really want to share and celebrate such a wonderful year passing by with their family and friends.

The theme for this birthday cake was lambs, giraffes, bears and lady bugs.  I also matched the invitation which was red and pale yellow.

The birthday girl's name copies how the invitation text looked --  I love how it turned out.  The cake fed 48 people.  Top tier was Strawberry Vanilla with strawberry buttercream.  The bottom tier was Banana Sour Cream cake with chocolate buttercream.

This next cake was based off of a Korean cartoon called Pororo.  All decorations are handmade out of sugarpaste.

This cake fed 24 people.  Top tier was strawberry vanilla cake.  The bottom tier was chocolate sour cream cake.

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.

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!

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.

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"