Retro Halloween

What an eerie night of howling winds and sideways rain in Toronto.  I hope everyone is safe and warm out there.  This weather definitely sets the mood for Halloween tomorrow.

This past weekend, we went to a Retro Halloween party and I just love retro!!  So, I made some fun chocolate and strawberry cupcakes with that theme in mind. 

And always fun to match costumes with the sweets!  Here's our Instagram pic with our costumes.  My husband was the yellow spindle insert that you put in 45's (the funny glasses just seemed to work with it) and I was a mixed tape.  A couple people said that it would have been funny if my husband dressed up as a pencil - remember when the tape went loose and you hand to manually wind it up!  Ahhh memories!

Have a Happy Halloween!  I have a fun post coming this Friday.... see you then!

Cookie Monster Cake

Cookie anyone?  Well, there are actually no cookies - only cake for this 2nd birthday celebration!

Cookie monster, including his head is vanilla butter cake and the cookie jar is chocolate sour cream cake.

 

Fabergé Egg Cake

I am not a collector, but if I was... the two things that I would collect would be those cute Russian Matryoshka dolls and these lovely Fabergé Eggs.  I was very excited when I received an order for a Faberge Egg for a 70th birthday.

I also added in 2 handmade sugarpaste dogs for the birthday girl.  The cake was chocolate pound cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.

Here is a cool view from the top.  Now, I sure hope someone orders a Matryoshka doll cake soon!  :-)

Painter's Cake

A quick post to kick off the weekend!  This cake was made for someone who loves her kids and loves to paint.  The cake was Neopolitan with layers of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry cake.

Enjoy your weekend, make sure you spend time with someone you love and take some time out for yourself and do something you love!

Can I put wires in a cake?

I have learned so many new techniques over the years, so I thought I'd pass along this tip that I learned early in my cake decorating career and I still stick by it.  I was told by one of my instructors that you should never put a wire directly in a cake.

Why?  Well, in rare cases, it may break and someone could ingest it.  No, I have never heard of it happening, but better to be safe even if you provide good instructions on how to disassemble a cake before serving.

What are the options?

#1 - Use a coffee stir stick to house all the wires.  This bowling cake has a starburst of many wires.  This monkey cake also shows the stir stick which makes it easy to disassemble before serving.

#2 - Wrap your wires with floral tape.  However, most floral tape have latex in it and you have to watch for latex allergies.  Have I ever heard of any allergic reactions?  No, but its better to be careful and inform the client.

#3 - Use Floral Spikes.  These are usually used for fresh flowers, but I use this for sugarpaste flowers.  They are expensive, but worth it.   For this cake, they were easier to remove and preserve as the sugarpaste petals didn't touch the cake.

#4 - Dip in white chocolate or white candy melts.   If none of the above options works for your design, you can also dip the wire ends with white chocolate or white candy melts.

I hope you find these options helpful.  Again, it is rare that there are any issues, but I do this to be on the safe side.  Anybody do anything different?

5th Birthday: Cars 2 Cupcakes

Happy Friday everyone!  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  I'll leave you with these fun Cars 2 themed cupcakes for a 5th birthday.

5 Years Ago: My First Wedding Cake

I was just reminded that it has been 5 years since I made my first wedding cake!  I had made practice wedding cakes with styrofoam and special occasion cakes, but this was my first "real" wedding cake!

I felt so honored that my friend, Denise, would trust me to make her wedding cake.  It was her famous flourless chocolate cake recipe and the design required a freehand embossing technique.   I also remember offereing to give her the cake as her wedding gift.  She thought it was too generous so she had to give me something for the down payment.  She ended up giving me her triathlon wetsuit as I doing a lot of races that year.

Here are some photos of me setting up that wedding cake 5 years ago.  I was so nervous throughout the process but excited.  I dreamed that it would one day be my career, not just a hobby.

Fast forward 5 years.... hundreds of cakes later... Thank you so much for stopping by, reading my blog, leaving comments along the way and your continued business.

Happy 5 year Wedding Anniversary to Denise and Roland!  You'll never know how much it meant that your trusted me with your wedding cake and how it really kicked off my career!