Powerlifting Cakes n' more

I have been blogging for almost 8 years now and February was the first month that I didn't post a single thing.  In the last year, I have cut back significantly on the number of custom orders that I take to focus on my other life, as a Personal Trainer.  I still have reserved spots for my regular cake clients/family, but mostly trying to balance out my time since I also took up Powerlifting.

Back in May 2015, Team Maximum Barbell convinced me to sign up and train for a Powerlifting competition.  Based on your age group and weight category, you attempt to lift as much weight as possible (with strict form) for one repetition in the Squat, Bench Press and Deadlift.  You get 3 attempts at each and your highest weight in each lift count towards your total score.  Sound fun?  Yes, it really is!!!

Since then, I've competed in 4 events including the 2015 Ontario Provincials winning a Gold Medal and 2016 Canadian Championships winning a Bronze Medal.

Along the way, I was able to make some fun sweet things.  This was a 40th birthday cake (with a weightlifting belt) for a teammate's western themed party. 

Cupcakes with sugar weight plates for a Powerlifting for Women seminar.

Fondant-covered sugar cookies.

I am very excited about the upcoming year - some more Powerlifting events for me and always exciting to see what cakes my clients will ask me to create.

CrossFit Cake

A cake for the CrossFitter, Powerlifter or weightlifter in your life.  I loved making this cake as it crosses over with my other career as a Personal Trainer.  I have to admit, last year I did focus a lot more on training and nutrition for clients.  This year, I do plan to do the same - but I do love this cake thing so you'll definitely see more creations from me.

I hope you had a great start to 2015 and I wish you all the best!

3rd Birthday: Toopy and Binoo Cake

And just like that, my daughter Sidney turned 3 last week.  She had been asking for a Toopy and Binoo cake for the longest time.  For this design, I made fondant cutouts and drew the characters with edible marker and edible colors.

It was just a small celebration with family so I had a simple sweet table including mini strawberry vanilla cupcakes (with a side of Patchy Patch), fresh market cherries, paleo chocolate cake bites and rainbow fruit skewers.

Here's a blurry picture of me and my little one.  Happy Birthday to my sweet Sidney!

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!

I love what I do!

The other day I posted this photo on Instagram: one of my cake clients left this thank-you card and gift in my mailbox - what a sweet surprise!  I sure love what I do!

On the same note, in a few short weeks, I will be a featured speaker at the Do What You Love Telesymposium.   This free event is hosted by Dreamsmith whose motto is to Live Big, Be Happy and Change the World.

It would be great if you could join this live phone-in event.  There are 9 speakers in total, 1 featured every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 12pm EDT from June 12 - 28.  I love how Dreamsmith says "The things that light you up are the things you need to be doing" - That is so true for both your professional and personal life!

I hope you will join the free speaker series, I will be featured on Thursday, June 21st.  Details here.

Coffee Mug & Magazine Cake for my Alumni University

I have so many great memories from my University days at Wilfrid Laurier in Waterloo, Ontario.  I graduated about ... gulp... 15 years ago with a Business Degree.

I was honoured when they asked to interview me for their Alumni magazine.  I, of course, had to make them something sweet and special.  I made a magazine & coffee cup cake with a selection of cupcakes with assorted cake designs.

The article was a 5-page feature called: Starting from scratch:  Juanita Koo leaves the corporate world behind to fill her life with sweet things.   It was very weird to see myself in print.  Here is the Instagram-ized photo of one of the pages of the article (Page 16-20 if you want to read).

Here's another photo of the cakes - I had so much fun making them and everyone at the magazine was amazing to work with.   I'm so thankful!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!  What a fun holiday.... and what a great day for a cake!  Here's my Halloween duck cake -- it is vanilla butter cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream.

You are probably wondering... why a duck?

Well... it is a duck because I had to make a cake to match my 4-month old daughter's halloween costume  :-)  Have a safe and Happy Halloween everyone!  Be sure to stop by on Tuesday for a contest giveaway!

Cupcake Cake

Today's post is about a Cupcake cake and my little cupcake, my 2.5 week old newborn girl.

This cake was made when Sidney was 1 week old and inspired by her cute little onesie.   The cake was 6 layers of chocolate sour cream cake with strawberry buttercream.

 Here we are getting ready for her photoshoot with the cake...

I think she likes the cake....

 Or maybe not....

Have a nice week everyone!  See you next Tuesday!

Baby Shower Sweet Table

In May, I posted some baby shower cakes and announced my own baby news.  What comes next?  A baby shower sweet table for ME!

2 weeks ago, my mom and sister threw me a backyard baby shower and I had the pleasure to make the dessert table for my family and friends.  My sister, Yvonne, (who has a very creative blog called choo cha handmade that you have to check out!!) gave me this pinwheel design as inspiration.

To start off the dessert table, a 4-tier lemon butter cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream decorated with handmade sugarpaste pinwheels.

Handmade strawberry marshmallows, fondant decorated sugar cookies and strawberry vanilla cupcakes with strawberry buttercream.

... pinwheel sugar cookies and handmade vanilla bean marshmallows dipped in caramel and graham cracker crumbs.

Sweet n' salty boxed kettle corn, dark chocolate covered pretzels and mini-raspberry jam donut muffins (recipe from Cakes and Bakes NI blog).

One last thing... a lovely SURPRISE... our baby decided to arrive 3 weeks early.  So, 10 days ago, a healthy little 6lb girl named Sidney entered our lives.  We feel so lucky and it has been an amazing experience so far.  More next Tuesday - have a nice week!

Baby Shower Cakes n' Cupcakes n' Me

Is it me or does it seem like there are babies everywhere?  Here are some cute baby shower cakes I've made with a wonderful pram design.

 

I also have a wonderful announcement.... in 2 months, I will be a mom for the first time!  We don't know whether it will be a girl....

We don't know if it will be a boy....

You may be wondering why I took a picture of a cupcake with 4-inch heels...  I was shopping with my husband when I just passed the halfway point of my pregnancy.  I saw these heels and fell in love.  He looked at me in the shoe store and said "You are 5 months pregnant and want to buy 4-inch heels?"   I answered coyly, "Yes, is there a problem with that?"  He had a giant smile and laughingly said "No problem at all"

We are so excited and I am feeling great.  If you notice from my availability, I will be taking some time off from regular cake orders.  But, I will definitely continue to blog every Tuesday about cakes, do some tutorials and have some guest posts.  See you next Tuesday!

Valentine's Day Cake

An extra post this week for Valentine's Day.  So, instead of Be Mine, I Love You, Kiss Me, Be My Valentine, XOXO or Happy Valentines Day.... How about THANK YOU!

THANK YOU from the bottom on my heart!  This was 6-layers of carved strawberry vanilla cake with strawberry cream cheese icing.

While we are on the topic of saying Thanks... I want to thank all my friends, family, blog friends and clients for such a great start to 2011.  It has been over 2 years since SweetThings officially opened and I couldn't be happier!

I want to share with you an interview I did last month with a website called Human Detour.  The YouTube video gives you a bit of background on how I got started.  If you have the time, this interview is about 15 minutes long and split into Part I & Part II.  Thanks again!

Interview over at A Cake to Remember

One of things I love about blogging and twitter is all the the wonderful people that I have met.  They share their thoughts, ideas, rants and cake designs.  It is always funny and comforting to see tweets from cake decorators late on a Friday night when I am doing the same.

I visit my favorite bloggers and twitter friends often to see what they are up to.  One of those bloggers is Kara from A Cake to Remember in Richmond, VA.  She has been making beautiful custom cakes for over 15 years.  She recently interviewed me and here is the blog post if you want to learn a little more about me.

This interview made me think back to my first wedding cake project in 2006.  I dug up this photo from a class I took at George Brown College.  I remember the teacher saying that she was very happy because I went "outside the box" and designed my own cake, instead of copying one.  That was an affirming moment for me.

Green and White Wedding

As many of you know, I got married last month.  And yes, I did make my own wedding cake(s) and sweet table.

The wedding inspiration was different shades of green, white and paper lanterns.  Decor, signs and invitations were designed by my talented sister Yvonne.

It was a beautiful, warm September day for our afternoon outdoor ceremony.  It was held at Cedar Ridge Creative Center and Botanical Gardens in Scarborough.

We had a cocktail reception in the historic house catered by Daniel et Daniel.  Following a champagne toast, our guests enjoyed the sweet table which I absolutely loved putting together.

The sweet table treats included: S'mores, chocolate covered strawberries, gluten-free chocolate cake, mini strawberry vanilla cupcakes, sugar cookies, zesty lemon sphere cakes, chocolate dipped pretzels, white chocolate truffles, chocolate covered almonds and orange cake bites.  The croquembouche were made by the caterers. 

It was such a perfect day for Steve and I.  We had so much fun and would like to thank our family and friends who were able to join us.

Photography by You+Me Weddings
Make-up by Janine Falcon and Hair by Alexis Jardin
Wedding Officiant Daniel Brereton
Green Wedding Shoes by John Fluevog
Sweet Table by me, SweetThings Toronto