Pink and Purple Cupcakes

Some cupcakes for a girl who loves pink, purple, roses and purses.

The cupcakes were vanilla bean cupcakes with half vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and the other half lemon buttercream.

8th Birthday Cake: Purse & Puppy Cake

A couple years ago, I had the pleasure to create a cute cake for a girl who loves dogs - she was turning 6 at the time.  Last year, she turned 7 and I made her a cute puppy cake.  This year for her 8th birthday, I made her little chihuahua, Coco, in a Chanel purse!

The cake is alternating layers of strawberry and chocolate cake.  Even the little dog is made out of cake.

Roger Vivier Purse & Shoe Cake

I had a lot of fun selecting the design for this surprise 50th birthday cake.  I was told that the birthday girl loved the designer Roger Vivier and to use some spring colors.

There was so many wonderful designs to choose from.  I ended up selecting the New Bauletto Metro purse for the wonderful color and also a good cake shape.

I also chose the Pink Cut-out Flat Ballet Shoes because I had never made flat shoes before, only high heels.  As it turns out, the birthday girl has 5 pairs of his flats!  :-)

Louis Vuitton Purse Cake

I never tire of creating Louis Vuitton purse cakes, although I must admit, I always hope the logo gets easier to handpaint... but it doesn't.  It still takes longer than I plan but the result is so rewarding.

My client asked for a classic style LV purse similar to a cake design that I made up a couple years ago.  So, I chose the Louis Vuitton Beverly GM.

This cake was alternating layers of chocolate sour cream and vanilla butter cake filled with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and covered with chocolate fondant.

 

Here is a view of the side and back of the purse cake - handpainted logos everywhere.  If you are interested in attempting a purse cake, you can refer to my purse cake tutorial.

Pink Fashionista Cakes

This past weekend, I participated in a wonderful fundraiser called Toronto Bakes for Japan.  It was a volunteer-organized, Toronto-wide bakesale held at 6 locations over 2 days.  So far, we have raised over $20,000 with 100% of funds going to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

My contribution to the event was inspired from this wonderfully pink bridal shower cake that I made this past weekend.

 

I decided to make mini vanilla butter purse cakes.  They were all one-of-a-kind in a pink and brown palette.

I also made some chocolate sour cream cupcakes with fondant purse toppers.

 

Look how cute the purses were all boxed up and ready for the bakesale!  I had so much fun making these sweet things and met such wonderful people the fundraiser.  I hope we continue to raise additional funds to support Japan's relief efforts.

Louis Vuitton Purse Cake

Fashionista cakes are always very popular cake inquiries.  I love making them the exact dimensions so people think that it is actually a purse.  I did one of the most challenging patterns recently... the Louis Vuitton Monogram Multicolore Speedy 30.  It was a surprise 30th birthday cake for my client's wife.

This cake was pretty big - 11.8" x 8.3" x 7.3" (LxHxD) - about 8 layers of vanilla butter cake.  

Here is a view from the back.  I really did underestimated how many logos I needed to paint.  But finally in the wee hours of the morning when  I finished handpainting each side - it was amazing to see it all come together.

Purse Cake Tutorial

In September, I posted a cake carving tutorial which continues to be a very popular blog post.  So, here is another step-by-step cake carving tutorial of a very popular cake design - a Louis Vuitton Purse.

This cake was for a bridal shower and was a replica of the bride-to-be's checkerboard LV purse with a matching wallet.

Step 1:  Prepare the cake for carving:  The cake was strawberry vanilla and chocolate sour cream cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  I usually put the wrapped cake in the freezer prior to carving so that it is as solid as possible.  The cake is on a small fitted cakeboard and then on a turntable - ready for carving!

Step 2:  Carve Carefully:  I always post photos on my wall of the purse images in all different angles.  Make sure you have a sharp knife (I use a large bread knife and a smaller one for finer details) and I cover my work surface with the plastic wrap that my cakes were covered in.  Very easy clean up and you should always keep your work area and sinks as clean as possible. 

For this design, I started with the front angle of the cake, then moved to the side angle. I carved only small pieces off and then stood back regularly to look at the cake from every angle.  For this purse, I also added in some extra indentations as purses are never perfectly pouffy (is that a word?)

Step 3:  Cover the cake:  Clear away the cake shavings and clean your work surface.  I iced the cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream which I find the best and sturdiest for my carved (sculpted) cakes.

I added some additional white fondant to my chocolate fondant to get the proper LV brown.  

Once the fondant is fitted perfectly around the cake, I cut off the excess fondant with my scraper.  Some people use a pizza cutter, but I prefer the scraper.

Step 4:  Decorate! For this LV design, I had to find the perfect shade of gold.  I had to use a mixture of 3 lustre dusts, edible gold paint and some lemon extract.  This designed required perfect squares to be painted on the uneven surface.  I found some make-up sponges that I cut into a square and then I used it as a stamp.  Note: For the LV Logo purses, you have to freehand paint every logo.  I don't know of a stencil or any easier way to do it.

Once it was painted, then I moved the cake to the sturdy cakeboard.  It was covered in a pastel pink which I think makes the brown stand out more.  Then I added the rest of the decorations and it all came together. 

Lotsa C's: Coach Purse Cake

Coach Purses are so popular this year!  Which make it very challenging for a cake decorator as there are a lot of "C's" to add to the design :-)

This special occasion was a surprise 70th birthday party.  I was asked to recreate her coach purse and tote bag with all the things she might have spilling out if it.  Surprises are always so fun - I enjoyed listening to the son trying to think of what is in his mom's purse and then call his dad to ask the same.  It was handy that the dad was able to take a few pictures - see below.

Here are the final cakes personalized with a plane ticket, knitting needles and yarn, kleenex, candies, a wallet and US credit cards.  All the items were handmade out of gumpaste - absolutely everything was edible - not even a dowel to support the cake.

A view from the top - I should mention that the tote bag was Chocolate Sour Cream cake with Chocolate buttercream.  The coach purse was Vanilla Butter cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

The back of the purse... more "C's"....

Fashionista Cakes: Coach Purses

Is Louis Vuitton so 2008? Because I am getting so many more requests for Coach Purse cakes in 2009! Here is the purse that I was trying to create as a cake - there were lots of "C's" to be painted and white stitching.To personalize the cake for the birthday girl, I added in sunglasses, her Motorola cellphone, her driver's license because she always gets asked for ID and a keychain that says Princess (that's what her parents call her).
The other coach purse was a surprise for my clients wife. It was her birthday, their anniversary and he just wanted to show her his appreciation as a mom because they have a 5 month old son. He surprised her with this cake AND the actual coach purse in Spearmint color.

This cake was personalized with her pink coach coin purse, keychain with Niagara Falls on it (that's where they honeymooned) and a plane ticket with the "Lost TV show" Oceanic logo. Did I mention he was also going to surprise her with a trip away? Husbands/Partners - Take note!And inside the purse, I added in their son's favourite toy Sophie the Giraffe, her pink LG phone, a soother and her favorite Simply Irresistable Givency Perfume bottle. What a sweet surprise!

Cupcakes for the Ladies

There were lots of Girly Cupcake requests this past week.  I don't know how many little chocolate fondant purses I made - I always love how they turn out. 

The TV show Gossip Girls is so popular right now.  I don't watch the show, but I did notice on twitter last night that it was quite a shocking season finale.  I made cupcakes for a Bachelorette Party with the Gossip Girls theme.  Since I don't watch it, I'm thankful that I got some pointers from a friend.  

These mini cupcakes were chocolate sour cream with dark chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. The bride-to-be got her own special regular sized cupcake.
Then there was a girls weekend away.  The clients asked what else I was making that week and then said that she'd go with a similar theme of "girly stuff".  They had 3 yummy cupcake flavours including: sour cream chocolate, lemon and vanilla butter.

My first Louis Vuitton Purse.... Cake

I was asked to post a close-up of the Louis Vuitton Purse Cake that I have in my profile picture. I made this cake about a year ago in a class I took at Bonnie Gordon School of Cake Design.

It is actually not a Louis Vuitton style as I had copied a picture of a random no-name purse. Then I painted in the logos - so perhaps someday it will be a future Louis Vuitton purse?