Pumpkin Cake

Who loves pumpkin cake?  This cake wasn't pumpkin-flavor on the inside - it was alternating layers of strawberry and vanilla cake.   Plus a little matching smash cake to go with it.

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!

Hot Dog Cake

What a fabulous weekend we had!  What did you enjoy on your Canadian July 1st weekend or US July 4th weekend?

Hopefully wherever you are, you enjoyed it with family and friends.  Maybe even over a barbecue -- with hamburgers and hotdogs?    How about this hot dog - it's a very big cake!  Vanilla butter cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

Here's a couple more views of the cake - it was so fun to make!

 

 Have a nice week everyone!  I'll be back next Tuesday with a post with a very special dessert table.

Champagne Celebration Cake

A champagne celebration cake for a custom design software company, Jonah Group's, 10th Anniversary.  The bottom tier design was inspired by the design of their blog, A Series of Tubes, and their Twitter page.

This 2-tier cake was alternating layers of chocolate sour cream and vanilla butter cake.  The champagne bottle was made out of rice krispie.

A few years ago, I made a Big Blue Whale cake for their 7th Anniversary.  I look forward to creating their next big milestone cake!  Happy Anniversary Jonah Group!

Dim Sum Anyone? I mean, Dim Sum Cake!

Dim Sum is a traditional chinese dish or a meal that involves small plates or bamboo steamers with small portions of food and drinking lots of tea.   I often crave the dumplings and just the atmosphere of dim sum where the servers will roll around carts stacked with bamboo steamers and you try to get their attention to get the specialty item you are looking for.

Now, this isn't traditional Dim Sum.... it's a CAKE!  Banana Sour Cream cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and the steamer is made out of sugarpaste.

These dumplings are actually strawberry cake bites - yum!  I just loving making cakes that are meant to be other foods.

Cakes that look like Food

I definitely get a lot of fun cake requests.  What's more fun than a cake that is disguised to look like food?

This was a surprise birthday cake for a guy that loves his chocolate chip cookies and his dog.  I sure hope he wasn't disappointed that it was actually 3 chocolate and vanilla cakes covered in fondant with chocolate fondant chips. 

 

And what's better than cupcakes for breakfast?  Handmade sugar cupcake toppers of pancakes, coffee and bacon & eggs.... a very hearty breakfast!

80th Birthday Cake: Liquorice Allsorts Cake

A few weeks back, I posted this sneak peek on Twitter and everyone did guess correctly.  These were small stacked zesty lemon cakes decorated like the candy Liquorice Allsorts.  You either love the confection or hate it.

 

These cakes were for an 80th birthday.  I also made a collage of some personal things for the birthday boy based on some things his daughter told me.  She told me that he loved it and is saving the board.  How sweet!

 

Bridal Shower: Teapot Cake

Tea Parties are becoming very popular since the movie Alice in Wonderland.   Who doesn't love some tea and cake... especially when your teapot is a cake!

This cake was designed to match the bridal shower invitations.  The cake was strawberry vanilla cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

I love when clients sent me their photos.  It also gives you a sense of how big the cake really is.

Hope you have a great week and take a break sometime to enjoy some tea and cake!

Cakes Inspired by Kitchen Stuff

I love making food-related cakes, like the hamburger cake.  Here's some more cakes fun cakes inspired by items in the kitchen.

"Rice is ready" as my mom said when I presented her with this cake.  I made this for her birthday the other week - Happy 47th Birthday (again) Mom!  It was banana sour cream cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  Everything is edible and items are made out of sugarpaste.

Here is a view from the top.  For some cakes, I really like to spend extra time on the cake boards.  I think it can really dress up the cake presentation.

A two-tier cake I made for a party for some staff members at Calphalon Culinary Center in Toronto.  This one was very fun to make!

Hope you enjoyed this weeks post!  Have a wonderful week and long weekend!

Sweet Things for Foodies: Hamburger Cake and Cooking-themed Cupcakes

Who wants a Hamburger.... cake, that is....?  I have only made one small hamburger cake in the past, so I was very excited to tackle this cake and all its fixin's.  This cake was for a surprise 60th birthday party for someone who loves to bbq and eat hamburgers.

This was a 4 layer cake which fed 20 people.  The top and bottom bun were Strawberry Vanilla cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream covered with fondant.  The 2 meat patties were actually triple chocolate brownie which I didn't have to cover because it looked like meat.  The tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and sesame seeds were made out of sugarpaste.  The ketchup and mayo were buttercream.

For other foodies, I also made this Two-Four of cupcakes for the Calphalon Culinary Center in Toronto.  These cupcakes were Chocolate Sour Cream and Strawberry Vanilla.   I loved making those tiny potholders and oven mitts.

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?

Tutorial: A Cupcake on a Cupcake

Thank you everyone for your great feedback on my Cupcake on a Cupcake blog posting. I have to put together a tutorial below so that you too can make these SweetThings at home for your family and friends. They will love them! Especially if you use chocolate fondant as it tastes exactly like a tootsie roll.

What you'll need:
Chocolate or Dark Brown Fondant
Pink Fondant
A little bit of red fondant
Wilton Flower Cutter 0.75" diameter
Small Rolling Pin
Xacto Knife
Small Paintbrush and water

Optional:
Round 0.75" diameter cutter
Ball Tool
Sugarcraft gun


Step 1:Roll out chocolate fondant to 0.25" thickness. Use the 0.75" diameter flower cutter to cut as many as you need. Optional: If you do not have that cutter, use a 0.75" diameter round cutter. Use the ball tool or the side of your small paintbrush to create ridges on the outer side of the round cut-outs. Set aside.

Step 2: Roll the pink fondant into a log and cut into 0.5" equal pieces. Roll each into a ball and use your fingers to shape it into the top of a cupcake.

Optional: If you prefer a swirl on your cupcake and have a sugarcraft gun, then use the plate that looks like "rope". Make rope out of the pink fondant and then swirl it around to make the cupcake swirl. Add a dab of water if it doesn't hold. Set aside.

Step 3: Assemble all the pieces. I also like to use the flower cutter to make an impression on the top of the cupcake.

Step 4: The last and final step - Place on a fresh and newly iced cupcake. Enjoy this Sweet Thing!

McDonald's Happy "Cake" Meal

This is one of my favourite cakes - and it was so fun! Its a McDonald's Happy Meal Cake.

The cheeseburger and drink are all made of cake and fondant.

The french fry package is paper, but the actual french fries are actually made of white chocolate with sugar sprinkles. Yum!