3rd Birthday Cake: Mr. Men Cake

I had sooooooo much fun making this 2-tier cake with the birthday boy's favorite Mr. Men characters.  The cake was chocolate sour cream with strawberry buttercream filling.

2nd Birthday Cake: Space-themed Cake

Last year, this little boy celebrated his 1st birthday with a Where the Wild Things Are party.  For his 2nd birthday, the theme was space.  My client shared some of the photos she took of the event.

The first and second tier of the cakes were vanilla and strawberry cake with strawberry buttercream.  The top tier was styrofoam.

4th Birthday Cake: Superhero Cake

There is a wonderful non-profit organization called Icing Smiles which provide custom cakes to families affected by critical illness.  Their goal is to create a custom cake for the ill child, or their sibling, that provides a temporary escape from worry and creates a positive memory during a difficult time.  Volunteer "Sugar Angels" are matched up with the families across the country to deliver a "Smile" in the form of a custom cake.

I was honoured to be a sugar angel for Frankie, currently battling Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), who turned 4.   He is a true little superhero!

Please help if you can:  The US Icing Smiles has been around for over 4 years and has delivered over 5000+ custom cakes.  In Canada, they have been around for over 1 year and unfortunately are in danger of losing their charity status.  We have 1 more week to raise enough funds to keep this going - please help if you can - every little bit helps.

Transformers Cake

I had a lot of fun with this cake!  My client ordered a 2-tier transformer's theme cake and I surprised her with a full 3D Optimus Prime.  I love surprising people and the birthday boy loved it too!

5th Birthday Cake: Transformers Cake

I say this every year, but one of my favorite things is to make a birthday cake for my wonderful nephew.  Here's a review of his past birthdays!

• 1st birthday was a Heffalump cake 
• 2nd birthday was a Tractor 
• 3rd birthday was a Crane 
• 4th birthday was a Stegosaurus

This year, Maseo turned 5 and he loves Transformers.  The cake was 6-layers of zesty lemon cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  He even saved all the handmade sugarpaste decorations.

Spiderman Cupcakes

Last week was Batman cupcakes.  This week it is Spiderman cupcakes for a little boys birthday. Chocolate Sour Cream cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing - yum!

4th Birthday Cake: Thomas & Friends Cake

Actually, Thomas the Train is not on this cake... we have Diesel 10, Gordon, James and Henry which is the little boys favorites - all handmade out of sugarpaste.  The top tier of the cake was chocolate sour cream cake and the bottom tier was vanilla butter cake.

I have been lucky enough to design Reed's cakes for many years.  On his 1st birthday, it was his favorite stuffed animal.  On his 2nd birthday, it was and Elmo cake - see 2nd design . On his 3rd birthday, I actually wasn't available as it was too close to my baby due date and I wasn't taking any cake orders.  I wonder what he will be interested in when he turns 5! 

Crocodile Cake

You don't want to meet up with one of these... unless of course it is cake!  I created this fun crocodile cake for a little boys birthday party which was being held at at reptile zoo near Toronto, Reptilia.  How great is that?

I was asked to make a crocodile with the colors from the party graphics and make it more realistic, than cartoony.  I selected the wonderful blue with some green accents and tried to match it with the gecko in the design.

I was so happy with how it turned out.  When I finished the cake, I emailed some photos over to my little nephew since I was telling him about it the day before.  This is what he said.  :-)

"WOW -- I'm a little scared of it- but not too much.  I wish I could eat that when it has a candle on it."   Maseo, Age 4

Lego Cake n' Cupcakes

I had an order for a dozen Lego cupcakes for a boys birthday party.  I just happen to have some extra cake and a little extra times, so I thought I would surprise them with a matching cake!

How fun is that!  I love that I can do that extra little thing for my clients.  I always ensure that I never overbook myself and really take my time with quoting prices in order to estimate the true time it takes.  This allows me to handle any bumps along the road and also to do something extra for my clients.  

I love when I have a chance to over-deliver!  And this is something that I will be talking about as I am a featured speaker at the Do What You Love Telesymposium hosted by Dreamsmith.

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.

4th Birthday Cake: Stegosaurus Cake

Every year, I look forward to celebrating my wonderful nephew's birthday.  I adore creating a cake for him and watching his reaction when he sees the cake.  On his 1st birthday, I made a Heffalump cake, his 2nd birthday was a Tractor and last year it was a Crane.

This year, Maseo is crazy about Dinosaurs, especially the Stegosaurus.

 

The cake was his favorite: strawberry vanilla cake.  And he just loved picking out each of the sugarpaste plates before we served the cake.  I'm excited to see what he is interested in next year so I can make it come to life in cake!

3rd Birthday: Crane Cake

When my nephew, Maseo, was born 3 years ago, I told my sister that he would always have the best birthday cakes.  On his 1st birthday: it was a Heffalump cake and on his 2nd birthday: it was a Tractor cake.

This year, I thought that I might make him a Thomas the Train cake.  But when I asked what his favorite toy was, he said it was a Crane.  He already knows how to challenge me.  I wonder what next year will bring :-)

The cake was Orange Dream cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  And thank you to my husband who built the wooden structure for this cake.  My nephew now plays with the wood stand and has hooked up strings to it like a real crane.

Cakes for Boys... of all ages!

Lately, I've been posting lots of cute baby shower and birthday cakes.  Today I decdied to post some cakes that are a little bit more masculine.  This selection of cakes were for little boys....  and big boys too.

This wolverine cake was all edible except for the toothpicks holding the sugarpaste blades in place.  The cake was half chocolate sour cream cake, half lemon and the fist was carved chocolate cake.

This WWE cake was chocolate sour cream with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  The figures, Jeff Hardy and the Undertaker were handmade with sugarpaste.  The rope around the ring was also edible - it was shoelace licorice that I purchased (which was very hard to work with....)

And of course, a Star Wars cake and cupcakes - a very popular request also.  The yoda cake I made last year continues to be a popular blog post.

Hope you enjoyed these cakes!  Have a wonderful week! 

2nd Birthday: Yellow Tractor Cake

This past weekend was my nephew Maseo's 2nd birthday.  Last year I made him a fun Heffalump Cake and this year it was a tractor cake.  He actually calls dump trucks, excavator and any yellow truck a tractor.

Everything is completely edible on the cake.  It was lemon butter cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

He loved the cake and really wanted to play with the tractor.  I think it was confusing for him whether it was a toy or a cake.  We let him remove the sugarpaste wheels before we cut it up...  he then pointed at it and said "Broken".

Star Wars: Yoda Cake

"Do or do not.... there is no try" ~ Yoda.

And here is Yoda - 9 layers of Vanilla Butter Cake!

I really had a lot of fun (and stress) making the Yoda cake for a little boy who turned 4. Yoda was quite challenging, as he is a pretty thin character and he's got a big head. I also wanted to make him all out of cake, so I didn't want to use Styrofoam or Rice Krispies.

I worked hours and hours on him into the wee hours of the morning. At 2am, was still a bit shakey so I thought I'd let him "settle" overnight.

In the morning, I made a little tweak to his cane, turned around to do some dishes and "Thump"! He fell over on the table and cracked in half....

His head survived, but the body did not. I had less than 2 hours to make buttercream, dye more fondant, carve out his body and decorate him again.... I never worked so fast but the result was great - he was a little fatter than I planned - but now he was not going to fall again. Here's a view from the top!

Cake Decorator's Tip: Don't try to push the limits on gravity, gravity always wins! :-) And always make extra cake for sculpted cakes. I lucked out on this one as I had lots of vanilla cake on hand which was for my next cake.