A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be asked to design a cake for the TV show
Til Debt Do Us Part. They were celebrating their 100th episode and it was also the host,
Gail Vaz-Oxlade's, 50th birthday. The party was held on the the rooftop terrace of
The Fifth Grill and Terrace in downtown Toronto. For this cake, I tried to really incorporate the elements of the show (the money jars, credit cards) and of course Gail, her big black bag and her TV crew. Her TV crew is so important to her and she truly appreciates them.
The cake was 3-tiers: Chocolate Sour Cream Cake, Lemon Cake and Banana Cake. I was also able to incorporate the glass money jars in the cake and even made sugarpaste coins and bills inside. Aside from the sugar people, the calculator was one of my favorites to make.
I was also lucky enough to attend the event in Toronto and meet Gail and her daughter Alex. They were the most friendly, down-to-earth and wonderful people. They loved the cake, appreciated the small details and even saved some of the sugarpaste items.
Lots of pictures today - most of them (I'm sure you can tell which ones) were photographed by Tanja at
Double Crossed Photography.
These next 3 photos are sound guy and the 2 cameramen looking at themselves made out of sugar. I love the picture below as the sound guy, John, is laughing that I included his rolled up sleeves in his sugar character.
Behind the Scenes: Some of my regular readers have asked that I post some of my "in progress" pictures. You can see how I made the sugarpaste money and divided them up into their proper amounts. I know, I know - that is a bit excessive... :-)
Cake Decorator's Tip: The event was held on a hot evening on the rooftop terrace in downtown Toronto. Can you imagine how worried I was about that? I was trying to negotiate an inside spot to display the cake - but there was a nice breeze, so I set up on the terrace. However, throughout the evening I kept my eye on the cake and was ready to repair at a seconds notice in case any of the sugar characters started to tilt over. So my tip really is to get yourself invited to the event! :-)
And what is yummier than Banana Sour Cream cupcakes with chocolate buttercream? Actually maybe cream cheese icing on it....
These monkey cupcakes were chocolate sour cream cupcakes with vanilla buttercream with a design that I picked up from the Frosted Caken Cookie
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.
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!
Isn't this such a fun wedding cake? The couple wanted to incorporate their different cultural background into the cake. The bride is from Hong Kong which is the flag design on the bottom tier. The groom is Portuguese and Korean which is the flags design on the next two tiers. And a gumpaste Canadian Flag on top.
Continuing on the theme of multicultural cakes - I made this cake for Korean and Scottish couple. The cake topper was my favourite which also matched a pattern on their takeaways. I made his Scottish Tartan out of gumpaste and also the Luckenbooth brooch which is a Scottish love token. 
Pale pink and chocolate brown is such a wonderful combination for a wedding. I made this cupcake tower of 50 cupcakes this past weekend. Here is the original sketch of the cupcake tower.
The cake topper was chocolate and vanilla layers with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. The orchid is handmade out of gumpaste.
The cupcakes were Chocolate Sour Cream with sweet Chocolate Buttercream and Lemon cupcakes with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.
This cake was Neopolitan: Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry Cake Layers with some Raspberry filling between the Vanilla and Strawberry. And the rest is Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream - yum! This flavor combination idea came from Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes book.
I also pulled up some of my old baby block cakes. This one is from a couple years ago - it was for my sister's baby shower. It was also a Neopolitan Cake.
Ah Memories... this is one of my very early cakes from a few years ago - I must've spent about 10 hours on it and I think I only charged $40 for it. I think it was vanilla cake and marshmallow fondant.
Whether you are a cycling fan (like me) or not, I'm sure you have caught a glimpse of the Tour de France this year. It's quite an exciting one! 
A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to be asked to design a cake for the TV show Til Debt Do Us Part. They were celebrating their 100th episode and it was also the host, Gail Vaz-Oxlade's, 50th birthday. The party was held on the the rooftop terrace of The Fifth Grill and Terrace in downtown Toronto. For this cake, I tried to really incorporate the elements of the show (the money jars, credit cards) and of course Gail, her big black bag and her TV crew. Her TV crew is so important to her and she truly appreciates them.
Behind the Scenes: Some of my regular readers have asked that I post some of my "in progress" pictures. You can see how I made the sugarpaste money and divided them up into their proper amounts. I know, I know - that is a bit excessive... :-)
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