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"....

Handmade Sugar Baby Shoes

What is cuter than a pair of handmade sugarpaste baby shoes?

How about 2 pairs of sugar baby shoes?

What I love about being a cake designer is being part of my clients wonderful occasions.  I love to hear them talk about the special person that cake is for, about the event and all about the things that they celebrate in life.

For his occasion, it was actually a birthday cake for my clients' mother who was visiting from out of town.  The cake was also to surprise her that she will be a grandmother for the first time... and also to twins!    How wonderful is that?  And what a sweet way to let her know that!

More Simple and Elegant Wedding Cakes

Over the years, brides and grooms will describe their perfect cake as Something Simple and Elegant.  I just love that expression.  Simple doesn't mean that the design is plain or boring - it means that it has clean lines, subtle design features, delicate color palette and nothing too crazy.  I went down memory lane to some of my first wedding cakes which were simple and elegant.

Here is the very first wedding cake that I ever did.  The cake was heavy as each tier was flourless chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.  The delicate design was hand embossed dot by dot with a tiny ball tool - a pretty big challenge for a first cake.  The bride had provided me with this wonderful design - I wish I knew who originally came up with it so I could add their credit here.

This 3-tier square cake was for a winter wedding back in 2008.  Such a delicate color palette.

A small wedding cake with handmade gumpaste flowers, leaves and pearls.  Very elegant.

1st Birthday Cake

1st birthdays are always such a special occasion - I get so much joy talking to parents about creating a special cake for that event. I love being a part of it.

This cake design is so very popular. It is based off of a previous cake that I had made. I always like to change it up a little bit as I never make the same cake twice. The topper for this cake is the childs favourite baby giraffe - so cute! And they wanted to add a lovely quote on the cake "Happy 1st trip around the sun" - isn't that beautiful?

50th Birthday Party: 1959 Porsche Cake

What a fun and fabulous surprise for a 50th birthday party... a fiery red 1959 Porsche... Cake!

This birthday boy loves nice cars and keeps his very clean, so I added him in sugarpaste shining up the car.

I loved making the detail on the front porsche logo - I'm thankful for very fine paintbrushes.

Green Apple Wedding

Today's post is some wonderful pics from a wedding with a green apple and black theme. The wedding was cocktail reception party so a cupcake tower was perfect! The fondant green apples complimented the apple green color accents across the venue. There were also bowls of green apples which were freshly picked by the bride and groom.

The cupcakes were gluten-free chocolate with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and fondant decorations.
The wedding took place at a lovely downtown Toronto venue, The Richmond, which is Toronto's first Green Venue.
Here's another picture of the cute fondant green apples.

The Sweetest Cottage.... cake!

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. I thought it would be appropriate to post the perfect cake for a summer weekend - the cottage cake!

I was given some pictures and layouts of a beautiful cottage to make a replica of. The ground of the cake was chocolate sour cream cake and the cottage was vanilla butter cake. All details are handmade out of sugarpaste - aren't those muskoka/adirondack chairs the cutest!
I hope everyone had a wonderful summer and visited a cottage or two. Summer arrived late here in Toronto, so I'm hoping we have extra weekends of lovely summer weather.

Step-by-Step Cake Carving Tutorial

I've been asked by many people to post a step-by-step tutorial on how I carve a cake. So, today's post will be step-by-step pictures on a very interesting cake order.

The order requested was for "One Male Brown Butt". It seems that this was a joke gift for an office going away party.... I really don't mean to offend, this is for fun - so please don't scroll down further if you don't want to read anymore.

Step 1: The cake was Chocolate Velvet Cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttecream. Depending on the type of cake, I usually put the wrapped cake in the freezer prior to carving so that it is as solid as possible to carve.

Next, you need to get a clear picture in your head of the cake, if the images have not been provided by the client. I dared to google "Male Bum".... I didn't open any of the images, but the thumbnails were quite sufficient :-)Step 2: Make sure you have a very good cake cutting knife. I have a larger one and a smaller one to carve the finer details.

I started with a major part of the design, the crack, and started to cut. Then I just began carving - you have to just go for it. You can't stare or think too long. Carve small pieces and stand back regularly to look at the cake from different angles - there is no "undo".
For my cakes, I try to add in all the fine details in the carving, instead of leaving it to buttercream or fondant. Here are the dimples in the butt.Step 3: Cover the carved cake in Buttercream. I usually put this in the fridge until the buttcream cream hardens a little bit. Then I take it out from the fridge and smooth out the buttercream as much as possible. For this design, I had to smooth out using my hands - picture that! :-)Step 4: I dyed my fondant to the proper shade of brown - make sure you ask specifics from your client to ensure you meet their expectations. They will usually provide a photo or color palette. I rolled out the fondant and covered the cake. Smooth your hands over the curves of the cake (now that was funny...) and cut off the excess fondant.
Step 5: Prepare additional details for your cake. For this cake, I created something that looked like the top of jeans with a belt out of sugarpaste.And Voila! The final cake - One Male Brown Butt. Hope you enjoyed this lighthearted tutorial on how to carve a cake.

1st Birthday Cake: Sweet Monkey Cake

Today's blog post has a monkey theme to it. Firstly, a monkey birthday cake for a little girl who turned 1. I also added a cute little red bow just in front of the ear after I took this picture.

This cake was many layers of zesty lemon cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream covered in chocolate fondant (the stuff that tastes like tootsie roll)

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

I also made these with a more 2D-ish monkey face too. These were banana cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

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!