Twins' Birthday: In the Night Garden Cake

Ever since I posted about an In the Night Garden Cake that I made, it continues to be one of my most popular blog posts. This children's show from the UK is continuing to become more popular.

I never make a cake design twice - it always has to be different.  So, when I got a request for it again - I just have to change it up a little.

This 2-tier cake was for a twin's 2nd birthday party.  The top tier was Vanilla Butter Cake and bottom tier was Chocolate Sour Cream Cake.  All characters are handmade out of sugarpaste.

Workout Cake

Aside from making cakes, fitness is a big part of my life.  Many of you might not know this, but I spend half my time as a Personal Trainer.  So, when I had the opportunity to design this cake - I was so excited!  I feel like this cake defines me!

This cake was for the grand opening party of a new fitness club, Elements for Women, in the Yonge and Eglinton area of Toronto.

The yoga mat is Chocolate Blackout cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  The medicine ball was Strawberry Vanilla cake with strawberry buttercream.  The dumbbell was Vanilla Butter cake with swiss meringue buttercream.

I love receiving photos of my cakes from the party.  Here is the cake at the beginning of the night - does anyone notice the big hand impression on the yoga mat?  I guess someone wanted to see if it was real :-)

And here is the cake at the end of the night.   Looks like everyone enjoyed it!

Furniture Cakes

Many times I get really sweet descriptions from clients of their special occasion, the person or the cake they envision.

Here's what my client wrote:  "A cake to celebrate 25 years of movie nights.  In some respects her tolerance (although I know she loves them) for movies like Alien, our first movie date."   So, I made a collage of all the movies he listed for me as the cake board.  Then added in all the family members which I made with sugarpaste.  The beige couch and the TV are Chocolate Sour Cream cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

A view from the top.   Does anyone still have a TV like that other than me?  :-)

Here we have two white armchair cakes.  This was a joke birthday cake for someone who was pining away at the armchairs for a while and hoping to get them for her birthday.  Well she got them...... in cake!   Actually, she did get one "real" armchair for her birthday and then another one at Christmastime.

I've pulled one of my cakes from the archives.  This armchair birthday cake is from a few years back when I did not know how to make gumpaste characters.  The green armchair is cake and the Family Guy characters are plastic.

Surprise Birthday: King Tut Cake

I love all the fun cakes I get to create and I just adore surprises.  The birthday girl was spending the day with her parents and partner at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) exhibit of King Tut.  Then having dinner at the AGO restaurant called Frank.  I was asked by her partner to design a King Tut-themed cake and personally deliver it to the table - so it was a surprise to the parents also.

I had so much fun creating this cake and carving out hieroglyphics on that cake board.  Everything was edible on this cake - I didn't use any rice crispy treats or additional supports (other than regular dowels).  The cake was Chocolate Sour Cream cake with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Here is a view from the top.  They did ask me what the hierogyphics said.  I replied "It says Happy Birthday Leah, of course".  But we all knew that it didn't say that :-)

And the birthday girl, Leah (far left), sent me some of her photos.  Thank you Leah and again, Happy Birthday!  Maybe next year you will get the Kermit the Frog cake from Costco.  (That is what she was expecting for this year!)

This is what she called "King Tut: Mid-Lobotomy"

She called this photo "King Tut: Exposed"

Winter Wedding & Happy New Year!

The holidays are such a busy, but fun time to catch up with family, friends and colleagues.  It is all about celebration!  In my family, we had another reason to celebrate.  My sister is getting married in a couple weeks in a private ceremony all the way in Narvik, Norway.

For weddings, the bride is usually presented with something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue.  So, as part of her Christmas present, I wanted to give her something blue - a cake!  She wouldn't be able to take it with her - but we enjoyed it with Christmas dinner.

The cake was winter-themed with snowflakes and a snowball on top - as its quite cold up in Norway.  The flavors were Strawberry Vanilla and strawberry buttercream on he bottom tier.  Then Chocolate Sour Cream with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  The snowball was lemon cake.

I wish my sister Cindy and her fiance Jon Arne an amazing 2010 and a lifetime of adventure, travels, fun and happiness!  Stay warm in Norway!

To all my family, friends, blog readers and clients - thank you for the most amazing 2009!  It was my first year officially in business - everything was better than I expected!  I'm looking forward to 2010 and wish everyone health, happiness and lots of Sweet Things!

Sphere Mini-Cakes: A Holiday Wedding Reception

I had the pleasure of designing this magnificent cake tower filled with sphere cakes.  My client and I have been talking and dreaming about this cake for many months now.  Her son was married in late summer in London, England.  Their wedding cake was based off a wonderful design by the talented cake artist Makiko Searle of Maki's Cakes.  I have been a fan of hers for quite some time!

The Toronto reception was planned for a few days before Christmas with all the family and friends flying in - that is how the colorful ornament theme came about.

The event was took place last night at the Market Kitchen which is a wonderful space at St. Lawrence Market.  It is in the Upper Level and overlooks the market area.

Here is another angle of the cake and you can see that they have a open kitchen.  They use this space for all sorts of events and also cooking classes.

I have made sphere cakes before, but not this many in so many sizes.  There was enough to feed 100 people.  There were 3 different sizes and the 2 different flavors:  Zesty Lemon and Chocolate Sour Cream with Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  There were also 2 special soccer ball cakes for the big fans - the groom and the bride's father.

I think sphere mini cakes will be a very popular trend for 2010!  Let's see if I am right!

Holiday Cupcakes

It's one week before Christmas - I hope everyone is taking time out of their busy schedule to breathe, bake and enjoy a sweet or two.  I wanted to share with you all of the holiday cupcakes that I've been making over the last few weeks.  All the cupcake toppers are handmade out of sugarpaste.

Snowflakes and sleds...

Snowmen and Penguins

Fondant Gingerbread men.

Scarves and Mitts on banana sour cream cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

More snowflakes.  Banana sour cream cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

Colorful Christmas tree ornaments on Lemon Cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing.

Lastly, holly on chocolate sour cream cupcakes with chocolate buttercream.

Wishing everyone a safe, fun and happy holiday season filled with lots of Sweet Things!

Twilight: New Moon Cake

Sometimes I wonder what I'd do without Google.... I often get cake requests for cartoons, characters or movies that I have never seen at all.  It will be something like Ben10, Pororo, Ugly Dolls or kids movies that I've never heard of.  With google, I have downloaded lots of picture and even watched lots of snippets of cartoons to get images for the cakes.

A few months back, I received a request to design a Twilight cake.  It wasn't as popular as it is today and I had no idea what that meant... but I noticed it was a trending topic on Twitter and followed the links to the web.  What would I do with out the internet?  Do research at a library, have my client fax or mail me a picture....

The book was alternating layers of chocolate sour cream and vanilla butter cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.  The apple was lemon cake.

5-tier Baby Shower Cake

All my cakes are custom designed for the client - no two cakes are the same.  So, I find it hard to recreate past designs.  However, in this case, I just tried to make it even better.

Earlier this year, I made an extravagant baby shower cake - definitely one of my favourite cakes.  This past weekend, I recreated this cake for a baby boy shower.  I also added in an extra tier of the mini baby block at the top.

Here is a view from the top of the cake.  The flavors were:  Vanilla Butter with Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the bottom tier and the blocks.   Strawberry Vanilla Cake with Strawberry Buttercream for the drum.  Chocolate Fudge cake with Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the book.  All items were handmade out of sugarpaste.

Baptism and Christening Cakes

Another very special occasion for a cake - a baptism or christening.  The terms are sometimes used interchangeably, but they do have different meanings for different faiths.

Here is a 2-tier cake that I made for a Christening.  There is a small 3rd tier that the client requested so they can save the topper.

And matching red butterfly cupcakes...

A 2-tier baptism cake.  Vanilla Butter Cake on the top tier and Chocolate Velvet cake on the bottom tier.