Cakes-a-nonymous

Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012

2012-01-01T14:58:00.003-05:00

Another year has come and gone. I welcome 2012 with "Open Arms" and am hoping for a better year. 2011 was a busy year and challenging as well. I am hoping for big things in 2012 and hopefully more baking challenges as well. My goal is to bake more so i can post more! Hopefully taking more cake classes as well to better my cake talent.

I hope everyone has an awesome 2012 and am looking forward to some new challenges and a New Year!

-Brandy

Pokemon Cake

2011-11-22T20:14:00.003-05:00

Here is a very cool Pokemon cake that i recently had the pleasure of creating. The bottom layer was vanilla, the pokemon head was chocolate, both covered in buttercream and Fondant. The ears were made out of cardboard and then covered in Fondant. A little trick i learned from Cakelava!

Baby Oliver!

2011-10-24T20:04:00.005-04:00

My cousins Julie and Marc recently welcome a new baby into the family! Marc's brother decided to surprise them by ordering cupcakes (he lives in Florida) when they baby arrived! Of course i said yes especially when welcoming a new baby into the family!

The cupcakes were dairy free chocolate flavored cupcakes with Fondant decorations!

Welcome Baby Oliver!

Scott & Erin Wedding Cupcakes

2011-10-02T11:46:00.008-04:00

My niece recently got married in August and i had the pleasure of doing her cake and cupcakes for the big day! Nothing like a beautiful day in August to celebrate the marriage between two best friends! My niece looked absolutely gorgeous and Scott, well he cleans up pretty nice! :)

The Cupcakes were a mix of chocolate and vanilla with vanilla buttercream tinted to their Orangey/Red color and to Green as well. The cake on top was a vanilla cake with raspberry filling, vanilla buttercream and white fondant. The flowers on top were made out of gumpaste to replicate part of the brides Bouquet.

The pictures are courtesy of Frey Fotos, her work is absolutely amazing! They are located in the GTA area and if you ever need a wedding photographer i would hit them up first!

Oh Panda!

2011-09-29T22:19:00.006-04:00

This cake was a lot of fun to make, i had never made a panda cake before! :) The flavor was lemon with lemon buttercream, of course all fresh ingredients right down to the lemon juice from the actual lemon. He was almost too cute not to eat!

The ears, feet and arms were rice crispy treats covered in fondant.

I need to figure out how to make character eyes looking happy and not scary. Maybe i should watch some Top Model! :)

1st Day of Fall!

2011-09-23T13:15:00.006-04:00

As much as it's sad knowing that summer is done, i do love fall, especially the weather and of course clothes shopping! This time of year i tend to do a lot of baking because who doesn't love a house that smells of warm comfort food. My personal favorite is baking and my favorite ingredient to bake with in the fall is non other than Pumpkin! Soon enough it'll be time to go and pick a pumpkin and create my very own Pumpkin Puree. Every year we go to Naumans Farms I highly reccomend this spot for Pumpkins and of course they have a really cool Corn Maze!

Here are some of the pictures from last year. I'll be sure to post some of my Pumpkin Baked Goods this year as well.

What is your favorite fall food to either cook or bake?

To finish it all off, here is what i had made with the Pumpkin Puree in the beginning of 2011. Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Icing, sooooo good!

Happy Days for Lee and Nicole

2011-09-19T21:18:00.004-04:00

At work a lovely couple were getting married and we decided to throw them a Surprise Shower! Trying to get two people in the same room was a bit tricky especially so close to their wedding. Their colors were purple and i decided to add some bling to the dessert. I made vanilla cupcakes with swirling some purple coloring into them. Then dark chocolate ganache with silver drag and some rainbow dust!

Congrats to Lee and Nicole!

I am still alive.....

2011-08-17T09:19:00.004-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone! I am still alive and doin some baking but not as much. Being a full time worker and mom is tiring and i haven't had the chance to bake as much as i'd like. I do have a couple of posts to add but it's finding the energy to do so after a long day. So please bare with me i promise i will have an upate soon.

Calvin & Hobbes Cupcakes

2011-07-04T20:20:00.003-04:00

First off these are so darn cute! I was asked to do Vanilla and Chocolate cupcakes with Calvin & Hobbes cupcake toppers!

*Beware this is full of cuteness*

1st Friend Sleepover

2011-06-25T09:21:00.003-04:00

When you become a parent you tend to look forward to your child growing up and them being able to have their friends over. This was Callie's first friend sleep over. She's done overnighters with family but this would be her first experience having one of her friends over. She still talks about it to this day, who knew a 4 year old could absorb so much and have this amazing memory, way better than my own memory. So Callie had her friend Brielle sleep over and of course what did the girls want to do, bake a cake! Not just a boring kind of cake a princess cake and of course she had to be pink! So that is exactly what we did, we made a princess cake and of course we made chocolate and vanilla cake and i tinted the vanilla cake to be pink!

The girls were patiently waiting for the cake to be finished!

I had such great little helpers with me. We had the cake filled with crushed Oreos and fresh strawberries.

Almost done girls!

Ta Da! All ready! Of course we had to add a bit of glitter to the dress so i used the glitter Dusting Powder that i bought at Icing Inspirations.

I wonder if they were excited to have their cake! :)

Brown & Teal, such a lovely Combination!

2011-06-07T19:34:00.006-04:00

Brown and Teal are such great color combinations together. The Bride and Groom requested Cupcakes rather than a Standard cake. I also made then a cake for them with a Bride and Groom figurines as toppers.

The cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with Vanilla and Chocolate Buttercream. The cupcake toppers were cut using a round cutter, then i hand embossed their initials and spray painted it with Edible paint to match their Teal colors.

The cake was chocolate with vanilla buttercream, covered in White Fondant, Quilting pattern, Silver Dragees and a Brown Accent around the Edge. The Bride and Groom were made out of Gumpaste.

Happy Anniversary Chris & Jess

2011-06-01T19:50:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks back really good friends of ours celebrated their 12th Anniversary. I decided to surprise them with a cake since to be honest who doesn't love cake or dessert for that matter!

The cake was chocolate cake, filled with vanilla buttercream and fresh strawberries. Then Ivory fondant with buttercream writing. My husband made the daisy with red Disco Dust!

mmmmm chocolate.....

2011-05-08T22:31:00.003-04:00

So one of the standard flavors i make when baking for the office is chocolate. I figure chocolate is a good flavor of cupcakes and who doesn't like chocolate. Recently at work a number of outside Sales gents came into the office. Of course i baked to help keep them motivated while sitting in a room for training all day. I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream.

Margarita Cupcakes

2011-05-05T22:33:00.004-04:00

So i decided to make cupcakes for the office and why not make something fun! I have a tin of Cupcake recipes that i bought probably about a year ago at Coles. At first i bought it since it had a ton of cool ideas for kids and then i found this one. I thought i'd even share the Recipe with you! From what i am told they were amazing. I think the added salt/sugar combo on top of the icing made a huge difference, a bit of tart with the sweet!

Recipe:
1 Package of white cake mix
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons margarita mix
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon grated lime peel, divided
Juice of 1 lime

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F, Line 24 standard muffin cups with cupcake liners.
2. Combine cake mix, 3/4 cup margarita, eggs, oil, water, 1 teaspoon lime peel and lime juice in large bowl. Whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. Spoon batter evenly into prepared cups.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centres comes out clean. Remove cupcakes to wire racks; cool completely.

Icing
2 tablespoons tequila or lime juice (I used 2 Tablespoons of Tequila)
3 cups sifted powdered sugar (i only used 2 cups)

Instructions:
Combine tequila or lime juice w/ Remaining Margarita mix and 2 tablespoons of lime peel in medium bowl. Whisk in powdered sugar a cup at a time, until desired consistency is reached. Spread glaze over cupcakes (be careful it can get pretty runny). Let the icing settle on top of the cupcakes.

Additions:
1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon salt (optional but i used it)
Green Food coloring

Instructions:
Mix sugar and salt and tint with green food coloring until desired color. Sprinkle on top of the icing.

No one says you can't bake and have a shot of Tequila at the same time!

Enjoy and Happy Baking!

Luke I am your Father....

2011-05-03T22:43:00.004-04:00

This cake was so much fun to do! My husband is great at creating templates, so he created one for my carving out of Cardboard.

This cake was chocolate cake with fruit filling and vanilla buttercream. It was covered with Black Fondant.

New mold....

2011-05-01T21:00:00.003-04:00

So i bought a new mold recently at Icing Inspirations. This mold is amazing and so easy to use. I couldn't wait to use it and decided to make a cake for the office and decorate it to show off the button mold.

A new post soon...i promise!

2011-04-30T14:40:00.003-04:00

Work has been a little hectic lately and i was away on business last week. I do have a few posts to still add so please be patient! Hopefully i'll have one to add this weekend.

I hope everyone else is well and continually baking something fun!

Look Who's Coming Back!

2011-03-24T19:50:00.008-04:00

Icing Inspirations is bringing back the Dynamic Duo Rick and Sasha back for another round of torment (from me), i mean teaching! Another 3 Fantastic days in June, 2012. First class sold out pretty quickly with repeat students from the first two classes and there could be a few spots left in the 2nd Class. Want to join in for 3 days of fun and learning 2 fantastic cakes! Check out Icing Inspirations for more details.

Hurry and book your spot, this will be another Fantastic class you won't want to miss!

My Inner Artist with Rick Reichart from Cakelava

2011-03-16T19:54:00.027-04:00

So i've been trying to think how to write this blog post, what words do i say and what do i say. I guess there is only one word that can describe this class, AMAZING! It met every expectation and more. I learned so many new things that i've never tried before and this class gave me more confidence of myself as a cake decorator. I really learned how to think outside of the box and yes even though decorating at times can be challenging, the final master piece is always the reward! Did i feel that Reward, definietly! I walked away with two amazing master pieces and the OO's and Aww's i got from family and friends was worth it!

The class was full of laughter (even though i got laughed at quite a bit by an un-named person :)) it also had other amazing talented cake artists. I even finally got the chance to meet Juanita from Sweet Things She was such a huge help and would encourage me along the way and i'm glad we had the chance to really get to know each other over the 3 days. She is truly an amazing artist and now a new cake friend!

A huge shout out to Chrissie from Icing Inspirations who made this all happen! Chrissie and her husband Justin graciously opened their doors to Rick and all the students and welcomed everyone with open arms! Thank you very much! If you are ever in the Kitchener/Waterloo area you'll need to check out her store, she has some awesome stuff! It's hard not to go in there and walk away buying something!

Rick was an amazing teacher (i can't emphasis that enough). He took the time to really explain what he was doing and would answer any questions you had along the way. He'd take the time to even come by and help if needed! Such a hands on teacher, which is awesome!

A picture of Rick before the fun really began!

Now onto the cake making!

Here is a picture of the Green Haze in the room. It was a little insane how much lingered and of course i was blowing green out of my nose for a couple of days.

Here is a picture of Rick and myself near all of the finished Hibiscus cakes.

It was such an honor to meet the other half of Rick, his lovely wife Sasha! She was so sweet and easy going. She is so likeable and is always such a positive person when talking to the students!

Now onto the Fish cake! Look at those lips!

Here i am with my finished products!

The final pictures, courtesy of my husband!

Now would i recommend you taking a class from Rick? Yes most definietly. I really hope he comes back again cause he is a true Artist! Yes Rick you will see me again one day! Except this time i will get the first laugh and point in!

No new post this week!

2011-03-01T08:14:00.005-05:00

It's been pretty quiet for me lately which i am not complaining since i've been sick most of this winter. They say families tend to go through hard winters with colds/flus, etc. So far i'm the only one in my family who has been sick the most this winter. I've had numerous colds and the last one was a Sinus Infection. So needless to say i am looking forward to Spring in the next month or two.

On the bright side, it's just over a week and a half before Icing Inspirations brings Rick from Cakelava comes to Kitchener for the Part 1 of the 3 day Cake Course! I am very excited and hopefully my health holds up!

If you have never heard of Cakelava check them out!

Superbowl Cake!

2011-02-20T12:28:00.007-05:00

So every year we go to our friends house for their Annual Superbowl Party! This is the 3rd year we did a cake and of course the expectations were high! So my trusty husband came up with a great idea of making a cake to look like a football helmet! I thought it was a great idea but of course we needed to have the cake sturdy enough to hold since it was going to be big. When i say big, it was huge, at least 10lbs of cake. So i made chocolate and vanilla pound cake with an Almond buttercream.

The cake looked much better in real life than in my pictures! I think i need to upgrade my camera and get a better point and shoot.

Now you are probably wondering what the cage for the mask was made out of. My husband decided to take Candy cane and slowly heat it in the oven and then mold it when it was still hot. He molded it and then we covered it in Candy Melts.

Everyone loved the cake and hopefully next year we can top this cake!

Pumpkin Cupcakes with Brown Butter Frosting

2011-02-16T19:05:00.010-05:00

So for most of you Bakers out there i'm sure you've heard of Frosting for the Cause. I was lucky enough to have joined and posted my own story of someone who i know who has gone through Cancer.

Here is my Recipe Post:

Pumpkin Cupcakes w/ Brown Butter Frosting (Recipe from my Kitchen Addiction)

1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup pumpkin puree (i used home made, but store bought can work as well)

Turn oven on to 350F
Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
Mix sugars and butter together in mixer, beat well until mixed.
Add eggs one at a time.
Alternate the flour mixture, milk mixture and pumpkin mixture in batches until combined together.

How to make Brown butter
Start with a 1 cup of unsalted, cut into chunks. Put it in a small pot and boil on medium low until it slowly cooks and boils to have a golden/brown color.

Let the Brown butter cool. Once cooled add to the mixer w/ the cinnamon & vanilla. Mix until just combined. Sift the confectioners sugar (i did them two cups at a time) Add the sugar in batches. Once all the sugar is added it will look very dry.

Mix on low and add the whipping cream. I used half a cup of whipping cream to ice the cupcakes. if you want a thiner consistency add the whipping cream by tablespoons until you get the consistency you want.

Fill a piping bag with the big Wilton Star and start piping the cupcakes with the icing.

Voila you're done!

Line cupcake tins with your choice of cupcake liners, my daughter wanted the Little mermaid cupcake liners so that is what we used.

Part of raising awareness to not only donate your baking time but giving generously as well.

So my standard 3 Donations i make a year is
1) Canadian Cancer Society
2) Movember! - Raising awareness for Prostate Cancer (A Tradition at the company i work for)
3) Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation

Why not donate your baking time and Dollar donations! A small amount goes a long way!

Here is a link to my Post for Frosting For The Cause!

Flower Power!

2011-01-23T08:23:00.005-05:00

So now i have Backyardigans stuck in my head. Having a 3.5 year old i tend to see a lot of Backyardigans Episodes and one is called Flower Power! Now this cake is not a Backyardigans cake but it does have a ton of flowers.

This is a two tiered cake, chocolate w/ cookies and cream, lemon with fruit filling, all covered in vanilla buttercream and fondant. All the flower are edible, they are made out out of gumpaste and fondant.

This cake was a lot of fun to make since the colors were so vibrant!

Muffies....

2011-01-22T20:37:00.005-05:00

I've been trying to experiment lately with using certain batters and transforming them into something a bit different. This name was created by my husband, they are called Muffies. I took a cookie dough batter and made them into Muffins.

Before i show you the pictures, here is the recipe (From The Cookie Bible Book)

21/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 stick) of butter or margarine, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips (use the normal kind you would at home)
1 cup of chopped nuts (i'd say this is optional as i didn't use them)

Preheat oven to 375F
Combine flour, baking soda, salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by in small muffin tins (ungreased). Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. I baked mine at 11 since it's gas and they came out stiff, next time i'll try 9 as it'll be more moist. Needless to say they still tasted awesome, i had a hard time not eating them all by myself.

Now onto the pictures!

Look at that batter!

All ready for the oven!

Winter Blues

2011-01-19T08:44:00.002-05:00

So i thought January was going to start off to be better, but so far it's been kind of a let down. I haven't had any new orders (which kind of sucks) and i also haven't had the time to do any fun baking at home (work is too busy). With winter in full force and the family is now getting a round of colds it's hard to be motivated to do anything but sleep or put my butt on the couch and watch TV. One thing on the positive side is i have been working out more which is a good thing as i want to feel better and healthy! We bought a Wii which i found is fun and motiviating. I'm not a gym person and finding the time to hit the gym is difficult.

In the meantime here is the little person who lights up my life each day! This picture is courtesy of our daycare provider Jen! She is an amazing photographer and definietly knows how to capture Callie's fun loving personality!

Hopefully i'll have a new post soon!

New Year and my first CSN Giveaway Winner

2011-01-05T20:46:00.008-05:00

The perfect way to start a New Year is by giving something away! Thanks to CSN Stores for providing the Givewaway!

Congrats to Liz #12 Comment for winning the CSN Giveaway! Hopefully you get your BergHOFF salt and pepper shaker set!

Thanks to everyone who participated, hopefully i'll have more giveaways in the Future!

If you want to host your own giveaway i urge you to contact Jocelyn - CSNPromoTeam@csnstores.com She's been amazing to deal with!

1st Giveaway Modern Dining Furniture c/o CSN Store

2010-12-31T14:08:00.026-05:00

I am very Excited and pleased to Announce my very first Giveaway care of CSN Stores.

CSN Stores have over 200 online stores where you can find anything you need whether it be modern dining furniture, fitness equipment, or even cute cookware!’

The gift certificate amount will be $15!

I thought i'd take a quick Peek through the CSN Store Modern Dining Furniture to show you some of my favorite items from the CSN Selection.
Top of the Table Item:

Linens

The Giveaway will be drawn on Wednesday January 5th, 2011 by Random Selection.

What do you need to do?
Leave a comment on what you would buy from the Modern Dining Furniture Selection. Also please add your email address when commenting so that way if your name is picked i can contact you.
So go ahead and enter, what do you have to loose! You could be a winner!
Rules:
*Please note that CSN Stores can only ship their products to the US and Canada locations, please only enter if you are located in one of these two countries.
*Please refrain from commententing on CSN's Facebook page as it violates Facebook policies.

Cala Lilie Wedding Cake!

2010-12-20T16:10:00.004-05:00

This cake was done for a girlfriend of mine who got married on a gorgeous day in October. The sun was shining and warm for the wedding. You couldn't have asked for a better day!

This wedding cake is a 3 tiered cake w/ Deep Purple Cala Lilies.

Bottom layer is chocolate w/ chocolate ganache. Middle was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. The top layer was Vanilla cake w/ Cookies and cream. All covered in vanilla buttercream and white fondant. The cala lilies were made out of Fondant and dusted with dusting powder. They were such a unique color and a great fall color as well.

(Pictures are courtesy of the hubby)

Back from a restful vacation!

2010-12-16T19:53:00.004-05:00

My husband, myself and two of our friends decided to head to the Bahamas for a 4 day getaway. We stayed at the Riu Palace which is literally right beside the Atlantis. A great spot for a 4 day weekend getaway. The only downfall with the hotel is it's not child friendly. Lots of stuff for the adults to do but not for kids. Good thing this getaway was a couples getaway! It was a great vacation with a much needed break. We each missed the kids but we were glad we had the small break.

I'm hoping to have a few new posts this week but until then i'm still on vacation mode!

Have a great weekend!

Bakerella visited the Big T-O!

2010-12-08T21:19:00.006-05:00

So on December 8th Bakerella made her grand entrance at the William Sonoma on Bloor Street West. A great turn out for her first visit to the Big City! I begged my sister to attend as i didn't really want to go alone. So i made my journey to the city for part of the day and met my sister downtown. We got their early enough that when we arrived at William's Sonoma we were told to go upstairs and grab a number.

Sure enough we grabbed #9 and #10. We were also told that the first 10 people in line got to stand at the front! Wahooooo! I was very excited to have gotten there so early to get #9 and #10.

So with so much time to waste what did i do, Shop of course! Did i buy anything, not really. We did go for a coffee though! MMMMM Starbucks.

While waiting for Bakerella to make her grand apperance i turned around to find these two lovely ladies with the coolest shirts possible! I would love a shirt like that!

Ok now onto the Bakerella photos!

Are these not the coolest shoes!

Bakerella also did a book signing! Of course i bought the book at William Sonoma, i waited on purposed until the Saturday!

Bakerella, myself and my sister Jess!

Me explaining my first failed attempt at Cake Balls

Bakerella and my sis Jess!

Frosting for the Cause!

2010-12-02T11:25:00.009-05:00

This is an amazing idea for bakers worldwide! If you haven't heard of Frosting for the Cause check them out and join! You don't need to be a professional baker to showcase your talent! All it takes is a little imagination and your heart and a small donation to make a big difference!

Cakelava coming to Kitchener, Ont.

2010-11-17T10:51:00.007-05:00

So for those who have never heard of Cakelava all i'm going to say is Shame on you! I highly urge you to check out their site and Blog!

Icing Inspirations in Kitchener, Ontario is bringing Rick Reichart to teach a 3 Day Class. When i saw the sign up sheet i was very excited but i didn't register right away. It all came down to finances and whether or not i could afford it. At the time i couldn't. Then they added the 2nd 3 day class as the first sold out pretty quickly. Sure enough the 2nd class sold out as well. I was disappointed as i really wanted to take this class. Rich is an amazing designer and anyone could learn some new cool techniques. I'm not a Novice designer, i would say somewhere in between Beginner and Intermediate.

Then about two weeks ago a spot had opened up for Class 1. I was very excited and was able to now apply for this course. Sure enough i got confirmed for the last spot! I was very excited and i am still excited for next year's Class with Rich in Kitchener. The best part is because i'm local i won't have to worry about added expenses, just the course itself!

March 2011 can't come fast enough! :D

My first cake testing....

2010-11-15T20:43:00.004-05:00

So 2010 has been an exciting year and hopefully that means 2011 will bring more cakes and cool surprises!

Last week was my very first cake testing and i was excited and nervous at the same time. As a baker you critique your own work and whenever i would take cakes or cupcakes to work and of course i'd get nothing but thumbs up. But showcasing my cupcakes for someone i don't know can be a bit nerve wracking. I knew the couple wanted to do cupcakes for their wedding and i was happy to do so. I found out that their favorite flavors were chocolate and vanilla. I decided to make chocolate, vanilla, lemon and marbled cupcakes to give a variety. The icings i used were vanilla, chocolate, chocolate ganache and lemon buttercreams.

The couple decided on chocolate with chocolate buttercream and vanilla with vanilla buttercream. The cake will also have a cake topper of a 6 inch cake in a quilted pattern with the couple sitting on top of the cake. I am very excited to do this cake next year. The couple themselves were super sweet and i hope their wedding day is a beautiful day without rain for them!

Bakerella is coming to Toronto!

2010-11-15T09:07:00.007-05:00

So i am a huge Bakerella fan! I have even attempted her cake pops. (failed but tasted great) So every week i get her mailing list email. First thing i saw in the Details was Tennessee and Toronto. I thought really she's coming to Toronto. (How cool would that be) So i read through the email and yup she's coming to Toronto.

Williams-Sonoma
Saturday, December 4 th at 12:00 p.m.100
Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON
If you haven't heard of Bakerella than shame on you! You should check out her site, she has done some fantastic stuff and even has a couple of books out!
Who knows maybe i'll see some other Cake Makers i've met through Twitter/Blog and Facebook there!
http://www.bakerella.com/

Dr. Vet!

2010-11-13T13:05:00.003-05:00

This cake was being done for a Dog Vet Clinic. I was asked to do 3 dogs, a Golden Retriever, a puppy Goldenretriever and a Poodle. The idea was to have the actual cake to look like a Vet table. I made the cake look silver as most Vet tables are metal. Then i added the utensils on top that a vet would use as well. All decorations are made out of Fondant and Gumpaste.

The flavor of the cake is chocolate and vanilla with a filling of chocolate ganache. The outside icing is vanilla buttercream and then covered in Fondant.

MMMM Pumpkin.....

2010-11-03T20:13:00.006-04:00

On the Canadian Thanksgiving long weekend we decided to go and pick a pumpkin. This is the 3rd year we've done this but only my 2nd year of making pumpkin puree. Last year was a bust as i over stuffed the jars and lost 3 since they cracked. This year i was smart and split them up into small and large jars.

Here is the Puree.

All jarred and ready to freeze.

Now your probably wondering what will i do with all that puree. Well we've made 3 batches of pumpkin muffins and a pumpkin cake. Nothing beats home made pumpkin puree for baked goods!

Nothing will change with the baby!

2010-10-25T19:19:00.005-04:00

So i was asked to do a cake for a family member who just recently had a new addition to the family. A baby girl! (Congrats by the way) Apparently he was an avid golfer and loved his shaggy dog! (Apparently he played 6 days of the week, obsessed yes!)

So i was asked to do a cake to incorporate the golf theme, his shaggy dog and the newest family addition!

The cake was chocolate cake, filled with chocolate ganache and then covered in butter cream and fondant.

The cake looked great and i loved the dog, but doing people i need some serious help with that. I think i need to start doing people with modelling chocolate.

Soccer and Flowers make a nice combo

2010-10-19T19:14:00.002-04:00

This cake was made for two sisters who have opposite tastes. One loves soccer and the other sister loves pretty/colorful flowers. So why not put them together for a nice combination in a cake.

The cake was vanilla cake with cookies and cream. The soccer ball was a chocolate cake, all covered in Buttercream and Fondant. The flowers are also made out of Fondant.

Welcome Baby Aziz-Ross

2010-10-18T11:10:00.003-04:00

Fall seems to be a popular time to be pregnant! My co-worker and friend Jen and her hubby Sal are expecting their very first bundle of joy! We did a work baby shower and of course i couldn't help but make some desserts! I made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache and raspberries on top. I also added a little welcome sign on them!

So long, farewell.....

2010-10-08T08:28:00.005-04:00

I bet you have the Sound of Music song in your head now! I know i do. :D

This cake was for a client who's sister was moving from ONT to NWT. So what better way to send them off than with a cake! They wanted decorations incorporated onto the cake to represent the family. The Scottish Lion, the NWT Flag, their daughter Emily swimming, Electric Guitars to represent the dad and son and of course their dog (A Chihuahua).

The Cake was chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache and fresh raspberries in the middle. The cake was covered with vanilla buttercream and Fondant. All decorations are made out of Fondant.

Oh Baby!

2010-10-07T08:36:00.004-04:00

My co-worker/Friend Deanna is expecting her 2nd bundle of joy (i say in a few days, she says in about 2 weeks) I decided to throw her a baby shower with some of the coolest girls from the office. It was a nice relaxing evening with lots of food, lots of sweets and of course wine for those who were able to drink! Deanna got some of the cutest baby clothes and of course home made gifts as well!

The cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla buttercream! MMMMMMMM

Gotta luv the sweets table!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

2010-09-18T09:40:00.004-04:00

First off i love Mickey Mouse. I have a number of stuffed Mickey Mouse Toys that i've closed over the years. A co-worker asked me to make her daughter a Mickey Mouse Cake (No special reason), she just wanted to surprise her kids with a cake. I'm also trying to change my flavors up a bit as well to give a bit more variety. So this cake was a vanilla cake filled with cookies and cream. (I tried it and man was it good on it's own, you can't go wrong with whipped cream, oreos and some icing sugar) Ok i think i'm drooling after writing this. :D

A top view of the cake just before adding the finishing decorations.

Ta Da!

Sponge Bob Square Pants!

2010-09-14T20:23:00.002-04:00

This cake was so much fun to do! My very first Sponge Bob Square Pants cake! The cake was chocolate cake, filled with raspberry puree and then fresh raspberries. It was covered in vanilla buttercream and then with Fondant. All accents of the cake are Fondant.

Buddy from Cake Boss!

2010-09-13T20:41:00.037-04:00

So this past Saturday (Sept 11-10) Buddy Valastro from Cake Boss was in Toronto at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

My sister went with me so i decided to take a picture of the two of us while awaiting Buddy's Arrival. My sister is on the left and I'm on the right.

I didn't really know what to expect but boy was i ever impressed at the end of it! Buddy came out down one of the Aisles greeting fans, shaking their hands, giving them hugs! He is genuinely a nice person and was eager to see his fans.

The evening was 2 hrs of pure entertainment starting with a Big Welcome to his fans and thanks for coming out to support his tour. Throughout the night he would discuss how he got started in the family business. I had no idea that at 17 his father passed away and he dropped out of school to run the business. But before that he was a child who would get into trouble and on weekends he would work at the Bakery washing toilets, cleaning pans, anything but baking. As Buddy got older he would start baking small things such as cookies. Well at that point he didn't want to screw that up, this was his chance to do something new. He said he knew he had the talent and this was his calling.

Buddy had a few competitions, first the women, then the men and then the kids (i did not post the pictures just in case)

We even got a sneak peek of the newest Cake Boss creation.

One thing i didn't know about Buddy was that he is on the Board for the Make A Wish Foundation! He said so far he has been able to grant 4 Wishes, which is unbelievable!

To finish off the night Buddy did a question and answer section and while the audience asked Questions he was piping a cake. Man now that is talent, i would have to concentrate while piping a cake. He could probably do that in his sleep.

Chocolate Sweet Tooth!

2010-09-10T10:31:00.007-04:00

I had the chance to actually make cupcakes for a co-worker who was coming into town. I have never met a man who has this much of a sweet tooth. He loves chocolate and eats it a lot and i mean a lot. So i had dark chocolate at home and i decided to make chocolate cupcakes topped with vanilla butter cream and than added melted dark chocolate to give it a bit more design to it. From what i was told they were amazing. I had 16 cupcakes and i believe he ate anywhere from 6-10 of them!

By the way do you like my new cake stand! :D This one is perfect for showcasing Cupcakes! A great purchase at the wonderful Home Sense store.

Cake Stands

2010-09-06T18:28:00.007-04:00

So recently I've been looking for cake stands that can showcase my cake work. Looking online and I've noticed how expensive they can be. I've even gone as far as checking Value Village and so far nothing. I took a trip to Home Sense during my lunch hour to mainly look for a housewarming gift for someone. To my surprise the first thing i saw was a clear glass cake stand! I was very excited and of course i had to purchase it. Then continually walking through the home furnishing side i found a white porcelain stand, small enough to showcase cupcakes.

On a side note i know i haven't posted as much. Being a full time worker, a full time wife/mother, it gets difficult finding the time to bake in the evenings. Hopefully now that summer is slowing down and the nice fall weather is approaching i'll want to turn the oven on and do some baking! So for those who read my blog in the google reader, please don't leave but continue to check. I am anxious to get back into baking!

Ay Caramba!

2010-08-24T20:25:00.003-04:00

This cake was done for a couple who were being surprised by their families for a "family dinner" It was a mexican themed party and i was asked to do the cake as a Mexican theme as well. The cake is vanilla cake, filled with raspberry puree (again the raspberries from my garden) and then i added fresh raspberries (from the grocery store, i have none left :( ). The Icing is white chocolate buttercream and the recipe is from the Wilton Website.

All Aboard!!!

2010-08-15T19:52:00.009-04:00

I was asked to do my first Thomas the Train Cake. Now as a kid i didn't really watch Thomas the Train. I was born in the late 70's which means my cartoons consisted of Sesame Street and Flinestones. As i got older it was Inspector Gadgit, Rainbow Bright, The Smurfs and who could forget Jem and the Holograms. (I even owned one of the mistfits :))

This was my first real challenge of a cake! To replicate Thomas the Train. Boy was this a challenge but a fun challenge.

The cake is a lemon cake and the back end of the train is filled with raspberry puree (the raspberries came from my own garden) The cake was covered in vanilla buttercream and then in fondant. The face of Thomas the Train is made out of half fondant, half gumpaste. My co-worker who requested this cake found this awesome Tutorial on how to make the face. http://thomasthetankenginecake.blogspot.com/

My 100th Post!

2010-08-13T10:12:00.010-04:00

Wahoo! I have finally made my 100th post. It has taken me over a year but i'm happy i'm still blogging and still enjoying the days when i get to bake. This past year has been an exciting year. I've had some challenging cakes that haven't turned out so well and then i've had the ones that have challenged me and have turned out beautifully!

This was my first summer learning what happens when you decorate a cake in a humid room. Fondant does not like humidity and fares badly when it's damp.
Another thing i've learned when it comes to creating and decorating cakes, it takes patience and time. Nothing can be done in a couple of hrs.

I don't think i could have done so well without the help of my husband. He is always there when i have a challenging cake and always willing to help out. (I think secretly he likes doing it) I also have to thank my bloggie friends and twitter friends who comment on my cakes and even encourage me to keep going. There are so many talented cake decorators out there and they are always willing to give advice when i need help.

I can only get better from here on in and each time i do a cake it only gets better. There is still a lot i can learn and i'm eager to learn it and use it in my future cakes.

So i look forward to my next year and more years to come of baking and creating beautiful creations!

Some of my favorite cake decorators!

2010-07-27T08:19:00.015-04:00

Summer!

2010-07-26T08:41:00.004-04:00

It's sad knowing that summer is more than halfway done. What has happened to the time, 2010 is more than halfway done. We've done a lot this summer which is good since last year's summer kind of sucked since the weather was kind of crappy. I won't have any baked goods this week as the hubby and i go on vacation on Thursday to Monday. A couples weekend in Boston. Hopefully i can find some good bakeries and taste some good baked goods within Boston. I should probably do my research before i head down there!

I'm also on Twitter if you feel so inclined to follow me. I'll probably be posting my adventure through twitter on the weekend. http://twitter.com/softgreenside

Brown, Blue and Animals

2010-07-19T20:49:00.005-04:00

This was for another baby cake order! The expectant mother was expecting a cute little baby boy! This is another favorite among a number of people i know. Chocolate cake w/ chocolate ganache and covered in chocolate fondant. All accents are made from fondant. I also love polka dots so i especially love this cake the pink one with the butterflies.

Here is the inspiration for the cake.

Pink, Brown and Butterflies

2010-07-19T20:34:00.005-04:00

This cake was for a baby shower. The expectant mother is expecting a precious baby girl. I was asked to make the cake full on chocolate. Chocolate cake, chocolate ganache icing with chocolate fondant. All accents are made out of fondant. I have yet to learn how to color on fondant but i think i did pretty well.

I'm still alive!

2010-07-18T21:18:00.006-04:00

Sorry everyone for the lack of posts. I am still alive, i was just on vacation this past week in Morgantown, West Virginia! What a great vacation and so relaxing, exactly what i needed. We stayed at Lakeside Resort which for the guys was a golfing resort. The 4 guys played 5 rounds of golf during the week so they were happy. Us ladies with the kids, hung out by the pool and even did some shopping. Fun was had by all and i'd even go back! Hopefully i can get some time to post two new cakes from a week ago!

Check out the site http://www.lakeviewresort.com/

Enjoy your week everyone!

Off to Dallas

2010-06-20T07:32:00.003-04:00

So i'm off to Dallas today for a work conference which means no baking and no blog post. Hopefully i can find some cool bakeries within the Dallas area and take some time to enjoy a cupcake or two. We'll see if i have time to even do that during the week.

I hope everyone enjoys there week and when i come back i'll be starting a couple of baked surprises for a couple of girls in the office!

But for now i must go pack!

Gorgeous Roses

2010-06-15T08:29:00.003-04:00

This cake was done for an Anniversary Party. Bottom layer was lemon cake with fruit filling. The top layer was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache, both covered with vanilla buttercream and white fondant. All Roses and rose petals are made out of fondant.

*Now as much as this cake is beautiful, it was kind of a pain. My house was very humid the day i was doing the fondant and it was not co-operating properly. It was cracking everywhere, it had bubbles everwhere. I was so disappointed i did not want to deliver this cake. I made it look as decent as possible but in the end i was not happy with it. I can say though that my Roses turned out beautifully!*

Pasta as a cake????

2010-06-01T08:12:00.004-04:00

This cake was designed by my sister for her Anniversary "family dinner". What she didn't know is that we were throwing them a surprise 5th Year Anniversary! The cake was a fun project and i'm glad it came out as well as it did.

The concept was her husband Shane loves Pasta and she is trying to save him by pulling him out of the cake. I put nibs and sweet tarts as that is there favorite treat.

Marbled Pound cake w/ chocolate ganache icing and covered in Fondant. *Everything is edible on this cake.*

Coach Purse and Ballet Slippers

2010-05-30T21:45:00.007-04:00

So first off this was my very first carving cake. I was very nervous as i wanted to make sure i got the right style and to make it look like what it needed to look like. A coach purse. I had a fun time doing this cake and I'm glad it came out as well as it did.

I thought I'd share a couple of carving pictures. I used Sweet Things post on the Purse Cake Tutorial. You should check out her blog, she is an amazing cake Artist from Toronto.

The flavoring was a marbled pound cake with vanilla buttercream covered with pink fondant.

Sorry i've been MIA

2010-05-21T08:21:00.003-04:00

Work has been crazy and i haven't had many cake orders. The nice thing i'll have 3 in a row, within a 3 week period. For me that is perfect since i work full time.

Week 1 - Coach purse w/ Ballet Shoes

Week 2 - Anniversary cake for my sister in the shape of a pasta bowl with my brother in law's feet hanging out of the bowl and my sister Jess pulling his legs out. Let's see how that goes. :D

Week 3 - Anniversary cake, one layer to be glutten free with bright colored roses.

So that is my next couple of weeks, looks for some posts.

Oh and i may bake for the office since two girls who sit around me are pregnant! Baked goods are always good when your pregnant. Ok well that was me when i was pregnant years ago.

Muffin or Cupcake?

2010-05-12T22:02:00.011-04:00

I baked these as i had an offsite meeting and rather than buying sweets i decided to bake something instead. First glance you would think mmmm chocolate cupcakes but nope they are considered muffins. As usual i always change the recipe by not adding certain ingredients especially if i didn't feel like adding them.

These would also be really good for a baby/bridal shower with some nice icing on top. You could do so much with these muffins and still enjoy the chocolate/oatmealy taste of them.

Ingredients
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup quick-cooking rolled oats
1/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions
Heat oven to 350'F. Line muffin tins w/ paper baking cups.

Stir together appleasauce and oats in small bowl; set aside. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar, egg and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add applesauce mixture; blend well. Stir together flour, cocoa & baking soda. Add to butter
mixture, blending well. Stir in chocolate chips and fill 3/4 full with batter.

Bake 22 to 26 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out almost clean. Cool slightly in pan on wire rack.

The muffin on the right has peanut butter w/ a malteser on top. The one on the left has nutella w/ a Malteser on it!

Gluten free cake tester

2010-05-12T21:08:00.004-04:00

I have a cake in June that requires the top tier to be gluten free. I bought awhile back 125 Best Gluten-Free Recipes I had never made gluten free anything before so i had to start practicing to make sure i got the best flavor of chocolate cake. I thought i'd share the recipe as i found it hard finding a good gluten free recipe that had ingredients that were easy to find.

Here are a couple of pictures.

Preheat oven to 350F, two 8-inch round pans, lightly greased

Ingredients
3/4 cup Whole Bean Flour
3/4 cup Sorghum Flour
1/2 Rice Flour
1/4 Soya Flour
1 tsp Xanthan gum
1/2 GF baking powder (i used regular baking powder)
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup shortening or butter, softened. (I used butter) :)
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups GF sour cream (i used my normal store bought sour cream)

Directions (Please follow these to the T for best results)

1. In a large bowl, sift together whole bean flour, sorghum flour, rice flour, soya flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa. I sifted it twice and set aside.
2. In a seperate bowl, using an electric mixer or stand mixer, cream shortening or butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla extract. Stir in dry ingredients alternately with sour cream to butter/sugar mixture. Make 3 additions to dry ingredients and two of sour cream. Stir just until combined after each addition. (make sure you scrap the sides of your bowl so everything is mixed)
3. Spoon into prepared pans. Spread to edges and smooth tops with a moist rubber spatula. Let stand for 30 mins. (I found that was the best result for the cake)
4. Bake in preheated oven for 35 to 45 mins (remember ovens vary) or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pans on racks for 10 mins. Remove from pans and let cool completely on racks.

(This recipe is found in the book i mentioned above, this is not my own creation but i did make a few modifications based on my own personal taste of gluten free flours)

Cake Contest in Kitchener/Waterloo

2010-05-12T10:50:00.007-04:00

A local cake bakery Icing Inspirations/Too Nice to Slice are holding their 1st Annual Cake Competition.

http://www.toonicetoslice.ca/main/contest

I've been throwing around the idea of entering it as i think it would be great practice and a lot of fun. The theme is Inspirations in Wonderland and it needs to display an Alice in Wonderland theme. I am entering this competition as a hobbyist and it must consist of 1 or 2 tiers and fit into a 24" area. Now i must start thinking of what i want to do as well. Now only about style but flavor as well.

Oh how i love Coach

2010-05-04T20:56:00.004-04:00

So i have a cake order coming up in a couple of weeks which consists of a pink Coach purse and pink ballet slippers. I am a huge coach fan i own 7 purses, 1 includes a baby bag. Yes i have a blue coach baby bag luckily enough someone else bought it for me. There is no way my husband would have let me buy it for myself. So i decided i would post the pictures of the coach purse i need to replicate and the pink pointed ballet shoes. I am excited also very nervous as i don't do much carving. So i'll be making a marbled pound cake which hopefully carves well. Wish me luck!

Spring has sprung!

2010-04-22T12:17:00.005-04:00

This cake is a gorgeous two tiered cake. Bottom layer is chocolate, top is vanilla, both covered with buttercream and then fondant. The baby is half gumpaste, half fondant. The butterflies are made out of gumpaste and then decorated with edible dusting glitter. (I have come to love lots and lots of glitter)
The bottom tier is accented as if it's a garden. I used the wilton paint with a bit of vanilla to make it a bit thinner. I did the same with the clouds on the top tier.

Every Bakers Dream....

2010-04-14T08:36:00.003-04:00

Is to own a Cake Cricut! They are the newest invention for bakers. The cricut has been around for a while now being used by card makers/scrapbookers, etc. Now they have created one purely to be used for cake decorating.

The Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot is holding their very own contest to win the new Cake Cricut! Of course i entered the contest but this contest was too good not to share!

http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-is-red-velvet-and-silver-and-youve.html

When baking goes bad....

2010-04-13T14:07:00.003-04:00

So i have a cake order for this coming Saturday and i was baking the cakes last night. I've learned with my gas stove, i need to cook my cakes at 325 as opposed to 350. I find with the gas stove it's an uneven heat and baking at 350 tends to over cook the cakes and burns them a bit (not so great when you are on a time crunch) So needless to say i will be baking more cakes tonight, (grr) which limits my time on finishing the decorations for the cake on Saturday. What i need to do differently is bake them still at 325 but not as long as i did last night. Wish me luck and hopefully they turn out right.

For those bakers out there, do you normally use regular eggs or egg whites when making cakes? I prefer my cakes to be a bit stiffer but still moist but not too crumbly.

I also need to start experimenting with flavors a bit to give more options when doing cakes. Right now the 3 standards i have are, chocolate, vanilla and lemon.

Indiana Jones is back!

2010-03-26T08:29:00.004-04:00

This is a chocolate cake covered with chocolate buttercream. The cake is filled with fresh strawberries and fresh strawberry puree. All accents are fondant, even the trees. The trees my hubby worked on and he did an amazing job. I think i may have my very first tutorial on it! We used a clothes hanger to shape it for the trees. I put Graham Crackers on the cake as sand. The cake toppers were made purchased by the couple who ordered the cake.

Pink is so pretty....

2010-03-25T11:47:00.004-04:00

This cake screams out, GORGEOUS! Well at least in my mind. John asked for a lemon cake with fruit filling and of course pink roses. I had found a picture on the Pink Cake Box website with some bling on her cake. So i decided to add a bit of bling to Sarah's cake w/ an accent of pink ribbon around the edges. First off i love bling, anything that sparkles is good with me. :D The roses are made with fondant and dusted with dried vanilla. Who knew vanilla crystalized into something so beautiful.

A Sneek Peak...

2010-03-22T13:43:00.003-04:00

I have a cake order this week and i thought i'd share a sneek peak at the Roses, Ribbon and the jewels. The roses are actually really bright pink but the lighting in my basement kind of sucks so at the moment it looks to be a redy/orange color. The sparkles on the Roses are actually dried up vanilla. I had no idea vanilla crystalizes into something beautiful. It's a great addition to a decoration such as flowers.

I Heart You!

2010-03-16T20:57:00.004-04:00

A few years back my sister bought me a heart shaped pan for baking cakes. I rarely use it as i don't get many cake orders for heart shaped cakes. So i decided to make a cake since the guys and gals in the office haven't had a treat in awhile. I figured i'd keep it very simple so i did a white cake tinted pink. I had left over chocolate ganache and then i added white candy melts with red glitter in the middle.

(i think i did a way better job smoothing out the ganache this time around)

Doggie and Baby

2010-03-10T08:25:00.010-05:00

A few weeks back i took a course on how to make a baby and a dog. The class i took this at was courtesy of http://thecaketutor.com/ These two ladies know their stuff and they make the class so much fun!

You get to let your creative juices flow when making such cute little figurines. I decided to give the dog more of a shaggy look. (I need to work on that a bit more.) For the baby i added a couple of bottom teeth on her!

I thought i'd share a couple of pictures of the final results of my baby and dog! I hope i get a request to either do a baby or dog cake, they are just so cute!

These figurines are made out of Fondant!

If you're ever in the KW(Ontario) and want to learn how to make these cute little figurines, check out their classes section on their site. They offer a variety of classes each month!

Football anyone?

2010-03-02T10:15:00.004-05:00

For those who watch or play football this is a cake you'll love! This cake was done for our friend's Annual Superbowl party, Colts vs. Saints! The bottom cake was a traditional white cake, the football is chocolate cake. Both covered with Buttercream. I never got a chance to have a piece of this cake as that weekend my little girl was really sick and had a fever all weekend. I did take her out for a bit as i was going a bit stir crazy. From what i heard the cake was delicious and i'm glad everyone got a chance to try it.

Flavor-of-the-month....Chocolate and Red!

2010-02-28T21:05:00.005-05:00

Each month http://bakeat350.blogspot.com/ does a Flavor of the month! This month was chocolate, of course one of my favorite things to eat. :D

I had some friends over the other night and had red velvet cake that was in the freezer so i decided to make little individual cakes. I put red chocolate melts drizzled with chocolate ganache. These were the leftovers and boy were they good!

Brown and Pink

2010-02-22T09:55:00.004-05:00

This is a cake that i made for a Bridal Shower. The Bride isn't a fan of fondant so i did it covered in chocolate ganache. The top tier is Red Velvet and the bottom is chocolate. The roses are made out of Gumpaste, with ribbon around the edges and pearl Draggies around the two cakes. The roses were dusted with Pink Petal dust as well. I have yet to perfect my smoothing skills with ganache. But i think i did a pretty good job.

The photos are courtesy of http://www.lifeinstill.ca/

Cake Anyone?

2010-02-18T09:38:00.004-05:00

Chocolate/vanilla cake w/ a really bad chocolate ganache recipe. All flowers and leaves are made out of gumpaste. The flowers are dusted with Edible Rainbow dust. These can be found at www.icinginspirations.ca

*if anyone has an amazing recipe for Chocolate Ganache would you mind sharing it with me, Please!!!!

Sorry for the lack of posts

2010-02-14T08:22:00.002-05:00

It's been pretty busy with my full time work which means no posts lately. I'll have a couple of cakes next week so hopefully i can add them to this blog so it keeps everyone interested in my blog. :-D I love my readers and followers and thank you for reading my blog and commenting on all my photos. You make it easy for me to post on this blog.

I hope everyone in Canada has a great Family Day Holiday! I am off to Buffalo to do some shopping. Hopefully i find some amazing deals!

Cake for Sherryl

2010-01-27T10:29:00.005-05:00

This cake was made for Sherryl and things that reflect her favorite things in life!

The bottom layer is lemon cake filled with fruit, lemon icing and then covered in Fondant. The top layer is chocolate cake, with chocolate ganache and then covered in chocolate fondant. All wording accents are made out of fondant as well as the figurine. The flowers are made out of gumpaste.

Pretty Flowers

2010-01-27T10:24:00.003-05:00

This cake was made for a co-worker who is getting married this weekend. She is such a sweet heart and deserved one last treat before her big day!

This was a chocoalte cake with chocolate ganache. The flowers are made out of gumpaste!

My Happy 101 Award

2010-01-21T09:12:00.007-05:00

I recieved this award thanks to Faithy the Baker. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you! Awards like these make me realize why i love baking! I do need to update this blog more often especially when i do get awards! This is #2 for me and i've been blogging for less than a year, so i feel very honoured that i recieved this award!

Rules of the Award:

1) Copy the award image into a post.
2) List 10 things that make you happy.
3) Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day.
4) Put in a link to their blogs.
5) Notify the award receivers.
6) Recipients to link back to the sender's blog.

10 Things That Makes Me Happy

My Husband - He is the one that keeps me grounded and gives me the chance to bake!
My Daughter Callie - She makes me smile everyday!
Shopping - So i have an addiction. I already know that.

Baking - I wish i could bake everyday!
Twitter - It's a new obsession i have and i love following a ton of cool Twitter pages.
Weekends - i love the weekends, especially when i get a chance to sleep in.
Vacation - If only i could afford to go on vacation more often i would!

Blogging - I'd love to blog more often and i wish i had the time to do it.

Family & Friends - It's one of the most important things in life.

Knitting - I've recently become obsessed with knitting and i've learned a lot within the last year.

I'm passing this award on to (no particular order):

1. Bake at 350

2. Baked Perfection

3. Cake Fixation

4. Calm in the Kitchen

5. The Cookie Mama

6. Sweet N Pink

7. Petal Sweet Cakes

8. Sweet Elegance Cakes

9. Snooky Doodle Cakes

10. Lick the Bowl Good

Attemping to make Roses....

2010-01-10T21:33:00.002-05:00

I have a cake in a couple of weeks and i have to make some yellow roses to add to it. I'm not good at making them but i wanted to start now just in case they don't turn out. Surprisingly i was impressed with myself.

Chocolate cake anyone?

2010-01-08T22:34:00.004-05:00

I made a chocolate cake covered and filled with chocolate ganache icing. I decorated it with a bit of colored fondant.

Cakes in Ice Cream cones??

2010-01-08T22:23:00.003-05:00

I have a tin full of recipes for cupcakes. My nephew saw these and thought they looked fun. Basically i took a white cake mix and put them into ice cream cones to bake in the oven. It was fun and easy enough for Ayden who is six to help. Once they were done we added the icing and sprinkles to make it look like ice cream cones.

The Love of my Life!

2010-01-08T22:13:00.004-05:00

No it's not cake but it is close! It's my cutie pie Callie. My sitter Jen got a new camera and took these adorable pictures of Callie. I couldn't help but share them as i think she did a fantastic job catching Callie's silly and cute personality.

Pretty in Pink

2010-01-03T21:06:00.006-05:00

My mom was down during the holidays and she wanted me to make her a cake that had a pink theme to it. The sad part is my mom has no sense of smell or taste due to a previous cold she had. She did however enjoy the moistness of the cake. I have yet to perfect buttercream to make it look smooth. I actually made a vanilla cake tinted pink and the pink flowers are made out ot fondant and then topped with Pearl Draggies and a couple of them are dusted with Edible Red Dust!

Movie to finish off the '09 Year!

2009-12-30T16:12:00.002-05:00

So i know this isn't cake related but those who love to cook, eat or bake should see this movie. I know i'm behind on the times but i just finally saw Julie and Julia!

Amazing movie! I absolutely loved it.

For more information you can check out this site. http://www.feedyourinspiration.com/

Some of my very first cakes!

2009-12-23T11:48:00.002-05:00

So i found these on my computer at work and figured i would share some of the very first cakes i made, during my courses at Michaels and other cakes i made for fun for friends!

Course 1 Cake - This cake was vanilla with vanilla buttercream.

Course 2 Cake - This cake was a vanilla flavoured cake that looked like a rainbow. Covered with vanilla buttercream and Fondant.

Football Game - 2008. I believe this was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and fondant tinted green. All accents are fondant and i hand painted the wording.

Grandparents Anniversary Cake - All 3 different flavors but i remember the icing was cream cheese and the diamonds were made out of candy melts put into a mold.

Chocolate cake w/ chocolate icing and Fondant Butterflies

Going away party for a dear friend who was moving to London, England. Vanilla and chocolate cake both with vanilla buttercream and covered in home made Fondant. This was the 2nd Fondant cake i made before even taking the Fondant Course so i went in this blindly and read a lot of threads on websites on how to use Fondant. I was quite impressed with it.

This was my very first fondant cake. Home made fondant as well. Someone told me once it looked like a Blues Clues cake.

PB&J Anyone?

2009-12-22T21:35:00.008-05:00

So with Winter here it's hard or even motivating to get out of the house when i get home from work. Plus it's so cold outside what is the point of leaving a nice warm house. I decided after my 2.5 year old went to bed i'd make cupcakes. These are vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry jam topped with peanut butter icing and a little bit of chocolate syrup as a drizzle.

Recipe makes 22 cupcakes but mine made 23.

Recipe:

1 package of yellow cake mix (prepare cake as per directions on box)
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk

2 cups strawberry jelly

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350F. Line standard muffin tins with paper baking cups.
Prepare cake mix according to package directions.
Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, filling two-thirds full.
bake 19-23 minutes or until toothpick inserted into centers comes out clean.
Cool cupcakes in pans on wire racks 10 mins.
Remove to racks, cool completely

Beat peanut butter and butter in medium bowl with electric mixer at medium speed 2 minutes or until smooth.
Add sugar and vanilla; beat at low speed 1 minute or until crumbly.

Slowly add milk, beating at low speed until creamy.

Fill pastry bag fitted with small decorator tip with jelly.

Insert tip into top of cupcake; squeeze bag gently to fill center of cupcake with jelly. (stop squeezing when you feel resistance or jelly comes out of top of cupcake.

*I actually put the jelly in the cupcakes before it actually baked.

Pipe or spread peanut butter frosting over cupcakes

Voila you are done and you've got amazing cupcakes that taste like a peanut butter and jam sandwich.

*Recipe is from 2009 Publications International, ltd.

Kyla's Party Check List

2009-12-13T20:50:00.006-05:00

This is a marbled cake w/ buttercream icing. All accents are made out of Fondant and the lettering was colored with my colored palette.

The dress had edible glitter and edible pearls on it.

The shoes were made out of fondant w/ the Silver Dragies. I should have made them out of Gumpaste, the fondant took forever to dry.

Sugar Cookies

2009-12-13T20:43:00.003-05:00

I recently took a Sugar Cookie class taught by the Cake Tutors. I had a blast and learned a lot. The cookies were pre-made by Lori and Anna. They provided all the royal icing and they taught us how to outline them, flood them and then decorate them. Some of the cookies i did were also done with Fondant.

My poor attempt at Petit Fours

2009-12-06T21:37:00.003-05:00

Well i attempted to create my own Petit Fours. They didn't turn out so well but they tasted amazing!

It's vanilla cake w/ chocolate chips inside and than drizzled with chocolate glaze. To top it off i added a chocolate ginger snap cookie.

Fall is here....

2009-12-03T10:28:00.004-05:00

I decided to make cupcakes for the office last week. I know i'm sorry i haven't been posting much, i also haven't been baking much either. I get the itch everyday to do something it's just finding the time especially when i work full time.

I did chocolate cupcakes w/ a vanilla buttercream frosting. (Both taken from the Martha Stewart Cupcake book) The glitter on the Fondant Leaves is edible. I bought it at Icing Inspirations. That store sells some of the coolest stuff possible, the edible glitter is just one of them! On the leaves i finally got a chance to use my painted color pallette. I have yet to figure out how to make my pictures look great with my new camera!

1st attempt at Cake Pops

2009-11-16T20:48:00.005-05:00

Well i attempted to make my first cake pops. I've seen them done a ton of times on other sites but nobody does it better than Bakerella herself. I would say she is the Cake Pop Goddess! So here is my attempt. I have a lot to learn and I'll definitely try this again.
It's left over chocolate cake and i added a bit of vanilla frosted buttercream. This icing recipe is so good and when it gets whipped it's almost like a mouse.

Hoping Spring will come early

2009-11-16T09:30:00.003-05:00

We were invited to a friends house for dinner on Saturday and of course i find any excuse to bake. :D I found the flowers left over from my Wilton Course 2 back from last year. Good thing they were sealed in a tupperware container in the back of the dark cupboard. The nice thing is, they lasted that long and it paid off keeping them.
This is a chocolate cake covered with chocolate buttercream frosting. I whipped it so much it came out to be a mouse like kind of icing. It actually complimented the cake pretty well. All the flowers and birds are made out of Royal Icing.

5-Minute Baked Goods??

2009-11-16T08:21:00.004-05:00

This is deadly for those who ever need a chocolate fix under 5 mins. I've seen this before but i could never remember where i saw it. So i found it on this cool website this morning and i figured i would share with everyone!

http://countrytreasures.blogspot.com/2009/08/5-minute-chocolate-mug-cake.html

My little helper

2009-11-15T16:35:00.005-05:00

My daughter loves to bake and of course she is always wanting to help me whenever i need to bake something. :D

Trying to get Callie to smile for the camera is becoming so much harder.

She has to make sure that her cake dough is still in there. Plus i think she's also checking out how much longer it has so she can lick the bowl.

My cake pantry

2009-11-09T20:29:00.005-05:00

So this is the most organized pantry (only because i cleaned it two days ago). I have a ton of stuff around the house but this is the main central area for all of my baking/cook books and pieces of paper with other recipes that i find when on the Internet.

I hope to have something baked on the weekend and hopefully can use my new camera. I went and bought myself a new Canon PowerShot SX120 IS. It is gorgeous and i'm having a lot of fun with it.

No new posts for the next two weeks...

2009-10-28T08:42:00.003-04:00

This week my hubby and i have been dealing with a sick little girl. Her fever is finally gone but she still has a nasty cold/cough. Then next week i'm in Miami for work so hopefully i'll have some baked goods within the first weekend of November.

Happy Baking Everyone!

Princess Cupcakes for a Princess

2009-10-19T20:29:00.002-04:00

I was asked to make cupcakes for a Princess Party! They were lemon cupcakes filled with fruit and vanilla buttercream tinted blue. The princess dress, shoe and crown are fondant dusted with silver luster dust.

The Wedding Cake

2009-10-12T19:20:00.009-04:00

Well i finally have the time to upload pictures.

Top Tier - Red Velvet filled with fresh strawberries and strawberry buttercream, covered in teal fondant. Quilting pattern with silver balls.
Middle Tier - Lemon cake, filled with fruit and lemon buttercream covered in white fondant. Teal gerber daisies airbrushed with silver.

Bottom Tier - Vanilla cake with chocolate ganache and chocolate buttercream. Covered in teal fondant with white gerber daisies as an accent and dusted in Silver Dust.

The cake topper was a gift to the bride and groom. I bought these from a company in the States that do custom cake toppers. They turned out beautifully and the bride and groom were happy with it as well.

Any issues with the cake?
-Many especially the fondant. We needed it so much that it was constantly cracking. I have to figure out how to not over knead it especially with the amount of color i was adding.

Bridal shower cake and cupcakes

2009-10-12T17:15:00.006-04:00

The week before the big Wedding, i got asked to do the cake for the Bridal shower party! The cake and cupcakes were chocolate cake w/ vanilla buttercream, covered in fondant. I tried matching the teal as much as possible, and i found it very difficult. It was to be a girlie theme so i decided to make little fondant figurines for the cupcakes in the shape of a dress, shoes and crown!