A birthday "Breaking Bad" cake

So this cake has got to be the hardest cake I've done yet. It was epic. Back when I was creating the Squirt turtle cake, I was talking to someone about how cool it would be to do a Breaking Bad turtle cake. Low and behold, I got an email from someone requesting just that. I can't take the credit for the design of this cake because it was created for one of the show's premier parties. I couldn't seem to source out the bakery for it which is a bit of a bummer. Anyone know?
The client wanted this cake to be a surprise for the birthday boy so it was a bit tricky for me to get photos of him and make the head in his likeness. I had to make do with a few head shots and a lot of guessing. I created a practice rice krispy turtle and a trial head cake with the help of the lessons I had learned through the "Bobble Head cake" course I took through Craftsy. ( I highly recommend their course BTW)

The head was carved out of vanilla pound cake and covered in fondant. The turtle shell was made from a chocolate/vanilla marble cake while the turtle's head and legs were formed in rice krispy treats and then covered in fondant. This was one heavy cake.

I'm happy to say that the cake got to the party safe and sound and everyone seemed to be thrilled with the results. Below are some shots of the birthday boy with the cake as well as some photos I took of the cake. 
So now what cake do I do to top that one? 

60th Ruffled Rose birthday cake ombre style

Today's celebration cake was an elegant and simple ruffle rose ombre cake for some repeat customers. The cake was chocolate devil's food cake with real buttercream icing. I really enjoyed decorating this cake and I loved creating the ombre effect. What do you think of the little candy pearl additions.

Two-tiered "Masquerade" cake

I thought you might like to take a look at a recent cake I did for someone. The theme for the party was "masquerade" and they asked for a two-tiered fondant covered cake in chocolate and vanilla. The 10" bottom was chocolate devil's food and the 8" top was vanilla. 

It's kind of hard to tell in the photos but all the yellow decorations were painted or dusted with gold. The masks were made of sugar paste and royal icing while some of the applique decorations were made of fondant.

Favourite part to make on this cake? The masks of course! I loved creating the gold tipped feathers.

30th "Tigger" birthday cake

Today's custom cake is a two-tiered red velvet cake covered in fondant and topped with a handmade fondant "Tigger".

Done on short notice the cake proved to be a bit difficult to finish thanks to the heat. Luckily the cake was on the smaller side so I was able to finish sections of it before anything got too hot and unworkable.

The client picked up the cake and said she was thrilled with results. She had confided in me that she left the ordering of the cake a bit too late as everyone else she had asked was booked or unable to squeeze the cake in. I have found this to be the dilemma for most people inquiring about a cake. Pre-made cakes from the store are easy to come by and there is little time needed to order one. A custom per order cake takes time and planning and should be ordered at least a week in advance. I'm so happy that I was able to help make this birthday special for this Tigger fan.

Finding Nemo "Squirt" birthday cake for a one-year old

The latest cake order I had was so much fun! This order was for a little boys first birthday and I was to make a 3D "Squirt" turtle Cale in red velvet along with 6 large fondant decorated turtle cupcakes and 50 mini buttercream covered cupcakes in the shape turtles. This order took quite a bit of planning but I'm really thrilled with how it turned out.

When the client picked up the cake she seemed happy with what I created and it just so happened that they were holding the birthday party at where I work my day job. Later I was able to talk to the server who did the party and see if everyone liked the cake. My co-worker's eyes went big and she said,"You made that cake?! I took pictures of it because I've never seen a cake like that before." Nice! I asked if there were any leftovers and she told me, "No. I was hoping she would leave me a little cupcake but she didn't." My kids complained of the same thing.

Happy 1st birthday Joshua. I had fun making your cake.

DIY Cake Stands

Last weekend I participated in the Crafty Affaire in White Rock hoping to sell some of my arts and crafts. Because it was a local show I thought I would create a hand-painted fondant mini-cake and some sugar paste cake toppers to see if I could drum up some more interest in my cake decorating. My only problem though was that I didn't have a proper cake stand to display my creations. Not to worry, a quick search on Pinterest and I found the easiest solutions to making my own cake stands.

I picked up a decorative plate and a ceramic platter along with a sundae dish and a brass candle holder to create two lovely cake stands with a little help from E6000 glue. I found out later that the platter would not be food safe so I will keep that for other displays.

What do you think? I think they turned out pretty great considering they ended up costing me about $6 each.

Peanut Butter and chocolate birthday cake with a tabby cat topper

What do you think of my little kitty? This 8" chocolate devil's food cake was covered in a peanut butter buttercream. It was an order for a repeat customer who had requested a tabby cat as a topper. I think I'm still pretty new to sugar paste sculpting but I'm happy with how this little guy turned out. Does he look guilty about trying to open that gift?

Gluten-free chevron cake

Today's cake is a 6" gluten-free cake I made as a thank-you gift. I'm going to share with you all my pit-falls with this cake as I think it's always useful to learn from someone else's mistakes.

I had bought a gluten-free all-purpose flour mix and mixed up a batch of cake and poured it into two 6" x 2" pans. One pan was a professional Wilton pan and the other was a springform pan I had. I had to bake them longer than was directed but I thought that was normal considering their was no gluten to form structure. The Wilton cake was finished while the springform kept testing unbaked. I mean really unbaked, like wet batter unbaked. I left the cake in the oven for more than an hour and even though my toothpick tester didn't come out clean, I hoped than it would finish baking in the pan. I could feel that the bottom of the cake was getting over-done.

Once the cake cooled I unmolded it and cut off the top. The photo below is what I found. I have never had this happen to me before and I was totally surprised. Now I know.....use the proper metal for the proper cake recipe. Springform pans are for quiches, cheesecake and similar cakes that can't be inverted. 

I had to make up a new batch of cake but I had run out of my AP flour mix. This time I had to create my own mix with tapioca flour, rice flour and potato flakes and hope the it would taste similar to the other gluten free mix. There was a difference in flavour but not hugely. Gluten free AP flour is really expensive so I would like to figure out make my own. Any tips?

from the springform pan

proper cake pan

4 layers crumb-coated in buttercream

Flower made of modelling chocolate

Finished chevron design

 Once I finally had a decent cake crumb-coated, I covered it in marshmallow fondant. The orange stripes are a mix of fondant and modelling chocolate and were added in panels. This is a technique I had never tried before which I had learned through a class on Craftsy taught by Jessica Harris. I highly recommend the courses there.

So what do you think? After all my cake hurdles I was still able to create a pretty elegant looking cake don't you think?

Vegan ruffled rose cake

Today's cake is a ruffled rose vanilla vegan cake. I'm not very experienced in vegan baking but I thought it would be a valuable thing to know how to do if anyone needed a special cake to be completely animal-free.

I took my cake recipe from Chloe's Kitchen which we've found to be a great vegan cookbook so far. I figured if this lady was able to win Cupcake Wars then surely her vegan cake was pretty darn good. While the flavour of the cake was good, I felt that the recipe used way too much oil and it felt greasy. When I make this again I will alter the recipe and make it a lighter version.

For the icing I used Earth Balance shortening mixed with icing sugar vanilla and a bit of rice milk. I felt the icing was pretty tasty but it left a shortening mouth feel similar to the kind you get from a grocery-store cake. Once you try a real Italian buttercream on a homemade cake, it's hard to go back to that kind of icing.

Overall I'm happy with this simple little vegan cake and I look forward to creating another one sometime soon. What about you? Do you have a favourite vegan cake recipe? 

A dolphin family cake for a 3 yr. old

 Last weekend I got to create a fun cake for a lucky three year old. Dolphins were to be the theme and it was worked out with the client that I would make a four layer blue-colored vanilla cake with coconut flavoured buttercream. 

The cake was originally to serve twenty people but the number grew to 30. To be able to bake the cake with number of layers I needed without having any waste, I needed to custom make a couple of the cake pans. Below you can see how I used my larger 11"x17" cake pan and adjusted it with aluminum foil and a Silpat sheet rolled up on one of the sides. It worked out fantastically.

 The dolphins were made many days in advance out of sugar paste and propped on cake waves. I wasn't able to find a small enough gumpaste mold for the lettering so I made each letter by hand and sized it up with the help my printer.

You can view more photos of this cake on my Flickr

Photo courtesy of the client

All-in-all the cake turned out really well and I'm happy to say that I got a nice email from the client telling me the birthday girl loved it. Music to my ears.

A leprechaun hat cake for St. Patrick's Day

Hello!
           Welcome to my new blog! It was suggested to me by a friend that my other blog So I was thinking...wasn't the best place to post my cake creations. Although I don't see too much of a difference between creating cake versus creating art, I can see how a separate blog would probably be a better fit for the two processes.

So here's the first post. A customer ordered a fondant covered leprechaun hat for their grandmother's 90 th birthday. I made a multi-layered chocolate devil's food cake for 30 people. I usually cover my cakes in marshmallow fondant (MMF) to save on cost but I thought I would try Satin Ice to test out the difference between homemade and commercial.

The taste was really good for both but I would have to say the elasticity and ease of use was better in the Satin Ice brand. The top of the cake was 10" in diameter so I was concerned that the MMF would tear at the edges due to the excess weight once I draped it on the cake.

So what do you think? Do you think my leprechaun hat cake bodes well for another lucky year for grandma?