"Custom Cakes by Lori" Official Website Is Finally Up

Well I finally did it. I finally got a website together. You can now view a collection of past completed cakes, a list of flavours and a breakdown of prices. I think the site is still a work in progress but at least now I have an official web location that clients can go to. Please check it out and let me know what you think. I would love to hear an objective opinion. : )

You can find me here: Custom Cakes by Lori

Super Mario Cake for a 7yr old

Look what I got to work on! I was able to practice several techniques with this Super Mario cake and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. 

Two little Minion Cakes for a 7 yr. old

Both of these little guys are made from vanilla cake and filled with buttercream.  Place on a 12" cake board they were the perfect size for a small birthday party. 

TomCat in a top hat cake for an 11 yr old

Today's cake was for a repeat customer who was looking for a cake that would look like her daughter's cat. The client sent me a bunch of reference photos and in one of them they had placed a top hat on his furry head. Too cute! That's the one.

This one was made out of "Oh my God" vanilla pound cake, vanilla buttercream, fondant and sugar paste. This was a super fun cake to make. I wonder what she'll get me to do next year?

Retro Rocket cake for a 1 yr. old

The latest cake was a delicious lemon cake with a vanilla buttercream and minimal fondant. This 2D cake was made for a one-year old but was primarily meant to be enjoyed by the adults at the party. 

Simple in design, this cake was such a joy to work on. As an added bonus I got to try out one of the photographic backdrops I made to document it. 

Bollywood Style cake for a 50th Birthday

  Today's cake was for a repeat customer looking for a 50th birthday cake with an intricate Bollywood style. The interior was vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream. All the decorations and coverings were made with homemade fondant. Elements like the centre pearl and the gold appliques were made shimmery with edible lustre powders.

Dachshund dog and pillow cake for an 8 yr. old

Today's cake was such a fun one to make. For ages I've been wanting to do a pillow cake and try my hand at quilting fondant. Lucky for me the birthday girl also wanted a cake topper and I got to try out some new techniques there too. 

The cake is a simple 8" square chocolate and vanilla cake carved into a pillow shape. The larger dog was sculpted in styrofoam and fondant while the puppy was purely fondant.

If you would like to see a sequence shot of the cake being made you can find it on my Flickr account here.

Birthday cake for a 9 yr old. boy

Today's cake was thanks to a repeat customer. I had created this Mod Monkey cake for a little girl turning two and her big brother thought that it was so yummy that he requested I make something special for him too. 

The birthday party was going to be at an air park so the cake was created to compliment the theme. The figurine and stars were made from sugar paste. The trampoline was created in vanilla cake that had been covered in buttercream, black fondant and blue modelling chocolate.

Birthday Cakes for 8 yr. old twins

Today's cakes were an order for some fraternal twins turning eight. Two separate birthday parties called for two cakes. The birthday boy is currently obsessed with bugs so I created a chocolate devil's food cake covered in buttercream grass. All the bugs were handmade out of fondant. The birthday girl's cake was a traditional girly cake with buttercream ruffles and fondant daisies.
 Happy birthday twinsies!

Faux Asian Noodle Bowl Cake

Today's cake is a type of cake I've been wanting to do for a while. This gravity-defying faux asian noodle bowl cake was created for my kid's spring carnival cake walk. The bowl is made of vanilla cake and then covered in fondant that I hand-painted. A support dowel runs through the centre to hold the noodles and chopsticks. 

Would you like some soup?

Monster High Frankie Stein Cake for a 6 yr. old

Today's cake was created for my niece's 6th birthday party. I heard she wanted a Monster High cake so I asked her to look on Pinterest for some ideas that she liked and I would come up with something.Confronted with too many choices the task of designing the cake was passed back to me.  For this cake I took bits and pieces of design elements I liked and created a two-tiered cake made with a zebra-style (chocolate and vanilla) batter.

I covered the cake in pink and purple buttercream and then added fondant accents. The top portrait plaque was made entirely of fondant and was created much like a jig-saw puzzle. Frankie Stein looks pretty good made out of sugar, don't you think?

3D Minion Birthday Cake with minion cupcakes

Today's birthday cake is a 3D Minion cake from the movie Despicable Me. Four 6" vanilla cakes were stacked to create this fondant covered cake. This was a really fun cake to make and thanks to this fantastic tutorial put out by Ann of How to Cook That it was pretty stress-free. Trying to deliver it and deal with a four car accident on the way was most certainly stressful. Thank god I had air-conditioning in the car.

The customer also ordered 30 Minion fondant face cupcakes to feed the birthday girl's class at school. How lucky are they?

A rainbow sea-themed birthday cake*

Today's cake was for a repeat customer who enjoyed last year's dolphin cake so much they asked for another sea-themed cake. This cake's interior is a 6 colour rainbow filled with white vanilla buttercream. Meant to feed 30 people I created a second tier to hold a sugar paste dolphin and a rainbow. The rainbow was a good test in my cake engineering and it's easy to forget that you always have to work against gravity.

 The final additions to the cake are handmade gum paste figurines. One turtle, a beluga, an orca and a seal pup. This little girl loves her sea animals. Such a fun cake to make.

    

Mod Monkey cake for a 2 yr. old

I sent out another birthday cake yesterday. This time it was a Mod Monkey cake for a 2 yr. old girl. Mod Monkey is not my own design but rather a popular birthday theme package that you can buy online. Here's the link to the hundreds of different items you can get for a Mod Monkey themed party. 

The client had requested a 6" cake along with 18 cupcakes coloured pink and green. The two requirements for the cake were awesome flavour and No fondant. We went with a vanilla cake and a traditional buttercream which is more kid-friendly than Swiss Buttercream. The monkey's face and  No. 2 was created from modelling chocolate. Very yummy.

A Buzzard cake for a 75th birthday

What happens when you turn 75? People make you buzzard cakes of course! This fun-to-make cake was for 12-15 people.Vanilla cake was filled with traditional buttercream and then topped off with a fondant plaque. I like using fondant this way because it gives people the option to remove the decoration easily. While my homemade fondant still tastes very good, black and grey food colouring does horrible things to people's mouths and teeth and I like to avoid it if I can. He was one tasty bird otherwise. ; )

A couple of cupcakes

A quick little view of some specialty cupcakes I did recently. The top photos are fondant Tiffany cupcakes covering chocolate devil's food cake and the bottom ones are vanilla cupcakes with swiss buttercream and fondant Elmo toppers.

Right now I'm dabbling with the idea of creating an Etsy shop that will sell edible and keepsake polymer cake toppers. What do you think? Would you shop for some handmade cake toppers for your little one's birthday?

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.