Happy Birthday!

My oldest's birthday this year falls on the Friday before Christmas and we knew that since it was on the weekend Christmas holidays started on, we would need to have his party the week before to ensure that at least one friend could join him.

It was a crazy week with lots of things going on, so I didn't get to spend as much time on it as I wanted, but it was fun to make regardless.

Once again we went with a food theme and he picked ripple potato chips - his favorite.

for a great little boy

My neighbours (the good ones) asked me to make a cake for their little guy - super super cute Liam. He was turning three this weekend and he loves Toy Story. I did a search for cake ideas and the most common ones were beds. She picked one she liked and even though the characters in the picture were plastic toys, I wanted to try and make them out of fondant. They turned out pretty good, there was a mixup with the date so the bed headboard didn't get a chance to completely harden, but I'm still happy with the charaters. If I had more time, I would have made a Mr. Potato Head too.

I also wanted to try a chocolate cake with a fudge middle - not the hard sweet fudge, but the sweetened condensed milk fudge recipe. Since this was a party I was attending, I looked forward to finally tasting a cake I made. I wasn't disappointed - it really turned out quite tasty!

Halloween - ewwwwww - NOT!!

I get so excited over halloween - it's not so much about the holiday and what it may or not represent - I get so excited about the chance to be creative, to decorate and of course to bake!!

For the kids school parties I made them zombie hands sugar cookies. The icing on the hands were completely their idea. Adam wanted veins and Kyle wanted them green. I ran out of cookies, so the boys made monster cupcakes with eyeballs and black sugar. They were a hit at school - turning everyone's mouths black!

For work, our department went with a Corpse Bakery Theme and sold some gory baking. We had eyeball cupcakes, finger cookies, slimely brains and other body parts.

I made bloody cupcakes, Frankenstein brain cupcakes, severed fingers and toes, and cheesecake brains in skull goblets. I don't think I've had so much fun in baking!!

pink pink pink

I was asked to make pink cupcakes with pink icing for a birthday at work. I've never made my icing on my cupcakes anything but the wipe and swirl, so I wanted to see if I could do something that looked like a rose.

It took quite a bit of looking for a tip - which I apparently didn't own - and borrowing a tip - which my neighbor did own - to make the icing look even close to a rose.

I did like the end product and they were a hit!

Baby Shower

One of the ladies at work asked me about making little cupcakes for a surprise babyshower at work. After looking around for inspiration, I remembered a couple sleeping babies I had made previously for baby shower cakes.

I combined them with some baby bottles, soothers, teddi bears and little rubber duckies. Only trouble was no one wanted to eat the sleeping babies :-)

garden of goodies

Inspired by another photo I found online, I made garden cupcakes for a fundraiser at work. I'm proud to say that they raised money for United Way and that staff were willing to pay money for these. Apparently they tasted good - although one purchaser promptly stuck them in a freezer because hers (the carrots) looked to good to eat right away.

Excel Gum characters cake

I have wanted an excuse for the longest time to make these guys:

A friend of mine gave me an excuse - her son's birthday :-)

yayyyyyy!!!!!!!!

Here's the final product:

BBQ

A family friend of ours had his birthday this past weekend and when his wife mentioned that she should of had me make a BBQ cake for him, I quickly made something up for her to surprise him with. The cake was carrot cake with cream cheese icing - my favorite, and the BBQ topper I quickly made the night before out of fondant. It turned out as a great surprise to him and he loved it :-)

Flashback to my childhood

I've had a picture in my "gonna make this cake someday" fold on my computer and when a friend sent me a picture of the muppets on cupcakes, it happened not only be one in my folder, but a cupcake sale for charity was coming up. I knew I had to try.

Here's the end result - the cupcake icing tasted great, but looked awful - that's what too much cream cheese will do to you. I had to add cornstarch to stop the liquifying, so it made more of a glaze than icing.

The characters were a blast to make - my favorite are Gonzo and Animal. I used the kids playdough maker to do Scooter's hair, Animal's fur and Miss Piggy's hair. Worked well - I'm so doing that again!!! I think maybe next time Sesame Street! :-)

Parent & Tot

Shortly after I had my second son, I joined a group that met on Wednesdays called "Parent and Tot". Together with a friend of mine who had a couple of little ones the same ages as mine, we went every week across the street to meet with other moms and sometimes dads, and their little ones.

It was a life saver! A great spot to meet and talk, relax and compare, catch some sanity and grow as a parent. I met some wonderful women and made some great friends. Parent and Tot also had Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and sometimes Friday groups, and it never cost a parent a dime. All they asked from us was a rotating schedule of crafts, stories and snacks.

It's been a year since I attended Parent and Tot, but I still keep in touch and recently one of the P&T organizers messaged me for a cake for a fundraiser. I was eager to help out. Had no idea what to make, but eager.


After a disaster attempt, this was my second cake (my husband is eating my first try). I made it in a Spring Theme - very suiting considering that it snowed today!!

for a good cause

The Boy Scouts that my kids belong to had a fundraising bake sale and my husband volunteered 2 dozen cookies and 2 dozen cupcakes from me :-) Since it was for a good cause, I was willing and able. I of course, got a little creative and really had fun with it - the packaging too! found some old ribbon and hot glue and voila!

I made lemon cupcakes with creamcheese summer berry epicure icing. The cookies are sugar cookies with royal icing - still playing with the flood technique. I found the pattern on line and they were quite easy to do.

Valentine's day

2nd attempt at Flood Icing on sugar cookies. Got some ideas for painting them with royal icing from a great site http://www.sweetsugarbelle.com/. I really really liked how they turned out. And they tasted great!

Baby Cake

My receptionist at work had a beautiful little baby girl just a short while ago and while I'll be out of the office during the baby shower, I really really wanted to make a little baby girl cake. I found a similar baby lamb fondant topper online, and made it slightly bigger with a baby bottle and different baby blanket. The icing is royal and I don't think I like it for a cake - much for fun for cookies and piping. I have creamcheese icing inbetween the layers of white cake and it is melting the royal icing where it touches inbetween the 2 layers. I hope it lasts in the fridge at work a couple days!!!

Star Wars 2nd time around

The same friend that request the Star Wars themed cake for her husband asked about another one for her son's birthday. I was really excited to try painting on fondant and wanted to give it a try for this cake.

I attempted a 3d painting of R2D2 and I really like the way it turned out. The only part of the cake that I was not pleased with was the icing covering the cake. I intended to have the cake covered completely in white fondant to have a smooth background, but I injured my elbow and couldn't even begin to roll out the fondant. The icing was last minute and was really quite

frustrating.