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Our sweet friend, Deepani (isn't she lovely?) has her birthday on December 31st (poor thing!). So a few mommy-group friends decided to surprise her with a cake when we got together at Chantal's house for an early evening New Year's eve gathering (very early...we all have little ones!). Of course I jumped and volunteered - on December 30th. Nothing like last-minute cake-making to get your blood-pumping! :)
Ok - so I made two sheet cakes...because I wanted to have square tiers, but I wasn't sure how many, or what dimensions.
I thought I'd show you what's left over. Hmmm...leftover cake in my house. Dangerous.
It had to be chocolate on chocolate (a girl's best friend next to diamonds and waterproof mascara), and because of the last minute aspect, I didn't relish the idea of covering it in fondant. So, I left it with stripey chocolate buttercream on top, spiky on tier #2, and "smooth" on the bottom. Ok - so I really need to work on my buttercream spreading technique. But this is why I use fondant normally. I can't make the darn frosting look pretty! Thus, I made some fondant flowers to pretty it up.
Here's the first rendition:
And the final version, after agonizing over floral placement for far too long:
Happy Birthday, Deepani! And Happy 2010 everyone!!
Bella and I collaborated on this little creation for our family Christmas dinner. I made the cake, frosting (both chocolate, of course) and baby, and she did the rest (even thought of putting knife marks on the yellow part of the manger to indicate hay).
Bella loves those edible ink markers as much as I do...and now that she can write - she is ready to take over all future signage.
Happy Birthday, Jesus! Merry Christmas, everyone!
Ahhh yes - time to break out the cutters and royal icing and glitter and assorted doodads!!! Made lemon sugar cookies - soft and chewy, rather than crisp, and not as sickly sweet as the traditional sugar cookies...though I won't turn those down if you're sharing...
Ok - so apples are the traditional gift from student to teacher...usually rosy, shiny, red perfection.
Well...how about a green one (I always liked the tang of Granny Smiths!) with a little worm friend? (shows it's organic - pesticide free!!) To be completely honest, I decided on the green apple mostly because I had used up all the red for Lightning McQueen (see the post below), and of course, it also looked sharp and rather modern against the purple gift. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!
This cake was for Bella's teachers - they had a surprise Staff Appreciation Luncheon a few weeks before the Christmas holidays.
Being a teacher myself, I recognize fully the need for caffeine...and thus made them a rich, dark chocolate cake with layers of mocha buttercream. (Thank you to my lovely neighbour, Andrea, for supplying the Italian espresso powder!) The apple is made of a cupcake with the same flavours.I also made a cheerful little rainbow thank you plaque with my new edible markers, rice paper and fondant.
Here's the cake surrounded by many other delightful treats in the staff room. Yummmm!
Our family made a big move in August - from Clifton Park, NY to Richmond, BC (we never thought we'd be back in Canada!) Leaving our friends in NY was extremely difficult...and many tears were shed when we left. Many months of unpacking and settling in later...I finally felt ready to make another cake!
I met the beautiful Chary through a mom's meetup group. She was so welcoming and friendly, and funny! And at our 2nd outing, she brought a portable BBQ to make these yummy meat skewers with Mama Sita's Adobo sauce as her secret weapon...It was then that I knew we had to be friends! :)
When she found out I made cakes, she asked for a Lightning McQueen cake for her son Aidan's 1st birthday party. Fun! It would be a white cake with a mango filling.
I started my research online, and bought a little LM car to look at. I thought about getting an edible ink printer to print out all the decals on LM, but it was way too expensive...so I ended up getting some Americolor edible ink markers and rice paper instead.
I made the mango custard filling from a recipe in Food and Wine magazine (Feb.'09) and let it set in the fridge overnight. I baked the cake in an oval pan, then layered it with the mango filling before carving out the shape. Then I covered it with lemon buttercream and red marshmallow fondant (which took a loooong time, and a whole jar of red food paste, to get the right shade)
Unfortunately, I learned too late that a custard type of filling is not the best idea for 3-D cakes...The next day the fondant started to "weep" from the wet filling, and the stuff was oozing out from the weight of the fondant. I had to scrape off all the filling that seeped out, but the fondant in some spots became very fragile. Yikes!!! In hindsight, I would have just put mango puree or extract into a buttercream recipe.
The wheels were made of cupcake bottoms covered with lemon buttercream and black fondant, which I scored with a knife for treads.
I made the decals with my new markers and rice paper - only to find that rice paper warps with the wetness of the ink! So I lay the pieces flat in plastic wrap, and tried to squish them flat with some heavy books...which worked...a little.
All the decals worked ok, except for the "lightning bolts" on the side panels...the rice paper was much too stiff to flex on the contours of the car. It kept breaking apart, and did not sit well on the fondant. So, at the very last minute, I decided to rip both panels off, sent my poor long-suffering husband to the store for more marshmallows and icing sugar, made a new batch of fondant, traced out new decals on the fondant, painted and outlined them with food colouring, and phew! They stayed on and were a huge improvement!During our rush to the party, I noticed that LM's smile was drooping. The darned mango filling was melting away the fondant under the smile! I pushed the smile up and just prayed it would stay up until the cake was cut...
This was probably one of the most challenging cakes I have ever made - mostly because of my insistence on making that filling work. I definitely learned my lesson, and will be sticking to buttercreams from now on!!! It would have made for easier decorating, and a much smoother surface. I also learned about using rice paper and edible ink markers, as well as using food paste and a drop of vodka (it evaporates, don't worry!) to paint fondant.
All in all, it was a great experience, and I'm certainly relieved that Chary and her family loved the cake in the end! Phew! (And we had a terrific time at the party - with wonderful company...and great food, of course!)
Hope you had a happy first birthday, Aidan!!
Hard to believe, but our little Kiana is turning one!! The year has gone by so quickly...and our tiny bundle of long-awaited joy has grown into an adorable little charmer! (Of course, I could be a little biased...)
Our first daughter, Isabella, loves to read to her little sister...and one of her favourites is "Noah's Ark"! I was shocked to hear Bella reading it to Kiana the first time, cover to cover, complete with the booming voice of God! (She wasn't even five yet! But I guess we must have read it enough times to her...) So, of course, when it came time to choosing a cake for Kiana's first birthday, we thought of Noah's Ark...
Because we were showing our house (to sell for our future move to Vancouver), and needed to keep it immaculate, our dear friends, the Lees, allowed me to crash their kitchen to make the cake (and even hosted the party!) I brought over all of my materials (or so I thought), and started on the cake.
The ark itself is made of two halved vanilla sheet cakes (4-tiers total), filled with vanilla buttercream, then carved into shape. I made the "house-like" structure on top with what was left-over from the carving, to make it look more like an ark. The whole thing was then covered with buttercream.
I made the marshmallow fondant, and then discovered...I had left all of my food-colouring pastes at home!!! I needed to cover the cake with the fondant ASAP to keep it fresh underneath, but I couldn't make brown with regular food colouring (it would have ruined the consistency of the fondant). That was when my friend, Linda, came up with the most absolutely brilliant idea...of putting cocoa powder in the fondant! I decreased the amount of icing sugar in the recipe, and added Ghirardelli cocoa (quite a lot of it, actually!) until I got the dark brown I wanted. Finally, I could seal up the cake, and worry about the details another day!
Making the animals was so much fun for me! I loved making each pair a "boy" and a "girl" by adding little details like long lashes, or a pink bow, a little hat or scarf...Every once in a while, our kids would stop mid-play and come around to check out the progress on the cake. The biggest hit by far, with the kids, was Monsieur Pig with his funky little moustache!
I had made scales on the snakes with the edge of a straw, but couldn't think of anything to make the pattern on the turtle shells. That's when Linda came up with Brilliant Idea #2...use an Allen Key (with the hexagonal cross-section)!I just loved making all the animals, although I did get frustrated after dropping the bunny's tail / nose/ eyes, for the umpteenth time! Those itty bitty pieces of fondant sure were finicky!Because of the number of people coming to the party, we decided to make another sheet cake for the base (water) of the cake. Unfortunately, this was AFTER I had started on the ark, so you can imagine the pain it was to move the cakes into position. (Many animal body parts were lost in the move...) I stuck a number of straws into the base for support, but it still ended up a little smooshed after all the repositioning. (My sweet husband, Paul, suggested helpfully that it made the ark look more like it was riding on choppy waters.) The whole process was nerve-wracking, to say the least.At the end of it all, we all loved the cake...and Linda couldn't wait to get it out of her fridge (where it was taking up an entire shelf)! 
The birthday girl was a little perplexed by the whole party, and eyed the cake rather suspiciously. 
But as soon as she got her hands on a piece of it, she quickly decided she loved it too! :)
Happy Birthday, Kiana! We love you soooo much!
This post is mainly for my friend, Shannon. When I told her I had made the flowers on Deepani's cake (see post below), she said "Shut up! I don't believe you!". So here we are. A tutorial on flower-making...
See - nothing to it!
