Birthday Cake

About a month ago our neighbour stopped in, said his wife's birthday was coming up and he was wondering if I could make a cake on short notice. He basically left the design up to me, he just wanted something fairly simple and enough cake for 30 people.

I try to use these opportunities to do something a little different or try something I haven't done before - all while keeping it fairly straight forward so the cake turns out in the end!

I had some roses left from the wedding cake I make for my brother and sister-in-law, so I decided to use them. For the leaves I wanted to try making them from green dipping chocolate wafers. I dumped the chocolate in to a piping bag and traced out the outline of a few. I wasn't too sure about them, but figured if all else failed I could make buttercream leaves. With melted chocolate chips I made the letters for Happy Birthday, as well as some lattice looking things.

The only thing about using chocolate is that as soon as you touch the pieces they start to melt. Usually I'm so freezing cold so I'm not sure why my temperature spikes the second I started placing the chocolate pieces on a cake! I had to be super careful and actually ended up using my decorating tweezers to minimizing touch the chocolate.

In the end I was happy with how it turned out, simple and elegant.

I was really happy with the chocolate leaves. They brought a brightness to the cake and really pulled it together. I'm glad they turned out!

Chevron Denim Rag Blankets

I made these a while ago, and I must say I love how they turned out. I had a couple bins of denim that I finally decided to something with. By the time I cut all the squares I had blisters on my fingers and had to take a break for a few days because I couldn't even hold a pair of scissors!

Instead of sewing an x across the squares to hold the batting I stuffed them to create puffed rag blanket. I made the squares 6 1/2 inches square. I don't know how much bigger you would want to go if you were stuffing them.

For the boy blankets I put the rag to the front,

For the pink and purple I did the rag to the back. I think I like this way better.

I would love to make one of these to fit a twin size bed, only with flannel on both sides. A lot of little squares - but it would look good!

The Backyardigans Cake

I made this cake back in September for my co-worker's granddaughter. She loves The Backyardigans. I on the other hand weren't too sure who they were so I had to do some research. I'm glad they weren't the coloured blobs I had originally thought they were - I'm not quite sure what I was thinking about; maybe Teletubbies? Is that even a show anymore? I watched part of an episode of The Backyardigans, and while it helped with what the characters looked like, it really just confused me. They weren't in a backyard, but in a city - one was driving a streetcar, I think one was being a doorman. The streetcar probably lost control going down a hill and had to be saved. By the doorman. I don't remember - 5 minutes was enough for me!

I originally decided to make the character out of colour flow, however when I went to use them I found hadn't dried properly and some of them ended up breaking. I couldn't figure out why because usually colour flow turns out so well. It wasn't until a day or two later I realized it was because I used one of my plastic cutting boards instead of the 2 arborite ones I usually uses. There was moisture trapped under the wax paper which prevented proper drying. Another lesson learned! My kids were delighted they broke because then they got to make a fancy dessert with cake scrapes and broken Backyardigans. Luckily the letters for the name, and the 2 were okay.

I got out the fondant, which is what I should have done in the beginning and made the 5 characters.

I'm actually glad the colour flow didn't work because they turn out pretty cute. The moose is my favourite.

I haven't decided if the blue one is a penguin or just a bluebird, and I think the purple one is a kangaroo. I have no idea what the pink one is. No idea. Wikipedia doesn't know either.

I glad I made the flowers, it really brightened it up and made it more little girly.

There they are, hanging out in the backyard. Everyone getting along.

Kinley loved her cake and the characters were a hit. Although one of them fell victim to their dog - dogs get to celebrate too, right!?

Sunflowers and Roses

Last year, shortly after my brother and his girlfriend got engaged, my brother asked me if I would make their wedding cake. Of course I was delighted - and then a little nervous when he said he would design it! We talked about it a few times throughout the year but there were no real decisions made until a couple months before the wedding. He wanted the cake to be at least 5 tiers, decorated with sunflowers and roses (Shannon's favourite flowers!) and with pillars so the cake topper could be in the middle. The rest of it was up to me!

I pulled out my square and round cake pans, sat down on the basement floor and started stacking them in various ways. I'd text a picture of the cake pan cake to my brother and he'd make a suggestion and I'd adjust it accordingly and text him another picture. It didn't take long before we had one he liked - 5 tiers, with pillars. I told him he would have to find a fairly short cake topper if he wanted it to be in the middle. He told me he had it taken care of!

I started with making roses, adding lots of red colouring to make sure they didn't turn out pink! Then I switched over to sunflowers. I had never made sunflowers before, but following Wilton's directions they were surprising simple to make.

The tricky part of make this cake was the location of the reception - about a 2 hour drive from my place. I didn't know if I should haul all my stuff to the city and decorate there, or decorate it at my house and carefully transport it. I had this on-going list of pros and cons going on in my head for weeks. Finally I decided (the week of the wedding) that it would be easiest to decorate it at home and hope the cake made it there in one piece.

I started with decorating the bottom layers,

and then the top layers. As requested the cake was different flavours - lemon, chocolate, white and vanilla.

We loaded up the cake, an emergency cake repair kit, our wedding clothes and the kids. We hit the road just in time to make it to rehearsal (a half an hour late!)

The cake, much to my relief, survived the trip! The buttercream boarder didn't even melt despite the sun beating through the windows!

The wedding was beautiful, the reception was a lot of fun and the cake was completely eaten! I loved the cake topper my brother picked out - it was a perfect choice. And I was worried he wouldn't find one that would fit nicely between the tiers! He did a brilliant job of designing the cake as well. I don't think I ever would of thought to put sunflowers and roses together. It really was a great combination for a fall wedding. I might just have to consult him on all my cakes!

Pontoon Boat Cake

My boss retired this spring and to celebrate this milestone, along with her husbands 65th birthday, they planned a party for this summer. She asked if I would make a cake that had her and her husband in a pontoon boat with their little dog.

Up until the day before I made the cake I was still tying to decided whether it should be a pontoon boat cake or a pontoon boat on a cake. I didn't think a pontoon boat would have enough cake in it for everyone so I decided to do both - a pontoon boat cake on a cake.

I was a little unsure about how big the boat should be (and since I doubt my people making skills!) so I was having visions of giant people in a little boat. In my mind, the most logical way to make sure this didn't happen was to make the people first and then make the boat. That way everything should be in proportion. Fortunately this plan worked out and I didn't end up with giants or a boat that wouldn't fit on the cake (which was my other worry!).

Since I wanted to make the boat as edible as possible I made the pontoons, walls and benches out of fondant covered rice crispy cake. The base of the boat was cake.

The dog was surprisingly not that hard to make, and is probably my favourite part of the cake.

Their pontoon boat is actually black, but since it takes so much food colouring to get black fondant I figured it would taste more like dye then icing and so I just left it white. I almost forgot the motor. That was a last minute addition.

Truth be told I was a little nervous about making this cake. Having never made a pontoon boat before I wasn't too sure what I was doing. I almost never got it done on time - but that is because I ended up going to a movie. Ant Man was in town! I couldn't miss it!

In the end the cake turned out pretty well and my husband even thinks my people make skills are improving! The party was lots of fun as well and the supper was fantastic. Usually when I make a cake for someone my kids have to watch it leave knowing they don't get a piece. They were delighted when I told them that they were going to the party too! Thanks for inviting us, and thanks for asking me to make your cake!

Trailer Park Boys

I never thought I would find myself making a Trailer Park Boy's birthday cake! Never say never, I guess! I actually made it the same weekend as the Iron Man cake, and am finally getting it posted!

This cake was for a surprise 50th birthday party for my brother-in-law's sister-in-law's husband. I wonder if there is an easier way of saying that?

I struggle with making fondant people, but these guys actually turned out not too bad! My husband helped me get the details right!

Iron Man Cake

The first time I made a Iron Man cake was years ago, before the Avengers were really popular. I didn't really even know who he was - just that he was my husband's favourite comic book super hero. It didn't turn out so well. Now there are all sorts of Iron Man cakes ideas on Pintrest, which is exactly where I turned when I was asked to make this one. I put a few of the ideas together to come up with a cake that I thought little Joshua would like.

The best idea I came across was putting a LED light in the cake as Iron Man's arc reactor. I knew I'd seen them in the dollar stores, but wasn't sure if they came in red. As it turned out, luck was with me, they did! They also had blue and silver, in case you were wondering! I wasn't sure how long the batteries would last so I left putting it in until the morning of the party just to make sure it wouldn't burn out.

One of my favourite things to do on a birthday cake is to write their name out of cookies. I've done it a couple times, and it always goes over well - cookies and cake all in one! I had to squish Joshua's name together to make it fit, but in the end it was better then having the letters in a straight line. I also made Iron Man's helmet out of a cookie. The template I found on Pintrest, where else!

It was a fun cake to make, and I'm really glad the light idea worked out. My source told me Joshua was thrilled with Iron Man cake and knowing that one of my cakes brought a smile to someones face is the best part of it all!