December 15, 2013

Peter Rabbit 1st Birthday

Today I dropped off a cake for little Jax who turned 1.  His mom Leila contacted me through my niece Stephanie.  Leila was trying to find someone to make a totally nut free cake due to a nut allergy her nephew has.  Well Leila you came to the right place as we are totally nut free.  The theme for Jax's cake is Peter Rabbit.  When I think Peter Rabbit I think of soft colours, carrots (of course), white picket fence, a little pretty cottage.....well if you've read Peter Rabbit you'll get the picture.

 
 
I was inspired by a few cakes I found on line in the Peter Rabbit theme and picked a few things here and there and from my memory reading the Peter Rabbit books to my, now grown, girls when they were little.

What would a Peter Rabbit cake be if there were no Peter Rabbit? So to start I made Peter out of gum paste and gave him his little blue sweater.  I then made a little fondant basket to hold his carrots and a little yellow fondant blanket for his picnic.  The # 1 was made from fondant as well as the carrots.


And what better flavor to have for a Peter Rabbit theme? well carrot cake of course.  Both tiers are our very moist and delicious carrot cake which has no nuts or fruit.....I know but trust me it is delicious.......is filled with a cream cheese filling.  Peter's little cottage is done in fondant in a 2D effect with a white picket fence which goes around both bottom and top tiers.

 
I used edible gel food colours and watered them down to give me a soft water colour effect and painted the trees around the bottom tier and the grass along the bottom of each tier. Then added a few fondant flowers and bits of fondant grass here and there to give a little dimension.


All in all I think the effect worked out beautifully. 
 


 
Happy 1st Birthday Jax!
 
 






Minnie Mouse for Alexa

My God daughter's little girl Alexa is turning 1 on December 22nd. As it is so close to Christmas Alexa's mom Tanya decided to hold her birthday party yesterday, Saturday the 14th of December at The Little Gym.  What little girl does not like Minnie Mouse?  Well Alexa loves Minnie and that's what we gave her.


I got this idea from a Minnie cake that The Cake Boss did, though his was in red, black & yellow, I made a few changes to make it my own. Since Tanya told me that Alexa would be dressed in pink and Minnie is usually in pink that was one of the changes I decided to make.


The top tier is a vanilla cake which I added pink cake balls in the batter to make it a polka dot cake filled with white chocolate mousse. Unfortunately I was not there for the cutting so I don't have a picture of the inside polka dot effect.


The bottom tier designed to look like Minnie's skirt is chocolate fudge cake filled with white chocolate mousse.  All details are done in fondant included the 2 layers of frills peaking out from under Minnie's skirt.


This is a back view of the cake which I also added a bow and ties to the dress.  Both the bow in the back and the bow at the top front are made from gum paste with fondant polka dots. The ears are done in fondant with skewers to support them.


This was a very fun cake to make and I enjoyed making this for our little Alexa who looked adorable in a pink tutu yesterday.



Happy 1st Birthday Alexa!



Little red racer cupcakes

These cute little red racers were requested for a little guy turning 4.  Nerine, the little birthday boy's mom sent me a picture of this cute cupcake and asked if I could make 42 for her son's birthday party Saturday.


She found these cute black and white racing print cupcake wrappers on line for me to use.......requested were 1 1/2 dz vanilla cupcakes, 1 dz chocolate cupcakes and 1 dz strawberry cupcakes. All were filled with a white chocolate mousse and topped with vanilla butter cream.


Each of the 42 cupcakes had a little red racer on top. The racers are all made in fondant and sport the # 4 for the birthday boy's age.  Unfortunately I did not catch the little guy's name.

Happy 4th Birthday!


December 9, 2013

Baby Einstein

Also this past weekend a little boy name Alyaan turned 1. His mom contacted me after attending a baby shower that we made the cake for and told me she loved it and wanted us to make Alyaan's cake.
The theme she chose for his birthday party was Baby Einstein and expressed that she wanted a colourful drum cake with the Baby Einstein caterpillar as a topper.


This 10" drum cake was done in a chocolate and vanilla cake in a checkerboard. Hopefully I can get Alyaan's mom to send a picture of the cake once it was cut so we can see the checkerboard effect.


All details of this cake is done in fondant except for the drum sticks which are fondant covered dowels. Edible gel colours and used like paint to create the Baby Einstein logo.


 
These 2 little characters on either side of the birthday boy's name are not actual characters from the Baby Einstein line. Alyaan's mom couldn't find plates, napkins etc in the Baby Einstein line but found these cute little characters which are along the same lines and colours, so she sent me a picture of them and asked if I could incorporate them into the cake. I think they turned out quite cute.
 

We also placed some colourful music notes around the drum as Baby Einstein is all about music. I love doing these bright and colourful cakes and when I dropped it off on Sunday they loved how it turned out.

Happy 1st Birthday Alyaan!
 

Ryan's Jungle Birthday

Last year for his 1st birthday we did a Thomas the Train themed cake and this year Ryan's mom asked us to make his birthday cake in a Jungle theme.


This single tier is done in vanilla cake filled with cookies & cream butter cream. Covered in green fondant with our little giraffe sitting by a couple of palm trees.


and of course a few of our jungle friends around the cake in the midst of trees, leaves, vines and grass.

 




Happy 2nd Birthday Ryan!





Jeff Corvette

This past weekend Anthony turned 3 and his Dad, a former colleague of mine, asked if we could make his birthday cake and the theme was "Cars".  Everyone likes the movie Cars and every Cars cake ends up being Lightning McQueen or Nadar. Anthony's Dad asked if we could make "Jeff Corvette" from the "Cars" movie 2.  Since I have never seen this movie, Anthony's Dad sent over a picture of Jeff Corvette.

We recreated it in a 2D cake using the Lightning McQueen cake pan. The flavor of choice was marbled chocolate & vanilla filled with cookies and cream butter cream.


Now with using this pan, we decided to cover it in fondant as opposed to the typical star tip icing method used on with these character pans. We didn't do all the detail work on the side of the car as it appears on Jeff Corvette's side but we added the stars and a # 3 for Anthony's age.


We placed the car cake on a slab cake also done in marble chocolate & vanilla and filled with cookies and cream butter cream. We covered the slab cake in the black & white racing flag which is done in fondant squares.  All details are done in fondant and is totally edible.


We placed the birthday greeting on the front of the slab, and here you can see the bottom of the car cake and how the wheels appear to be 3D.

Happy 3rd Birthday Anthony!


December 2, 2013

Dora & Diego Birthday wishes for Nolan

Yesterday Nolan turned 3 and his auntie Rhi asked us to make his birthday cake in the 2 characters he really likes to watch, Dora & Diego.


This very colourful single tier is our popular chocolate fudge cake with a cookies & cream butter cream filling.  Dora and Diego were created with fondant in cut out fashion and added to the front of the cake on either side of the birthday greeting.

 
Above to the left are the paper cut outs I used as a guide to recreate Dora & Diego and to the right are the ones done in fondant. Below you will see the fondant cut outs once they are placed on the cake.
 
 
 
Hills, flowers, grass and butterflies were added as scenery around the cake.

 

As a fun topper for this cake we decided to put Nolan's name done in colourful gum paste and added the funny faced stars and the # 3.


 
Happy Birthday Nolan!

Tage's 1st Birthday

This past Saturday little Tage celebrated his 1st birthday. His mom Tanya asked us to make his cake.  She found a picture of a cake she liked and sent it to us. A very cute Muppets idea and the characters even spell out Tage's name.


How cute is this?  Obviously the picture Tanya found had a different name. She even drew out the characters in Muppet style so we would know what she had in mind. This 10" single tier is in our very popular chocolate fudge cake filled with cookies and cream buttercream and covered in off white buttercream ribbons.


The Muppets making up Tage's name are done in fondant and gum paste mix.
 
 
Of course we have Kermit
 
 
and Animal
   
 
  and Gonzo

  and Fozzie
 
HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY TAGE!