Thursday, December 29, 2011

Healthy Mind, Healthy Body, Happy Tummy!

My mom and I have been doing some hot yoga for a few months at this amazing studio, Bikram Yoga TMR (BYTMR). And we did not one, but two 30 day challenges this year. 30 day challenges are 30 yoga classes in 30 days. So, Yoga. Every. Day. They're intense, but oh so satisfying! At the end of our last challenge, the studio had a celebratory potluck / Christmas party. 

The owner of the studio, Jasmine, is so supportive and motivating! One of the teachers there asked that I make a cake to thank her for all that she's done for everyone. So I made this chocolate cake!


The yogi on top is forming the T in BYTMR, which is in the same font as the studio's logo. The flames on the corners are also part of the logo. 



She's got her yoga mat, towel, and even a little water bottle that says I <3 YOGA! Along one side, I hand painted yoga mats for the message:



For an even better view of the cake, see the video!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Christmas Ornaments, in Cake!

Phew! Christmas has been busy busy! I figured I should get my Christmas posts up before March (which is when I usually take down my Christmas tree!!) Haha I love Christmas, why not keep the spirit going for half the year!? :D

For my brother and sister-in-law's Christmas party, they asked me to make them something special, totally up to me. After a week of humming and hawing I thought of making mini ball cakes, and decorating them all differently, like Christmas ornaments. For the kids, I decided to make something a little more fun, so I stacked two of those ball cakes to make a snowman. To make my life even more complicated, I also made each of the cakes a different flavor. I love all the uniqueness!









Wednesday, December 14, 2011

A Balanced Diet

Who says cupcakes are bad for you!? Ok fine, maybe they are, but they're definitely part of any normal person's balanced diet. And according to this chart, they go right at the top, cause they're awesome! These are for a cupcake lover who's going to be studying at the Institute of Holistic Nutrition. Very appropriate, if you ask me! 


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Cutesy Christmas Cupcakes

I just finished making some cupcakes for my niece's daycare Christmas party, and I couldn't wait to share! I made four different kinds (like the Halloween ones) and made them as cutesy as possible!

These snowmen are super adorable, with the tiniest little buttons down their tummies.




And then there are gingerbread men (and women)!



Some reindeer stuffed animals with rosy cheeks 



And finally a forest of Christmas trees with presents!



Christmas is so much fun!!


Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Just For Kicks

Alright! I think, for once, I have all my bases covered. See, I know nothing about sports. Don't follow them, don't watch them -- except maybe during the hockey playoffs, because I live in Montreal, and it's impossible not to. So when I get an order for a sports themed cake, I don't really care about what team's logo I'll be making. It's all the same to me! (unless they have some crazy cool logo that'll be extra fun to make!) That is, until the pictures go up on Facebook. That's when I get comments like "Great cake, but [insert team name here] sucks!" and "Oh, it's too bad [again, team name here] lost yesterday!"...

Yes, that actually happens. Pretty often too! I made a FIFA cake for a Portuguese fan, and he got the cake the day after they got eliminated. I made a Steelers cake for last year's Super Bowl, and they lost (I think!?) haha I'm so clueless!! Anyways, all this to say, this year, I can avoid all that hate, because I've made not one, not two, but three soccer cakes supporting three different teams. Wonderful! My odds should be pretty good. I think.

So, go Chelsea!


Yay for A S Roma!

  

And woo F.C.B. rocks!



I hope everyone's happy! Or most? :)

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Michael Kors Purse Cake

Well it's about time I get an order for a purse cake! It's such a popular cake, perfect for any fashionable lady. Especially for this Montreal girl, who took a trip to the Woodbury Outlets in NY just to get her hands on this bag. Now, that must be what they call love!

Luckily, my amazing sister-in-law is also very into bags and such, and I had the actual bag in front of me while making the cake. Very helpful! :)

Also very cool for taking pictures of the cake with the real thing...




It's been a while since I've had to stay up late because of a cake, but this one definitely fixed that problem. All those MK's! At first, I started stamping them on with a sponge I had meticulously cut out in the shape of the logo... fast, but ugly results. So I wiped that off, and then started free hand painting them. Also decently fast, but uneven results. Back to the drawing board. No fast method was going to satisfy me (duh! what was I thinking!), so I printed out the logo a million times on a piece of paper, used that to cut out a stencil on a plastic sheet (in case you can't tell where this is going, cutting out all those mini letters with an exacto knife isn't a walk in the park), and THEN, I used the stencil to paint each of those little MK's. It might be 2am, but now I can sleep soundly knowing all my MK's are even and lined up. Ahhh... satisfaction! :)

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Precious Pink Baby Shower

Last weekend, I made a cake for the cutest baby shower I have ever seen! The two girls organizing the shower made a huge assortment of pink pastries and desserts - from cakes pops to meringues - all by themselves. There must have been a good 20 or more different types of goodies, all displayed so beautifully on their table. And among it all went my pink cake on a glass cake stand. It fit so perfectly, I'm just so in love! It's exactly what a baby shower should look like!

Here's a picture of the whole table. It doesn't nearly do it justice, but it's the only one I've got for now...



I also fell in love with making babies! Fondant babies, that is! They're so tiny, and insanely cute! Last month, I had the pleasure of attending a baby themed cake demo (and a two day wedding cake decorating course) by the amazingly talented Mercedes Strachwsky from Bake Me a Cake in Florida. I have yet to blog about all the amazingness I learned over those three days, but here I was, finally given the chance to put some of that to use! Here's my iddy biddy baby!




This here is the TINIEST fondant rose ever made in the history of cakes ;)


Edible jewels! Yes, ladies, you can eat this beautiful *bling*!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Fabric Samples

Design is so much fun! Fashion design, interior design, cake design... all of it! Just being able to make a concept come to reality is something so satisfying. A few weeks ago, when I was asked to make a cake for an interior designer, I was super excited... and then pretty bummed. To be honest, I was a little intimidated by the idea that I had to make something to impress a designer. I really didn't know what kind of approach to take on this cake. Do I make her desk? With some rulers, pencils, tools, etc.? Paint swatches? A whole room? What to do, what to do...

Luckily this designer had a blog, and plenty of insight into what she likes. One of her recent projects was for a banquette, and she had a blog post about it. She had pictures up of different banquettes she liked, and one thing was for certain -- she loves color! There were some where each cushion was a different color and pattern, and some with a different colored piping for the edges of the cushions. I was also given this picture -- fabric samples for the project! 


And voila, I got it! A cube cake, super modern, with a different color and pattern on each side, and different colored piping around each side. 


My niece got a kick out of photobombing my cake ;)


I obviously couldn't pass up the opportunity to paint that amazing floral print...


In the end, I had so much fun making this cake, and she loved it :) 

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Not Just For Girls!

Cakes aren't just about flowers and frills anymore -- though they can be super frilly and absolutely covered in flowers, if you want it to! But not every man is into that stuff  ;) For all the manliest men out there, they invented themed cakes and carved cakes! Finally, boys aren't stuck getting those Loblaws/IGA birthday cakes with blue buttercream roses. Now, they can have a yummy cake with elements from their hobbies, interests, and careers.

A very popular go-to for men is a sports themed cake, usually carved cakes in the shape of a football, soccer ball, jersey, you name it.





 Their cake can even be topped with their favorite toys -- cars!



And for those that still enjoy their video games...


Some might even be in love with a movie so much, that they'd enjoy something like this:


So for your boyfriend's / dad's / brother's / whatever man in your life's next birthday, instead of the usual pastry shop cake, get them something just as delicious, but something super special that shows them that you put some thought into this :)

Monday, November 7, 2011

All Treats and No Tricks

... well there were a few tricks, but more on that later.

My niece was having a Halloween party at her daycare, and I was asked to make the kids some cupcakes. Halloween is my favorite, favorite holiday of the year! I love zombies, ghouls, and all that is creepy... but these were for daycare kids, so I tried very hard to keep it cute and fun for the little ones :) Since I had these really cute cupcake wrappers in white, I decided to make a dark chocolate cupcake with orange swirls.

And here are...

little black kitties in jack-o-lanterns,


teeny blood sucking cuties, 


iddy biddy ghostly trick-or-treaters,


and some witches' brews and brooms


And, the whole cupcake army! 


No Halloween is complete without a few tricks! We decorated the house that night, and gave out candy to those that were brave enough to get through our haunted, zombie-and-troll-infested front lawn! 

I already can't wait 'till next Halloween!