Oh The Places You'll Go!

It's graduation season! It's always very exciting to move on to bigger and better things. My little niece is starting kindergarten in the fall, so she had her daycare graduation last week. This has to be the cutest grad I have ever attended! It was complete with little ones stumbling across stage, amazing performances, teeny graduation hats, and a proud parents paparazzi crowding around the stage with a million cameras. It was all quite the sight!

As a little present to my niece, I made her a graduation cake. I based it on the Dr. Seuss book, Oh The Places You'll Go! I've been dying to make any Dr. Seuss themed cake, and this book is just so terrific, and a classic for graduations. 

Then Comes Baby in a Baby Carriage!

This weekend I had the pleasure of making a baby shower cake for a beautiful momma-to-be. The cake features a tiny sugar replica of her, along with a delicate little baby carriage. I decided to keep the rest of the design simple - pink with a little touch of ruffles - very appropriate for a baby girl! The inside is red velvet and cream cheese frosting, a super popular flavour lately here at Periwinkle! 

Heigh Ho!

Here it is! My big project of the year! OK, maybe just one of many big projects I take on... but still, a biggie! My niece has grown up being spoiled with some crazy birthday cakes, and this year was no different. As she gets older, she's a little more specific with what she wants. First off, the cake had to be chocolate-chocolate. She asked for Snow White, the dwarves, and they had to sing and dance! I'm guilty of feeding her some of these ideas ;) 

We came up with a design where the cake was the dwarfs' quaint little house; chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream in the layers, and masked in a dark chocolate ganache. The mines are made out of rice crispy treats, and all the figurines are fondant. So, entirely edible! 

Check out the video of the cake in action! 

It was entirely devoured, cake, rice crispies and all!

Go Bananas!

This is the perfect cake for me to blog about today. I just came back from an amazing week in the sun, and I'm fighting some terrible winter blues! This was a cake I made right before leaving on my trip for an adorable little birthday girl who loves monkeys and bananas. Put 'em together, and you've got this super cute combination! 

Lately, I've been asked to make the inside of the cake as fun as the outside. Whether it's rainbow or obmre, it's super fun to cut into a cake to find a surprise. This time, I was asked to make something I had never done before - checkerboard! I had no idea how it was going to turn out until right up to the cutting, so that made me super nervous. In the end, it looked better than I hoped! 

A Cake at the Beach

Last week, I was sent a picture of this guy's swimming shorts, and was asked to replicate them for his birthday cake. Birthday boy is hanging on the beach with his six pack of Heineken in some sugar sand. 

These Heineken bottles are super tiny! I wish I had taken a picture of them next to a penny! 

Golden Delicious

Last week I got asked to make a Sri Lankan themed 50th birthday cake. They wanted me to incorporate some festive colours, roses, gold jewelry, and a woman dressed in a sari while drinking tea. So many elements, I wasn't sure how to make it all work! Here's what I came up with in the end.

I've started making my own moulds recently, which is so very exciting! It allowed me to make some of these super intricate fondant jewels. I love them! 

Red, White and Black

Last week, I had the chance to make one of the classiest first birthday cakes! It was an Olivia the Pig themed birthday, complete with black and white damask, and polkadots. The entire party's decor was stunning! They had banners, food labels, little tags and toothpick "flags" that they put into my mini cupcakes. An absolutely beautiful setup! 

They were kind enough to share some pictures from their party, and in there, they had a stream of ten or so pictures of the birthday girl eating her cake... and then a picture of what happened when they took her plate away. It made my heart melt! It's moments like this that make me love what I do. I just had to share these oh-so-adorable shots! 

The cake was red velvet with cream cheese frosting. The little one has wonderful taste! 

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!

... No! It's Superman! 

It was a family friend's birthday this weekend, and my parents asked me to make him a cake. He's nicknamed superman among his friends, so they thought it'd make a fitting theme for the party and the cake. I stuck with simple blue and red tiers, some kryptonite, topped with a brown superman.

I've never masked a cake in ganache before, but after seeing just how much smoother cakes are when using ganache instead of buttercream, I gave it a go! I'm sold! No air bubbles, super straight lines, and oh-so-decadent to boot!

Yummy Minnie

I don't usually make cakes that aren't covered in fondant. Fondant is smooth, clean, and creates the perfect blank canvas. So when a repeat customer asked me to make a buttercream cake for her daughter's first birthday, I reluctantly agreed, explaining to her that I'd still use a bit of fondant to recreate the decor and topper she asked for. I probably could have made it entirely out of buttercream, but the OCD in me would have hated the imperfections! I worked extra hard on making the buttercream as flawless as possible, and topped it off with a 2D gumpaste figurine of Minnie's head.

I have to admit, the buttercream makes this cake look extra yummy! Doesn't it just want to make you stick your finger in it for a little taste!? :P

Bundle of Sweet Joy

Last week, my best friend and amazing cake apprentice came over to work on a friend's baby shower cake. I love working with this girl! She's got quite a bit of talent, and she's already proved herself during my insane wedding cake week ;)

Together, we came up with a design to match their jungle themed baby room. There were quite a few things that are kind of been-there-done-that, and we were absolutely set on staying away from them... Blue, baby bums, and blocks, just to name a few. So we got to work, designing a cutesy jungle-themed baby shower cake. The cake flavour is my latest favourite, it's chocolate cake with a fresh raspberry buttercream.  I made these in cupcake form for the cupcake challenge, and they were such a hit! It is beyond yummy! 

For the outside of the cake, we decided to go with a beautiful shade of green, and she made all sorts of tiny, detailed baby animals to go around the sides of the cakes. 

And while she slaved away on those adorable animals, I got to work on the cake, and this super cute baby elephant! We make quite the awesome team! 

She's even decided to give you a little insider's scoop on her experience in making this cake!

The amateur's perspective:

Fondant looks absolutely stunning, but it's no piece of cake. Imagine that playdogh stuff you used to play with as a kid. Well, instead of it drying up after an hour because you forgot to close the lid, image it drying up in 10 minutes because you forgot you left a piece outside to work with in "JUST A BIT". It's one of the most challenging materials I've ever worked with (and for all those OT's out there, yes... more annoying than thermoplastic D:)

That being said, I couldn't have made these figurines without Chef Periwinkle close by my side, validating every little move I made. From sticking on eyeballs to spotting the giraffe, it had to been done Periwinkle style, elegant with perfection. 

What has this experience taught me? I have a huge appreciation for what this girl does. She loves her work and her passion effortlessly  transpires through. She's a sugarsweet genius :)

Who Lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea!?

My fiance and I just took a trip out to Les Escoumins, where from our living room window, we can watch whales swimming by. It's really a magical place. We've been walking along these shores, just a few feet away from these guys!

Sitting here by the water, seeing just the tops of these majestic creatures, I can't help but think about the vast underwater life we can't see from up here. Which then lead me to think about a cake I made right before leaving on this trip... 

I cannot express how much I love making cakes for this client. He doesn't have a set budget, and lets me make whatever I want, as long as I blow him out of the water. So obviously,  some of my best cakes were made for him. Seen the zombie cake and the Rio cake?

This time, he wanted a cake that had Spongebob and Squidward on it. It definitely couldn't be a simple round cake, I had to come up with something more interesting. So, I decided to make the pineapple he lives in as the cake, and the rest as sugar figurines.

I love this cake! Super colourful, eye-catching, and the figurines have so much character!

While I'm at it, I should mention, dear readers, that I'll be taking part in Montreal's first annual cake show at the end of this month. I'll be entering some of the decorating contests, as well the cupcake challenge. All proceeds from the challenge go toward Dans La Rue, and there's some yummy cupcakes to be had for sure! So come join me at the exhibition, you know I appreciate all your support! 

Delicioso!

Dora is so popular with kids! She also has a special place in my heart, since my first big cake was Dora themed. My niece had her own Dora phase, and she was obsessed! So, for her second birthday, my fiancé and I had made her a crazy animated cake. And now, for an order, I was asked to revisit Dora's characters! 

This client always wants two cakes, one for a friends party, and one for a family party. That meant I made each character twice. You think that'd be easy... Instead I was twice as critical, and twice as picky with all my details.

Turning a 2D drawing into a 3D figurine is always tough. Any slight deviances in the features makes the character unrecognisable. Fortunately, everyone recognized this little girl as Dora, including all the children at the party, my toughest critics ;-)

Dora's sporting her backpack, as usual, with her trusty map in his pocket!

By the end of the party there was no cake left for Swiper to swipe! Oh man! :)

Cake Cod

Last week I was asked to make a Cape Cod themed cake for someone turning 26. After tossing around a few ideas, the client asked to make a lobster lying in the sand. But it doesn't stop there. Mr. Lobster was to be smoking a cigar, wearing a party hat, and holding a bottle of Oban scotch! I must say, this was quite the creative and adorable idea! 

Partay!

Check out his shmexy silhouette! Yum!

And finally, his cute tush! :)