butter cream...

Oh sweet, sweet butter cream.
So unpretentious.
So comforting.
So delicious.
As I've talked about before, fondant is lovely, but also something that seems to be trending out of popularity. As the trends of weddings and gatherings have returned to more natural, organic settings, so have cakes and sweets. While formal hotel weddings are still the norm here in Winnipeg, it's nice to see some of you using venues that are creative outdoor spaces. Barns, ranches, old country homes. All begging the handmade touch. Simple details, yet details that are intentional, like hand picked bouquets, vintage linens and clever shoes.

Unclear about the shoes? Seriously, check out these...

How's that for your something blue...
(photo courtesy of Sterling Images, here in Winnipeg)

I adore that both the bride and groom matched their foot ware. So cute.
(photo posted on GreenWeddingShoes, (seriously gorgeous weddings) taken by Marianne Lozano out of California)

But enough of the shoes! More butter cream!

Ahh, the Swiss meringue butter cream.
Truly lovely.
And it is so easy to make smooth, a real delight to work with.

Don't you just want to stick your finger in it? Swipe a finger full? Suddenly I'm 4 again and waiting until the coast is clear, adults are busy drinking coffee, cake waiting for me...
So don't feel confined, have your cake and eat it too :P

cakettes for kids

I first want to start with a huge virtual thank-you to Bakerella, who inspires me all the time.
Endless ideas and endless supply of sprinkles
(I like to think that maybe one day I'll be famous enough that she may pop in and say oh hey pam, no problem!)
I absolutely love the online community of people who make things; baked treats, cakes, crafts and sewing... they're funny, they photograph so well and they share. Like we're all good friends :)
Aren't we though?
If you'd like to try your hand at these little cake pops, do it! Bakerella has step by step instructions and lovely pictures. She'll inspire you too, just keep reading her stuff! If you need help you can always ask me too, I'd love to help. In the future we'll offer these as a class at the bakery, so fun!

I did these ones up on sticks to show you how easy they become handout treats. Office co-workers, your kids class, their teacher, your neighbours, grocery store clerks, the sedin brothers, the mailman...really, everyone.
Except me.
(Please honey, if I eat another one of these I will seriously explode. I'm going to need something different for Valentine's Day.)
These and those damn imperial cookies will have me in a sugar coma any day now...

I digress! The cake pops are available from the 8th to the 12th of February, or as I have dubbed it "my staff are going to kill me" week. Just how many will we make? I'll run a contest for you on the 15th. See if I'm alive then.
They come individually bagged, tied with white ribbon and can be boxed if giving as a gift. Please order by emailing me at cakeologycakes@gmail.com, let me know how many you'd like and which day you'd like them. They are $1 each, minimum of 5 please.

valentines day

It's that time of year again. The sugar high of Christmas has long past and the resolutions for the New Year have been shelved for another year. All these short chilly days followed by long dark nights are wearing down my resistance.
Resistance to all things chocolate.
I'm afraid I may be too weak...

How am I supposed to say no to something that cute? Something so delicious and unsuspecting. I have no defense.
Nada.
Nothin.
Zip.
I surrender, white flags are waving...
Ask me how many of these I've already eaten through the photo shoot.
No wait, don't ask...

So please, drop me an email and order some of these for your loved one and help me spread the deliciousness. And help get them away from me. It's simply not fair for me to be the only one enjoying them :)

(and what exactly are they you ask? cakettes! of course! our classic chocolate or vanilla cake mixed with butter cream icing, hand rolled and dipped in dark or white chocolate)

$10 for a box of 9, all packaged up pretty for you. Drop me a line at cakeologycakes@gmail.com to place your order. They'll be ready for February 11th, 12th & 13th.

Madeline's Wedding Show

Not sure what is going on with my camera lately. I detest using the flash and I think that may account for the graininess in my pictures. Seems to only happen in lack of light shots, like this one inside today. Need to make a portable grey screen. Something the father of the groom taught me at the last wedding I did the cake for. He held out the side of his coat and I focused my camera on it. It's just a point and shoot, so if you press the button down half way, it will focus. This makes the camera focus on the amount of light in the grey fabric (which is even less) so when you take the picture, voila, it's lighter.

I don't get it.
But it works. And I didn't think of it today. Dammit.
I was however in the presence of a couple of Winnipeg's finest photographers, so I have my fingers crossed that someone took some photos of my stuff....
Anyone?...Mr. Hiebert perhaps? Ms. Zerr?

Anyway, the cake. We have a massive one, my show cake. Always hard to decorate as it is a monster. To match it's ginormity (I may have just made that word up) I wanted a gigantic flower. Gum paste and I are not very good friends. Nemesis's even. So being the smart cookie I am, I contracted out this work, to someone with much more skills than I. Thanks to face book, I was reunited with an old high school chum, who has started making her very own lovely cakes. Asked Nicole if she could do a flower for me and there you have it.

what I saw driving home from work today

I love the things you can find (err...photoshop) on the internet. Such as this kind gentleman hanging a lovely blown up poster of my cake :) That's so nice of him.

photography class

Sometimes I have trouble taking pictures of my cakes. Some simply can't be taken in with one shot. Like this one. No matter the angle, something or someone is missing. So instead you get a whole bunch of shots to look at.
You like that though, don't you?

Little more satisfying to drop in and see whats new and have more than one thing to look at. I love following others blogs and am annoyed a little when there's nothing new. Or only one photo. Kind of like when I read books. The more pictures, the more keen I am on actually reading the contents. There are also those days where I don't really care what anyone has to say, I just want to look at pictures....

These hippo teeth make me smile every time I see them.
So goofy.
Just like Dryden's dad. Such a goof.
Funny how I chose him to be my mentor....kind of says something about me I suppose...

our second wedding show!

hey everyone!
just wanted to invite all of you down to the Four Points Sheraton this Sunday for a fabulous little wedding show, hosted by none other than Madeline and her fantastic crew!
Check out their website for details, and how you can win the $5000 grand prize.
And while you're there, come and say hi.
I'll be the girl with the free cake.
Now why would you not go?

stagette & a speech

Moving up from my building inspector post, I wanted to stay chatting about business if that's okay with you folk. I have had the opportunity as of late to be chatting about my business quite a bit. And like anything, confidence comes with practice.
Practice, practice, practice.
I played the organ for ten years. I hate practice. The beauty of the practice now is not in the repetition, the mundane scales and triads and the same songs over and over. Now I can tell my story, pitch my idea and chat to a broad audience. From family, friends, customers and past clients, to all the new folk that I have met while setting up shop. Scott from OnBusiness, Martin from Barter, Jason from Kijiji. The list is becoming quite long. What I love most though, is that classic Winnipeger line..."oh ya, I know that guys brother"...or sister. Or his neighbour, used to work for the guy, then my cousin went into business blahblahblah....everyone knows everyone. Which is awesome.
It is, as you know, a small world after all...

But I digress. The point of my practice speech was how I have built confidence in my business, in who I am, what I do, how I do it. The choices I've made. My business did not start on a specific date, it's been growing and growing for two years now. It's a hard way to start out, but strategic thinking in this industry is crucial, so I am glad to have had the time to plan, to think, to learn. All while practicing. Practicing the consultations, the cakes, the designs, the baking. As I sit and wait for my consult this morning, I'm no longer shaky with nerves. The adrenaline saved for a new task.

house of cake, day 5?

Well, clearly, this post will have no pictures of cakes or baking tips. My apologies. My intent was to write once a week about the fun times I am having while we set up shop.
And fun times indeed! (as sarcasm doesn't translate well thru reading, I want to note that was sarcasm).

I'd like to dedicate this post to our building inspector, or whoever it really is that prints off a building permit. One of which I still do not have, so the bakery sits. Cold. Alone. Wishing it was full of love and vanilla and happy little cupcakes. And I would also like to point out, for the record, that that little ms. above did not obtain a valid building permit for that fort.
(Just sayin, not reporting)
....hey, she's four. Let the kid build a fort.

I'd like to point out, as well, the importance of fort decor. While it's critical to ensure all snow used is only white (not sure how many times I've said those words in the past week), the whiteness certainly lacks that je ne sais quois.
So we've embellished.
Prettiest fort on the block.
Well, the only one, but with this lovely weather our street has many passer by's, and I was delighted that each one commented on our fort. Very Wolseley of them :)

So, off I go, to help with the triple sink delivery. Keeping on doing all the background stuff. Lots of paperwork, incorporating (!), licenses and purchasing. That part is fun. Hit up some antique stores and flea markets last week. My shop is in a building that's over 100 years old, so a lot of care and thought is going into the decorating. But that's a whole other post....off to the sink!

my first wedding of 2010

This past weekend was wedding filled. Both Winnipeg's biggest wedding show, the Wonderful Wedding Show and a lovely wedding cake had my time all booked up wedding style. Which is a nice change this time of year. Coming off Christmas and all of that richness and now planning for Valentines, with more chocolate richness, the wedding chat is often about fresh flowers, summer days and outside parties.
This wedding cake was lovely, we merged two of Mrs. Stewarts classic cakes to create our own version. Two tiers of vanilla bean cake with lemon curd and Swiss meringue butter cream, and the bottom cake was rich dark chocolate cake with cocoa swiss meringue. Then we topped each cake with blackberries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries. A refreshing burst of berry goodness mid-January.

As I am finding with a lot of wedding cakes, fondant seems to have peeked and is on its way out, and it seems to be trending back to soft-stick-your-finger-in-it icing. The kind you ache to eat, and even as grown ups, have a hard time not shoving our finger in the icing and swiping some. I'm excited to work on fantastic icings to meet this need, but fear for my already expanding waistline.
If you have not yet tried the swiss meringue.....oh dear god....you may not want to even start down that road...

cake delirium is setting in...

"hey barb... is that supposed to be dancing?"

more cake fun...

I've been challenged lately by a couple regular clients, and I think it may have become a game for them... "see how outrageous of a cake we can get her to make."
Did this one up for a New Year's birthday.
I sheepishly have a confession though, there is a little canister of film to the right of the camera, an icing one.
However, the camera is a digital....

Hmph. I have nothing to say.

On a lighter note, I wanted to give a big shout out to the wonderful staff, (especially Ms. Chapman herself), at Madeline's Weddings.
It's been a real pleasure to be their preferred cake vendor and have them to thank for putting me in touch with so many of you fabulous brides and grooms.

You can read all about me on their blog today, I'm their guest blogger!
You can read all about them here, at their site.
Thank-you!

you can't eat roses....

In a rare and unexpected turn of events, I have actually beat a time line. I had hoped, skeptically of course, to have some Valentine's Day treats made, tested and photographed by January 31st.

And it's only the 14th!
What the bleep!
Go me!
(and no, I will not disclose what got pushed aside in order to fart around making imperial cookies...)

Regardless, aren't they pretty? And oh so tasty. My favorite is waiting a couple of days to eat them (oh so hard, I have to literally hide them). Sure, cookies are great fresh from the oven, but when it comes to imperials, a couple days is worth their weight in gold. The glazed icing seeps into the top cookie, making it soft and rich, the jam dries slightly to the touch, giving it that thick gooey texture. Don't even get me started about the flavours! This is just the beginning...
The reds, classic favorite, strawberry. Can never go wrong with the strawberry. The yellow ones are peach. Pretty tasty too, but next time I'll try apricot. Let hubby decide the first run of yellows and while the peach is good, I think the apricot will be a stronger flavour. We'll keep you posted :)
And the piece de resistance? The deep purple ones.
Saskatoon's.
That's right, a Manitoba classic meets a classic cookie. So good.

So, should you like, these lovely classics are for sale.
They are $20 per dozen, ordered by the dozen only please :)
please indicate flavour choices-strawberry, raspberry, apricot, peach, blueberry, saskatoon
(around 3 or 4 flavours per dozen makes a good mix)

And in true Manitoba spirit, who doesn't like a deal? Order by February 1st and I'll have them packaged up all pretty and delivered on February 12th to the place of your choice! (Winnipeg city limits please)

variation on a theme

For my 300th post (holy crow! 300?!) I wanted to share one of my favorite "cake in action" photos. You usually see my cakes, all pretty and set up, staged, well lit etc.
But my favorite is when a happy customer sends me a picture of their beloved cake at their party.
Especially rock stars :)
This is Kevin, the drummer of Star Syndicate. That's awesome.
Happy Birthday Kevin!




My drum cake from a couple posts back struck a chord of inspiration for my web building babe, Kevin's lovely and talented wife. You can see all of her fabulous work here. Isn't she talented? Watch for mine coming up soon...

valentine oh valentine...

In amidst all of the meetings and plannings I've been trying to think of something clever for Valentines Day this year. These berries are looking mighty good...

ahh...piece of cake...

I'd like to start one of the first blog posts of 2010 with a candid talk about business
(I'll throw some photos for all of you who don't, can't or decide not to read what I write.)
(pout)
(no offense taken really, some blogs I just peruse the pics too ;)

These are some of the latest cakes, my photo editing/playing skills are getting better!

So 2009 blew the pants off of this little bakery. And if you read along, you know we are planning on opening up shop. Man alive, can I tell you the truth? I am not a business person.
Baker?
Yes.
Creator of vintage 1980's cartoon characters in fondant and then putting them on cupcakes?
Yes.
Knowing that you need a permit to put up a sign?
Did not know.
Knowing if your best bet is to get a toner based printer or a laser jet one?
Also do not know.
This "did not know" list is endless by the way. Everyday I learn more. And by "learn" I mean am exposed to a whole world of things I didn't even know existed in the first place.

It's all good though. I'm excited to learn. Learning can be fun.
I just hope for a not too steep learning curve and for patient co-workers.
The co-worker part is not even an issue though, taken from the king of cake decorating (in my books anyway) as Duff says...
"I hired the most talented people I know....my friends"
One thing I can sleep comfortably knowing is that the people I am investing in and am hiring care. The whole decision to grow, to keep moving and basically to expand, meant that I'd have to hire help.
How can I convey to others the importance of this place? It's mine. My creation. My reputation. My time and energy spent for the last couple of years of my life. I need this to take me into retirement (not this exact job, but by creating my own work, I have my own destiny in my hands....) I would love to pass it along to whoever wants it in thirty years and sleep well at night knowing this foundation I'm building today is strong.

And like I had said, I'm investing in people who can appreciate that. I can sleep soundly as we lay that foundation. One less task or thing to worry and think about.
Which right now; is exactly what I need :D

jeff's pics, best of 2009

Sigh.
Some of my best work isn't my work at all.
It's my boys.
Talented, no? He's got some skills. I've tried to convince him, but he's pretty set on being a teacher. We'll teach the world how to make cake, one classroom at a time.

pam's pics, best of '09

Tied up in string, just for you, here are my favorite things.
Cakes that is.
My personal fav's of 2009. A very busy year for me.

Projected some sales... quadrupled them.
Anticipated some growth...blew that away.
Had some day dreams...signed a lease.
understated.
my word of the year.

Thank-you everyone, the most heartfelt thank-you.
Your love, support and constant encouragement has made this the little bakery that could. I have big plans for 2010 and can't wait to share them all with you.

Thanks for being part of the journey :)

birthdays birthdays

Here's a take on the golf ball wedding cake I did this past summer. I anticipate a year full of golf for me, here's hoping!

this is actually a self portrait

Ahhh...new year resolution time. That time when we, yet again, think we will change the way we live simply based on the calendar. So this past year I decided, for 2009 to make resolutions more often than at the beginning of the year. I made a couple throughout the year and have been somewhat successful in keeping them going.

I bike more, and look forward to biking even more.
I purchase consciously, and am constantly trying to improve on that.
And lastly, I have been trying to keep the mantra of a dear friend Helga, as she so eloquently has posted on her face book page...
be kind.
So simply, so understated.
So important.
Life is short, the world is small; we should be nicer to each other.