dedicated to Mr. Sheldon Cooper

I'm trying to make a book to help when it comes to ordering cakes at the shop. A nice little picture book; step by step questions, examples, photos. Have been wanting to do so for months. The problem is selecting pictures of cakes for the book, we've amassed quite a number of them, and sometimes I've even forgotten about them.

Not sure how I could forget this one.

Really.

I don't even know what it is. But I have seen it in the background of Big Bang Theory. So it's at least nerdy-cool.

I think.

happy movember!

doing our part to help save the boys we love!

grow a stash to help raise awareness, or buy a Guinness stout cupcake with Irish cream butter cream to show you REALLY care.

everyone we sell we will donate $1 to Prostate Cancer Canada

check out movember.com to see what you can do

(should growing a stash not be your cup of tea...)

how do YOU get to work?

Fancy motorcycle perhaps?

Monster trucks?

Personally, I favor my submarine.

My yellow submarine.

Where we all live :)

paging Captain Morgan...

Mmmmmm......

giant oversized can of coke....

Next up (should) be a matching bottle of rum.

No?

critter town

I don't have much to say and you may just be here for the pretty pictures, so I'll try not to ramble on...As I was sorting through my photos to see what cakes I want to blog about, I noticed a trend among the latest couple of batches. Four (and six) (and eight) legged creatures. Seems to be a theme lately. That along with the ever-so-talented Justin Beiber...
I'll save that for another day...

sporty sport sport

One of the things I miss during the summer months is organized sport. Summer is a little more impromptu volley ball games and tackle frisbee in the lake. So I think this fall I may join a team of something.

I think I'd like to play ball hockey again. I liked that.

Definitely not softball or baseball. Not a fan of that at all. Playing, watching, listening.
Not for me.

Hmph. More babeball...

Ah, football. I really like football. However, don't even ask about the CFL...sheesh Bombers, another season of fans scratching their heads saying what the hell...

Mmmm, back to hockey. Must be a sign...

Back to football. Now NFL, there's a franchise of sport I like. Such a smart franchise of sport. Huge.

And more hockey. Seems hockey will probably win. Thanks for your help!

all you need is cake

For those who don't know me on a personal level, I have a number of hats that I like to wear.
Proverbial hats, that is.
I'm a mom to two darling girls, wife and sister. I watch my nephews twice a week, giving my girls some playmate cousins, and allowing them to grow and learn together. As you all can tell, I'm also a baker. A hat you may not know though is my Camp Wasaga hat. I'm on the board of directors, as registrar and naturally, kitchen committee chair. Don't know about camp? Well, you should.
It's fantastic.

One of my favorite groups of people are our campers. Every walk of life, all stages of life. We get to take part in an experience that they treasure forever and their kids take with them as they grow. Can't ask for more rewarding really...
Anyway, this lovely drum kit cake was made for a camper's 40th.

203 days until it starts again, but who's counting ;)

good ole wasaga...

Those who know and loved the "mandatory mustache week" can appreciate the above image. For the rest of you, I offer my apologies...
Happy birthday Brandon!

I think I may dub November as the "surprise" month. I've made five cakes this month that are all part of surprise parties. How fun it is to be able to make a custom cake for someone, have all of their friends there and enjoy a party when not suspecting it at all...
(are you reading this hunny?)

This was a surprise 40th, from a lovely wife to her hubby. I had the honour of doing their wedding cake two years ago. She's kept in touch, watching my blog (hi!) and reading about all the other cakes I do, wanting to be part of it too.

Being a huge Dallas Cowboys fan, we replaced the "cowboys" on the field with his name. I frequently get feed back from customers, but not usually the husbands. Here's a little blurb from the thank-you he sent me this morning...

"I just thought I would drop you a line and thank you for your wonderful work on my birthday cake. It was perfect. My wife Maria said it was exactly how she en-visioned it when she ordered it from you. It tasted fantastic."

Aww, I love my job :)

oh deer me....

Along with being apprehensive about the topsy-turvy cake, I was also apprehensive about making a camo-style cake. As many of you know (because you forward the emails to yours truly) there are some pretty bad cakes out there. There was one circulating not too long ago about men who get to choose the wedding cake, and a number of camo-cakes were there.
If you don't believe me, check out this site.
It is unreal.
I started following it about a year ago. Very satisfying, as she blogs every day. Bad cakes, (and some are really bad) on a daily basis. Can't ask for more. It has, however, also instilled the fear of god in me, that one day, just one day, one of my cakes my end up there.

And it was with that fear that I attempted the camo cake.
And it's not on cakewrecks.
Phew.

When I am working with clients to come up with designs and ideas I like to ask contrasting questions. So you get the party cake recipient in your head and then choose your answers....sophisticated vs. fun, bold vs. dainty, loud vs. quiet....And then from this process I get an idea of the person getting the cake, while I also get design ideas for their cake.

The ideas that this cake was born from was "fun and funky without being childish". Often parties and cakes are too sweet or too goofy and childish. We wanted some strong and bold designs, and wanted to stay away from kid-like stuff. Went with a chocolate cake, vanilla butter cream, and then I finished the cake with a dark chocolate ganache. Yum! The rest of the decor is done in fondant.

I remember the thrill in finding out that my birthday cake was actually a "money cake". Ever had one? It was probably around the time of being 8, would have had enough sense (no pun intended) to not try to eat the coins. We'd tally up the plate to see who had the most. That change would burn heavy in my hoodie pocket as I awaited the next trip to the store at the lake. Dreams of cigarette gum and garbage pail candy.

Cheers to summer, it's still coming right?

your dad does not want blue butter cream roses...

In honour of my dear daddy's birthday tomorrow (Happy Birthday Dad!), I thought I would help all the dads in the world by offering up a better manly cake. I have nothing against blue butter cream roses, but seriously, what is it going to take to get some better designs out there for men? I suppose I shall take it upon myself to carry out this quest.

Let's start with argyle. Argyle isn't just for the Scots out there; oh no no, it's a great balance of math and design, carefully measured out and detailed. Not as easy as it looks, especially when done by knitting. Trust me on this one...no one is getting handmade kilt hose from me anytime soon....

Regardless, the argyle pattern is manly, bold, fun and judging from this picture; very tasty. Stylish and delicious; perfect on cake. This last gem of a photo is care of a lovely photographer by the name of Lana, of Artsy Fartsy Photography. To see more of her lovely work, you can click here.
(I provided the cake, but not the babe)