Second Birthday Cake

I knew for my son's 2nd birthday I wanted to use a farm animal theme.  Drawing inspiration from a wide variety of similar farm themed cakes I found online, this is the cake I finally came up with.  He loved it and had a wonderful time making the animal noises when he saw the cake.  We let him play with the animals after the cake was cut and there wasn't much left of them after he pulled off all their heads and legs!

Looking Good Birthday

A yellow butter cake with chocolate mousse filling for a birthday girl who needs to spoil herself.

A Leopard and Pink Birthday

This girly red velvet cake was decorated for a leopard and pink joint birthday party.  The shoe, clutch purse and broach are all hand made from sugar paste.  The cake is covered in buttercream with a fondant ribbon hand painted with leopard spots.

Classic Wedding White

This classic white wedding cake is covered in all buttercream.  Lemon cake with lemon curd on the bottom layer and vanilla bean cake with vanilla bean buttercream on the bottom layer.  The cake looks a little crooked because the heirloom cake plate the bride wanted to use had a bit of a tilt to it.

Third Anniversary

A chocolate cake with peanut butter cup filling that my sister asked me to make for her third anniversary.

Family Sailing Weekend

A sailing themed cake for a family weekend get together by boat.  The top layer is lemon sour cream cake with lemon curd and the bottom layer is vanilla cake with blueberry mousse.

Miss U Already

A chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling for a small going away party.

Circus Second Birthday

A circus themed birthday cake for my littlest cousin's birthday cake.  Banana cake with chocolate ganache filling covered in swiss meringue buttercream with fondant accents.

Ivory and White Wedding

This wedding cake was for a family friend.  It is a lemon sour cream cake with lemon curd filling covered in marzipan and ivory fondant with hand-piped lace details.  It has been a very hot and humid weekend here and I had a few heart-pounding moments getting the cake to the venue.  I was relieved to hear the next morning that the cake survived the night.

Muppet Cupcakes

My brother never really grew up and he's been bugging his fiance about having muppet cupcakes at their wedding next summer. I made the cupcakes for them as an engagement present. We'll see if he finds something else to 'inspire' him for their wedding treats now. These were originally made by Cupcake Occasions in the UK, but I put my own twist on some of the characters.

Anne's Wedding Cake

My Cousin Anne asked me to make the cake for her wedding last weekend.  She was having a nautical themed wedding and wanted the blue and white ribbon around the base of each tier with a compass rose and their initials on the top.  The cake is a red velvet cake with a filling similar to whipped cream.  The cake is frosted and decorated all in Swiss Meringue Buttercream.  The compass rose is free-hand pipped on top.

Anne's Bridal Shower

My sisters and I threw a 'cocktails and desserts' bridal shower for our cousin Anne.  I tried my best not to micro-manage everything (I'm sure my sisters would tell you I failed miserably).  We used the floral teacups my grandmother has so many of as our inspiration and came up with a pink and green floral theme.  It was a lovely evening.

 The table.

Strawberry Mousse in cookie cups with a hidden white chocolate centre.

I love making French macarons - they're finicky but so pretty and yummy - well worth the effort.

 Cylindrical vases each held different varieties of pink flowers and my little sister made some scrumptious chocolate dipped strawberries, a specialty of hers.

White chocolate brownies had a pretty pink floral design piped on them.

Lemon mousse was served in teacups with a small chocolate heart garnish and bowls of fresh raspberries and blueberries to put on top.

Goldfish Babypool Party

I stumbled across a very cute idea for a little kids party - a blue and orange goldfish cracker theme!   Since we've been wanting to get to know a few more families with toddlers our son's age, I thought it would be a great fit.  Throw in a blue inflatable babypool to keep the tots entertained on a hot summer day and we had the makings of a fun afternoon.    

 The blue-and-orange buffet had blue streamers resembling waves in water as a background, a big fishbowl of blue gelatin with orange candy fish 'swimming' in it, a goldfish 'pinata', vases with four varieties of goldfish crackers, and water bottles of 'ocean water' (blue water and baby oil) for the babies to take home with them.

Goldfish cookies 

Blue and Orange chocolate dipped pretzel sticks. 

Goldfish cake pops

Blood Orange soda for the grown-ups and goldfish crackers for the toddlers.

The babies in (around?) the pool.

Bake Sale for Childhood Cancer Research

I've been making some tasty and creative bake sale treats for a friend who is raising money for childhood cancer research in honour of her 8-year old son.  Below are a few of the tempting treats I hope will help her reach her goal faster.

Watermelon slice rice krispy treats.

White Chocolate Popcorn with Smarties 

Melt-in-your-Mouth Toffee Shortbreads

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes - chocolate cupcake with a mini peanut butter cup baked in the middle topped with peanut butter buttercream and another mini peanut butter cup.

 Vanilla Cupcake with Salted Caramel Buttercream and a gold ribbon in support of Childhood Cancer

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake - a chocolate cupcake with a surprise chocolate chip cookie dough center and cookie dough frosting topped with mini chocolate chips and a mini chocolate chip cookie

Strawberry Cupcake with Strawberry Buttercream

Lili's Having a Little Lamb

My sister is expecting a baby in September and I was so excited to FINALLY host a themed baby shower!  I based it all around a "Little Lamb" theme with off whites, beiges and browns and a touch of lime green to set everything off.  Unfortunately, the day of the shower I had a terrible sore throat and laryngitis so was feeling miserable and didn't get to enjoy the party at all.  It also meant that I was scrambling to take pictures at the last minute so I didn't capture all the details as well as I would have liked.  The essentials are captured below.  I hope you enjoy!

The invitation was sent out wrapped in yarn with a card requesting guests to bring books in lieu of cards.  

The mantle was decorated with yarn-wrapped letters spelling out BABY, balls of yarn, a basket of raw wool and a stuffed sheep of my son's.

With the temperature hovering around 30 celsius, the drinks were white sangria (hugely popular!), limeade and iced tea all served in pitchers wrapped in cotton with a large safety pin, to resemble a cloth diaper.  

Some cute bottles of water with labels saying "Lili's having a little lamb" and the sheep from the invitation. 

 Supper was chicken pesto sandwiches, veggie and hummus wraps and orzo salad.  The desserts were coconut cupcakes (to resemble sheep, of course!), lime green almond macaroons, coffee meringue cookies and shortbreads.

Cutlery bundles tied with green polka dot ribbon.

I found the idea for these sheep cookies online and couldn't resist passing up a nap to finish them for the party.  I'm glad I did because everyone loved them as much as I did.

Baby clothes were hung on yarn clothes-lines with old fashioned clothes pins.

Flowers and Strawberries

This was a Canada Day birthday cake.  Inside it was layers three layers with red velvet cake on the top and bottom and a white butter cake for the middle layer ... reminiscent of the Canadian Flag, of course. But really, it was a birthday cake for my grandmother so it is decorated with fondant flowers and strawberries on a swiss meringue buttercream background.  I didn't have time to take a good picture before the party, so this was taken just before lighting and blowing out the candles.

Ruffles and Ribbon Roses

A birthday cake with teal buttercream ruffles and burgundy ribbon roses.

Valentine's Day Cake

My husband's office was having a Valentine's Day party so I created this chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling for them to enjoy.  I was a little short on time so kept the decorations simple on this cake.

Valentine's Brunch

I hosted a Valentine's Day Brunch for a few friends.  We ate Belgian waffles and deep-dish quiche until we were stuffed then gabbed away the early part of the afternoon.  Below are some pictures of the spread I set for them.