Sweet Escapes by Jenn

Archive for November, 2011

Hello Princess!

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

My first “go” at a fondant tiara was super successful! I’m extremely happy with the way it turned out and from start to finish, it took 30 minutes! My brother ordered this for his boss’ farewell party on Friday. Everyone calls her “princess” because she gets what she wants at work (so he tells me). So it’s quite fitting that it’s a PRINCESS cake. The best part about this tiara was painting it in rainbow sparkles! Y’all know how much I love, love LOVEEEEE sparkles Show you the pictures later!

Posted in Girly Girl, funny+whimsical | No Comments »

Emile + I

Wednesday, November 30th, 2011

Disney’s RATATOUILLE is my all-time favourite movie and that should come as no surprise. One quote that the French chef keeps repeating in the movie is, “ANYONE CAN COOK” and I truly believe that. Just as anyone can cook, anyone can bake as well. (but that doesn’t mean everyone SHOULD cook/bake )

One of my favourite scenes is this one…

… because Remy reminds me of myself. I love tasting food bit by bit, letting my tastebuds enjoy every new flavour and texture. And I believe when certain foods are paired together like errr… strawberries and swiss cheese (?), fireworks happen.

This is my brother, Emile…

I’m not sure how my brother’s palette work but it is certainly not as sensitive and discerning as mine. I always joke that he’s like Emile – his fireworks are broken! I saw a bean bag chair with Emile’s face on it at the Disney Store a long time ago and was going to get it for him but I realized it was just a big furry brown blob with ears and a smiley face… so I didn’t

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Go Colts!

Monday, November 28th, 2011

Before Wednesday, I had no idea who the Indianapolis Colts were, if they played
football/rugby/basketball, what colour their jerseys were or where Indianapolis was! I’m not a sports person and if I did know anything about sports, it’d be hockey because I attended 3 Leafs games @ the ACC (private box!!) and even so, I wasn’t fully paying attention to the game but counting the number of people who were wearing blue/white. But now I can proudly say that I know that the Colts are a football team and that their team colours are blue and white. As where Indianapolis is? That’s what Google’s for!

It took me 45 minutes just to cut the letters out!

I’ve come to realize that the cakes I experience the most frustration with (like *ahem* this one *ahem*) are the ones I love the most. Maybe because I’ve spent so many hours sketching, designing, Googling, ~~crying over~~ and planning how to sculpt it, covering it in fondant and generally, how to perfect it. Those hours were definitely not spent in vain! (I hope)

The simplest cakes are the most difficult to make because if you make a mistake, you can’t hide it. Remember my cherry blossom wedding cake? That was another difficult one. It didn’t help that the inn where the reception was held was 100 years old, had a winding staircase with NO elevator and was so dark and dusty that I could’ve sworn I heard my cake sneeze. So circumstantial factors aside, that cake was difficult to make because it was so simple. It seems that all my “difficult” cakes are blue and white. WHY is that, universe? WHY??

The most difficult part of this cake was definitely sculpting it! I kept imagining Stewie Griffin’s face with his furrowed brows, staring at me. At one point, there was red velvet cake EVERRRYWHERE. I mean, everywhere. And it wasn’t just cake—it was super moist cake with cream cheese frosting in it! One sticky mess. I carved a bit off, stepped back and tried to imagine the finish product in my head. At some points, I even squinted my already-tiny Asian eyes in hopes that by doing so, it will look more football shape-esque. My inside voice kept saying, “THAT is not a football. Do you even KNOW what a football looks like?”

All in all, it was a fun cake to do and I’m so excited to add this to my growing cake portfolio. Go Colts!

Posted in Birthdays, Boys will be Boys, Cakes | 1 Comment »

Looking Back

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

Photos are amazing memory keepsakes. I love going through an old album and discovering things I never knew existed like the comical expression of someone in the background. While 2011 is coming to an end and I’m looking at a BRAND new year, almost like peering into a world of creative cake designs, unique opportunities and new friendships with clients, I feel the need to look back and see how far I’ve come. Just a heads up… BIG changes are going to be happening at Sweet Escapes. I’m working with a team of amazingly creative individuals to execute these changes and you will see them soon!

When I lived downtown, I hired a photographer to do a bunch of professional shots for me and I realized I never posted them here. I love how they turned out because it marked the beginning of my journey of pursuing my passion. On July 26th, 2009 in my condo overlooking the downtown core, magic happened.

Life was so simple back then. Go to work at 9am, come home at 7pm. Occasionally bake something if I had any energy left. Sleep. Repeat the next day.

Life is so incredibly busy now… but I wouldn’t trade it for ANYTHING in the world. Pursuing your passion in life is the greatest feeling of all. Thanks for joining me on this journey!

Posted in Best Things in Life | No Comments »

Angry Birds

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

This is a cupcake cake – a cake made from individual cupcakes and of course, what’s a cake without birds and goofy pigs on it? Exactly I made this the day I went to Hong Kong at 3 in the morning! I snapped a quick shot of it with super bad lighting (grrr!!) hence this not-so-lovely pic. But the characters are still cute! (I’m so positive).

Posted in Birthdays, Cupcakes | No Comments »

Cake Slice

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Rarely do I get to see the inside of my cakes. This was the birthday girl’s slice (from the piano cake) from last Thursday. Dark chocolate cake with strawberry buttercream. Italian dinner? Candlelight? Cake?

I love them all.

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When Vanilla Bean Met Scone

Monday, November 21st, 2011

My friend Jon and I have a “mild” obsession with all things Starbucks. We’d call each other up and “place” our order on the weekends if we were seeing each other later that day because more likely than not, one of us would cave and get themselves a tall vanilla half sweet lactaid latte (me) or venti vanilla rooibus tea with two pumps sugar-free vanilla syrup, extra milk and two sweeteners (him).

A few weeks ago, he asked me to get three vanilla bean scones with his “usual”. I had to visit a few locations just to find those dang scones and when I finally found them at a nearby Starbucks, I thought, “I COULD MAKE THESE!” Remember that jar of vanilla bean paste I brought back from Hong Kong which is 1/2 done already? I could use the scones as an excuse to use the paste.. (like I need one anyway!)

Excess vanilla glaze dripped off the scones and formed cute little puddles

I made these the same day we went to dinner @ La Vecchia–they literally came out of the oven 5 minutes before I had to leave. I threw them all in a white bakery box lined with wax paper and poured the vanilla bean glaze like a crazy woman before rushing out. The smell was intoxicating. It was the sweetest, most fragrant aroma and during the 45 minute car ride there, the scones were beckoning me, calling out to me to open the box and take a whiff. Talk about temptation, huh?

When we got to the restaurant, it was PACKED. Our whole party had arrived and we were all HUNGRY. I gave the box to Jon and told him to smell it first because to me, not only should food taste good (#1), it should also look good (#2) and smell amazzzzing. Jon popped one in his mouth and passed the box along to each person at the table. He LOVED it (mission accomplished) and described it as just the right amount of sweetness, airy and buttery all at the same time.

The FUNNIEST part was when my brother ate one, his eyes grew wide and said, “WHERE DID YOU BUY THIS FROM?”… I guess since it as packed in a white bakery box, he thought I had picked it up en route to the restaurant. I’m like, “Sweet Escapes?”… he practically spit the scone out in disbelief. He never knew I made scones and thought I was a one-dimensional cupcake company. Um, not even.

You have to understand that my brother NEVER compliments me–EVER! I made cinnabons once and he said they were “DISGUSTING” and asked if he could have some more so that no one else would have to go through the pain of eating it. NICE TRY. So for him to compliment my scones, it was actually a lot bigger than what it seems!

Posted in fresh from the oven | No Comments »

Sing it To Me!

Friday, November 18th, 2011

I had a GREAT night last night (well, I should say tonight cause it’s 2:13am and I’m waiting for my cake to harden). It was a good friend of mine’s birthday and 8 of us went to La Vecchia (Yonge/Eglinton) to celebrate with Italian food and CAKE!

My friend loves playing the piano so I thought, “Sweet! A piano cake!” My original idea was to carve the entire cake into a piano but around 4am last night, I decided it was too ambitious, I was too tired and who was going to eat all the cake that I carved out!? I went for simplicity and decided to do a keyboard around the cake, some roses on top and some music notes.

Instead of writing “Happy Birthday”, I put the actual musical score on it. You can’t really tell in this picture since it’s cut off but it’s there, I assure you. My piano cover is still open to prove that I was finding the notes

(I don’t think it’s been opened in the past 2 years! On another note, thank you mom and dad for paying for all those piano lessons, books/CDs, examinations and of course, for taking the time to drive me to and from the lessons and occasionally, beating me with a stick/bribing me when I didn’t practise. I’m sure I will pick it up again soon!

)

SO when we got to the restaurant, the server informed us that there was a $1.50 surcharge PER PERSON for “cake cutting fee”. WHattttt??! In all my years of working in the hospitality industry, I’ve never heard of that. You might as well tell me it’s BEAR TAX — something that will be added to my bill to keep the bears away. Gah. Not cool, guys.

I, being good Asian girl that my momma raised me as, suggested eating the cake outside (in the 0 degree weather) instead of paying the $1.50 (each). It’s not the amount I’m upset about but the principle… I’m here to prove a point! That idea was quickly dismissed for obvious reasons and we had delicious cake. Cake-cutting Fee: 1, Jenn: 0 (boo).

The cake was 6 gorgeous layers, alternating between dark chocolate cake and luscious strawberry buttercream. I can’t wait to get that picture from my friend – it’s very rare that I get to cut into my own cake.

Remind me to tell you about the petite vanilla scones, a one-eyed and one-eared panda cupcake and the shanks… it was quite hilarious

Happy Friday!

Posted in Cakes, Girly Girl | No Comments »

Speaking of Cute…

Wednesday, November 16th, 2011

Whenever I made Angry Birds characters, they were either for cakes or standard size cupcakes. I received an order for the same toppers on MINI cupcakes so I had to make them even smaller and this idea popped in my head. I love how you can tell how a person’s mind/vision looks like by the results they produce. This is what’s in my head The smallest bird is half the size of a dime!

I’m working on packaging, recipe-tweaking, promoting and everything in between! But no matter how busy my life gets, I always make time for the important things like jumping and rolling around in fallen leaves with this guy…

… and capturing sweet moments like these.

Posted in Best Things in Life | No Comments »

It’s a Sesame Street Party…

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

… and you’re all invited

It was Maddox’s first birthday party on Sunday and he got a Sesame Street party cake with matching cookie favours. What a lucky boy It was super fun to sculpt all the characters (a little frustrating at some points because the fondant was really soft) and even though I tried to make them look less emo-ish and less scary, it didn’t always turn out like that (*ahem* Big Bird… *ahem* Ernie… )

My favourite one to sculpt was definitely Oscar… he’s not grouchy at all! No matter how I made him look, he always turned out cute… I guess that’s a good thing in my case? No angry cakes here, people!

The one that took the longest was Ernie’s stripes. Eek! WHY, creators of Sesame Street? WHY couldn’t he just wear a solid colour sweater? Must you make my life so difficult? Ernie was quite upset because it took so long for me to “clothe” him that he became semi cross-eyed and was trying to hypnotize his friends when I turned my back. Look at his eyes!! I mean, don’t. It’s a trap

(I had all these “thoughts” while putting them together.. I should’ve wrote them down–they were hilarious! My “inside voice” is so funny at 3 in the morning).

There were also matching cookie favours and you know how much I love anything that matches the cake… be it colours, cupcakes, cookies–anything! So I was super excited for these vanilla sugar cookies, individually packed, individually cute.

My favourite of the cookie bunch is Ernie. Ironically, he was the one that gave me the most trouble. If you are familiar with SS characters, Ernie’s face isn’t round but more of a football shape (like Stewie Griffin!). I was hesitant about making it round because it wasn’t true to his real-life character (okay, I’m using the term “real life” loosely here). But if I had made his head football shape, then it wouldn’t match the other characters. So which route did I take? The slightly drugged-up, clownish look with dilated pupils. I guess that’s what living on the ‘Street will do to you!

Somehow, despite his head being round and all, I love this silly/quirky look that he possesses.

I also designed custom tags for the cookie favours. I love how Maddox’s name is 6 letters and correspond with each colour of the rainbow. Call me a nerd but I LOVE THAT! I wanted to tie in the whole SS theme together (cake + cookies) so I matched Maddox’s rainbow bubble theme on the tags to the cake. Maddox’s mom e-mailed me and said she loved the personal touch.

Another satisfied client makes me happy

When I’m stressed out with cake orders and hear the birds chirping cause it’s MORNING ALREADY(???), I just go back to my in-box, read all your sweet e-mails and my heart is filled again.

Speaking of “MATCHING”… I’m making a sparkly blue snowflake wedding cake in a few weeks and I’m looking for a dress to match. Nerd alerttt!

Tags: cookie favours, first birthdays, sesame street
Posted in Birthdays, Boys will be Boys, Cakes | No Comments »