I had an amazing weekend of orders but I’m so relieved it’s Monday. Today’s agenda is filled with CHRISTMAS stuff. Can you believe it’s already been a year? Crazy!
I got to do a special wedding cake yesterday for a high school friend’s older sister. I love what I do because it reconnects me with people from my past (this being one of the many examples). She wanted a red-and-white themed polka dot cake with anemone flowers and a monkey bride and a penguin groom topper. I have a new-found appreciation for SIMPLE cakes because less is definitely more! I am also loving the double ribbon border around the cake and the board. Something about red ribbon makes my heart sing.
I’m probably going to be beaten up for saying that, or at least get a lot of dirty looks but I will say it again and again… I love Mondays! All my orders are on Thursday-Sunday so Monday is MY “Friday”. On Sunday night while everyone’s moaning and groaning about having to go back to work on Monday, I have a big smile on my face asking, “Is it Monday yet? Is it Monday yet?”. I’m so relaxed today!
I know my life is going to get busier as my businesses grow so force-feeding myself a day off is so important. Even though all I thought about today was work and mentally had a panic attack about how much work I have to do before Ottawa… I got to do it in my PJs in my “Monday office” (bed) while watching movies and missed TV shows. I guess it all balances out at the end!
I got to make another Noah’s Ark cake this weekend. Remember the first one I made for my cutesy Aiden’s 2nd birthday? With all the *pow pow* (aka bright) colours? I decided to go another route this time around since my friend gave me complete executive decision-making powers over this cake, I decided to go with a PASTEL PALETTE. I made a few pastel cakes this year including Sabine’s First Communion Cake and Heffy-the-Elephant’s cake and even though I LOVED how they turned out, something didn’t look right. I love bright colours so going the pastel route was out of my comfort zone.
Until… TA-DA!!!
The ark floated in
This would be perfect for a TWINS’ birthday (but it wasn’t).
And I love my animals too!
This cake was ordered by a dear friend who wanted to get a cake for her husband and daughter’s joint birthday. I was wondering why, of all themes she wanted to get one with a BOAT and ANIMALS (although they’re uber cute!) and my question was answered today when she posted a picture and the following on my FB wall:
this theme has very special meaning for the birthday boy and birthday girl, as one has approached his middle adulthood and the other just entered young adulthood, how important it is to know that Jesus has prepared such amazing salvation, so that we are able to walk with Him day or night, young or old, and most of all, when all fail, His love never fail !!
Every cake has a story… and I love it when people invite me to be a part of their special moments!
Hi everyone! I hope you all had a restful long (too short?) weekend and got to spend lots of time with your loved ones! I went away on a retreat this weekend and I feel nice and rested. Lots of orders this week to do and lots of exciting things to come!
Here’s a baby shower cake I did a few weeks ago. People thought the “bow” looked like pasta. Yummy, sparkly, yellow pasta!
I never knew I could experience such a strong emotional attachment to a cake until this weekend when I couldn’t bear to part with my newest creation. I wanted to keep it for myself… not to eat, but to put on display and admire and perhaps take shameless, off-centred, self-portraits with it and use it as my Facebook profile picture. I was in love with this cake from start to finish and how fitting that the recipient was also named “Jennifer”. It was meant to be! *winK!*
When I received a request to do a Breakfast at Tiffany’s-themed cake, I was ecstatic! I’m not a fan of square/angular cakes because of its sharp edges and the pressure to get them exactly at 90-degrees but me being me, I never like to turn down a challenge. Complex techniques stretch and build my skills as a cake artist and if you’re not moving forward, you’re just staying still (or possibly slipping back). In order to grow in your profession, you have to continually take risks and do something different. You can’t expect to do the same thing every day and get different results. So instead of turning away or being intimidated by detailed cakes, I stare at it and say, “BRING ITTTT!” I’ve always been an admirer of Tiffany’s jewelry, from AFAR. How far? FAR… FAR… farrrr. I browse their website once in a while and I even went to their store at the Peninsula Hotel (Hong Kong), but that’s as connected as I am to this brand (until I find my rich husband, of course!).
I love everything about this cake from the pearly white bow to the edible image of Ms Hepburn herself. I love the softness of the pink and ivory roses preserving the delicateness of the cake and how the signature Tiffany Blue is just right. I enjoyed every minute that this cake and I spent together… all 8 hours!
During that time, I was watching one of my favourite movies, Sweet Home Alabama and lookie! They have a scene dedicated to Tiffany’s! (start from 0.33 minutes)
Is it every girl’s dream to receive a Tiffany’s engagement ring? I thought about this when I was making this cake. I’ve never really been big on jewelry so if my boyfriend proposed with a 25c candy ring pop from one of those vending machines, I’d be fine with it. However, I can foresee problems in the future (many many problems) and a lot of, “Remember when you proposed with that ring pop that I forgot in my purse and it attracted ants?”… ha ha!
Also, I would like to THANK everyone for entering Sweet Escapes’ Valentine’s Day Cupcake contest on Facebook. The question was, “What is your perfect date?” and I love all your responses! I guess it’s fair that I answer that question as well, huh?
I don’t have a picture of a “PERFECT DATE” in mind but I would like my ideal partner to be versatile, spontaneous and grounded. We can do anything and everything together from working out to traveling together, from going ice skating to dining out. He has to be a true man of God and have a BIG loving heart to match his larger-than-life spirit.
Life to me is a sum of the little moments we share together. Those moments that we get so lost in each other that the world fades away and all we want to do is STAY there. I love trying new things so doing something that is foreign to both of us would be my perfect date. Life is about sharing adventures together and what better company to share that with than your potential life partner?
Special occasions are GREAT and I’m so thankful that people invite me to be a part of their special day that they will remember forever. Like Vara’s birthday celebration. Remember the DS cake I made a while back? She ordered it for her son’s birthday. And when I was on vacation, she celebrated her own birthday and had requested cookie favours in custom packaging. I’m so thankful that my mom baked the cookies for me because there was no way I was going to pass this occasion up!
Vara wanted her theme colours to be pink and purple and what better combination than sassy hot pink and elegant plum purple? They were perfect colours for her big 4-O. She also wanted custom tags to thank her guests so I came up with this design with the floaty hearts. Something about 3 hearts together makes me very happy! It doesn’t hurt that it’s pink either
The cookies she wanted were cranberry citrus shortbread and espresso chocolate delights. She e-mailed me afterwards and said that although these were take-home favours, her guests couldn’t wait and devoured them at her house. How funny! But cute little cookies in cute little boxes – who could resist?!
The weather’s been up and down lately and LUCKILY for us, this week is an up! In 10 days, I will be basking in 30 degree-weather for 14 whole days. SO. EXCITED! But before then, I have 15 dozen cupcakes (one dozen being Angry Birds) and 3 VERY DETAILED celebration cakes (all birthdays) to make. PLUS, the biggest excitement of all? I’m making a wedding cake for a photo shoot next week that may be published in two wedding magazines! *gleEEE!!!* When I started making people fat cakes full-time in January 2010, I didn’t think my company would grow this big, this quickly. I’m very, very thankful for every order and for people like YOU who read my blog. Thank ya!!
This weekend, I had the pleasure of making cupcakes and cookie favours for a dear friend of mine. She’s getting married in December and her snowflake-themed bridal shower was on Sunday. I had so much fun making snowflake toppers. I bought navy disco dust a while ago and hated how it looked on cakes. With pixie or rainbow dust, I only need to use a little to get a “WOW” factor. But since navy is so dark, I can’t use just a little… I have to use A LOT! Luckily for these snowflakes, I got carried away. It was quite therapeutic sitting with my paintbrush dusting the snowflakes and giving them life
I also made cookie favours. I had designed the tags with my favourite swirly font with the date and a few snowflakes. Lalalooveee the simplicity of the packaging! I’ve been using clear boxes since forever and I love how it showcases the contents while also giving the favour an elegant touch. It can be dressed up or dressed down depending on how much the client wants to spend on “extras”. To me, a coloured ribbon and a tag is just right Since the packaging is so simple, the costs are minimized and the client is happy! And since they’re happy, that makes ME happy so I take photos of the product, post it here and you get to read it when your insomnia strikes. EVERYONE WINS!
The maid of honour and I kept the cookies and cupcakes as a surprise from the bride and when I delivered it, she loved it! The look of gratitude and happiness on her face made everything from [folding the boxes, designing/printing/cutting the tags, staying up alllllll night to bake+package the cookies, burning two batches of cupcakes + having to redo them, making icing and realize I didn't have enough cream cheese, going to the store at midnight to buy it, cleaning up the messy kitchen, crying after a few snowflakes broke] …
The long weekend is in sight and I’m excited to host a Red & White BBQ. I know, so original I’ve never hosted a “themed” party before so this should be interesting. Today is TUESDAY and we already bought 80% of all the food we’re going to cook. The last thing I want to do is hit the stores last-minute. I absolutely HATE long line-ups and tonight was pretty bad as well. Maybe people are catching on and shopping early as well… darn it! Stole my idea!
We bought all the meats/grill foods and all the red and white foods are up to ME! They will be purchased over the weekend (our party’s on Sunday). I haven’t thought of what to do for dessert yet but here are some easy and yummy(looking) treats that I found. Click the titles for the link to the original website. Enjoy
Banana Split Cheesecake Bars
(a great way to use up ripe bananas as well! Better in your tummies than sitting on the counter attracting fruit flies! )
via Kraft Canada
Hi hi! How’s everybody’s day so far? I love Monday/Tuesdays… they’re my quiet days. They’re the days I get to catch up on all my favourite blogs, go on Facebook, check out the latest tweets… heck, I do that every day! But on Mondays and Tuesdays, I do them guilt-free!
I made this baby girl cake this past weekend… it was the last of my crazy (endless) weekend orders and I’m glad it turned out the way it did. Can you believe I’ve never made a chocolate brown fondant cake before? I’ve always been into super bright colours… I guess there’s a first for everything!
I splished and splashed some yellow pieces to give the cake some depth. The yellow roses were easy to make and gives the entire cake an understated “classy” feel.
My favourite element to make was the quilt.
I’m sooo glad it looked like a pacifier!
Spilled milk!
I really love the idea of a designer cake like this one and tons of matching cupcakes around it. The theme carries through each cake/cupcake AND it allows me to use up any extra sugar pieces I made for the cake but didn’t need. Oops… did I say that out loud?
Topper Tuesdays and Whimsy Wednesdays are combined this week so I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!
Have a super sweet day!
Hi everyone! I’ve been taking a mini break from blogging this week to recover from the busyness of the holiday season. But I couldn’t resist doing this last minute order for a university friend. It’s a snare drum! It was fun working with SILVER. I don’t think I’ve ever done it before. My hands are SILVER and shiny! I feel like the tin man… but unlike him, I have a heart (the last time I checked!)…
It’s FINALLY here! The vision I had in my head has been transformed into fondant and cake form YAY!
I like keeping my projects a secret until “the unveiling” but it’s extremely hard to do so when I’m SO excited about it! I actually posted about it a few entries back… and that was already great restraint on my part!
I was dying to make an “under the sea” cake for quite some time now but didn’t have anyone to make it for. Luckily, a friend had referred me to one of her friends and she wanted this cake for her son’s “one month” celebration. I was so excited! Anyway, long story short, TA DA!
Lots of detail went into this cake because I want people to look at the cake, come back 5 minutes later and find something completely different. Well, not completely different. Not like they will find an African safari cake when they blink… but that’d be pretty cool too! The picture below is one of my favourite details with the turtle looking surprised at the gold coins spilling out of the treasure chest. And those yellow noodle-like things at the back? They look like french fries… yum!
After a month of secret-keeping, I can finally EXHALE!
Have a wonderful week, everyone!
