Sweet Escapes by Jenn

Archive for the ‘Tiered Cakes’ Category

My Second Fondant Cake (ever!)

Monday, February 4th, 2013

DISCLAIMER** please note that this cake was made 2.5 years ago and the quality and workmanship of the cake does not reflect my current skill set as a cake artist. For recent cake projects, kindly scroll down to see other posts or click the categories on the right sidebar. Thank you muchly. Merci beaucoup. Muchas Gracias

I just thought I’d include that up there just in case people thought this is the “best that I can do” at this given time

I love their surprised expressions. This is the best part of being a cake artist

The second cake I’ve ever made and the FIRST tiered cake had a SUSHI, TURTLE and GOLF theme to it. (Um, what now?!) I had my company for not even a month before I decided to push my limits and tie a bunch of totally-not-related themes together for my uncle, aunt and cousin’s birthdays. My auntie Tina loves sushi. My uncle Billy loves golf and my cousin Rachel loves turtles.

Wow, Zach is so tiny here! I miss baby Zach!

I wanted to make a gigantic golf course with turtles crawling around and eating sushi. (A sushi-eating turtle?! Do those even exist? Maybe in Japan) I quickly scrapped that idea. Somehow I came up with this design. As you can see, the layers were stubby (I dislike stubby tiers!), it’s lopsided and let’s just say THANK GOD I’ve improved since then. I hope

Miraculously, I didn’t use dowel rods in the bottom tier to support the top tier (in my defense, I didn’t know I had to use supporting materials). Surprisingly, this cake kept it together! I think the bottom tier was really dense… yes, that must be it!

I’ve since made MOIST cakes so dowels are a must.

Uncle Billy loves golf

And finally… the sushi-loving aunt and her adorable kids…

I love Jason’s expression here because he was just scolded for punching Jess in the stomach and was forced to be in this photo, unwillingly.

There you have it! That’s my crazy family and the story of my second-ever fondant cake that miraculously didn’t fall apart without dowel supports. Isn’t it wonderful when life just works out?

Posted in Best Things in Life, Birthdays, Cakes, Tell Me a Story, Tiered Cakes | No Comments »

Behind Every Cake is a STORY

Thursday, January 31st, 2013

By now you should know that I LOVE telling stories. My vision for a designer cake company was that not only would the final product be presented but the story behind it too. Who is the cake for? What is the relationship between the person who bought it and the recipient? Why is it designed a certain way? I love stories And by now, you should know that I get emotionally attached to my creations sometimes and have difficulty letting it go. I absolutely CANNOT WATCH my cake being cut/eaten (although that’s the cake’s life purpose). Little did you know, I have a relationship with each cake. I have a story too

I did this wedding cupcake tower for a friend as a favour. I never do more than one wedding per week and this was #3 that week! I was really hesitant because I wanted to do a good job on every order and accepting 3 wedding orders that week was pushing my limits. But I did it anyway because I have troubles saying, “no”

I had full design “executive powers” over this cake and all the bride wanted was, “BLUE”. And “FLOWERS”… so I came up with this design. I stamped each cupcake topper with J for the groom and N for the bride. 200 cupcakes sounds like a lot and LET ME TELL YOU… it was A LOT. I would like to call this story, “the fondant toppers that kept going and going”… because late into the night, I was still stamping, sticking and sparkling.

Their wedding was on a Sunday and even when I got home from church, I wasn’t finished with the cake yet. The delivery was at 3pm and it was my first wedding delivery by myself to a far location that I’ve never been to. So much pressure! And it was HOT outside. Sun + cupcakes = melted MESS! Eeks! So I had to rush and luckily it turned out how I had envisioned it in my head. When I got to the restaurant (an hour early *phew!*), I saw a big sign on the door that said, “CLOSED”. You could only imagine what was going through my head! I was panicking and pulled out my phone to call my friend who ordered the cake. I squinted my little Asian eyes and saw people in the restaurant and luckily someone opened the door for me. They were closed because of the wedding! Relief.

The rhinestone buckle was my favourite part of this cake!

It took 30 minutes to set-up and I felt so relieved. But more so, I felt God’s presence with me the whole time! Even though it was my first delivery “alone”, He was still with me in the car as I drove, keeping my cupcakes together (NOT melting!) and His peace was in my heart as I set-up the tower. When I look at these photos, I not only think about how I am never going to accept 3 wedding orders per week until my studio is set-up but I am reminded of God’s grace and how He was FAITHFUL and how He was with me the whole time!

Posted in Cakes, Tiered Cakes, Weddings | No Comments »

An Elegant Wedding Cake

Friday, September 21st, 2012

Have you ever started a task thinking it was going to be easy but it turns out to be not-as-you-expected and maybe you even want to give up mid-way? I had that experience this weekend.

It’s the end of my late summer/early autumn wedding streak and I am relieved to say that I’m DONE. I finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am, by no means, at the end of the tunnel because as a business owner, you always have to be proactive and FORWARD-THINKING. I guess it doesn’t make sense that I can see the light since I’m still in the tunnel… wait, do tunnels have windows?! Or holes? What’s currently on my ‘cake board’? CHRISTMAS DESIGNS! (if Hallmark can display ornaments now, Jenn can start thinking about the holiday season! )

One of the things that I LOVE about what I do is that it connects me with new people, ones that I have never met before who read my blog and most importantly, it enables me to keep relationships with people from the past. This weekend proved that statement to be true. My friend and fellow manager at Richtree was getting married and wanted me to do her cake.

So, you know… I did her cake

She wanted elegant drapery on her porcelain white cake with big sugar flowers with a baby pink trim. It sounded easy in my head but it was definitely not so. I never realized DRAPING fondant was so dang difficult! Let’s just say, I had to do and re-do and re-do each layer ’till it was perfect. I am a perfectionist… (I kind of have to be).

I did the bottom tier first, the middle tier second and the top tier last. By the time I got the “hang” of it, it was already at the last tier and I couldn’t re-do the other two because they had hardened already. That’s why my favourite “drape” is the top tier one!

Although I didn’t have an option besides continuing on and doing the best that I could do, I’m glad I stuck with it because now I can add this to my growing portfolio of “I’m so glad I didn’t give up” photos

I’m SOOOOO getting “draped” fondant for my wedding cake. It’s just so purdy (when executed properly *ahem!*)

This journey is definitely not easy but it is so incredibly worth it!

Posted in Tiered Cakes, Weddings | No Comments »

Just Monkeying Around

Monday, June 4th, 2012

It’s Monday morning, 3:06am and I just woke up from a “nap”… refreshed and ready to start my um… day? The past few days have been absolute chaos. Caking from morning ’till night with forced “rest breaks” in between for food/stretches/youtube and going to bed at 5am… every single day! Eek! So not good for my body. My last cake this weekend was for a good friend’s son’s 1st birthday and I also got to attend his party as well. Have you been to a birthday celebration with 4x 1-year-old’s, 1x 2-year-old, 1x 9-month-old (nephew), 1x 4-year-old, and 1x 3-year-old (nephew)? Geez, just typing that out made me tired. It was buckets of fun. ACTUALLY, let me re-phrase that — have you been to a party with 8 kids under 4-years-old, CRAWLING/RUNNING around, with 12 adults chatting away while having a 9-month-old tubby nephew glued to your hip and getting mad at you because you aren’t feeding blueberries to him fast enough… while running on two hours of sleep?! It was… fun

This is my new favourite cake (until I make my next one!). My friend was torn between a MONKEY cake and one that was a gigantic tire because her son loves to turn his cars upside down and play with the tires. When she proposed these two ideas to me a month ago, I wanted to make a monkey cake SO BADLY that I sent her telepathic messages for her to choose the monkey one. It worked!

YAY! Making a monkey cake was definitely on my “to do” list for 2012 and I’m so excited to cross it off and replace it with these pictures.

It is customary for the birthday boy/girl to have a mini SMASH cake to celebrate their first birthday which is a cake (4″x2″) reserved for them to smash/eat/smear on their faces, clothes and all available surface areas while their parents soak in the joyous moment/capture memories on their iPhones and clean up after them. I incorporated the smash cake on top of the main cake because the monkey digging into it and making a mess is just priceless

I had fun puncturing the cake and smearing chocolate bits all over the monkey’s face even though I was a bit nervous at first… after all, it was a one-shot deal! I had a mini freak-out moment when I got up this morning, opened the fridge and thought someone took a bite out of it! HAHA… silly me. Actually, someone did… BAD MONKEY!!

I had to make a few adjustments to make the cake “pop”. The mini cakes were actually VANILLA with strawberry buttercream but having vanilla crumbs wasn’t “messy” enough so I stuffed the little hole with chocolate cake bits because something about chocolate says naughty… don’t you think?

And YES, the monkey is sitting on a stack of tires. My original idea was to have a tree with a tire swing hanging from it and the monkey playfully bouncing all over it but at 4:30 in the morning, the last thing you want to think about is the structural integrity of a tree made of sugar, how to whimsically position the monkey so it looks like he’s actually having a good time while making sure he’s not heavy enough to pull the tree down thus destroying the cake that the maker (moi) so carefully designed and crafted. The maker will cry. That would have been funny though but not right away. Maybe later… like much, much later

I can’t wait to post more pictures/videos! But until then… I’m going to get some more shut-eye.
Happy MONDAY, everyone!

Posted in Birthdays, Boys will be Boys, Cakes, Just for Kids, Tiered Cakes | No Comments »

One Sweet Cake

Monday, April 9th, 2012

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!

Happy Monday!

Posted in Cakes, Special Occasions, Tiered Cakes | No Comments »

Living the Good Life

Thursday, March 29th, 2012

Hi everyone! It’s been a madhouse here lately. I should come to expect this of this life I chose of running 3 businesses. BALANCE is key! I’ve taken a few weeks off of cake stuff to build my other two babies. It’s been an incredibly rewarding experience so far and I’m enjoying every minute of it. I wouldn’t trade this life for anything else! Are there any entrepreneurs out there? You know what I’m talking about!

One of the things I love about being an entrepreneur is the time freedom and the simple fact that I can prioritize my life and have a healthy work/life balance. My nephews are growing up SO quickly and I just want to savour each moment with them. Tonight I got a tour of one of the best MMA gyms in Toronto where all the UFC fighters go to teach classes. It was so intimidating but so much fun at the same time (um, to watch of course!).

Enjoy this Mickey Clubhouse cake I made a few weeks ago. Mickey will never get old in my books Happy Thursday!

Posted in Boys will be Boys, Cakes, Tiered Cakes | No Comments »

Is Mickey Still Cool?

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

Back in the good ol’ days (gosh, I feel so old saying that), Mickey and Minnie Mouse were as cool as the high school prom king and queen but I’m not quite sure where they stand these days. They have been taken over by much cooler animated icons such as Lightning McQueen, Elmo and who can forget… Angry Birds? (surely not me with all the AB cakes I’ve been doing these days! – and MORE that I haven’t even posted!)

Iconic characters seem to be so trendy these days. My nephew LOVES Cars and everything he has is from that movie (I’m partially responsible for this). He even owns Cars 1 & 2 in Chinese (clearly dubbed)… have you watched Disney movies in Chinese? They’re ABSOLUTELY HI-LARIOUS! (this would make more sense if you are Chinese or can at least understand the language). Especially the idioms! Oh the idioms. Anyway, so Zach could say something like, “There’s LIGHTNING outside” and I would run out and get him Lightning McQueen PJs, matching slippers and perhaps toothbrush/kiddy toothpaste and nightcap if it’s in stock. Clearly I’m the cool aunt that spoils them silly.

I don’t remember Mickey and Minnie being this “crazy” as a kid. Maybe we were just really sheltered or poor… or both! I remember wearing Keroppi clothes and nameless characters from not-so-popular television shows like… geez, I can’t even remember them. My brother was really into Ninja Turtles and I think he secretly still is. Hmm. I was pretty easy-going… I love bears (and still do) so I was content with anything with a bear on it. I was such a good kid

A few weekends ago, I had the pleasure of putting together a ~~Mickey’s~~ Minnie’s Clubhouse cake for a 4-year-old girl’s birthday. I can’t tell you how much I love the purple and red colour combination… something about it is so HOT! Remember my super sexy high heel cake? Brings happy butterfly fluttery memories to my heart!

Sophie’s mom supplied the cake toppers which gave the cake a different look than the usual sculpted sugar characters. I love change

I also super love the giant, pink, sparkly bow on top of the cake! MAYBE I should’ve been more attentive in tinting the bow to match the bow on top of Minnie’s head (from the figurine) but LOOK! The shade of pink is EXACTLY the same. Whattttt… ! I just loves it when things work out accidentally

LOVES IT!

Tags: mickey's clubhouse
Posted in Birthdays, Cakes, Girly Girl, Just for Kids, Tiered Cakes | No Comments »

My Very First CARS Cake

Monday, December 19th, 2011

It’s been a long time coming but I got to make a CARS cake this past weekend. This seems like a very obsessive craze amongst the 2 to 5-year-old age range (for boys) and I should know that because Zach and Aiden love them which makes US fall victim of everything CARS-related when we go to Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, the Disney Store and anywhere they sell McQueen/Mater toys/clothes/dishes/cups/towels/underwear. Actually, Aiden is still in the ELMO phase and based on Zach’s timeline, Aiden should be fully converted in about 6 months or so.

See how all the checkerboard squares fit EXACTLY on the cake board? That just drove me nuts with excitement. I’m such a nerd and I fully embrace it and I just love it when things work out… like 1.5″ squares x 8 = 12″ cake board. HAPPY ME!

I was a little intimidated to sculpt McQueen + Mater because every detail had to be just right or they will look like their messed-up, less-than-famous, drugged-up twin brother and we wouldn’t want that to happen now, would we? The pressure’s on!

I took my sweet time to do McQueen, making sure every little indent in his metal body reflected his true self. I had multiple tabs opened on my browser with his photos from different angles… everything had to be perfect! I was quite happy with how he turned out. Not 100% though, unfortunately as I’m not happy with how one part came out and I can’t stop thinking/looking at it. I’m not going to tell you which part it is because then YOU’LL be fixated on it

Taking the confidence I acquired from sculpting McQueen, I then went on to Mater. I loovoveoveove how he turned out! He’s so darn cute for a tow truck! It took me an hour to put all the details on and from his cute little button nose to the side mirrors as ears, I love everything about this guy. I especially love his crooked teeth–they’re so endearing! I just want to give him a hug, but I know I can’t. And probably shouldn’t. Maybe I’ll give him a mental hug! My brother has been giving out mental hugs as Christmas presents ever since I could remember… at least that’s better than nothing! *HUG!*

I also custom designed tags for his cupcake/cookie favour giveaways. I love matchy matchy stuff. All the cupcakes were dairy-free chocolate cake with vanilla frosting topped with a flag with a #2 in it and a wheel with a #2 in it. Oh! And it was covered in glitter as well… Jenn style!

I’m quite happy with my first attempt at this beloved childrens’ movie. I have a few more of these lined up so stay tuned! More characters coming your way

Happy Monday!

Tags: Cakes, cars, Cupcakes, disney, lightning mcqueen, tow mater
Posted in "Firsts", Birthdays, Boys will be Boys, Cakes, Cupcakes, Just for Kids, Tiered Cakes | 1 Comment »

Happy Unicorn Day!

Monday, September 19th, 2011

Call me crazy but I’m so excited it’s Monday! I had 5 orders in the past two days and the fact that I’m semi-functioning is a miracle in itself (thanks to a 4.5hr nap). I really miss those days when I could say, “Thank God It’s Friday!” and do my Friday-happy-dance. Now it’s “Thank God It’s Monday!” but I usually get weird stares from people when I say that. I can feel you staring right now!!

It was Claire’s 4th birthday party today and their parents ordered a fairytale-esque unicorn cake from me with rainbows and flowers and glitter… and more glitter! Gosh, I LOVE glitter! It makes the cake come alive (figuratively) and who doesn’t like sparkly things? I have to admit, I sometimes get carried away with the glittering part and over-glitter. Is that even possible? So when the birthday girl/boy takes a picture with the cake, all you see is one big bright spot from the camera flash. That’s when you know you’ve over-glittered.

I love using the element of vertical lines on the bottom tier because it creates the illusion that the cake is taller than it actually is. And I love the purple/pink colour combo. Growing up, those were my two favourite colours! I secretly still love it

This cake was a moist chocolate cake with banana buttercream + 4 layers of sliced bananas. Oh-em-gee deliciousness! This was my first time making banana buttercream and I had a fear that it would turn brown if I left it out too long so I blended the bananas in RIGHT when the cake was ready to be filled + layered. The buttercream was just the right amount of sweetness + it was so banana-yyy! I couldn’t stop eating it and it tasted even better with the chocolate cake. If you’re wondering… no, I did not take a chunk of the cake out — I had lots of scraps from leveling the cake tops and we all know that cake tops + banana-y buttercream + banana ends = happiness

Anyways… I’ll post the pictures from the rest of the weekend later this week. I regret not taking photos at the bridal shower cupcake workshop on Saturday but I’m sure they’re on Facebook somewhere. Go look for them

Happy ~~Unicorn~~ Monday!

Posted in Birthdays, Cakes, Girly Girl, Tiered Cakes | No Comments »

HERE Fishy Fishy!

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Have you ever seen Mario (the plumber) fish before? I guess that’s what he does on his spare time when he’s not eating mushrooms and collecting coins by jumping+hitting his head on boxes with question marks on them!