Happy 6th Birthday Lauren

My neice Lauren turned 6 in June and she asked me if I could make her a Rose cake, and maybe some cupcakes with a rose on them too. My sister explained to her that Auntie might have some trouble finding just the right Rose to make into a cake for her (Phew! Thanks Cori!) but I did promise her that I would look around and see what I could find and then show her the pictures and whichever one she liked best would be the one I'd make. I told her my idea for the cupcakes and she loved them, so since her favourite colour is purple I found the perfect gingham cupcake liners and selected Lavender and Purple Roses as decoration for the cupcakes. So the cupcakes were sorted and all set for her Tea Party she was having with her friends from school and the neighborhood.

My next challenge was the cake, once we found a cake and decided on the colour scheme it was off to the races I went!

Here's the finished product and a close up of a flower design that were all over it. My neice loved it!

Happy Birthday Lauren, Auntie loves you xo

Happy 1st Birthday Samantha!

My neice celebrated her 1st birthday recently and I had the honour of making her first birthday cake. My sister had seen on Pinterest a "Little Miss Sunshine" themed party and loved the idea for her little Angel. Cori has the most beautiful 4 kids, I'm biased but that's OK, and her youngest Angel has the most infectious smile so the LittleMiss Sunshine theme idea was perfect! Cori found a picture of the cutest cake and asked me to replicate it, it turned out beautifully!

I decided to make a special Smash Cake for her and some cupcakes for Angel's cousins, since we come from a large family we wanted to make sure there was enough for everyone!

There wasn't a scrap of cake or cupcake leftover so I'd say it was a hit!  Happy Birthday Samantha~Auntie loves you xo

Happy 8th Birthday Wyatt

Wyatt was undecided what kind of cake he'd like for his 8th birthday so I did some searching around for ideas. When I found a blog complete with instructions on how to make these funny little guys I knew I'd found it! Wyatt loves watching "Despicable Me", he watches it as many times as he can. He's got some of the lingo down pat & quite a few quotes from the movie down too. We recently went to the show together and saw a 3D trailer for Despicable Me 2 which he just can't wait for! He loved the whole thing and proceeded to sing the "Barbra Ann" song from the trailer over & over.

I got some krispie treats from the store and followed the directions on the blog to create my minions. I've seen many different ways of making them, from covering them in fondant (as I did) to using half of a Twinkie. I just used 2 krispie treats pressed firmly together, dirty iced them and covered them in fondant. I'll let the wonderful lady at A Spoonful of Sugah take you the rest of the way  should you want to make some yourselves http://aspoonfulofsugah.blogspot.ca/2010/08/how-to-make-minion.html

After I made up the 2 minions I placed them on the cake and wrote the words to their version of Barbra Ann around the sides of the cake. Wyatt loved it, and insisted I take pictures of it so you can see it too.

Happy Birthday 8th Wyatt xo

My Parents Birthday

My sister & I decided to have some family over to celebrate our Parents 70th birthday this year, our Mom's is in the summer & Dad's is in the fall. We had it in the summer because our parents are lucky enough not to have to spend the winter here in the cold temperatures of Canada-they head for the sunny southwest of Arizona!

Before I began working with Fondant I had heard rumors that one could make it themselves, and after buying my first few tubs of the stuff I knew why-holy smokes it can be expensive! It seems even more expensive when you realize you can make enough to cover a 2 layer cake for less than $10, less than $5 if you get the stuff on sale and since it is basically sugar & marshmallows I am buying them in bulk these days!! So I did some research on You Tube and online and found a great recipe for fondant and I was off~Wow is it easy...sticky but easy!

My sister and I decided on the flavour of the cake & filling and I thought that since we come from a large family I'd better make a big one. I decided on a layered square cake with just 2 squares; I thought that was the best option since I was still not overly comfortable working with Fondant, why make it more complicated than it needed to be? I only used 3 colours and make some simple designs & coloured balls for decoration. My sister added the candles & it is done! Our parents & family loved it, and their 6 grandchildren gathered around to help them blow out their candles.

Happy Birthday Mom & Dad, you are the best!

Happy 11th Birthday Keegan

Keegan's Hockey hero is Sidney Crosby and for the months leading up to his birthday I have been trying to figure out what kind of cake to make him & how to incorporate Crosby into it. I stumbled upon some pictures of a cake that looks like the back of a jersey~and "ta da" I had found it!

I tried my best to make it a surprise for him, he knew what I was planning to do and (of course) approved of it. He saw the cake covered in black fondant and saw me working on the sleeves but thats all, I waited until he went to school to finish it off. Next time I make it I am going to attach the sleeves before I leave it for any length of time since it was too firm to drape just right. Still looked great though but I'm curious to see how it will change when I do the sleeves different next time. I know it probably won't be long--I'm sure Wyatt will have me doing up Jarome Iginla's or Roberto Luongo's jersey for his birthday :)

When he came home from school he came over to see the finished product and he was so happy with it, just fills my heart when I can do something that makes them that happy! When the family came over for dinner that night they were all impressed with the cake, and the more I looked at it the more I liked it; I almost hated to cut into it!!

Happy Birthday my son, you make me so proud everyday xoxoxo

Goodbye to Hockey for the summer

Our boys are Sports nuts! They both play Hockey in the winter for our local House League and Soccer in the summer for the local teams. Out of the 12 months in the calendar year, we have about 1 month "free" with no sports activity. Although this year the Stanley Cup Finals are still being played so they are getting their Hockey "fix" that way.

Our boys have only been playing hockey for 2 years now and both years they each have been blessed with absolutely incredible Coaches! I could never find the words to ever tell each of them how great they have been to both of our boys. It takes such a dedicated man to do the kind of extra work that is needed to coach a bunch of enthusiastic youngsters on skates!

The boys asked me to bake a cake for the kids on their team, but when I found out that both of their final games were at 7 & 8 am...I didn't think that cake for breakfast was such a great idea so we went with cupcakes instead. Wyatt's team was the Green Eagles and Keegan's was the Killer Bees so I found some coloured sugar and made up some vanilla cupcakes and let the sugar be the decoration. I left the arena that last morning with an empty tray so I think they were a success!

Wyatt's Canadian Pride

Our youngest turned 7 this past September and with all the cakes he was watching me make everyone else, who can blame him for wanting in on the action too. We spent some time figuring out what his vision for his birthday cake was going to be and it was surprisingly a Canadian Flag! He loved it so much, who am I to try and understand why he wanted it-he just did! It sure would make an awesome cake for Team Canada game or for Canada Day too!

We took off to a local Glow in the Dark mini putt place and with a bunch of 7 & 8 year olds we decended on them. The boys had a great time and the kids said the cake tasted great and the Mom's thought it looked so good and was a great idea. What else can I ask for??