Happy Birthday, Kate!

When I had my first daughter Rachel in 2006, I got to know two other teachers at my school really well. Lisa and Loreena both became mom's at the same time as me. We spent our maternity leave year hanging out in Lisa's kitchen while the 3 kids entertained themselves. It was a great year.

Well, we all returned to work in 2007--pregnant. AJ (Lisa's son) was born on February 7th, Kate (my daughter) was born February 18th and Luciano (Loreena's son) was born February 25th.  So there we were, the 3 muskateers all on maternity leave again!

To celebrate the Kate and Luciano's first birthday, Loreena and I decided to have a joint playgym party for the kids. It was chaos! There were 24 kids ranging in age from 3 months to 8 years and 25 parents all crammed into Kids on the Loose in Markham.

My job was the cake (surprise, surprise!). So, this is Kate's cake. All pink. All girl. It is a three tiered butter cream and fondant cake. There were two layers on chocolate cake and one layer of french vanilla.

But wait...what about Luciano's cake?

...keep reading.

Happy Birthday, Luciano!

Happy Birthday, Luciano! 

This is Luciano's cake. It's all blue, and all boy! Everyone deserves a fantastic cake on their first birthday!

Happy Birthday, Kate and Luciano!

Tada! Here is the final product! I had a great time putting this cake together. This is my first 3 tiered cake. It's a little crooked, but I think I know what I did wrong. 

My mom sent me a ton of new Wilton fondant tools, so I spent 2 hours on Friday night decorating, decorating, decorating! It weighed a ton, but it fed 50 people and everyone loved it!

So Happy Birthday, Kate and Luciano!

So Many Cupcakes...

This picture is just a small fraction of the number of cupcakes I delivered to the Sariwon Korean restaurant on Saturday morning for Samantha's first birthday. By 11pm on Friday night, I had decorated 54 large cupcakes and 36 mini cupcake in various shades of pink, each topped with a pink fondant monogram for the birthday girl. The restaurant looked beautiful when I arrived and I really hope that Samantha had a great birthday!

Happy Birthday, Dylan

This was my first customer who randomly found my blog off the Internet! Yeah! Whoo Hoo! Laura found my craigslist posting and really liked what she saw on my cake blog, so she sent me a quick email on Thursday night asking for a peanut-free cake for her son, Dylan. Dylan loves playing hockey and is having his 12th birthday party today. 

After many emails back and forth, Laura decided on a French Vanilla 9 x 13 cake with vanilla butter cream icing. Dylan's favourite NHL team is the Toronto Maple Leafs, so we decided this logo was very fitting for his birthday cake. 

It was the very first time I had made a cake for a stranger with no guarantee that they would show up to pay for the cake. Thankfully, Laura and her daughter stopped by right on time and picked up the cake!

This cake cost $30. 

Now, let me tell you about the many many cupcakes I had to make the night before...

Happy Birthday, Ella!

I was so excited to bake and decorate this cake that it kept me awake at night for the entire week before! My good friend Lindsay, asked me to do a cake for her daughter's 2nd birthday. Lindsay is also a mompreneur...she is working from home as a designer of the most beautifu photo cards, note cards and wall art. You can check out her website at www.graceannouncements.com.

Sorry, back to the cake! This is a 2 tiered chocolate and vanilla cake, iced in butter cream with pink fondant accents. The tiara was from the dollar store! After I finished the cake, I was surfing the web and stumbled upon the cake wrecks on Cake Central. Most of the disasters that were posted all happened in transport---beautiful cakes that just didn't survive the drive to the clients house!  Needless to say, on the drive from  Pickering to Aurora, I did nothing but worry about the state of the cake in my trunk, and annoy all the drivers around me as I took all on-ramps and off-ramps at 40 km/h!

Ella had a great birthday and the whole family loved the cake!  They are all off to Florida for two weeks and I hope they have a great time in the sun!

Cheers,

Casey

My Cakes Taste As Good As They Look..

It is often said that chef's rarely eat in their own restaurants. Well, let me tell you. We eat my cakes at home too! This is my daughter, Rachel, who would eat cake 3 meals a day if I were to let her. We were recently at my nephew's birthday dinner, and Rachel had a minor meltdown at the thought of leaving the left over cake at his house. So, we had to bring some home. Even though she had cupcakes on Friday and Saturday this week. And will have more at her Valentine's Day Tea at school on Thursday.

I love Rachel and her passion for food. She may not be the neatest of eaters, but boy, does she love to eat!

Samantha's First Birthday

I was very happy to hear that the baby shower that Lisa hosted was a smashing success! Everyone loved the baby carriage cake. Her cousin, Linda, loved it so much that she called me later that week to discuss her daughter's upcoming first birthday.

After many emails back and forth, we finally decided on cupcakes. Samantha will be having a grand birthday party with 18 chocolate cupcakes, 18 vanilla cupcakes, 18 rainbow sprinkle cupcakes, and a tray of mini cupcakes. Each cupcake will be iced in pink buttercream and adorned with a monogrammed pink fondant disk!

I'm so excited to see what ALL the cupcakes look like set up on the cake table. This is just a picture of the sample cupcakes that I took to Linda this week.

Although I feel that most days are Groundhog Day, our faithful groundhog did predict 6 more weeks of winter. So to brighten up your day (or the day of someone you love), call me and order a dozen cupcakes!

Keep your chin up, the summer will arrive eventually!

Cheers,

Casey

Happy Birthday, Jay!

Happy Birthday, Jay! I met Jay through my husband as they work together at Dell. Jay and I got to know each other better while we were both on maternity leave at the same time! I love making cakes for Jay and her family. Her daughter, Mya, is allergic to peanuts as is my daughter. I feel great being able to make cakes for all their occasions that are peanut free--she no longer has to worry!

This is a chocolate cake with buttercream icing--and my first attempt at a fondant bow. I'll keep practicing--it's not so great--but the next one should be better.

Would you like to order a cake like this? This cake would only cost you $30. Not bad eh?