Dreaming Baby Cake

Baby Dreaming of Ultimate Frisbee

I was honoured to make a 1st birthday cake for very special little girl.  Zoe's Granny had asked that the cake have a baby playing ultimate frisbee on it!   Challenging indeed!   This was a tough one in terms of how to go about that, without making a giant disproportioned (or worse; scary-looking) baby on the cake!  And because this was for such a special little girl, I wanted to be sure all elements of the cake looked just right.  That's where the idea of a baby dreaming of playing Ultimate Frisbee came in!   Here is sweet Zoe, dreaming peacefully in the grass, of becoming Ultimate Frisbee Champion!

Happy 1st Birthday, Zoe!

 

Cake for Two!

Happy Birthday To Us!

Note:   I completely forgot to take proper photos of this cake...so excuse the grainy photos taken from my Blackberry!!  And thank you to my friend's husband for getting a photo of us together!

 My friend and I were both born on Dec. 26 - Boxing Day!  I thought it would be fun to do some kind of joint cake that presents well as one, but could be separated to enjoy celebrations at two different locations!   And thus was born a 2-tiered cake, decorated in halves!  I had grand plans for this cake...however, I hadn't fully appreciated just how busy Christmas Day would be, and by 12:30am (now technically Boxing Day) when the cake needed all the finishing touches...I conceded that this cake may just not be all I had dreamed up!!

In any case, it had sweet decorations and was essentially my vision, sans fancy details.  I took the entire cake over to my friends house for her to see it all together, and then took my half (the "To Us" side) home with me eat with my family!

What you SHOULD have seen on the cake, was a fondant woman sitting on each side (my friend and I), all dressed up, with shopping bags and purses etc. piled on top...maybe next year!!

Happy Birthday to us!!

My friend and I with "our" cake.

Back of cake

As you can see below...I had started the fondant version of my friend and I for each side of the cake...however, by Boxing Day, these fondant beauties still had no clothes (or hair for that matter!) and no little shopping bags or purses had been made to be placed beside them.  At this point I decided to abandon the grander picture, and just go with a sweet, simple cake!

Unfinished cake (with fondant figures that never made it on to the cake).

Holiday Cake Pops

Festive Treats

At Christmas time, I often struggle to find the right gift for those who I feel deserve a special little 'thank you' (i.e. hair stylist, esthetician, my kids' teachers, etc...)  This year I decided to make some festive cake pops, dressed up in large brandy glasses with a big bow.   It is easy to come up with your own unique designs for your pops, and definitely ads a personal touch to your 'thank you'!  Plus they are delicious and are always happily accepted!  

Sea Shells by the Sea Cake

Sea Shells

"I have the world's largest collection of seashells.  I keep it on all the beaches of the world...perhaps you've seen it." - Steven Wright

White fondant sea shells and starfish, with golden 'sand' and white chocolate coral.  I feel calm when I see this cake.  Requested for the husband of a lovely couple, who live by the sea...

Box of Chocolates

Life is like a box of chocolates...


...you never know what you're gonna get!  Except if you're lucky, and someone is giving you a very special cake - filled with chocolates galore!  This particular cake is chocolate...with chocolate ganache filling, covered in even more chocolate ganache and topped with 2 full boxes of chocolate truffles - each with the number '30' piped in pink icing for the birthday girl who was turning - you guessed it - 30!  The "tissue" is modeling chocolate airbrushed with a pearl sheen.  Fondant lid, ribbon, gift tag and round 'box'.  A true chocolate lover's delight!

Cross Cultural Solutions - Photo Contest - Vote for me!

My heart in Africa...

Today I am writing about something other than cakes...

I volunteered in Tanzania 4 years ago through a company called Cross Cultural Solutions (CCS).  It was an amazing experience, and Tanzania definitely has a piece of my heart.

I am longing to return to this incredible country and to see the people I got to know there once again.  CCS currently has a photo competition on called "The Many Faces of Volunteering".   I submitted a photo from my volunteer experience and out of over 1,000 entries my photo was short-listed to the Top 50!

And then public voting began on Facebook!  (ugh!).   I think of myself as reasonably "well connected" but I had no idea how connected others were!!   I am currently in 9th place and would really love to be in the top 4 or 5, but desperately need more votes to get there...    To be able to have my volunteer tuition paid for and to volunteer again would truly be a dream come true.

If you feel like supporting me, just go to http://www.facebook.com/crossculturalsolutions   On the left hand side you will see  "Vote here - contest entries".  Click on that and "like" CCS.   Then vote for my photo!

It is currently on Page 1 (could move to Page 2 if I drop lower than 9th place).  It is a photo of a Maasai Woman gazing off into the distance (shown above) and my name (Setia Lindsay) will appear underneath it.  You can only vote once, and voting ends in a few days (Nov. 14, 2011)!!

So please vote if you have a moment!  Thank you!

Setia

Coffee Cup Cake - cake wreck? or ??

Coffee Cup Cake and Treats

What can I say?  Cakes take time.  Like any good thing, a well-made cake shouldn't be rushed.  In my experience, fondant or gumpaste accents that need to be able to stand on their own should have at least 2-3 days to dry, and a cake should settle for 24 hours (or at least overnight) before fondanting.

So, considering I filled, ganached, and fondanted this cake all within 1/2 hour, and only gave the plate/saucer and cup handle about 8 hours to dry...I can't very well expect perfection!  And perfect it certainly was not.  Although I have to say, despite very limited drying time, the gumpaste plate held up remarkably well.

A bit wobbly in appearance and somewhat lacking in symmetry, yet still offering that pleasant and inviting feeling that a good cup of coffee and a slice of cake should!

Eragon Cake

What kind of cake do you make for a sweet boy who is a true bookworm and loves dragons?  Why, an Eragon cake of course!  This is one of my favorite cakes I have made so far.  I know I keep saying this, but I loved making this cake!   I took great pleasure in sculpting Saphira (the dragon) out of cereal treats, covering her in fondant, and giving her dragon scales and spikes and a little personality!  Her wings are painted with a blue sheen food colour, which gave them a bit of a sparkle.
The dragon in the movie and the dragon in the book by Christopher Paolini differ somewhat...so I tried to incorporate features of both.

The book, of course, is the actually cake (2 layer chocolate cake, with raspberry buttercream filling, covered in chocolate ganache and then fondant).   A ribbon (fondant) bookmark with birthday well-wishes written on it marks a pretend place within the "book".

Built like a Mack Truck

A structurally challenging cake made for my friends who own Mack Trucks in Nanaimo - for their 10th Anniversary "Bull Dog Days" celebration.   I had a great time making this and it was the first time I had to built a wooden support structure to hold and raise my cake!

The length of the trailer and cab combined was 22" long.  Height, including support dowels/axles was approx. 8".  It took 5 large cakes to make and weighed 21.5 lbs!

I've included some photos of the cake as it went along...

Cake base structure

Cab assembled and ganached...

Cab and trailer ganached and awaiting fondant!

Tires are cookies, covered in black fondant. Hand painted silver "hub caps".  See the little "chrome" bull dog mounted on the hood!?  :-)

Happy Quilter!

My mom requested a cake for her friend who was turning 65, that loves quilting.  It's hard to tell from the photos, but this is a full 2-layer, 8" cake (looks much smaller in the photos I think).  The couch is molded from cereal treats, then covered in fondant.   This was a fun cake to make, and also a pleasure to make for someone so nice!

I am very excited about my next cake project... It will be complete on Oct. 28, and I will hopefully have photos posted the following day...stay tuned!  In the meantime, here is the quilter cake from a few different angles.  Thanks for looking!

White and Dark Chocolate Panel Bliss

I admit, I have been on a bit of a chocolate panel kick recently.   I just love them!  What a great way to enhance a delicious cake!  This time I wanted to do something without chocolate transfer designs.  I thought dark and white chocolate would make a nice contrast, and decided to cut random sized pieces of my panels on a slant and alternate them around the cake.  The panels were hand made by melting chocolate onto wax paper and cutting to shape once hardened.  My good friend (the birthday recipient)'s name begins with an "L", hence the hand-made white chocolate "L" atop the cake!    To view another panel cake design or chocolate transfer sheet cake - scroll down to the bottom of this page and select "older posts".

3-tiered 30th Birthday Cake

I love how the colour combination worked out for this cake!  The "30" was approx. 4" high, and the cake weight 17 lbs.

                        

Dogs Playing Poker

My Dad loves playing poker  I thought it would be fun to make a Poker Table cake.  Then decided to challenge myself even more and make it a DOGS Playing Poker cake!   This took countless hours and was the first time I sculpted figures, but it was a lot of fun and I was especially happy with how the dogs turned out!  The doberman is wearing an "I 'heart' New York" t-shirt.  The bulldog is cheating with an Ace of Spades hiding under the table, between his toes.

Poker table is the actual cake.  Chairs are made from rice krispie treats covered in fondant.  Poker chips, cards, mugs of beer, cigars,  dogs and floor are fondant.

Naughty bulldog cheating, with an Ace of Spades between his toes!

Dalmation eyeing his competition

Sweet, fluffy dog

 Slice of cake