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

Kayak Cake and Farmer with Chickens Cake

I had the honour of making two really fun cakes for two dear friend's husbands...However, it is tricky making an actual person out of fondant -  I worried that if I didn't have their features quite right they could be down-right offended.  I was thankfully given full-creative license on both cakes, and I think both Fondant Barry and Fondant Flav were a success!

First up is Fondant Barry Kayaking with his Faithful Blind Cat Stevie.    Followed by Fondant Flav and his Egg-laying Chickens!   Check them out...

Real Barry and Fondant Barry together at last!

 ...and along came the chicken farmer...

 Flav in the wooden barrel and chicken coop prior to cake assembly.

Real Flav with his barrel tub buddy

SEMI-SWEET

A sweet read!  

For all of you who love to bake or have ever dreamed of opening your own cake/cupcake shop...I highly recommend this delicious and delightful fictional novel by the brilliant and charming Roisin Meaney.

This is an entertaining story with wonderful characters that takes place in a small town in Ireland;  Hannah, the main character, is about to open a cupcake shop when her boyfriend announces he's leaving her for another woman.  To find out more, you'll have to read it yourself!

"An endearing, insightful story of self-discovery, empowerment, love, and yes, most deliciously, cupcakes." - Erica Bauermeister, author of The School of Essential Ingredients.

Roisin is a friend, and a very talented best-selling author from Ireland whose books are now being introduced into Canada and the U.S.   Semi Sweet is available in bookstores in the U.S. and Canada, and online (Amazon.com).

After reading this book, I wanted to run out and open a cake shop on the spot!  :-)

Halloween Cake Pops

Halloween Cake Pops - 2010

Thank you, Bakerella, for super fun treat ideas that made me the hero at my kids' school!  I was up until midnight last Halloween making approx. 60 cake pops for my two older children's classes...only to find out the next morning that my son's class wasn't having a party like the rest of the school...Argh!  I brought them into his class anyway, with large dark circles under my tired eyes, smiling politely at his teacher,  explaining the effort they took. Thankfully, my son's teacher was happy to receive them, and being the ONLY treat brought in for his classmates (in a school FULL of treats in every other class) made me a celebrity for the day. ;-)

Lego Cake

Lego is a very popular theme cake to make.  I had no appreciation for how well-received this would be by kids.  If I had to put money on which lego cake would be most popular with kids, it would have been the Star Wars one.  Turns out my wallet would have been a little lighter!  

Lego logo made with fondant

Little lego guys were made using a lego ice cube tray.  I molded fondant into the trays, and put them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden.  Once ready, I popped the little guys out and hand painted (with food colouring) pants, hands, and faces on them.

Lego bricks are chocolate, just like the Star Wars Lego cake.   I cut 3 chocolate lego bricks to form an "11" at the front of the cake, as this cake was for a boy turning 11.

Little lego guys in various stages of decorating.

Death Star Lego Cake with Fondant Star Wars Figures

A long time ago, in a kitchen far, far away...

...a Star Wars Lego cake was created for a wonderful boy!  This was my first commissioned cake.  I had to think long and hard as to what an 11 year old boy might like Star Wars-wise.  I wanted to make sure whatever I came up with was "cool" and not "babyish"  I think it turned out well, and from what his mom tells me, it was a success!  It was such fun to make!  

The figures are hand-sculpted to (hopefully) look like Lego Star Wars guys.  The lego bricks are solid chocolate.  I found lego brick ice cube trays online (eBay I think?), poured melted chocolate into them and these were the result!  

The death star is a chocolate cake. The bottom (blue) cake is chocolate as well.  

 Look at these cute little guys!