Cottage Cake

 Cottage by the Sea...

This is a 65th wedding anniversary cake for the parents of a friend. Can you imagine...65 years and still in love!? Amazing!  

Spaghetti and Meatballs Cake

MANGIA!

Spaghetti and Meatballs with a side of garlic bread...

This mile high plate of spaghetti could satisfy even the largest of appetites!  But of course it's not REALLY spaghetti...it is chocolate cake with raspberry mousse filling, DISGUISED as spaghetti.   I had a great time figuring out what delicious and edible foods I could use to create each topping.   The noodles are piped white chocolate buttercream.  Spaghetti sauce is a mixture of fresh raspberries, strawberry jam, and white chocolate buttercream.  The oregano is mint (side note:  I discovered, quite accidentally, that if you chop the mint up the night before, it dries quite nicely and looks exactly like dried oregano...however this is still in the 'fresh' looking stage...).   Meatballs are Ferrero Roche that I dipped in more chocolate so you wouldn't see the light colour of the hazelnuts poking through.  In hindsight...I could have used remnants of the chocolate cake and shaped cake balls for meatballs;  however, I absolutely love Ferrero Roche and when I decided to make this cake, they were the first thing to pop into my head!  The parmesean is shaved white chocolate.  Garlic bread is angel food cake, broiled in the oven briefly and then 'buttered' with white chocolate buttercream while still hot.   I must say, hot, crispy angel food cake with melted butter cream is quite delicious!!  I made extra as a treat for my kids!

This cake was made for my friend's husband Barry (which is why you see the little menu card in the background entitled "Barry's Trattoria").   The tongue-in-cheek dinner special is  "Spaghetti con Ferrero" ;-)  ...the price was 5.70 euros as a) Barry was turning 57, and b)  euros seemed more an appropriate choice than dollars because hey, it's Italian!  And THAT'S Amore!

             

Reese Peanut Butter Cup Cake

Reeses Peanut Butter Cups...Cake

Whoever came up with the idea of combining chocolate and peanut butter is brilliant.  While I love the flavours in a peanut butter cup, I wasn't so sure how the flavours would compliment each other in a cake...I decided to go with a light peanut butter mousse rather than a butter cream, and I think it was a good choice!   These are two roughly 6" cakes, filled with peanut butter mousse and covered in chocolate ganache...which I painstaking smoothed for longer than I care to remember!  The 'wrapper', of course, is fondant...

Wrapped Chocolate Cake

Drizzled Chocolate Wrap...

A new idea made for a friend's birthday!   I've designed cakes wrapped in chocolate previously as you can see in previous blog entries...However, this time I thought I'd try doing more of a lattice/drizzle than a solid piece. This is a chocolate cake with oreo cookie & cream filling, smothered in chocolate ganache.  Topped with white and dark chocolate shavings and gently wrapped in white and dark chocolate lattice!

Top view

Back of cake

Star Wars Lego Landspeeder Cake

May the Fondant Be With You...


Modelled after a Lego Landspeeder as shown here...

I have come to realize that lego cakes are extremely time-consuming.  Lots of fun, mind you, it is just that I always seem to forget about the massive amount of  tiny little circles required to make the lego bricks look like lego bricks.  I believe I cut out and attached approx 134 of them!  Not difficult, just tedious, time-consuming work!

Luke and Obi Wan are hand-sculpted from fondant and painted with food colouring.   The larger lego bricks on the cake board are molded chocolate.   The "wind shield" on the landspeeder is made from Isomalt (edible sugar product) to look like glass.  Jets/engine are sculpted cereal treats, covered in fondant and secured to the sides of the ship.   I was completely exhausted after making this one, however it was very rewarding to complete, and a pleasure to make for such a sweet birthday boy!

Luke and Obi Wan Kenobi

Cookie Monster, Abby Cadabby, and Elmo!

C is for.....COOKIE!

Or, as more often is the case for me...C is for... CAKE!   Although, I do not actually have any cake photos to go with these little guys...!  These cake toppers were made for a friend to put on her own cake.  Which, I have to say, turned out amazing - I wish I could take credit for all her hard work!  However I can only take credit for these little guys.  All 3 figures are made out of fondant -  Abby (centre) has pearl sheen added to her dress to give it some shimmer!

Ice Cream Sundae Cake

Ice Cream Sundae - Yum!


This was actually the first cake I posted on my blog, however I get many questions and comments on it so I figured it deserves a 2nd chance in the spotlight! :-)

This cake was made for my daughter Olivia.   It proved to be the perfect cake for a bunch of giggly, sweet-toothed,  9 year-old girls!  It's always a great compliment when they do not believe it is actually cake! 
How to make an Ice Cream Sundae Cake:   The "waffle bowl" is 2 layers of chocolate cake, with a raspberry buttercream filling, covered ganache and then wrapped in fondant.    I scored the fondant, curled the edges and then hand-painted with a bit of brown food colouring to give it a waffle bowl feel.  The "Ice cream" is 2 layers of french vanilla cake, also with a raspberry buttercream filling, covered in french vanilla buttercream.  Real chocolate ganache drizzled over top, marked with swirls of real whipped cream.  And what sundae would be complete without a cherry on top!?  The bananas are fondant, as are the spoons - with each party-goers name on them.

Ice Cream Sundae Cake