Fun At Work...

Here is a cake I made for the company I work for.  I ended up doing this cake with a few friends from work as well - a really fun way to spend a Sunday!

The cake is a Victoria sponge, with buttercream and jam filling.  The outside is a mixture of black fondant and modelling chocolate, which I found a bit of a challenge to work with, but it's only my first try.  Jessica Harris has a lot of info on modelling chocolate if you want to try it!

The top was also hollowed out and partially filled with jam.

The jar on top is pretty much a 3d version of the company logo.  The letters were hand cut.

Sketches to Final

For a while I've wanted to do a post showing my rough sketchs before the cake is done. I pretty much always do a sketch of some kind, just to have an idea of what I want. I'm not always the best at following it to a T, but I'm trying hard not to change things on the fly... I like being experimental and sometimes my ideas run away with me, lol. Here are a few examples!

Fit For a Princess Cake

When someone asks me to do a Disney Princess cake I can't say no!

As someone who works in animation and still has a secret lifelong dream of someday working on a Disney film, I really wanted to do something awesome.

I wanted to do a cake that somehow represented all of the princesses, without actually having to mold each one. So I decided to take something that represents each one and make that instead.

 

And well, I'm an animator, so instead of printing each princess image and sticking them on I thought I'd draw little sketches of them, and make them like vintage cameos.

 

And have them going all around the cake.  The birthday girl's favourite princess is Mulan, so I put her picture on top.

 

The cake itself is a victoria sponge with pink almond buttercream icing.

  

Here's a view of the top. Hopefully people can have fun guessing which thing belongs to which princess! ^_^

Happy Holidays!

Nightmare Before Christmas cake

The animator in me loved making this Nightmare Before Christmas cake!

Indian Inspired

Made this cake for my amazing photographer friend's 1 year old's birthday party.

And I must admit, like a baby, this simple little cake was a bit of a struggle. The ganache seemed ok at the beginning, but it didn't stay as solid as I would have liked under the fondant. In fact, since I've returned from London I've been on the search for the perfect ganache recipe and quality chocolate that I can use. Chocolate here just doesn't work the same as in London for some reason! Found a new recipe that I will be trying next time.

Also couldn't sleep one night and so ended up working on this cake all night, which I don't suggest unless you're a night owl...

I love the little iced pattern though! I freely admit that I am not yet perfect at this. I'm going to take some time before May, just to practice techniques, and test some more Canadian friendly recipes. I guess the search for a perfect chocolate cake is not a bad task to take on... can't complain!

London - Day 25

Today went better than yesterday. A lot calmer I think now that the baking is done, still very challenging, especially knowing you're being watched. Sorry, I didn't take any pics today, but here's a list of things I did:

I covered my cake dummy with sugarpaste.
Dusted and taped flowers.
cut, stacked, and iced cakes.
covered one 8 inch square cake with marzipan.

Lots o stuff!

I'm sure now when I get home I'll be able to make cakes at super speed, if nothing else!


ON TO DAY 26

London - Day 3

I am now part of the London commute!

Today was pretty exhausting! We made 3 different kinds of cakes today! 3!! Fruit cake, carrot cake and chocolate. We also did sugar syrup and chocolate ganache. Everyone in the class is really awesome! Peggy is super cute and I wanted to cry when I met her :P C'mon, she's like a rock star of cakes! Like a big clumsy Canadian I wanted to give her a big hug, but then she did that kiss on both cheeks thing, lol - so Euro!

We did a little meet and greet in the morning, where we also had breakfast! Coffee, croissants, and jam, all made at the bakery! Have I mentioned that people eat a lot of croissants here? Cause they do. If you're gluten free you don't stand a chance in London...

Once we got our workbooks we headed to the studio...

Lots of cakes on display and a store full of goodies!

Our workstations. Trust me, it doesn't stay this tidy for long...

We learned the old school way of lining a cake pan! I like this method. It doesn't cost a lot and makes me feel like I know what I'm doing!

Don't I look all pro and stuff?!
At the end of the day we were all exhausted and I just wanted to go back to my bed and sleep. I don't think there will be any sightseeing tonight!

ON TO DAY 4

Unite For The Fight 2011!

This cake was for this year's Unite For The Fight fundraiser in Pembroke Ontario. UFTF raises money every year for children's cancer.
This cake was layers of Victoria Sponge, and red velvet, with almond icing, covered in chocolate and white fondant.

Spring Lilac wedding cake

This Saturday I finished my first wedding cake order! It was tons of hard work, and this one had the extra challenge of being gluten free. But I ended up finding something that worked (after some interesting experimentation), and everyone seemed ot enjoy it. This is a cake with chocolate and vanilla layers, almond icing, covered in fondant and decorated with fondant lilacs.

I must also give props to Nicky over at Small Things Iced. Her dragonflies inspired the ones I did here (although no where near as awesome ^_^).

Be My Classy Valentine