Jenna's Habs cake for John

Jenna and John are getting married [congrats!]. Jenna decided to surprise John, a huge Canadiens fan, with his very own cake for their engagement party. She gave him the whole schpeel that she ordered a simple black and white for the event, but alas, she tricked him. She reported back that it was a hit with the boys. Therefore, smiles all around!


[note on one of the pics: it appears to be wet. That's because it's painted fondant. Literally, I just paint fondant with fondant dye & a brush. It remains slightly tacky since solid sugar (fondant) isn't too keen on being wet]

Happy Halloween! Kendra and Alex's Stag and Doe Cake

We are currently in the 5 week period that I am calling the most busy time of my life (for now). You are getting this preamble because this is the first non-fondant cake in a long time, therefore a time saver. Actually, it was also pretty stress-free since I didn't have to yell at said fondant. University friend, Kendra, and her husband-elect held a stag and doe yesterday. They wanted a cake to go with their Halloween theme.

Bacardi Cake (Sheena's Cake for Robert)

Here is the first cake ever purchased. Ever. This also means that I was far too anxious and critical throughout the whole process (beware anyone who stepped into the kitchen Friday evening). Sheena wanted a Bacardi themed cake for her boyfriend Robert. Overall, it was a pretty simple theme. Execution was a little more difficult. The bottom tier was no issue; chocolate cake with butter cream icing. The upper tier was black forest and caused the majority of the issues. Cherry filling is slippery and difficult to build on and seemed to have declared me its sworn enemy. The cake might have been too moist too... but I still maintain that the cherry filling was being unnecessarily antagonistic. Lastly, do you know how hard it is to make red fondant? Two pots of fondant dye later, it was a hot pink mess. Thanks to the best boyfriend in the world for making two fondant dye runs & doing the mixing. He is the very best ever. Also, he braved my psychotic rants about everything.

I tried cutting out the Bacardi bat out of fondant, but that's obviously a ridiculous idea which failed miserably. Trying to cut detailed shapes out of fondant (and not letting them dry for upwards of a day or two) will generally result is a disfigured version of what you intended. I resorted to painting the bat with "no-taste" black fondant dye. If you mix the dye with a little bit of water, you can use it much like water colours. Overall, the painted-bat was a success. It's deformed fondant-cut brother is now smooshed in the compost. Serves him right!

Chocopocalyspe!

For Libra Birthday this year, the cake of choice was the CHOCOPOCALYPSE. My mother in common-law has a policy of chocolate, only chocolate. Don't even think about adding something to that chocolate and ruining it. This is well suited to my need to take things too far. Thusly, I am introducing the Chocopocalypse. Chocolate cake, Chocolate icing and brownies on top. The smell of it alone was amazing. The next project I am working on is the Chocopocalypse diffuser for the home. Amazing.

It was only a two layer cake since there were only 6 of us, but it still lives up to it's name.

What the flock!?

It was New Zealand Father's day not so long ago. Naturally I must stereotype NZ with cake. I ran out of normal cupcake paper cups, so please excuse the Dora. Thanks to Don for the photos- Now you can see what my cupcakes look by night and day :)

Old School Super Mario

This was for Fraser's neice & nephews. It was a chocolate, chocolate, chocolate cake. Seemed to go over well, minus the fondant. Turns out 4 yr olds know better than to eat solid sugar paste. Funny that.

I never got a picture of the finished cake. Like I said, I never thought I would show anyone. Oh well!

The Train Cake

Don, my father-in[common] law, loves four things 1) Deb 2) His boys 3) Trains 4) Raspberry pie. This had raspberry pie filling and made Don smile. WIN!

The invention of the pie cake: 100% more delicious than it sounds

My brother-in-[common]law is an apple fanatic. I don't know about the fruit in particular, but as the filling in a baked good, he is more than enthusiastic. He once hugged a waitress who made a particularly good apple crumble (keep in mind, we were out to breakfast). So, apple-something was a must for his birthday. After a lot of debate, I decided to keep it simple. This was a vanilla cake with apple pie filling. On the streets it is just known as "mind blowing". I never intended to share pictures of my cakes, they were mostly taken as a record for myself. Keep that in mind when you notice that my pictures are not exactly perfect. (Also illustrated by the newspapers featured in a previous post)

For my love

Fraser likes orange a lot. It's a compromise. We don't have orange walls, he gets an orange cake. This was my first attempt at different flavours. It was a chocolate cake with a chocolate hazelnut filling. Bit too rich, but it was well received.

The motivations of family

This cake was made for my Montreal family coming up to visit. I think that might be the reason the fondant turned out alright. Or it could be that this was my fourth cake or so and I was just improving....

Okay so maybe it still isn't perfect, but I'm still proud of this one.

The first of the cakes....

This is the cake that started it all, for the person who started it all. My friend Cait is a lady who shares the same love of sparkle & sugar. We both decompress with crafts. This cake was my first for her 25th birthday. Naturally, it is chocolate with more chocolate and a bit of vanilla icing (since you can't dye chocolate purple).

A few weeks later came my first fondant cake. All in all, it was a valid attempt at wrapping a cake in solid sugar. It did come out a bit lumpy on one side, but where's the fun in posting THAT photo?. Here's a confession: fondant makes me nervous. In about 90% of my life, I am a reasonable human being. 10% of the time there is that perfect storm that makes me stutter get all nervous. Fondant can be that perfect storm. I can safely say that 6 months later, I have conquered my fear of fondant. I don't so much hurl a sugar pancake at my cakes (since putting it on as quick as possible would minimize the experience) as semi-confidently cover them in a sugary blanket. Fondant and I are now friends. The good part is that it was for my mother...and she loved it. Because that's what moms do.

Welcome!

I have had some interest in my cakes & jewelry, so what's a more accessible way to show people what I am up to than a blog? Mostly this is going to be a blog with my attempts at cakes and crafts. (So a little forgiveness as you will clearly see that I am teaching myself everything)...

The name? It's a stolen error. One time I over heard a woman with a thick Caribbean accent say "oh, it's just the pigment of your imagination"...and that's exactly what this is. It's my ideas, turned in to sugar and sparkly things. And what could be better than that?

Thanks for checking this out! Any input is much appreciated!