1st Birthday Jungle Animal Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders.  My business is now decorated cookies.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.

Jungle animal 1st birthday cake.

Golf Cake for Dad

I am no longer taking cake orders, now focusing my business on decorated cookies.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.

A golf loving dad's 43rd birthday cake.

Winery Wedding Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders, concentrating on decorated sugar cookies.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.  

Created for a lovely couple exchanging vows at a local winery, with a buttercream finish and meringue flowers and grape clusters.

Hockey Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders, concentrating on decorated cookies instead.  I have a great interpretation of this cake in cookies - check them out here!  This cake comes from the archives and was never posted before.

Celebrating Connor's birthday with a hockey cake.

Las Vegas 30th Birthday Poker Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders, but contact me for decorated Las Vegas poker cookies.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.

Las Vegas poker cake for 30th birthday.

Lemon Crate Cake for Book Launch

I am no longer taking care orders, concentrating on hand decorated custom sugar cookies.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.

This cake was created for a book launch event - Marlene's Meal Makeovers Cook Once, Produce Twice Kids.

13th Birthday Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders, concentrating instead on beautifully decorated, custom sugar cookies - check out this Sweet 16 set!  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.

Confetti and streamers for Chelsea's 13th birthday.

80th Birthday Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders, specializing now in beautiful and delicious custom sugar cookies, like this set for someone turning 70.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before due to poor photograph quality.

Rose cake for a classy lady's 80th birthday, I love this beautiful design!

Star and Guitar Cupcakes

I am no longer taking cake or cupcake orders, specializing instead on hand decorated sugar cookies.  These cupcakes are from the archives and have never been published before.  

Stars and guitars for birthday fun.

Winter Scene Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders, but can hook you up with terrific sugar cookies in any design to match your theme.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.

Winter scene for a joint birthday with fishing hut and snow mobile in the back of the pickup truck.

First Birthday Cake with Smash Cupcake

I am no longer taking cake orders, cut can create sweet cookie sets to match any theme, like these cute Mickey cookies.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before due to poor picture quality.

Striped cake with matching "smash" cupcake for Kyle.  I still love the colours.

Barbie and Princess Cakes

I am no longer taking cake orders, but am creating stunning and delicious decorated sugar cookies, like these cute Lalaloopsy cookies that any girl would love!  These cakes come from the archives and were never published before.

Barbie cake for Emily.

Princess cupcake tower for Jojo.

Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday Cake

I am no longer taking cake orders, concentrating on decorated sugar cookies instead.  This cake comes from the archives and was never published before.

First birthday cake for Owen.

Girl Cakes Never Posted Before

I am no longer taking cake orders, concentrating instead on decorated sugar cookies.  These cakes come from the archives and were never published before.

Ballet cake for Mady.

Tenth birthday for Gabby.

Halloween Cookies

Whether you are having a Halloween party or just want some special cookies to give to your most special trick-or-treaters this year, my delicious and cree-ee-eepy cookies will fit the bill!

 

 

An angry Frankenstein, a cauldron of bubbling brew, witches feet, hissing black cats, scary flying bats, a couple of haunting ghosts, deadly spiders on their webs, creepy jack-o-lanterns, and tomb stones of those departed in the most wicked of ways...  Sounds ghoulishly good!  Contact me for pricing or visit my facebook page.

Hockey Cookies

While the NHL season is currently in doubt, local arenas are abuzz with youngsters of all ages taking to the ice.  These cookies were to celebrate the home opener of the Bradford Bulldogs Minor Midget A boys game last Saturday night.  Personalized for each player, these cookies can easily be adapted for any sports jersey.

Shabby Chic Cake

Please note - I no longer accept cake orders, focusing instead on custom decorated sugar cookies.

Ali is a giver.  I sensed that the minute I met her last year at our planning meeting for her mother's 50th birthday/Mickey Mouse themed party last year.  A detail-oriented organizer, she threw her mother a terrific party, complete with a pretty nice Mickey cake.  (http://www.sweethandmade.blogspot.ca/2011/05/mickey-mouse-cake.html)  She is also a new aunt to twins and is very involved in their lives, despite the fact that these little boys live hours away.  She tends to do for everyone before she does something for herself, but hopefully she knows how important she is to her family and how much they all love her!  Her mom wanted a special cake for her birthday this year, in their favourite flavours - brown sugar marble for the cake and red velvet for the cupcakes.  She loves shabby chic style, so I used that as design style.  Happy birthday Ali!

I love the look of these large flowers and the pearl accents.

My first cakes

As my skills have improved over the years, I thought that today I thought I would share some of my first cakes, not all of them made by me, but some of them downright hilarious! 

Here is my first birthday cake.  I guess my mom wanted to keep it simple, but to me it looks like a store-bought flan with some whipped cream.  This is what you call "semi-homemade".  I'm sure we all enjoyed it, the boy in red sure looks happy about it!

 

By the time I turned six, I had had my share of the cakes my mom could get at the local pastry shops.  Whipped cream, fresh fruit, light sponge cake - yuck!  So, my ingenious mom would get me an ice cream cake.  I think there was some sort of mocha flavour, which I didn't like either!  I don't think she knows that.

 

I still own that tray.

 

Blowing out the candles!  When my mom tells my girls about my desire for ice cream cakes, she always says "ice cake", because in Dutch ice cream is "ijs", so my kids must wonder if she just slapped a icicle on a plate or something!

When I turned nine, this was my cake.  Homemade with whipped cream.  Pretty cute!

Check out the Holly Hobby napkins.

39 cents for a bottle of pop!

This is the cake my mom made for my brother's 13th birthday.  You might have guessed he played the trumpet.  You never know where the inspiration will come from!  Lol! 

This my mom's 50th birthday cake.  I think my sister-in-law made it with my "help".  I think I helped with placing the jujubes.

 

In 1981 I wanted to make my mom's birthday cake.  I had visions of this work of art I was going to carry out - a dark chocolate cake with white frosting.  I turned to my sister-in-law for help, she bought the cake mix and the frosting and let me do all the work in her kitchen.  Except, I forgot to grease the pan, and the cake just fell apart when I tried to remove it from the pan.  I perservered and frosted a crumbly mess.  My SIL had a vanilla cake mix and chocolate frosting in the cupboard and so we made that one too and this time we did grease the pan.



 

Here I am trying to frost the "crumble" cake.



Here are the two finished cakes.

I brought the ugly cake out first and thought my mom would be disappointed.  Nope, she didn't even notice anything was wrong and she loved it because I had made it! 

 

Blowing out the candles on the ugly cake.

Enjoying the beauty of the good cake!

Moving right along, it is now 19 years later and my oldest daughter was turning 4.  For her party, we went with a games theme, inspired by the fabulous Martha Stewart.  Here is the cake Martha made...

 



And here is my version!  Unbelievably horrible!!  I am having a hard time admitting I made this.  But it tasted great, with my first ever lemon curd and Swiss meringue buttercream!  Some of the features I now cringe at are the foil covered cookie sheet, the sloppy edges, the muted colours... wow!

And the photography!  Obviously not my husband's work!

Three years later I made this cake for my youngest.  I use this picture in my desktop slideshow and everytime it comes up and laugh at the lopsided edges and the writing and the colours and bulge between the layers.  The kids are cute, though!

When the sprinkles started to go into the edge of this Tupperware container, I decided to make it part of the decorating design.  Ingenious, I know!

I am pretty sure my skill level has improved.  I certainly have more recipes and tools and knowledge that I can bring to the table!  I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane!

 



40th Birthday Guitar Cake

To celebrate his 40th birthday, Fab's wife Nadia wanted a special cake that featured Fab's beloved Fender guitar.  The planning for the cake involved secret meetings and cheques left under doormats, which was a first for me!  We had to figure out how to make a small cake feature his guitar (a sculpted cake would just be too large) and I think the 2 dimensional guitar on the cake board was a pretty great compromise!  I love how the cake turned out and I think it proves that even small and simple cakes can be amazing!  Devil's food cake with strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream.

Lighthouse Cake for 75th Birthday Celebration

More and more repeat customers and friends contact me for a cake order, saying they happily volunteered to get the cake for their special family occasion - because they know they will get the oohs and aahs when they present the cake and again when it gets eaten!

This special cake was no exception.  To celebrate his parent's 75th birthdays, David and his wife asked me create the Donaghadee lighthouse in cake.  Originally from the town of Donaghadee in Ireland, this was meant to be a special link to their past. 

The base was created out of carrot cake with a delicious cream cheese frosting and covered in fondant, the lighthouse was made out of crispy squares.  I covered the cake board in piping gel that I tinted to a pale blue-green and added orange bouys, the "visitors--berths" sign and the lighthouse details. 

The cake travelled over 200 kilometers to a beautiful cottage on 12 Mile Lake in Haliburton, Ontario where the family gathered for a long weekend of celebration.



The cake was a hit!  It received the expected oohs and aahs and a few tears of joy before being enjoyed by all!

Beauty and the Beast's Belle Cake

To celebrate her birthday, Dakota and her friends gathered at Toronto's Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts where they watched a live production of Beauty and the Beast!  Later, the girls and their families gathered at a nearby restaurant to eat and celebrate with cake.  This Beauty and the Beast inspired cake was commisioned by Dakota's mom to help celebrate at the restaurant after the show.  (Thanks to Beautiful Kitchen for the inspiration for Belle!)

The cake was a delicious Devil's food cake filled with bittersweet chocolate ganache and covered in Swiss meringue buttercream!  I received a note from Dakota's mom; apparently Belle was "so real looking that Dakota let out a squeal...thanks Laura (and the ganache was FAB)."

Fairy Cake and Cookies

A few months ago I received an email from a mom in Whitby. She had found a picture of my fairy cupcake tower online and was smitten http://www.sweethandmade.blogspot.ca/2011/03/fairy-cupcake-topper.html. She had already ordered a birthday cake from a local baker but was hoping I would be willing to make the fairies to place on her daughter's cake. After a few emails we finally talked by phone and during that conversation she decided to forego her deposit to the original baker and asked me to make the entire cake. Now, Whitby is about 120 kilometers from my bakery and usually way, way out of my delivery area, but we really connected and I was very excited to make this darling cake for her.

Also included in the order was matching sugar cookies. To match the blue butterflies on the fairies, the white and yellow flowers on the cake and the toadstools, I created these deliciously sweet cookies.

Fish Shaped Cake

I was given freedom to design what I wanted when asked to create a cake for Andrew's 40th birthday.  When I was told he liked fishing, I knew exactly what I would be making!'

After covering the cake board with fondant (something I always do to ensure a beautiful finish), I carved it to look like a wooden planks.  Next, I baked and layered a delicious strawberry cake; yellow cake with fresh strawberry slices, Swiss meringue buttercream and strawberry compote.  I shaped the cake to look like a chubby trout and covered it in fondant which I coloured silver and green and blue.  A special thank you to Merissa of Spring Lake Cake for her inspiring design.  I think this might be the yummiest fish ever!  Happy birthday, Andrew!

Pink Polka-Dot Cake with Smash Cake

Nicole wanted a special cake for Mya's first birthday and together we decided on a design to match the party decorations, pink on pink polka-dots. 

After the party, Nicole sent me some pictures of Mya as she enjoyed her own personal smash cake. 

I think she loved it!

  

Every time I look at this picture I have to laugh!!  What a sweetie!

Gum Paste Flower Cake and Cupcakes

This beautiful cake and cupcake tower was created for a retirement gathering.  The cake was taken home by Joyce, the lucky retiree, while the 90 cupcakes were quickly devoured by her colleagues remaining on the job! 

The tower consisted of red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, lemon poppy seed cupcakes with lemon curd and Swiss meringue buttercream as well as chocolate cupcakes with chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.  Every cupcake had a handmade gum paste leaf and flower.  The cake was a chocolate cake with a filling of bittersweet ganache and chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream frosting.  It was covered in handmade fondant and more than 50 gum paste buds and blossoms.  I love how the cake resembled a spring hat.  I loved the way it all came together and I wish Joyce many years of happiness and good health!

Leprechaun Hat Cake - repost

I've never met a leprechaun, I've never even been to Ireland, but I imagine there are all different kinds of leprechaun personalities. The shy one, the bold one, the happy one and the grumpy one. And then there would be the one who would wear this jaunty little hat. I can only imagine he would walk with a confident gait and have a magnetic personality to match! Maybe this March 17th I will finally meet my first leprechaun. Can't wait to see what his hat looks like! This hat is made of four delicious layers of brown sugar butter cake, filled with caramel Swiss meringue buttercream and is covered with shamrock green fondant. Happy St. Patrick's Day!