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!

 

 

First Birthday Cake with Smash Cake

It seems like just yesterday that I made Chloe's baby shower cake.  http://www.sweethandmade.blogspot.com/2011/05/baby-shower-cake.html  Now she is one and I wanted to make her a special first birthday cake too!  With whimsical flowers in pinks and reds, the adult tier on the bottom was chocolate/chocolate and the smash tier was vanilla/vanilla.

One popular new feature of a first birthday party is the "smash" cake.  It means exactly what you think - the 1 year old gets the a small cake to smash at will.  Chloe was a lady and kept things pretty neat, but did enjoy every bite!  Happy birthday, sweet Chloe!

Wedding Reception Cake & Cookies

After a small and beautiful Cuban wedding at Christmas time, Sarie and Larry planned a reception closer to home for the family and friends who could not attend the wedding.  Using their invitation as inspiration, I was asked to create a cake and bonbonnieres for their guests.  This project was a labour of love and the gold and cream invitation provided a great jumping off point to create the two-tiered cake and matching cookies.

I achieved the golden flowers on the cake with fondant and royal icing and used 24 carat edible lustre dust to bring some sparkle to the cake. 

For the cookies I used royal icing in various shades and used the 24 carat edible lustre dust on a few of the flowers' elements to bring in the sparkle.  I wrapped each cookie in a celephane bag that I finished with a card thanking the guests.  Wishing you a happy life together, Sarie and Larry!

Making your own fondant - a step-by-step tutorial

Fondant covered cakes are very popular and make for a beautiful finished cake.  There are a variety of ready-to-use fondants on the market, that range from really delicious to much less so!  Of course, the really delicious ones are not available to me locally.  I live near, but not in Toronto, and any trip into the "city" takes a couple of hours out of my day.  Sometimes that is more time than I am willing to spend for really good tasting fondant!

Since I have always had a make-your-own approach to food, I felt no different when I first started using fondant.  I sourced an awesome recipe in The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum and have been using it ever since.  When I first tried the recipe I found it intimidating, but quickly realized it took about 20 minutes to put together, it has great elasticity and taste and it saves me a lot of time and money!  A single batch of this recipe costs me less than $5 to make, the equivalent amount of store-bought fondant costs 2 - 3 times that much! 

So today I created a tutorial on how I make fondant, I hope you enjoy!

Here are the ingredients - corn syrup, shortening, unflavoured gelatin, water, glycerine and confectioners' (powdered) sugar.  My trusty scale is also shown, a very important part of the process!  Note - today I made a triple batch, I usually do a double.

First I sprinkle 1 tablespoons of gelatin over 3 tablespoons of water and let it soften for about 5 minutes.  While that is happening I measure out the rest of the ingredients, 1/2 cup corn syrup and 1 tablespoon of glycerin, as well as 2 tablespoons of shortening.  I get a pot of water on the stove and bring it to a simmer.  Next I measure out 920 grams of confectioners' sugar.  Please note - if your confectioners' sugar is not fresh (clumpy), please sift it at this stage.  My sugar is fresh, I use so much of it, that I don't usually need to sift it.

The next step I do before I move to the stove is to prepare the kneading area.  I cover the area in shortening to prevent sticking.

I place the gelatin in a heatproof bowl over the simmering water.  (I usually put it in the heatproof bowl right away, but today my thinking cap was off and I started it in a non-heatproof and had to transfer it - oops!)  I stir the gelatin mixture as the water simmers underneath until the gelatin and water mixture has turned liquid.

Then I add the corn syrup and glycerin.

Then I add the shortening in pieces (the smaller the pieces, the shorter amount of time it takes to melt).

The hot mixture is poured into the sugar and using your hands, mix it until it comes together.  Some advice for this step - grease your hands with shortening.  And I mean it - rub that stuff all over like it is the coldest, windiest winter day and you've not seen handcream in a month.  I used to just grease my palms and fingers, but I've learned my lesson - now everything attached to my wrist is greasy!

  

Once the mixture comes together (no photograph of that, sorry!) dump the mixture out onto the greased counter and start kneading.

  

Keep kneading until it is smooth and elastic and looks like this:

  

Package it in a zippered storage bag and rest for a few hours before using.  It can be coloured to your heart's content!  It is a wonderful recipe that produces a really terrific product.  It has been a lifesaver more than once and I will continue to make it!  I hope I took out some of the intimidation factor for you and hope you give it a try.

Here are a few of my cakes that I used my own fondant on - enjoy.

Cake & Cookie Decorating Parties

Over the years I have thrown my daughters some incredible birthday parties (tooting my own horn, just a little!)  No matter what the theme, I would always make one of the activities involve icing in a piping bag!  Whether they were decorating cookies or cupcakes, the kids always had a blast!

When my youngest turned 5, each child got to decorate their own mini Barbie cake!

So in response to all the joy I have witnessed when kids wield an icing-bag and after numerous inquiries in regards to parties and cake decorating instruction, I set about organising a couple of cake decorating party test runs with children of various ages and they were very successful.  I couldn't believe how much fun everyone had! 

And so today, I officially announce that Sweet Handmade is offering decorating parties.

A Sweet Handmade birthday party is an easy party for you!  Thoughtfully planned out, all you need to do is provide each party-goer with a work area and I will take care of the rest; I set up each work station, lead the group with 1 1/2 to 2 hours of decorating fun and I clean up at the end.  There is no need to purchase a party cake because the demonstration cake becomes the party cake - and this delicious cake is one you will want to eat!  There is also no need to purchase a loot bag or take-home gifts, as each child will bring home their cake and cookies, boxed for ease!  Starting at $180 for up to six children, $30 for each additional child to a maximum of 15 children.

Enjoy these pictures of young budding cake designers as they try their hand at cakes, fondant, cookies, frosting, cutters, piping and fun!

After set-up, this young party-goer has her sugar cookies and frosted cake ready to decorate.  After a quick and easy demonstration, she will be ready to go.

A little help is sometimes needed!

After I demonstrate some super sugar cookie decorating techniques like outlining, flooding and marbling, the kids try out what they learned and come up with their own designs.

An occasional lick is part of the fun and so yummy!

The party is surprisingly quiet as the amateur decorators work on their craft.

I then lead the group to channel their inner-cake-designers, first by demonstrating how to colour and roll fondant, then how to cover their cakes and how to finish the design with fondant cutouts and piped icing.  Each child then works on their own cake.

Using cookie cutters and fondant balls, this party-goer made her cake beautiful.

This cake was decorated in beautiful bright colours - stars, teddy bears and hand prints.  Super cute!

Always different, always special, always delicious and always super fun!

Contact me today to book your next party - suitable for ages 5 and up.  What a wonderful time!

Valentine Mini Cakes

I am completely enamored by beautiful chocolates.  It has to be the best part of Valentine's Day!  They speak to me, so luxuriously packaged and so deliciously decadent.  Not being a chocolatier, I decided to create these beautiful Valentine's desserts out of cake.  These luxurious mini chocolate cakes are decorated to look like decadent boxed chocolates.  A special thank you to Rosie at Sweetapolita, whose talent inspired me to create these.

Each mini cake starts with a 2" or 3" base of my Devil's Food Cake and is topped with a lavish filling and frosting before they get covered in handmade modelling chocolate or fondant. 

Rum (dome with sprinkles):  A base of Devil's Food Cake is covered with a dome of rum flavoured Swiss meringue buttercream frosting.  I wrapped this boozy treat in milk modelling chocolate and topped it with chocolate sprinkles.

Mocha (square with red squiggle):  I brushed two small tiers of Devil's Food cake with Kahlúa syrup and filled the tiers with coffee Swiss meringue buttercream before wrapping them in delicious dark modelling chocolate and topping the whole mini cake with a squiggle of red royal icing.

Classic (gold dome):  A dome of my classic Swiss meringue buttercream sits on top of a circle of Devil's Food Cake and is then wrapped in fondant, which I coloured with a gold lustre dust.

Almond & Apricot (square with dark squiggle):  A square of Devil's food cake is brushed with an apricot compote and topped with an Almond Dacquoise (it is an almond meringue) and the entire mini cake is frosted in Swiss meringue buttercream before being coated in dark modelling chocolate.  Yum!

Raspberry (pink heart):  A heart shaped cake is brushed with a raspberry compote and topped with raspberry Swiss meringue buttercream.  I then covered the cake with pink fondant, which I painted with an edible pink lustre dust - so pretty!

Salted Caramel (round with salt):  Two tiers of Devil's Food Cake are filled with handmade caramel and frosted in chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.  Covered in milk modelling chocolate and topped with fleur de sel to make this decadent flavour extra delicious.

Chocolate Mint (round with dark swirl):  Two tiers of the cake are filled with a mint chocolate ganache and frosting in a mint Swiss meringue buttercream.  Covered in a dark modelling chocolate.  So good!

Double Chocolate (square with pink heart):  Two tiers of Devil's Food Cake, filled with chocolate ganache and frosted in chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream.  Covered in milk modelling chocolate and topped with a fondant heart.

These special Valentine chocolate cakes come complete in a pink or red box and a matching ribbon, ready to give your special someone, or to share with a number of your special someones!  Box of 9 mini cakes: $45.  Place your order early!  Pickup days are Saturday, February 11th until Tuesday, February 14th.

Valentine Mini Cookies

In a play on a box of decadent chocolates, this box is actually filled with cookies!  Make your Valentine extra happy with this box of most delicious all-butter sugar cookies disguised with royal icing to look like the best quality chocolates!  A special thank you to Maryann, the Cookie Artisan for the inspiration.

These special Valentine cookies come complete in a box with a lovely ribbon finish, ready to give your special someone!  Box of 16 1" cookies: $20.  Place your order early!  Pickup days are Saturday, February 11th until Tuesday, February 14th.

Sweet Valentine - handmade candies and chocolates

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I am offering "Sweet Valentine", a box filled with handmade candies and chocolates. Each and every treat in this box is made by hand.  This beautiful 8"x8" box, containing almost a pound of sweets, comes wrapped with a raffia ribbon, is completely ready for gift giving.

The box contains 6 varieties of chocolates and candies.

I start the "Rum Balls" by baking a beautiful pan of brownies. After cooling, I crumble them and mix the crumbs with the best rum and then I roll them in red sanding sugar. Really yummy!

"Heart-Shaped Marshmallows" are made by mixing sugar and gelatin together, cooking it and then whipping it. Using a small heart-shaped cutter, I cut the delicate shapes and dust them with confectioners' sugar. They just melt in your mouth.

To make the "Chocolate-Covered Almonds", I toast the almonds. Then I candy them. And then I dredge the almonds in melted semi-sweet chocolate, before finally tossing them in cocoa.

"Almond Croquant" is made by cooking sugar to the soft-ball stage and mixing it with crushed almonds. The result is a crunchy/chewy candy that is so sweet and delicious!

"Bourbon Pecan Chews" are made by mixing sugars and pecans with Bourbon - they will remind you of pecan pie.

Finally, "Chocolate-Covered Caramels" are made by cooking sugar, cream and butter until it reaches 245 degrees, making caramel. After cooling, I cut the round shapes, temper top quality bittersweet chocolate and then the caramel shapes are dredged through the chocolate. Topped with dragees, these beauties will delight!

Boxed and wrapped with a lovely Valentine ribbon, ready for gift-giving - $30.  Place your order early!  Pickup days are Saturday, February 11th until Tuesday, February 14th.

Valentine Heart-Shaped Cookies

These delicious all-butter sugar cookies make the perfect treats for your child's class on Valentine's Day, a wonderful treat for your office or just a nice treat with a cup of tea!

These special Valentine cookies come individually packaged, ready for gift-giving.  The 1 1/2" cookies (minimum order of 20) are $1.25 each and the 3 1/2" cookies (minimum order of 10) are $2.50 each.  Place your order early!  Pickup days are Saturday, February 11th until Tuesday, February 14th.

Valentine Milk Chocolate Mousse Cake

Sure to leave your sweetheart smitten!  This cake starts with three layers of Chocolate Génoise Cake.  I cover the layers with Bittersweet Ganache and top each layer with thick Milk Chocolate Mousse into which I mix bits of buttery cashew brittle.  The entire cake is topped with Whipped Bittersweet Ganache and decorated with cashew brittle hearts!  Everything about this cake is just spectacular!

This cake serves 12 and costs $90.  Place your order early!  Pickup days are Saturday, February 11th until Tuesday, February 14th.

Gingerbread Ornaments

I love a Christmas tree filled with edible treats!  Candy canes, shiny foil wrapped chocolate balls, strings of popcorn and delicious gingerbread cookies.  Here are my offerings for the most delicious Christmas tree.



These 5" gingerbread snowflakes are so fragrant and yummy, made with butter, dark brown sugar, molasses and spices including cinnamon, ginger, cloves and pepper.  Decorated with royal icing and a shiny red ribbon, they add something special to your tree and are a delight to sneak off and eat!  $3 each, minimum order of 4.

These 3" gingerbread ornaments are decorated with royal icing and edible silver dragees.  They will be a focal point on your tree, as well as add a delicious gingerbread smell to your home.  These cookies come in a box of 9 for $22 and make a wonderful hostess gift.  Send me an email at sweethandmade@rocketmail.com to place your order.