30 Hour Famine...uh..I Mean...DECORATING....

Ya...that's right..THIRTY hours...STRAIGHT...no sleep no breaks..well except when I had those crackers and cheese....and then that pot of coffee.....

I'm exhausted..I JUST finished the fourth cake....and two of those cakes had baby cakes to go with them....so in essence, I had 6 cakes in 2 days.....and they weren't small either....

Now here's the thing I struggle with...I put myself out there saying that I can make these things for you...and I WANT to make these cakes for you..it's my thing...I advertise, you call/email...I decorate..simple, no? NO...I have this TERRIBLE conscience and am unable to say no...because I'm a people pleaser...I WANT to make people happy, and I don't want to disappoint them when they make a request...but sometimes that gets me into deep cake batter....and that stuff is REALLY hard to swim in!

So here is my NEW vow! no more than TWO cakes in any 48 hour span...so 2 cakes in 2 days or two cakes in one day with nothing the day before them...or after.....it's just too  much and the end result is I feel like I can't love the production NEARLY as much  as it deserves to be loved....I feel like I'm ripping you off because I then get into business mode..."must make cake"....not.."Oh wow! This is going to be AWESOME!!!!!" (which is where I want to be for these types of things...I want to love it...not loath it....lol

So here it is....my new rule of thumb. Poor Tony was cleaning up the aftermath from the cake baking/decorating hurricane of madness....I was making a mess faster then he could clean it up! He swore he would never do that too..I guess I must have looked pretty sad..hahahaha!!!

Anyhow, it wasn't all bad...I think they turned out pretty nice...and considering I am currently typing on a double keyboard (or...well...at least that's what my brain is thinking at the moment....) I'd say my focus lasted just long  enough not to drive to the wrong house to deliver the wrong cake...or put the wrong frostings in the wrong cakes.....that would NOT be a good thing! hahahah!!!

OOOHHHH!!!!! AND the BEST part of todays cakes were the 13 year old's birthday gift from MOI! or..well..my cousin.

If you don't already know, my cousin, Janick Arseneau was on the tv dance show called, "So You Think You Can Dance Canada"...and she made it to the final FOUR! Yup...she's that good....she's fearless, strong, graceful, talented and on her way to one HELL of a dance career! Anyways...one of the cakes I made today was for a girl who is turning 13 and is ALSO a dancer! So I got my aunt to send me a photo of the top 4 dancers, signed and wishing her a happy 13th birthday! HOW COOL IS THAT!!!!! hahahaha!!!

Anyhow..here's what came of it!

So...I had to play with her name because....well...as you can see...it's crooked...but then again, so is the entire cake...odd.....lol

Londyn's very own cake to smash to smithereens! (It's FULLY loaded with frosting...YA!)

Poster sent by my aunt for the birthday girl....signed by my cousin (far left) and the other 3 top 4 dancers....Denys (far right) was crowned the winner..BOO! lol jk....)

The cake for the birthday girl..I really wish I would have gotten a better shot of this one! It's a topsy turvy cake....and FAR more level! lol It turned out WICKED! 

Cakes #4 & 5 I like em.....but I'm bias....HA!

Zee booties...with leetle froggies..I like! tee hee hee!!!!

And the Piés de Resistance!  What`s October without at least ONE Halloween cake??I mean,  Really....c'mon now...that would just be silly.

ya....it's a 360 cake....they're just more fun that way! lol

zee skulls.....
Now...I didn't make all this stuff myself....my roommate and I worked on the gear...and  I was the lucky one that got to decorate it! yay!!!! It were EPIC and as my sister in law would say..."made of WIN!"
OH! And I should also state the following:
This Halloween cake was originally a request, but I didn't think I could make it because I was afraid it would colapse on itself...so this was actually more of an experiment...but a COOL experiment! hahahaha!!!

Save A Horse, Ride A Cowboy....

At first it was going to be a Budweiser can..but things changed and evolved..and this is the final product...It's still a little wet from where I erased to the powdered sugar...but otherwise, I think it turned out pretty great!

Everything is edible and hand made...
The cake is Vanilla with Vanilla butter cream inside..VERY yummy!! (I spent most of the decorating time eating the scraps...you know...quality control...lol)

Anyhoo...here are some shots....

My big fear in decorating this one was making it too girly as it's for the man of the house...but I think just some simple circles and gold & silver dragees did the trick...

Here's a close-up of the belt buckle.... everything was hand made...my biggest obstacle is still freestyle writing and spacing it out properly...but in the end, it just makes it look more like it was made with love..which it was!

Jewels Of All Colors...Red And Green And Black And Blue....

Ok...so I hadn't disappeared...just jumped on the relaxing wagon after my epic tumble across my baby gate with a MASSIVE pot of turkey broth from Thanksgiving dinner....it was crazy...I thought for SURE that I had broken my knee and damaged myself for life...and figured I would never be able to run again (not that I've done anything remotely close to running in the past year and a half.....but whatever...the IDEA that I CAN'T anymore made cry...or was that from th pain?...huh.. let me think......) Anyways I HAD to get a shot of the results from my stunning fall which would likely get a 10, even from the Russian judge at the Olympics....that is...if clumsiness were a classified as a sport...I could teach it I do it so well! Honestly...I was almost graceful as I was slowly gliding through the air with 25lbs of turkey broth in my hands accompanied by the classic "HOLY SHIT!!!" look on my face (The kind you see on movies such as American Pie, or something Jim Carry might do)....It was truly an American Express moment...priceless....And my delicious pot of turkey broth? Smashed perfectly on the floor-flat as though I had placed it gently....except, it just wasn't gentle...it was hard and loud...BUT the only real spillage was the turkey facial that I was so fortunate to receive as broth came flying up and in my eyes....my vision was skewed for the rest of the night...and the next day I couldn't help but notice how soft my face was...
Anyhow here's what my knee got to experience....This part was SO NOT COOL.....

psssst...it's the left one.....lol

in case you're wondering...I'm not like Olive Oil...my knees are NEVER this big in comparison to the rest of my legs...hahaha!!!

THESE were the GOOD jewels....I got my kit last week and have been playing around with different colors and flavors..mmmm....candy gemstones!!!!

Anyhow....moving on....
I have a friend who had a little baby girl a year ago and for her very first birthday, I was asked to make a coconut birthday block cake....The blocks were for mom and dad and the little cake was for the birthday girl...lots and lots and LOTS of frosting....plenty to make a big òl mess with....
And she loved it...I'm still waiting on getting a photo of her smashing it to smithereens...How cute that would be!!!

Her name is Kimaya, and she's the cutest baby girl EVER...smaller then my baby...who's 3 months younger then her...and full of fire! She's a bundle of energy who's been running around since she was 9 months old....Nathan just started crawling....and he's nearly 10 months old now...I'm ok with that...hahaha!!!!

My cousin and his gf are stying with us in our basement....and they are both teachers....that has NOTHING to do with cakes..BUT it's the story behind what the teachers are doing that has to do with cakes! Nicole and the rest of her fellow staffers had decided to draw names for birthday cakes to give to each other...and today she was to bring in HER cake....so yesterday I became her assistant and together we created this stunning artwork dedicated to an EA who LOVES the color red and has a VERY classy look about her....so we decided to go with her interests.....

This was my first attempt at draping...and we waited too long to decide how to get it on....resulting in a little bit of elephant skin...but honestly...we're pretty impressed with ourselves! haha!! It turned out pretty nice! We decided on red roses because they are lovely...and after it was finished, Nicole put a beautiful shimmer on the draping, making it look more like silk and after that, I frosted each petal tip with red glitter gel to give it that extra touch of elegance....In the end, I think we pulled it off VERY well...and like everything else in life...it only gets better from there...Now having tackled the "dreaded draping" I know what is necessary to pull it off more successfully and can't wait to try it again!!!!

And then this morning I had to finish another cake that was requested by the lovely Lisa (one of my favorite clients....) It's fairly self explanatory...tee hee hee!! I thought it turned out quite nicely...I loved her design idea, and choice of colors...very bold, yet dainty....she's such a fabulous lady....

And tonight I work on duplicating Cake Boss's "80's Theme Cake" sans the boom box....and instead of the pink, it's been requested to be teal....It's going to rock like Poison's Hair did....AWESOME!

And another project due this coming Monday....Wait for it...it's gonna be damn cool......I even get to use my silver and gold edible paint!!

Thanksgiving With Crossbones....Not Wishbones

So it's Thanksgiving, and I KNEW it was going to be Thanksgiving when I committed to these cakes because I didn't think we were going to have dinner...It's just not our "thing"...but that's mostly because we're a small family and a turkey is A LOT of meat, and A LOT of work, and I HATE cooking....(yet, yes, I LOVE to bake cakes...I don't know, I don't get it either....lol) anyhow...carrying on...
So, the day before yesterday, we decided to do the dinner thing as I have Joey with me this year and we have my cousin & his gf in our basement...suddenly my little family isn't so little...so why not hey? We go to the store, buy the turkey and put it in the fridge to find it rock solid the next day...Time for plan B...leave it on the counter overnight...NOT smart. I find it at room temperature this morning, and uncertain, I open her to to smell...FISH? Well, anyways, it smelled that way to me. Tony said it smelled more like milk that you THINK has gone bad but then taste it only to realize that it was just the outer crusty edge that smelled yucky...As if his "NO it doesn't smell like fish" story  makes the turkey edible in ANY sort of fashion....So...time for plan B..uh...again. I made a few phone calls and found a shop that has fresh turkeys....so I ran over and bought it right away. Our original fish-turkey was $11.00...my new feathered friend was $60...and 3 times the size. It was 20lbs which...for those who are unsure of the size of this...means we could have fed the entire neighborhood and still had leftovers for the week. To feed 5 people, We carved 1/2 a turkey breast...and a drumstick....Now the funny part is...one of the guys had seconds (an ENTIRE plate full of food) and in the end we STILL had to wrap up leftovers from the meat that we carved....so in my cousins fridge sits an ENTIRE bird, less half a boob and only one leg...oh bugger. It sits in his fridge because it was just too much meat to fit in mine. It's overflowing in the biggest pot I own...We're a little overwhelmed by the monstrosity that is the feast we had this evening....But might I say...WAS IT EVER DELICIOUS!!!!! SOOO good! Oh turkey...how I love thee!

Anyhow...blah blah...turkey this and turkey that...I know, I know...GET ON WITH THE CAKE!!

Soooo....new tiaras with dragees purchased in town....and a whole new bag of tricks coming in the mail!! I also had the privilege of making a very good friends birthday cake, which was epic awesomeness. Pink and orange and black and plastered with SKULLS AND CROSSBONES! The reason this is so cool is because this girl and her husband have matching wedding bands that have skulls and crossbones on them...WICKED...and for HIS birthday, she asked if I could make him a skull and crossbones cake. At the time I had no gear and had to use a pizza cutter & paring knife to get the job done...but it was cool and the neat thing is seeing how much I have evolved since then. We all learn new tricks on our adventures and we all shift gears now & then...and it's always neat to sit back & reflect where we were...where we are..and where we are headed....it puts a big 'ol smile on my face....

Another gf of mine called for a cake to go with her TG dinner. So I made her a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream and it was stuffed with caramel...oh dear...it was like eating heaven on a FORK. I'm actually drooling as I write this....ha!

I also made cupcakes for another fabulous lady whom, I have recently discovered could possibly be my clone...We have experienced the same tragedies, triumphs, celebrations, and when I met her face to face, I also discovered that we have damn near the same eye glasses...spooky!!! hahahaha!! Anyway, she's a jewel that I feel honored to have met and she has given me yet, another fabulous reason as to why I am doing this...I also get to meet some wicked people! She asked me to make her some yummy cupcakes with a variety of frostings for her roommate from Cape Breton. He's not a young boy....not an old man...but a spry young gentleman in the prime of his life, so what flavors do we serve this man to celebrate such a birthday? Well...being an adult myself, I know that I can't live without: coffee, my vanilla and something special to make an otherwise ordinary moment extra special....So I had his flavors be coffee, vanilla and irish cream...the perfect combination...unless, there's something in there that someone may not like of course....(enter giggle with snort here.)

On a side note: This same woman asked me to make her FOUR DOZEN cupcakes last week, letting me go nuts with my flavors...so I made caramel filled vanilla and chocolate cupcakes, nutella filled vanilla and chocolate cupcakes...cupcakes with strawberry buttercream, raspberry buttercream, cotton candy buttercream, chocolate buttercream, vanilla-caramel swirl buttercream, and vanilla-nutella swirl buttercream. It was insane...and I must apologize as I totally BLANKED on the photo op for it...my bad...I am, as the French call it, a dummé (that's French for dummy...no no..actually it's not...but it's funny as hell ain't it? hahahaha!!))

Alright then. so photos of the goodness of it all...I have many cakes for this month and will post them as the month goes by...ahhhh the good times....and only 2 turkeys were harmed in the production this post. hahaha!!!!

My two latest tiaras..they are still waiting some shimmer to make look even MORE royal like.

The cupcakes with the green are the irish cream, the ones in the middle are coffee (garnished with ground espresso and a coffee bean...mmmm....) and the back ones are the vanilla...all VERY yummy!

An up close and personal shot of the buttercream...it's just so yummy with it's whipped & fluffy texture.  

The vanilla cake made for my gf....sooo good!!!

Top layer - Vanilla cake with  chocolate mint buttercream

The bottom layer is my chocolate mud cake also with the chocolate mint buttercream.

This is her hubby's cake made earlier this year....great gifts for husband and wife hey? lol

I Challenge Thee!

Ok...so quite a few years ago, my mom was watching Oprah Winfrey and the topic was weird obsessions. She told me about how some people have issues with otherwise meaningless everyday situations, with one person being toilet paper. When she replaces the toilet paper...her obsession is making the paper come out from the top, not underneath.....When my mother told me this we both laughed at this person and poked fun at the stupidity of the scenario...and then I went pee...(can you see where this is going???) and reached for the toilet paper...and it dawned me that I too had this VERY SAME OBSESSION...and the first thing that came to mind was..."OH SHIT!" (No pun intended).

As it turns out...I too MUST have the toilet paper coming out towards me from above the roll, not under it...and I always thought it wasn't that big of a deal until today when I DESPERATELY needed to pee (leaving the house after drinking coffee sans ridding excess liquid) and using my husbands work facilities. I reach for the toilet paper, find that that the roll is coming out from UNDER itself...and I become...offended. That's right...I was OFFENDED at the fact that my husbands employer didn't have their toilet paper positioned properly, on the OFF chance that I may need to use their restroom (In over 2 years, this was the first time I had used it..it's an otherwise lovely restroom)...Today I realized...I have a problem. Do you  think there's a 12 step program for those who need to have the asswipe facing the "right" way?

Anyways...it was a disturbing afternoon...and I can't stop thinking about how incredibly strange I really am...so here's my question...Do YOU have a weird fetish? Is there anything that YOU need to do/say/eat/feel/hear??? ANYTHING? C'mon people...think of this as, like...therapy for that bizarre cake girl...and maybe...JUST maybe we can all fix each other.....and then sit in a circle around a camp fire, singing Kumbaya next summer....

You know I've never really done drugs....Seriously...I REALLY haven't...well, at least not enough to support any theory that it would have caused any long term damage...I could count how many times on one hand...on the fingers...not even including the thumb!

sigh....It's been a VERY long day....hahahahahahaha!!!!

Post your comment below and let's see if I'm one of many unusual beings...or if I'm really...just in need of some good counselling...BAHAHAHAHA!!!

Baby Dora Sans The Princess

Dora cake - CHECK!
Baby Shower cake - CHECK!
Princess cake - CHE....uh...wait...D'OH!!!!

No princess cake this time around....Transportation became an issue...and therefore we had to scratch the order...I'm so terribly sad...but on a lighter note, I broke the tiara anyhow, so perhaps it was a sign...Might have to pull an EPIC stunt off for this little girl who only just wanted to be a princess for her 4th birthday!!! Maybe a birthday for Christmas? I don't know...SOMETHING though cuz EVERY girl deserves to be a princess!!!

On to the good...
I made cakes upon cakes upon cakes this weekend...it's 4am and the only reason I'm awake at this disgusting hour is because I JUST finished the baby shower cake....which needs to be delivered tomorrow by noon...It's alright though because it NEEDED to be done in this fashion as the insides are holding fresh berries which can't really be left to sit for too long...so here we are, trying to get some down time in before I hit the sack for about 4 hours just to start my day all over again...at least the cake journey is over....this week anyhow...sort of...it's more like a break before I start on new projects...Halloween is coming up and I fully intend on making it spooky...TASTY...but spooky....lol I've even recruited Joey (my son) to design me a cake...Although, in exchange for this job he says he wants half the pay...I told him it was for the purpose of advertisement...so he said no.... rotten little bugger...FINE...I shall come up with spooky on my own!

The Dora cake turned out really cool...as did the baby shower cake....
I have to admit though, that the baby shower cake was starting to give me grief..could be because I was hitting hour 16 on cake design for the day...or it could be that I opted to NOT foil the cardboard before placing the cake on it, therefore allowing the buttercream to bleed....ick...so I made some crafty adjustments and VOILA! A fully loaded board with no real sign of failure!

The girl who ordered it said the baby was due on the 15th of January...so I put it in there...and she also said not to make the cake all blue and stuff...so I made it green and purple...although it looks green and blue in the shots...but it's really not! I just didn't want it to be violet and therefore girly....so I had to make it somewhat bold....anyhow it turned out wicked and I'm SUPER proud of it (and of ME!!!! yay!!)

So there we have it. Another weekend come and gone...cakes were made, themes were duplicated yet with a different design...

And I ate steak tonight....None of you know this about me but, I have allergies...TONS of allergies...the biggest being celery...if I eat it RAW..I could die..if I eat it COOKED...I'm fine...I don't know I don't get it either...whatever...Yes, yes...I know...WTF dude? It's cellulose and WATER! WTF!?? Well..anyhow, I AM allergic, found out the hard way...and can't ever eat it raw again...which SUCKS cuz it's my favorite veggie. damn. Anyhow...I'm ALSO allergic to grass...and cows EAT grass...and WE eat COWS...find the connection? Ya...so for over 2 1/2 years I had eaten no beef...and today I gave in and had a bit of hubby's steak...it was bliss....cooked perfectly to a medium rare, seasoned juuuust right...straight from the BBQ and had JUST the perfect amount of marbling, making it even more tender then from the cut of beef itself....it was orgasmic...we sat and ate...and ate....and our eyes rolled into the backs of our heads as we felt everything in the world melt away while our mouths and brains thoroughly enjoyed their...steak. mmmmm.......it was heaven...thank you Ms. Heffer...you made my day!

Anyhow....that's about it for now...I need to sleep...so until next time....happy caking!!!