Perhaps this Tree Cake will make you feel "sappy"....

Special birthdays require special cakes and this one certainly was! This cake was for a huge party to celebrate my friend Raman's 70th birthday, and the cake was the brain child of his wife, another friend of mine. She approached me and asked how we could make a tree out of cake seeing as after my wedding, trees were my thing. (They were the theme, after all....) She said it came to her one afternoon when she imagined rolling hills and trees, all made out of cake. She wanted a combination of cake and cake pops so I came up with a design that brought the two together. I designed rolling hills, a river with a little bridge leading to a little path, a waterfall tumbling on the rocks, and a small forest of coniferous and deciduous trees. Upon delivery of this outdoorsy, and heavy cake, my friend was so pleased that I had somehow made her dreams into a sweet reality!

 

Mount Gateau, in full bloom.  



I used these little chocolates that looks just like rocks. They worked perfectly with outdoors theme of this cake.

 

There was a little path, wrapping around the little pond.

This is the waterfall, tumbling and frothing on the rocks.



 

These are the trees...

The deciduous trees, as best you can represent them with chocolate.

These are coniferous trees (recognise them??)

 

The trees all together in the little forest I made with confectionary.

Before the party I couldn't "plant" the trees in the cake because I still had to transport it, however I did want to see what they final product would look like all put together...

 

...so thankfully, the birthday boy's daughter took brilliant photos of the party, including this one!

I got an email from my friend with a photo showing how little of the cake was left... I was most impressed!

 

"A great hit Sarah. Thanks again"

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's a Cake!!

It is a common occurrence to make the cakes for the siblings within a family. What I love to see in this instance are the differences among them, and how widely they differ from one another. For example, taking a look at my own childhood, my older sister was well into New Kids in the Block (the original, not the hybrid band with the Back Street Boys), whereas I was into fish and The Little Mermaid. You can just imagine the potential differences there.

With these particular cupcakes, I would like you to refer back to the posting I made about being Frozen in June (found HERE). Those cakes were for the sister of Mr. Superhero. Not that I would expect a little boy to necessarily choose frozen as their first choice, but still, vivre la difference!

The birthday boy's Mum showed me an image of what she was thinking of for his party, so I tried to match it as well as possible. She very kindly sent me photos of how the cupcakes looked when they were all set up at the party, and I thought they looked great! They matched the décor perfectly, and really added a piece to the table.

Hopefully the birthday boy was happy with them, and enjoyed his super party!

***

All the cupcakes were decorated with comic-book colours.

Then, they were all decked out with appropriate, hand-painted toppers.

Each one matched up with a colour.

 

Once they were all set up together, I loved how exciting they looked!



 

***

"Just wanted to thank you for the gorgeous job you did with Michael's cupcakes.

They were a total hit! 

I thought you would like to see a picture of the dessert table (...) thanks again"

 Photo courtesy of the client.

Photo courtesy of the client.

Tea or Coffee Anyone?

I like to try and experiment with my cake treats, otherwise it would be very easy to fall into the familiar rut of chocolate or vanilla cake, with plain decorations. I like to use the flavours to inspire the design, as it were and to really make something new. Think back to my post about my "Poptails" (click HERE for the posting), where I used the different flavours of cake to lead me to a particular cocktail, which I then used the main elements of to decorate the cake pops. For example, I use Guinness in my chocolate cake (not with small humans), so I created an Irish Car Bomb-pop with the Guinness cake, Irish cream in the icing, and caramel topping. The cake also inspired the designs with the Tea-Pot Truffles I made for my Mother's tea party (posting HERE), where I used Earl Grey-Infused cake and Green Tea-Infused cake to make the little tea pots. The truffles I'm talking about in this post didn't reflect the shape of the element which gave the cake its flavour as with the tea pots, but the toppings were most definitely chosen because of the flavour of cake.

In this particular instance I used the Earle Grey-infused cake again, and Coffee-infused cake to make these truffles to bring to my Uncles when I stayed there this Summer. I decorated the top of the tea-infused truffles with social tea biscuits and the coffee-infused truffles were decorated with chocolate covered coffee beans. These made excellent little hostess gifts, and my Uncle and Aunt were very pleased with them. The least I could do for spending a few days with them!

 

Personally, I was inspired my Mum to make these treats, when she bought me the Cake Pop book by Bakerella. Most of my baking and cooking is inspired by my Mother, but as much as I enjoy making these, I do need someone to eat them for me! My Dad was always good for that when my Mother did her baking, and my husband fills that role in our house now. My Dad never got to try these particular creations of mine (though I subjected him to many when I was growing up), which I'm sorry about because I think he would have liked them. On one of the evenings staying at my Uncle's (who is my Dad's middle brother), he and my Aunt were enjoying a truffle with our coffee and he asked whether or not my Dad was alive when I started making these. I told him I started the cake pops a few years after he had died, so no he never did. My Uncle said that that was a shame because he knew he would have loved them. That meant so much to me. Now, I have even more reason to enjoy making these cakes, and to keep on experimenting! (I think my husband will be pleased...)

25 Shiny Silver Years Together

This cake was for one of those happy occasions where I actually got to go to the party! One of my colleagues asked me to make her a cake to celebrate her 25th wedding anniversary this Summer, and I was happy to oblige. My colleague sent me a few images of what she thought would look nice and together we came up with the design for her fabulous cake. I had never before worked with the quilted effect on the fondant, but I love how it came out. You have to know that my colleague has confessed that she enjoys coming to work so she can wear a nice skirt and put her lipstick on, on top of being very efficient and necessary in the office. I wanted to make this cake glamorous for her, so I got out my silver accents to tszuj it up a bit.

The party was wonderful and very moving, I hope my husband and I are as lucky as these two love-birds have been!

 

Even the Little Gatherings

Just a quick one to get back on track. Sometimes there needn't be a big party, or a fancy wedding to bake a cake for. Sometimes they are simply your own contribution to the end-of-year choir party dinner. I love a good pot-luck; everyone brings the meal they are known for, usually in a large crock-pot or sweet-plate, so everyone at your gathering gets to sup from the crème-de-la-crème of your groups' offerings. I stick to my basics so unless I'm bringing our family's recipe of Aunt Barbara's Casserole, I bring cake. Here was my offering to my love of our choir: my favourite chocolate cake recipe covered in cream cheese icing, in the shape of a heart!

A Sweet Fairwell

You can say so much with cake! I must admit that I can only claim half the credit for this cake because one of the other parishioners brought the cake and I offered to decorate it.

This weekend, we celebrated our two wonderful years with our curate Alain who was now leaving to continue growing at another church in Montreal. We knew this inevitable day would come but because we had forged such a connection with Alain it wasn't any easier knowing. To give him a really fun send off, the congregation brought platters of food to feed the masses and we had dinner together with a series of presentations to highlight some of his most memorable impacts on us.

My Mum came up with the idea of making him a stole (part of the clerical "uniform", a coloured band of fabric that is draped around their neck) which would be something he could take with him and think of us always. All the members of the congregation had a part in it because  we printed our hand prints all over the fabric with different colours of paint. Every time he wears it, it will be like we're always there to lend a helping hand.

Seemed a natural choice to decorate the cake in a similar way, then.

 



  Just to give you some idea of the scale. These little hand prints were not those of the congregation, but were almost a true representation.

 

I tried to give the fondant stole a textured appearance, to make it look more like fabric. 

 

Thank you for everything Alain!!

 **I will post a couple photos of the non-edible stole, once I have them!** 

A Sweet Thank-You

When I was small, I attended Sunday School every week. My Mum was one of the teachers, and truth be told I mostly clung to her, but I do remember that we had particularly kind, patient and lovely Sunday School teachers, some of whom are still very active in the Sunday School. This Summer, however one of our steadfast teachers, Mary-Ann did decide to step down. Mary-Ann was one of the teachers I remember from when I was little, so you can imagine that she now deserves a well earned break.

When one of the other Sunday School teachers asked if I would do a cake for Mary-Ann, I tried to think of how I could give her a part of the church she has given so much of her time and energy to. One detail that always jumps out for me, is the stained glass in the windows, so I did my best to give Mary-Ann one of the windows.

Working with a photo I had taken that was the size of a postage stamp! Nonetheless, I think it turned out quite well.

Mary-Ann is using her time now to focus on another mission close to her heart, Messy Church which is a new gathering in our church. Every fourth Wednesday, Mary-Ann and our other dedicated Messy Church leaders, organise crafts, food, and a talk to the children. These "services" are specifically catered for families whose schedules aren't regular and fitting in the Sunday service isn't possible.

The first time our church held a Messy Church Service we anticipated 30 or so people... we received over 60 people.

So although Mary-Ann isn't directly working in the Sunday School, her efforts will be felt elsewhere. These pops were made to celebrate her new chapter, and are made using part of the Messy Church logo.