Shortly after Lisa's baby shower, my new friend Jan (Lisa's sister - fantastic chick) asked me to make a cake for the teacher she works with, Mr. Y.  Jan works with special needs kids as a guidance counselor in a higher school - one of those jobs, like a nurse, that I think is highly underpaid and under recognized.  She wanted to get him something special to show her appreciation.  Apparently, Mr. Y likes his Coke very much - I think Jan said he has at least one every day.

I heard later that Mr. Y was so happy with his cake that he sent pictures of it out to the whole school!

Early December I was contacted by a customer who wanted a cake for his son's third birthday.  They loved the soccer cake I had made for Abir's second birthday and wanted to have the same filling/flavours, but this time in a Diego themed cake.  I hunted high and low to find some Diego toys to use on the cake (I love using actual toys on a cake, at least that way the little person has something to remember the cake by - after it's all destroyed and eaten) but I couldn't find any!  I guess Diego isn't as popular as he used to be.  Luckily my nine year old nephew came to the rescue.  I raided his old toys and found a Diego!  My nephew asked if the Diego was going to be on the cake for the kid to keep and play with later.  I said yup and asked if that was ok with him.  He replied "Sure Auntie, no problem!".  What a great kid.

It was also Abir's Grandfather's birthday, so my client requested a special cake for him as well.  Instead of chocolate ganash filling for this one, we went with a mango buttercream with vanilla cake - Yum!

We celebrated my Dad's retirement (and 65th birthday, shhh) this year with a fantastic dinner, good company and some cake and ice cream!  My Dad loves his Dove chocolate so when Mom asked for a chocolate cake that looked like a Dove candy, I thought it was a great idea!  The cake, of course, is Devil's food chocolate with a milk chocolate buttercream filling, topped with a chocolate ganash icing.  Oh-My!

My friend wanted to give her hubby some tickets for the Lion King this year for his birthday (instead of a bar-b-q, he's just that kind of a guy) and asked me to make a cake to give him a hint.  "Just throw some Lion King type stuff on it, so that he gets the idea" she said. And I did.  Inside the cake are layers of vanilla cake surrounding a middle layer of cheesecake.

This month my much (much!) older brother turns 40 and my fabulous sister-in-law decided to throw a surprise party for him.  In addition to making some treat bags full of chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter popers, I also got the honour of making the cake.  The top and bottom layers are chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream.  The middle layer is vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.  The cake went perfectly with the party decorations and the sparklers really set it off while we sang.

My other project this week was to replicate a favourite toy for a birthday boy.  Apparently he's in love with fighter planes and I was asked to make the air craft carrier.  His Mom was going to buy some toy jets to place on the cake later.  The cake is vanilla with a caramel filling.

This week's confection project was a dartboard for a 50th birthday party.  At first I was worried that I was going to have to draw perfect circles with white icing on black fondant.  So worried in fact that I decided to just skip that step all together.  I worked with all fondant on this one, and it came together quite nicely.  Inside the layer of black fondant is red velvet cake (do you know how tough it is to find red food colour the week after Valentine's Day?) layered with vanilla buttercream.  This one really hit the mark!

Abhir is one lucky 2 year old!  For his very special birthday, his Dad ordered a very special cake for his soccer themed birthday.  The bottom layer is marble cake layered with rich, thick real Belgian chocolate ganache.  The soccer ball is chocolate cake with Italian buttercream.  This is one cake I really wish i could taste!  Mmmm left over ganache....

Mateo was turning seven this year and his mom wanted to make his birthday extra special.  I guess Mateo is a big soccer fan because she requested a marble cake with vanilla buttercream in the shape of the Barcelona soccer jersey.  I covered the cake in navy blue fondant first, then applied the red striped.  I was really excited to get to use my new stitching tool - which worked like a dream!  My favourite part of the cake is the Barcelona crest, which I hand made out of gumpaste.  Happy Birthday Mateo!