This week, the project was a Tiffany themed wedding shower for a friend-of-a-friend (who apparently is quite the Diva!). My Mother's beautiful silver tray set was front and centre again displaying an 8" topper cake and vanilla cupcakes. The topper cake is red velvet with cream cheese covered in blue fondant and accented with an imported edible jumbo diamond. Cookies make great favours and give a-ways! The cookies in the white organza bags are going to be attached to some of the gifts while the cookies in the plain plastic are going to the kids at the party. I hope the Diva likes it! The best part was the delivery, when I got to have breakfast with my friend!
I was very excited when I got the text from Maria asking if I would be a part of her wedding. It was supposed to be a small ceremony at city hall (the big event is to come in a few months in Mexico) with a dinner afterwards, but so many people wanted to share in Maria's special day, that the happy couple ended up hosting a reception for 80 people (and that was the short list!). Maria asked if I would make a cake, cupcakes and mini cupcakes for the wedding. She also requested some cookies to give away as favours. She was very relaxed about the whole decision making process and was quite easy to please. I ended up forgetting my camera in my rush to make sure everything was set up in time - I'm hoping to get better pictures from a friend soon.
I was beyond honoured when I was asked to make the wedding cake for Anna Maria and Sean. As mentioned, I first worked with them on their engagement cake, which I had a blast making and then again the week before their wedding for Anna Maria's bridal shower. They're a very sweet couple and a pleasure to work with. They knew what they wanted and they were still willing to let me put my touch on things. When we met for the tasting, they said they wanted to go with a coffee theme for the flavours. So I ended up comping up with a variety of buttercreams for them to try: Espresso, Vanilla Cappuccino, Mocha, and Vanilla bean - they were all a hit, and we figure out how to incorporate them into their cake. They wanted a simple three tiered cake, covered in white fondant accents with a pink ribbon and pink flowers. The flower in the example photo they showed me were silk, but I decided to make my by hand from gum paste.
During the tasting, I found out that not only was it going to be their wedding night, but it was also Anna Maria's brother's wedding anniversary! My couple asked if I would make an anniversary cake within the same theme as the wedding cake for her brother.
And, since this family values tradition so highly, that next night was actually Anna Maria's parents wedding anniversary, and of course the kids wanted to honour and celebrate that with a cake for her parents. This one - heart shaped!
This summer I had the extreme honour of making the wedding cupcakes for my friends Genevieve and Andrew. We had a tasting at their house a few months ago, and after some amazing home-made pizza and wine, they dove into the test cupcakes. Once all the dust settled, the couple agree on 120 vanilla cupcakes, topped with Lime, Chocolate and my my favourite, French Vanilla Mocha, buttercreams. They loved the Fr. Van. Mocha just as much as I did, and decided to have that for their topper cake. The cake is topped with hand made,and hand painted gum paste roses. The trickiest part of this adventure, was then transporting all these many cupcakes and cakes up to the gorgeous venue in Penetanguishene. Thank goodness the AC in my car still works! It was a beautiful (but HOT!) wedding, and I was very happy to be a part of it. Congrats Gen & Andrew!
This June, I had the extreme pleasure of making the cupcakes for Rupi and Gurveen's wedding. I first met Rupi when she was a summer student in the office I was spending my days in. I saw early on that she was bright, eager and hard-working - all qualities I respected, and we became friends. I was very excited when she announced her engagement and asked to meet for a consultation. At the end of the consultation, Rupi and Gurveen were ready to book me, but I encouraged them to go out and meet with other bakers. After all, this was a once in a life time opportunity for free cake, and I wanted them to explore their options. I was very satisfying when they came back to me with stories of high prices and dried out cupcakes. We made the arrangements and the happy couple ordered 300 cupcakes, a topper cake, plus an anniversary cake for the bride's parents,who's anniversary was the day following the wedding (but the couple wanted to acknowledge and celebrate at midnight - what a great idea!).
Cupcake buttercream flavours included: Lime, Mango, Vanilla (tinted pruple) and Raspberry.
The wedding cake process always starts with the funnest part, in my opinion, the tasting! I made some cupcakes for a friend's tasting a few weeks ago, and as expected, they loved them all! From left to right I made vanilla cupcakes with Lime, Lemon, Raspberry, French vanilla Mocha, regular Vanilla and Chocolate buttercreams. The new French Vanilla Mocha was a huge his, as was the lime. My friends treated me to home made pizza and yummy salad before the cupcakes were devoured! Can't wait for the wedding!!
I made some more beautiful, individually hand decorated wedding dress cookies this week. Each of the 50+ dresses are uniquily designed, and I was happy to see some pretty new designs emerge, but i wish I had more pictures of the 80 designs I came up with last year. The cookies are packaged in cello bags and tied with a pretty shimmery ribbon that I found.
After a fantastic long weekend of good company, great food and wonderful weather, it was right back to work for me! This week Anna Maria and Sean celebrated their engagement with their family. The hall was beautifully decorated with royal blue table cloths, water filled centre pieces and fairy lights. Each of the bombonieres were wrapped in white paper identical royal blue bows. The blue rose boutonnieres were gorgeous against the black suits and the bride to be look stunning in her royal blue dress! I was so honoured that my art work could take centre stage to this beautifully put together party. The lower cake is devil's food chocolate with raspberry buttercream. The top cake is a yummy vanilla with lime buttercream, one of my new favourite combinations. Everything is 100% edible, except for the silver ribbon in the name tags. I'm pretty sure the couple was happy with their cake because they said they would be contacting soon about the wedding cake!
It was also Anna Maria's brother's birthday the day of the party and she wanted to recognize him, so she asked me to make another small cake for him. This one is chocolate with mocha buttercream, another amazing combination. I had to rush to grab this picture and run before the party started, but you get the idea. Notice the *edible* sparkles on the little stars. Happiness is edible sparkles.
This weekend it was my great honour to make the desert for Amy and Shayne's wedding. Amy was the first friend I made when I moved to Toronto a lifetime ago. We bonded over not only the same first name, but also the exact same middle name too! So when Amy asked if I would make the cupcakes for her wedding, I jumped all over it. I also insisted on making a small cake for them to have something to cut for pictures at the reception. Amy was probably one of the most easy going brides I will ever have. Her theme was autumn and other than that, she let me run with the design. The seventy-two chocolate and vanilla cupcakes were topped with four different kinds of buttercream: Vanilla, Raspberry, Mocha and Lime. The 6" chocolate and mocha cake is topped with hand made and hand painted edible hydrangea and topped with beautiful silk flowers. Amy and Shayne, thank you for letting me be a part of your special day, and I wish you all the happiness in all your days to come.
About 3 months ago, just after I had made a major life decision, I received my first 'real' inquiry after creating this website. Steph was a bride-to-be and was in Toronto for a few short days and had to plan everything for her August wedding before heading back to Alberta. She had found me by using google and liked my work. We decided to meet for a tasting and consultation (also my first!). Since Steph was staying way out in the East end (Ajax or Pickering or some such) we decided to meet somewhere near the middle. I picked a mall in Scarborough that was supposed to have a Timmy's and we were set to meet nice and early at 8 am. When I arrived, early of course, I found to my chagrin, that since the mall didn't open until 10, the parking lot was completely gated off and I could not make my way around the mall. There was really no where to park and I started to panic. The only option I saw was the pick up/drop off area for the Go bus. Steph called to say she was running a bit late and I embarrassingly told her where to meet me. When she arrived with her twin sister, I apologized profusely, and she was really great about it, and said it didn't matter. So, there we sat, on the curb with the 9-5 commuters buzzing around us while we ate cupcakes and talked about cake. What a riot! Steph decided to take a chance and went with me as her cake designer. We decided to do a three tiered cake, covered in buttercream (to spite all my attempts to talk her into fondant) with blue hydrangea between the tiers and accented with a ribbon. The top and bottom tiers were vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, and the centre tier was chocolate cake with mocha frosting. All of the hydrangea were hand made out of gum paste. All of those little flowers were fantastic practice and I think I've perfected my hydrangea technique! Dropping off and setting up the cake in the reception hall was another amazing experience that left me feeling like all the time and stress and freaking out was worth it. And even better was the look on the beautiful bride's face when she saw the cake, or the request from the groom to stick his finger in the icing. I gave him a stern look.. "What about from the back??" he begged. I smiled and walked away. I don't know if he sneaked a taste or not. My only regret is my my camera settings were off and my pictures do not do the cake justice. Hopefully the photographers will be able to send me some of the pictures they snapped.
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