I had a total of six wedding in 2013, and each one was special for different reasons.  Whether it was an amazing venue, a personal connection with the bride and groom, or the excitement of trying a new cake technique, each wedding had been a treasured experience.  The year culminated in, what was for me, one of the best wedding I’ve had the pleasure of attending or being a part of. 

So many factors went into the fantasticness that was Josie and Roshan’s wedding.  The ceremony was sweet, personal and the officiant was charming.  The venue (Hockley Valley in Orangeville) was all around amazing, from the gourmet food, to the room décor, everything was top notch.  The DJ was awesome and the photo booth was a big hit (I think my table took advantage of the instant fun pictures – the majority of the pictures are of us!).

I think what had the biggest impact on me was the way Josie and Roshan incorporated aspects of all their varied heritages (Scottish, Greek, Italian and Indian!) into aspects of their wedding.  The highlight of the evening for me, and most people I think, was the Scottish piper and the Indian bhangra drummers playing the newlywed couples into the reception area for the first time.  I don’t think I would have ever put those two instruments together, but man was it ever incredible!

And of course, Josie and Roshan had a beautiful wedding cake as well.  Their theme was red and gold and their flower was a poinsettia (which were beautifully scattered around the room, three per table!).  I decided on a simple cake with hand made sugar pointsettias.  I wanted the focus of the cake to be on the flowers, which were going to be quite the task, so I kept with a simple white fondant design with a gold ribbon accent.  I had gotten quite sick just before the wedding and was bed ridden for a couple of days, which put me really behind with the cake.  Luckily, thanks to a couple very good friends, we were able to get everything done in time.  I was very pleased with out the flowers came out.  The mother of the bride has a better picture of just the flowers – I’ll see if I can get a copy.

Julia and her family were so happy with the Thomas #1 cake that she asked me to make her parent's 40th anniversary cake.  She wanted a smile design with flower, but in red.  Lucky for me, one of my customers (NAFTA Foods) at my day job makes fondant, and she just so happened to give me a huge bucket of red cherry fondant to try out!  Inside is red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  The fondant was great to work with.  All of the colour was uniform and the fondant wasn't too soft.  I've never seen cherry fondant on the market either!

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.

My good friend Josie knew that I recently completed a class in sugar flowers, and decided that her mother's birthday cake would be a good chance for me to practice what I learned.  Josie's Mom loves flowers and even participates in some kind of horticultural society, so it was important to me to get this one right.  She asked for a simple vanilla cake layered with chocolate mousse (I used rich dark Belgian chocolate) and decorated with orange lilies.  I opted for the calla lilies, because honestly, they are super easy to make.  I hand painted each one after they dried, and used a simple ribbon to accent the cake.  I wanted to keep this simple and clean, to show off the pretty orange flowers.

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.

So, yay for google maps!!  It looks like adding myself there has really opened me up to new business in my area.  One of the first (completed) orders that originated straight from the internet was this pretty purple cake that I made for Patricia.  She was looking for a cake designer in her area to help make her mother's 50th birthday very special.  The top layer is chocolate cake with a mocha Swiss buttercream filling and the bottom is vanilla cake with lemon Swiss buttercream.  I used Swiss buttercream for this cake because the client was looking for a filling that was a little less sweet.