God willing, the end of October / beginning of November should be a busy cake time for me for the rest of my life.  My good friend Tara decided to pop out two beautiful girls right around her own birthday.  It wasn't planned that way, but it's just how it worked out.  This year, both girls wanted Disney Princess themed cakes - Ariel from the little mermaid and Tinkerbell from Peter Pan.

This cake was Vanilla sponge with blue vanilla buttercream.  I also made 24 cupcakes to go along with this cake, also with blue buttercream.

Tinkerbell's dress is made from chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream, covered in fondant leaves - and LOTS of gold/green edible glitter!  So pretty.

Not picture here is a Red Velvet and cream cheese cake for Tara's birthday.

Sometimes, you never know when you're going to meet your next client!  I was hanging out outside of a friend's apartment, probably on my way out, and one of her neighbours walked up and joined us.  Of course, I was introduced as "the cake lady" and Willie jumped all over it!  She said she needed a cake for a baby shower for her daughter.  Honestly, I hear this quite a bit and sometimes that's all that comes of it.  But, not in this case!  Willie was true to her word and ordered a cake for the shower.  She had seen another baby belly cake that I had done on my site and wanted the exact same cake.  No sweat!  It was a pleasure to make and I think this one came out better than the last one.

When I was dropping the cake off, the soon-to-be-Uncle give me a giggle.  "That's an awesome looking cake!" he said, "Except that its strange to be eating what's meant to be my sister's boobs..."

Yup, dig in!

Oh my gosh, when I arrived to deliver this cake for my long-time friend Larissa, I was in absolute awe of all of the work she had put in to transform her home into a Pirate's Paradise!  In addition to everything she had set up for the kids in the backyard, there was a Pirate Ship in her dining room!  The kids had a blast!  I think I might have Larissa plan my next birthday!

During one of my regular visits to the dentist, my hygienist told me that she wanted a special cake for her son's birthday.  She said that he was very much into music and loved playing guitar.  He had been saving his money up for one guitar in particular and she wanted the cake to look exactly like it.  At first, I though, Hmm... a ten year old who wants a guitar, that's pretty cool.  I was picturing a wooden acoustic guitar... something along the lines of this:

Boy, was I wrong!!  When my hygienist sent me the link to the guitar that her son was saving for, I was flabbergasted!  Electric, black with red flames - not what I would have expected from a 10 year old!  I can only image how popular this kid is going to be in high school.  Way to go kid, rock on!  Here is my version of the guitar, of course, mine is 100% edible.

For my nephew's 12th birthday, he requested a "Terraria" cake.  If, like me, you are over the age of 15, you may ask "what the heck is Terraria?"  Well, it's a video game and luckily for me, I got to experience it first hand.  Many hours of Terraria were being played in my home while I was busy in the kitchen, so even though I didn't play much of it myself, I was familiar with the look of the game and some of the characters.

The giant eyeball below is made from crisp rice treats, covered in white chocolate and then decorated with royal icing.

I apologize for the poor quality photo.  I was trying to snap one while ten 12 year old boys all crowded around me to see the cake.  I have to say, I was very impressed with one young man who could not believe that I had made the cake, and complimented me heavily for it.  You don't see that kind of respect with many kids these days.  Good on his parents!

My oldest niece turned 14 this year (where did the time go?) and instead of a traditional party, she decided she wanted to take her friends out to see the new Star Wars movie.  She left the cake design up to me, and since I had already seen the film, I decided to make my favourite new character - BB-8.  Such a fun cake to make!!

This year, Tara decided to have a combined party for both of her girls, since their birthdays are so close together.  The theme this year was Princesses and both of the girls were dressed for the part!  In addition to the three tiered cake above, (yes, the pumpkin coach is 100% edible) I also made some strawberry shortcake cupcakes.  One of the other Princesses dove into those before I could get a picture, though.

It may have been noticed by some of you (Hi Mom!) that I have been somewhat absent in the last year.  I apologize to those who enjoy seeing my creations on a regular basis, but I have been per-occupied with more personal matters.  I'm back now!  So hold on to your hats, here is a review of all the projects that kept me busy in the last year...

The first project after Declan's cake was the cakes for the twins - Ethan and Ava.  I've had the pleasure of making their birthday cakes every year now and they are always a blast to make.  The basketball took me hours to cover in tiny orange buttercream stars and my hand sure felt it afterwards, but it was worth it!  The Strawberry Shortcake cake was so adorable, I almost didn't give it up.  Being a ginger myself, I loved Strawberry Shortcake growing up and this cake would have been one that I would have loved to get as a little girl.

The next project was this two tired Bubble Guppies cake for Maheer.  I had to consult Google about who the Bubble Guppies were, since I'm old and out of the loop.  I think the cake turned out great in spite of my ignorance!

My niece Jessie's birthday was the next event that I was lucky enough to be part of.  She wanted a "Frozen" theme, so in preparation, I had to watch the movie...twice. It was amazing!  I recommend it to anyone.  I wish the picture did this cake more justice... what you can't see is all of the pretty silver edible glitter that COVERS this cake.  This was by far the most sparkly cake I have ever made.

This cake was for a fall baby shower.  All of the elements from the owl, to the leaves, to the little pumpkins on the cupcakes were hand made and are all edible.

In November of 2014, I took on my first show.  I was invited to participate in a holiday charity sale by a friend of my sister in law, which was a great opportunity.  I made cupcakes, cookies, peanut butter poppers, but what I was missing was gluten free options. It was a very valuable learning experience.

In January, my niece Jamie turned into a teenager and my nephew turned 11, so it was decided that they would rent out the local indoor soccer field and have a HUGE game of boys against the girls.  So, I decided to go with the theme and create a soccer cake. The top cake is completely 3D, and of course, the kids wanted to cut that part first.  It was a fun day!

This cake was a special cake for me because it was my Mom's 60th birthday cake.  After going through the cancer scare the year before, it made me realize how lucky I am to be able to make a birthday cake for my mother.  Since her birthday is in February, her birth stone is an amethyst.  I decided to use purple as my theme for this cake and I hand made and hand painted each flower in different purple hues.

I was delighted in April when I heard from a former co-worker (and friend!) requesting a 40th birthday cake for her husband (who also happens to be my mechanic).  She sent me a very clear design with an example she found on the internet and I was able create my own version of it.  A few days before the cake was due, she asked if I could also make a cake for her nephew, whose birthday was near to the same time.  I decided to use the same theme, but in a younger colour pallet.  The best part was meeting the birthday boy's mother when I delivered the cakes!!  SO CUTE!

The next event was my friend Tara's second "miracle" baby's baptism.  She requested a cupcake cake in the shape of a cross, with a white fondant swag swung across it.  Along with the cake, I also made some fresh strawberry shortcake cupcakes.  Sadly, I failed to snap a picture of the cake before one of the little girls, all dressed pretty and innocent in white, dug her grubby little hand directly into a cupcake and pulled the cake apart. :)  She was ninja fast!

The month of June brought a Lady & the Tramp project that wasn't really mine, but was still a lot of fun to work on.  I got to stand back and put on my adviser's cap for this one, only stepping in to do some of the more technically challenging aspects, so I can't take too much credit for it.  I can take credit for the spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes though, those turned out awesome!

As the summer started and the weather got nicer, it was time to get ready for my first wedding of 2015.  I prepared several mini cupcakes as samples for the happy couple.  Some of the flavours here include: Vanilla Bean Buttercream, Chocolate Overload, Lemon, Lime and Mocha.

I apologize for the poor quality on this image - you really don't get to see the ombre airbrushing very well.  This cake was for a 90th birthday for an avid knitter.  There were 50 cupcakes all together that were displayed on a 3 tired tower with the cake on top.  I heard afterwards that the birthday girl refused to cut her cake because she loved it so much.  She wanted to take it home and put in the freezer to save it.  Save it!  If that isn't optimism, I don't know what is!  She's 90!!  You go, Gladys!

And these are the wedding cupcakes from the post one cake up from here.  These are full size cupcakes and have the finishing elements added.  The finishing elements included candied lemon peel, cured lime zest, Belgian chocolate ganash, peanut butter cups and chocolate buttons.

Declan (not Dedan) turned 3 this year and his Mom said he was very much a Paw Patrol fan, and wanted lots of toys on his cake, so we went with this design.  I cheated a little bit and had the shield printed with edible ink on rice paper instead of making it out of gum paste and fondant.

Well, we have come full circle...we're back to the twins, Ethan and Ava's birthday, but this time they turn 4.  I should really start getting pictures of the kids with their cakes so I can see how they change year over year.  Ethan's block of cake is marble with a chocolate icing.  It was super fun to throw "dirt" all over Ethan's cake.  Ava's cake is vanilla, but the I dyed the cake batter to be pink ombre as well, so the inside matches the outside.  I wish I could have been there when she cut it open!

OK, that was a looong one.  Thanks for sticking with me.  I promise to try to post more frequently again.  Thanks for all the love and support to everyone out there.

Amy

My good friend Larissa requested a cake for her son's second birthday, which was a great excuse to get to see her.  Life gets busy, so we don't always have time to catch up, but cakes are a great excuse to stay in touch!  I was able to re-create, almost exactly, the picture she sent me.  Declan was thrilled as soon as he say Thomas on top of the cake!

Getting to help celebrate people's important life moments is the best part of this job.  Four years after their wedding, Gurveen asked me to surprise his wife with an anniversary cake.

His wife had also passed the bar exam that same week, so he requested a cake to celebrate.  He also wanted both cakes to be a surprise, so i had to lie to his wife when she asked for a cake to celebrate her becoming a lawyer.  It broke my heart to lie to her, but I think she understood in the end.