New Website!

I'm so excited to announce that I have an official website!

jenbakescakes.ca is now live with pricing and ordering information.

I link back here and to my facebook page which has pictures of every cake I have made in the past few years. 

Check it out, and pass it on!

Fortress of Solitude

The more I work with Samantha, the more I love her and her family!  She asked if I could make a Superman, Transformers, Airplanes or Iron Man themed birthday cake.  For her 5 year old daughter.  

That's my kind of girl!  

Right away I was thinking of making Superman's torso with a flowing cape out the back, but Sam mentioned that she always wanted to try making a Fortress of Solitude.  She never had the patience for it, but I knew I could give that to her.

I went with a simple vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream.  I decided to colour the icing red to be his cape, since I covered the board blue.  

A bunch of white chocolate shards make the ice crystals, and a fondant S make the Man of Steel evident.

I invited Sam up to watch me decorate and take photos in exchange for payment (free cake for her, and free professional pictures for me!

Sam couldn't have been happier with the cake, and I am so excited to have proper photos!

Fortress of Solitude: Jen Style!

Yes, my tongue is almost always sticking out like this.

Photos courtesy of Samantha Bauer Photography.

 

Happy Birthday Jack!

Jack is just the most handsome and happiest baby boy I have met.  Ok... I might be slightly biased here because he is my nephew. But he is darn adorable.  And today he is one year old!  What a year :)

My sister in law asked me to make his cake which was an honour, since she's an awesome baker as well.  Lucky for me though she is always to busy on party day with a newly walking one year old and a very energetic 3 year old that making a cake just can't happen.  Lucky for them, I love to test out crazy cakes on them.

Vicky gave me creative licence, so long as it was boy-ish (there is a lot of pink in that house... Grace is a very girly 3 year old.  Very girly - as in wont wear anything that isn't pink or purple because blue is for boys)

Back to Jack.

I had so many great ideas, most of them tiered cakes, but with my plane going over so well, I wanted another challenge.  I went through his toy box at Grama's and Grampa's house, and found a dump truck, and inspiration struck.

A moving, dumping truck!

I figured out a way to have a swinging door on the back of the truck,, so when I lift up the bucket smarties fall out!

I was expecting him to be indifferent, but he couldn't take his eyes off it!  And then I tipped up the back and smarties fell out...  His sister and cousin jumped on those before they had time to stop bouncing across the table.  Mission accomplished!

Again, many lessons learned.  I would definitely find a way to have the cake move easier - a different option than me just lifting it up by hand, but other than rigging something up with lego, I was out of ideas.  Maybe a lever.  

The cake!

Dump Truck Cake

Edited so my brother will still talk to me.  No photos of the kids on the internet please!  I assure you he couldn't take his eyes off the cake.

Hello, Kitty

Trish's daughter is a fan of Hello Kitty.  I've never gotten that myself, but I'm no young'n. 

When Trish asked me to make a cake, my first question, as always, was 'Are you looking for any specific decoration?', so of course the answer was Hello Kitty.

I tried a new buttercream recipe for this cake - one that is all over the web - a little butter, lots of sugar and some cream.  It turned out ok.  I had some issues with consistancy, but I got it to work.  I'm not a fan of the outcome of it though.  It was very sweet.  Too sweet for what we like in my house, but I'm looking forward to what she has to say about it.  I don't know that I'll use that exact recipe again, but if it's a hit, I might try to adjust mine slightly to make it a little sweeter.  Time will tell.

Back to the cake.  I used my favourite recipe and two 8" layers with a 'healthy' slathering of icing in between.  I had fun carving the shape - I did it totally freehand, and had to fix a few spots after the fact to get the ears right.  I probably should have used a square cake to make this easier but there would have been so much waste.  And by waste, I mean snacks for the rest of my day.  And by snacks I mean that's all I would have eaten all day.  This cake is very good.

I'm very happy with the outcome.  While the overall shape of the cake wasn't perfect, the outline of Kitty is pretty spot on.  And she's so easy to decorate - I originally had her eyes too close together, but that was an easy fix.  That's really the only thing that can go wrong.  

Hello, Hello Kitty cake

Happy Birthday Taylor.  I hope you enjoyed your cake!