Na na na na na na na na... Batman!

I have to tell you, parents my age are churning out some awesome kids.  Sams daughter with her Superman Cake, my friend Cheryl whose 7 year old daughter idolizes George Lucas (her speech this year should win awards) and Nick, whose daughter hums the Imperial March while tidying up.  Some seriously awesome kids out there.

So I wasn't really surprised when Sarah suggested Batman as a theme for her daughters first birthday.  Apparently that's the toy she heads to most to play with.  If it makes her happy, then why not?

Enough of us suggested that it was a great idea that she went for it.  She found a cute chocolate lollipop with the Batman logo on a pink background, and I instantly saw the cake.  She asked if I could make it for this weekend, and while I don't like taking orders with less than a weeks notice, I couldn't say no.  This was too cute an idea.

I went very simple... a 10x10 square vanilla cake, covered in hot pink icing with the logo in black.  

Pink Batman Cake!

 

I'm Batman!

Happy birthday little one!  Stay awesome!

Camera Cake

If I talk any more about Samantha, you are going to start thinking that I'm a plug machine for her.  Never the less, she's a good friend, and it was her birthday yesterday!  Just a baby, she is!

Of course I had to make a cake for her party, and it could only be a camera.  She actually asked if I could make it combine cameras and her love for *cough* inappropriate things. Silly, fun NSFW type things.  Being a boudoir photographer as well, she kinda wanted some boobs in there.  I has thought making the back display be a image capture of such a thing.  I told her I would try.  And to be honest, if I had had more time, I would have been a little fancier with it and made a bunch of Polaroids to scatter on the cake.  But, that just wasn't in the cards for her cake.  Maybe that'll be for next birthday.

I remembered to take a few more shots as I made the cake, but I was rushed, and didn't get a full step by step.

I started off with two 6x6 cakes, and cut 2/3s off to stack to become the body, and used the other 1/3 to make the flash mount.  I also had a half slab cake that I was using for the base of the cake, so I cut some discs out of that to make the lens. Covered it all in buttercream and left it to harden up in the fridge so the fondant would adhere better.

I could have eaten it just like this.  So yummy!

I then had about an hour and a half before I had to leave for the party (poor planning, work and life getting in the way), so I got cracking on the fondant work.  Miraculously, I got the camera done in just under 45 minutes.  I couldn't believe it.  It looked so complicated, but was remarkably simple.  I have to stop making my cakes out to be more complicated than they are, and trust in my skill.  Have I mentioned that before?  And also have to stop thinking that I have to put crazy details into every cake.  I could have added rings, and wording on the lens, and made the displays have a greenish tint to emulate the glow, but it didn't need it.

To make up for the lack of inappropriate things, I attempted to put the camera on a 'bed' covered in red silk sheets.  It didn't work. And I must admit it looks messier than I wanted.  Had this been a customer cake and was paid for, I would have re-done the slab to be neat and tidy, but that darn time limit stopped me.  Or at the very least I would have made it look more like a bed.

Don't tell Sam... I modeled it after my Nikon.  Shhhh....

Sam, of course, loved it, and was a little upset when her hubby took it from me and hid it out of reach when I first go there.  She just wanted to see it.  It didn't take long before she got it down and got right in there.

Plates?  Then we have to wash more dishes!

Happy Birthday Sam!

Beep Beep

A few weeks back, you may remember the dump truck cake for my nephew?  That's the one.  Well, the following weekend my brother and sister-in-law threw his birthday party for their friends and their children, so I wasn't surprised when I got the call for some cupcakes - that's a regular order for these parties. 

Creative control was in my hands again, as long as it was boy-y.

If memory serves, that was a busy weekend for me... more cakes on the go, or heading out of town, so I wanted something easy, and found a cute picture of a car topper, and decided to give it a go.  I ended up with some pretty cute cars on these cupcakes :)

Traffic Jam!

It's like a parking lot over here.

Just boy enough!  Lovingly placed by big sister Grace.

Gruffalo Cake

Did you know that a Gruffalo is a thing?  Not just a thing, but apparently a very popular children book?  2 weeks ago, had you asked me I would have said "What the heck is a gruffalo?"  Wait, that's exactly what I said when Paul and Amy asked me if I could make a Gruffalo cake for their son's third birthday.

According to my new customers, the Gruffalo is all the rage amongst 3-5 years olds.  I'll have to poll my niece to see if this is true, and perhaps go a little crazy Auntie Jen on her and demand why she withheld this information from me.  I need to know these things, and if she's in the loop, she should be sharing.  Sharing is nice.   

My first image search for Gruffalo cake came up with an adorable shaped head of said Gruffalo, followed by a bunch of just as cute but not quite me, slab cakes with him (her?) drawn on.  Luckily for me, Amy had her heart set on the same on I loved.

Even luckier for me, she told me that that picture was part of a tutorial on how to make this exact cake.  While I pride myself on making cakes from my imagination, not copying someone else's work, when I'm attempting to create something I've never seen before, this was exceptionally helpful.  Since Amy loved this cake so much, I didn't go too far off the plan.  I just opted for making it a little taller with the cut out pieces of cake rather than cutting away to make the shape.

While loading the link above, I just realized that I forgot the spines on his back!  Sorry Amy... I hope that didn't take away from it. 

My Gruffalo!

Paul described it as a Gruff Buffalo

I have to say he is super cute, and I will have to look into the books for the niece and nephew. 

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!