Spare Tire Cake

Broden is a guy who loves cars.  Lately he has really started to appreciate spare tires.  

I know, I don't get it either.  

For Broden's birthday, his parents thought it would be funny to give him a spare tire cake.  

Oh.  Broden is 2.  :) 

From his car seat, he points at every jeep and SUV with a spare tire hanging on the back.  He thinks it's the funniest thing in the world, so it was only natural to make this cake for him.

I was a little worried about turning my standard cake into chocolate - I've had bad luck in the past, and didn't want to deal with a failure today.  A little hunting, and I found essentially my exact recipe already made with cocoa!  As an added bonus, this recipe had a few different tricks to it, that I am going to apply to my vanilla recipe to make it ever better!  Mwa ha ha.  

Sorry... I got a little excited there.

I have to start remembering to take 'making of photos' to add in here - I was just so covered in cocoa that holding my camera didn't seem like a good idea.

After a crumb coat and some resting in the fridge, here's the start!

I'm so glad I picked up the pre-coloured fondant.  I would have had to use a whole bottle of colour to get it this true of a colour.  Worth the two extra dollars!  The treads took a little fiddling with, and I decided that a half missing design would look the best.

I was looking forward to designing the hubcap.  I made a decent gray, then used my silver luster dust to get some chrome on there... if only I could have made it spin... another time.

I was jumping back and forth as to when to move it on.  Wait till it dried so I didn't smudge the paint, but risk it having hardened and maybe crack it, or do it right away and risk it tearing from being soft and losing its shape.  I decided to move it right away as I was very happy with the look and didn't want to have to make it a second time.

 The finished product.  I'm very happy with it, and would only make one or two changes the next time.  I can see this being fun for a real car fan and adding more details behind the hubcap - brake pads, better treads, inflation valve...

Finished Spare Tire Cake

Business names

So, apparently it's hard to go public and try to actually come up with a name that works now, and in 20 years.  Sadly for me, there are a lot of small cake businesses out there, so finding a unique name is no easy task!

I spent some time chatting with and old friend and her husband coming up with some ridiculous names; can you picture calling a bakery and being greeted with 'Nom Nom Nom'?, Cretinous cakes? Mounds of Nom?

But there were a few winners.  I have a short list from them, a few of my own, and some from other friends.  I'm not posting any real contenders until I rule them out, but man, this process is proving harder than I thought!

Here are a few of the 'close but no cigar's:

Inspired Icing

Death by cake

Eat me

Sweetcheeks

Flour

Any suggestions?

 

Christmas Sugar Cookies

While working on my last order, the Tiger Cat logo cookies I was smart and made a double batch of both the dough and icing to make some samples for the hopeful Christmas orders I'll bring in.  So just for fun, here they are!

Ticat Cookies

I know I said I liked a challenge, but I think I bit off more than I can chew on this one.  

Betty, a big Ticat fan, wanted to be the awesome big sister she is and stick it to her brother that her team did better than his this year, the BC Lions.  She wanted a cookie decorated with this logo...

www.ticatfans.com

Doesn't seem that complicated; 4 colours, basic lines, but you know what... it kind of is.  It's just the logistics of it.  
And if you know me... I like to plan.  A great deal.  It makes me happy :)  (Not to mention the overthinking...  Oh yeah.  I'm all about the overthinking)
How many layers?  
Black outlines first, then flood white and do the rest on top? 
Or all black first and fill in the holes.

I did a test cookie to see how things would go.  Not the best, but it's there.  

 Not quite angry enough... yet.

 I desperately wanted to eat this cookie.  You have no idea.  They are delicious - Full on childhood memories here.  But sadly, I only made 8 extra cookies to mess up, so this one had to make it through the night just in case.

All in all, that cookie only took 20 minutes, and I only have to make 12, so that's not too shabby, and I anticipate the each one being faster since I always find a shortcut along the way.  A few notes for the next one... Whiskers at the very end, flatter ears, more pronounced teeth, but onward.

Next cookie, better.  Still not the best, but better.  By the time I hit cookie #5, I wasn't even looking at the picture any more.  I think I averaged 2.5 minutes of outlining for each cookie, which just blew me away.  I really was expecting 10-15 minutes for that part alone.

Halfway there.  All that is left now is the white bits, but I really want to make sure that black is set before I add the white.  A few more hours just to be safe. 


So happy with the turnout!

Oskee Wee Wee!

Glamour Cupcakes

A client was heading to a fancy jewellery party, and didn't want to go empty handed, so hello pretties!

These cute cupcakes started off with frilly jewel toned discs; each topped with a fondant piece of jewellery.  They were incredibly small, and much more difficult than I anticipated, but fun at the same time.  I love a challenge!

My perfect cupcake recipe  - a secret for now - always cools off with flat top, making it the perfect canvas for a dollop of buttercream.

Then a cute ring perched right on top...

Or maybe a charm bracelet.

Or was that a pair of pearl earrings?

Nope... Emerald drop necklace. 

Dora's Friends

A very special 4 year old was looking for a Dora themed cake for her birthday.  I decided to go a bit different, and feature Dora's friends Backpack and Map instead of the little adventurer herself.

This went together very quickly and easily.  I gave myself 2 hours for the decorating, and finished my photo shoot just shy of that time!

I definitely have some ideas for the next time I do a cake like this that will make it go faster and a little smoother.

Lego Millennium Falcon Cake

I'm excited to be making this cake.  Very excited.  Sarah wanted a geeky Star Wars cake for her husbands 40th birthday, and left the creativity up to me.  I decided to go full on geek, and pulled out an idea I was saving for a special occasion.

Lego Millennium Falcon.

I had saved this one to make for my fella's birthday, but came up with something even more incredible for him, so lucky Sarah!

I knew it would be a challenge from the start, but was looking forward to it.  The bake went fantastic, the rough ice, sculpt and good ice; great.  I spent a good chunk of time figuring out how to make the fondant come out looking like Lego, and in the end got a great idea... use Lego! 

I'm very fortunate to have had a good amount of Lego growing up, and found exactly what I was looking for... 'ground'.  A green square of lego that was just hollow on the bottom - it doesnt have the snap in circles required for stacking.  After trying a few techniques, this was by far the best.  A few more times using it, and it'll be perfect.  I hope I get to make more Lego cakes... they are so fun.

Woohoo!

It turned out to be much easier than expected.  I had some issues in a few areas, but I was expecting it.  I'll need to figure out a technique for adding fondant on the inside of 3D cakes... So here she is; my Lego Millennium Falcon Cake!