Mermaid cake

Little Audrey celebrated her 7th birthday with a mermaid party.
Her mum told me that because of COVID, Audrey hadn’t celebrated a birthday for two years so this year was going to be da bomb! Mum had bought decorations and balloons and paper plates that were purple and teal. So the cake had to match, natch!
I added touches of gold to make the cake really pop. Mermaid tails and sea horses with fins of shiny gold surrounded the cake. Air bubbles of teal and purple. Gold seashells. It’s a cake that seven-year-old me would have loved. I hope Audrey did too. Bonne fete Audrey!

Hedwig, Harry’s owl

My friend Meggin is a big Harry Potter fan, so when her partner Roch texted me and said he was having a small, surprise gathering to celebrate her 30th birthday and wanted a Harry Potter-themed cake, I was game!
There are a million ways to go with that theme. But I decided to recreate Harry’s owl Hedwig from buttercream and surround her with a fondant scarf that sported the Hogwarts colours.
Meggin was duly surprised by the party and the cake! And best of all, after she blew out the candles, Roch proposed to her and she said yes! All in all an eventful afternoon.
Congrats Meggin!

Fishy cupcakes

I saw these cupcakes somewhere on the internet and I thought they looked like so much fun. I used Smarties (a Canadian version of M&Ms) because the colours are much more varied.
These silly fish cupcakes flew (swam?) out the door on SPCA Cupcake Day. So happy to be able to help out.

Gone fishing

Marcel is lucky enough to live along the St. Lawrence River and goes fishing as often as he can. He fishes for perch, pickerel, bass, and occasionally he gets pike.
For his 50th birthday, his wife Lori thought a cake that showed his passion for fishing would be just the thing.
I hope Marcel got to go fishing on his birthday and that he snagged a big one!

Feeling sluggish

For my birthday this past weekend, I realized that upon returning from a mini-road trip, I had no birthday cake. With a few sad-looking bananas on the counter, I figured a fast banana cake would work.
But how to decorate it? I looked in my cupboard and found a chocolate banana slug. What? Yup, I bought it in California made by Mackenzie’s of Santa Cruz. Wouldn’t a chocolate banana slug be perfect on a chocolate banana cake?
The label says: “The Pacific Banana slug is the second largest species of terrestrial slug in the world, growing up to 9.8 inches long.” As it happens, it’s also the mascot of the University of California Santa Cruz.
I bought the chocolate slug because I had seen these critters in Oregon and thought they were just amazing. Plus, I couldn’t believe there was actually a chocolate made to look like a slug!
So…slug cake, here we come.
And… the slug was delicious!

The worms crawl in…

My friend asked me to make a seventh birthday cake for her son who loves creepy crawly things (as most seven-year-old boys do).
I thought a cake that looked like a cross-section of a piece of ground dug up, with grass (buttercream), dirt (chocolate cookie crumbs), rocks (candy rocks!) and bugs (gummy worms) would do the trick.
As creepy crawly as it was, it got gobbled up. I bet the worms were the first to go!

Butterflies

Okay, so cake decorating is generally fraught with decoration nightmares and many hours of picky work. These cupcakes were almost like cheating! Pink covered cupcakes, swirled with buttercream icing were topped with paper butterflies found at the dollar store. They look like a million bucks (I think) but take only moments to put together.

Rug hooked fish

A friend of mine was celebrating a big birthday and her husband asked me to make her a cake as a surprise. Terry is a rug hooker and one of her unfinished designs was this fish. James asked me to translate it onto a cake for her. I tried to make the chocolate background look a bit like burlap and then tried “hooking” the icing in a stitch-like manner. Terry loved it and was very surprised at seeing her design made out of buttercream.

Baby ducks

I got a call from a friend who has a small farm. Her duck hatched ducklings so we went over to celebrate and play with the ducklings. I said I’d bring a cake!
Not sure if they look like ducklings or rubber duckies swimming in a bucket.
Inside, the cake was chocolate and vanilla checkerboard.

The Company of Crows

My friend Karen Molson wrote a terrific novel called The Company of Crows and for her Ottawa book signing she asked me to make a cake to feed 50 plus guests. Best of all, the book cover is edible!

Gecko and cactus

I made this cactus cake for friends Gordon and Natalie who share January birthdays. I especially wanted to immortalize their pet gecko Kartini, who passed away at the ripe age of 19 just a few months previous. I figured a fondant gecko and a red velvet cactus cake covered with green buttercream, sitting on chocolate crumbs in a real terracotta pot would be a great way to celebrate.

Budding artist

My friend’s son Zavier was turning eight. He’s a budding artist and for his birthday she gave me a drawing he did of a blue gecko with pink spots and asked me to translate it into a cake. Cute idea!

Happy Turkey Day

In Canada, we’ve already celebrated Thanksgiving. It’s your turn America!
I made this a few years back for a Thanksgiving celebration with family. I thought a few peanut butter cup turkeys — adorned with candy corn — would give you a giggle. Enjoy!

Hen party cake

The ultimate hen party! Charlotte the chicken turned five years old and was celebrated at a big bash. I think she liked her cake although I somehow suspect she liked her gift of dried meal worms more!

Fish cakes

I made this cake for a little guy who loves to go fishing with his dad. I love painting with buttercream.

Another fish cake. Susan is a fisherperson too. Love the candy eye!

 

For the birds

I work at a local newspaper and one of our columnists was retiring after many years. Many of his weekly reports dealt with local birds and their peregrinations. I was asked to make a cake for his farewell bash and I thought this was a fitting tribute.

 

Not long after that, my next door neighbour celebrated a milestone birthday with a big party. As her gift I made her a cake to feed a gang of 40. She loves bird watching and feeding “her birds” as she calls them. Here are three of her favourites.

 

Bird lover’s cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for a birthday girl who loves birds. Chocolate nests with eggs and baby birds, birdhouses and roses. I hope Cheryl had a happy birthday!