Birthday Blocks Cake(s)

I am so glad I am back on my feet and able to bake again, this is the 3rd cake in 3 weeks! I love it!  This cake is for Charlotte’s 1st Birthday.  Everyone got their own “block of cake”.  I had some difficulties doing this one.  The smaller cakes were a challenge to cover with fondant, they are quite bumpy and uneven, but I tried!  You will notice there is one that looks out-of-place, that was Charlotte’s.  It is only covered in icing so she could just go at it   Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Dad’s 60th Birthday Cake

This year was my Dad’s 60th Birthday!  Each year his request is usually ‘just a lemon on lemon cake would be wonderful’, meaning lemon cake with lemon filling with lemon icing. I have made one that looked like a lemon, and several that were just round layers cakes with icing, but this year I wanted to do something a little different.  Dad is one of those guys that they don’t seem to make anymore, he is quite handy.  He can fix most anything!  When I was little, and now, I generally try to help out so I like to think I am kinda handy myself.  Having a tools cake just seemed appropriate.  He loved it! Happy 60th Birthday Dad, Love you!

 

Violet Cake

I was asked to make a cake for an adorable little girl having a first birthday.  Her name is Violet, my goodness she is adorable! The little bear is “My Pal Violet”, she has one and just loves it.  This was my first sculpted character cake, it came out ok, I will need more practice at that, it’s harder than it looks!  Hope she liked her cake.

Tim Hortons Cake

Ahh, Tim Hortons!  If you are not from Canada, then more than likely you have not heard of Tim Hortons.  If you are from the Northern United States, your Tim Hortons are just not the same (I have been, and they are just no good!).  Timmies are on just about every other street corner in Canada, here in my small town of 73,000 there are 10 Tim Hortons, and you would be hard pressed to find one without a huge line.  I am not a coffee fan but their steeped tea is the best! (why don’t the ones in the States have steeped tea??? double bagging it just does not cut it!).  Anyways…..

I was asked to make a cake for someone who is rarely seen without a Timmies in his hand.  This seemed like the perfect idea.  The cake was a huge hit, he loved it, as did everyone else. Here are a few more shots of the Timmies Cup Cake

Knitting Basket Cake

I was asked to make a cake for an 80th birthday.  The woman love to knit, as do I, so I was quite excited to make a knitting cake.  A basket of yarn seemed perfect.  I like how this one turned out, it was extremely time-consuming, but worth every minute to see the look on Karens face when she picked it up.  Hope the Birthday Girl likes it.

Baby Shower Cake #2

I was asked to make a cake for a Baby Shower.  Little Hailey has already arrived so they requested something ‘Pink and Frilly’  This is what I came up with.

Justin Bieber Birthday Cake

I was asked to make a Justin Bieber cake for a 15th Birthday.  Not knowing a thing about him, I asked for them to come up with an idea and I would go from there.  They did even better!  They showed me a picture of what they would like and I did as close as I could.

Here is the inspiration….

And here is what I created….

Not quite the same but I tried.

I have not learned how to make the topsy turvy cakes yet, so it was a basic tier.

From what I hear she really liked it!!

Jen’s Baby Shower Cake

Jen’s having a baby!  First I made the wedding cakeS, and now the baby shower cake! (just one).  Jen tells me she is having a girl.  As much as I wanted to make the cake all frilly and pink I decided to go a little more gender neutral.  Last week my cousin who was told all along that she was having a girl had the shock of their lives when there little baby boy was born! Keeping that in mind I went with the typical baby colours.   I wanted to try something a little different so I attempted a tiered cake, not sure if I did it properly but it survived an hour and a half car ride, so it was fairly successful.

My Top 10 of 2011!

Wow! Where did 2011 go?  Seems as I get older the years just fly by.  This year  I did a lot of baking, most were good, some were amazing and a few were total flops!  There were some  new recipes and others were tried and true favourites.  The Daring Bakers took me way out of my comfort zone as I was truly dared with some amazing recipes.  As for the “flops” I posted them too, not everything can turn out well.  I thought I would end the year with a “top 10″ list of my favourite recipes of the year.

 10. Perogi Day

Perogi Day was a day I will never forget! Mom, Etta, Jen and myself were at it for almost 12 hours.  We made 9 different flavours, used 25 pounds of potatoes, 7 tubs of sour cream, almost 2 bags of flour and a lot of bacon, cheese and onions.  We ended up with, get ready for it……471 perogies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were delicious, not sure I will be able to go back to the frozen ones from the store.  It was a great day and the results were amazing! We all agreed that we would definitely do it again, just not anytime soon…

9.  Apple Sauce Muffins

These Apple Sauce Muffins were something I stumbled across when visiting Gramma one afternoon.  They were hot and fresh and delicious!  You can’t really taste the apple sauce, they are a little bit sweet and have an amazing texture.  I think I have made them at least 6 times since then.  A wonderful recipe with simple ingredients, Thanks Gramma!

8.  Baklava

This one was special for me.  I was asked to be the host of the June Daring Bakers Challenge!  Being host meant that I was able to pick any recipe and have all the members make their variations. I had always said, way back when I joined, that if I ever got the chance to host I was going to pick Baklava.  It was amazing to see the different variety of baklava that were made.  I was a little daring (mean) and had everyone make their own phyllo dough.  Some people enjoyed the process, a lot did not, but all in all it was a wonderful experience.  It was a true honour to be picked to be the June 2011 host.  My baklava was delicious.  I will definitely be making it again but, like many other members, I will probably use pre-made phyllo!

7.  Puppy Chow

Puppy Chow was new for me, I had never even heard of it.  Jen had come over to do some Christmas baking and she brought all the ingredients for Puppy Chow…hmmm.  I was pleasantly surprised!  Unlike the name this is a wonderful treat!!!  Very simple, cereal, chocolate, butter, peanut butter and icing sugar.  It is very addicting!  It was a great gift to give away in little Christmas sacks.  Thanks Jen for a great recipe that I will be using for many years to come.  I may have to come up with a more appealing name….

6. Cupcakes, Cupcakes and more Cupcakes!

This was a scary one! Making 130 cupcakes for Kris and Selena’s Wedding!  I had never done anything like this before.  I mean I had made cupcakes but never 130 in one day!  I was a nervous wreck, as I think the wedding cakes is a huge deal.  Sadly it’s the food aspects that people remember more at a wedding then the actual ceremony.  I thought if they don’t turn out I’d have people thinking “god, their cake was horrible”.  Thank goodness everything went smoothly and the cupcakes were a hit!  So much so that there was not near enough If there is a next time, I will know people will eat more than one! Thanks Kris and Selena!

5. Bachlorette Cake

When Coralee asked me to make Chrissy’s Bachlorette Party cake I was thrilled!  I had just recently taken the Wilton Fondant course and figured this would be the perfect opportunity to give my new skills a try.  For my first try at creating a formed fondant covered cake, I think it turned out pretty good.  I hope to make more in the future.  Unfortunately I fell ill that night and was unable to make the party, so I didn’t get to try it.  Hope it was good!

4. Wedding CakeS!

No, I did not make a typo in the title I meant for the ‘S’ to be big!  This was by far my biggest baking event ever, let alone in 2011.  I was asked to make the cakes for Jen and Martin’s Wedding.  At first I was terrified and think I even tried to talk her out of it, as I mentioned above, the wedding cake is a huge deal!  When I calmed down I was truly honoured and accepted the challenge.  Jen had a wonderful idea of having a cake on each table.  The cake would then be “the wedding cake”, centre piece and dessert.  It really was a good idea.  It was a ton of work but I enjoyed every minute of it and would do it again in a heart beat!  Thanks Jen!!

3. Povitica

This recipe was from the October Daring Bakers Challenge hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk.  She introduced me to something I had never heard of.  Povitica?? I could barely say it let alone make it.  As it was a bread recipe I was very hesitant in even trying it, bread and I do not get along well.  I was pleasantly surprised, it was an amazing dough and so versatile.  I was able to make both savory and sweet loaves out of the recipe.  They were delicious!! This one rang in on my top 3!  I will be making this a lot more in years to come.  Thank you Jenni!!

2. Whoopie Pies!

I was a little late jumping on the Whoopie Pie ban wagon.  Not sure what rock I had been living under but I just heard about these in July.  Apparently they were quite the craze a while ago.  There is even a “Whoopie Pie War” with two States as they both say they are the founder of the Whoopie Pie.  Well, I don’t care who came up with the idea, I’m just glad they did!!  These are little pieces of heaven!  Surprisingly they are not sweet, they have a lovely light texture and a wonderful marshmallow filling.  I have only made the “Classic Whoopie” but I have a book and plan on making many different kinds.  What a wonderful find!

Drum roooooooooooooooooooollllllllllllllllllll…………………….

1. Salted Caramel Shortbread Bars

Without question this was my favourite recipe of the year!  I mean look at at…it’s not only the best tasting dessert bar ever, it’s also a thing of beauty!  This recipe was not even intended for me, haha.  When Jen came over to do some Christmas baking, it was for her to take to her baking exchange.  I had one bite and almost had to sit down.  It is one of those treats that after your first bite you have to stop before you start chewing and your eyes grow twice their normal size as you cant believe this piece of magic in your mouth.  It then turns into an eyes closed slow chew as you take in all the textures and tastes, and then it hits you…the salt!  Your taste buds jump into high gear.  It is like no other dessert experience I have ever had.  Don’t believe me, Try them!!!  Thank you Jen for my FAVOURITE treat of the year!  This recipe will remain at the front of my recipe book to be made time and time again!

I would like to thank my many followers for stopping by throughout the year to see whats up in my kitchen. When I first started this whole blogging thing, I really didn’t think anyone other then family would read.  I was shocked and so happy to see when I had over 20,000 hits!

Thanks again and Happy New Year!  Please come back to see what’s baking in 2012