Not so busy to SUPER BUSY!!

So this month of April started out with a few cakes with just a few bookings (previously posted) and then snowballed into craziness for April and May!  My photography skills are terrible, so don't mind some of the photos look pretty bad! 

My niece, Teila's birthday was on the 19th.  Alyvia and I came up with the idea since she was having a garden party.  I love it!  I also love that I got to use the dessert stand my Grandma gave me, it was hers when she was younger.  There was a ice cream cake that went along with this, but my camera is on the blitz and didn't save the pictures I took.  It was just white with a big flower in the middle, but the best ice cream cake I've ever had!!  It was chocolate caramel chunk with Oreo crust...so good!

For my Grandma's 82nd birthday I made her this green embroidery texture cake.  She is from Northern Ireland where all is green and loved the color (I kinda messed up on the color, I think it looks more hospital like, lol).  This was a new technique I wanted to give a try and I think it would have worked better on fondant, but I only wanted to use buttercream.  My son Austin with his Great Grandma and then a picture of some of the great grandchildren with her as well.  Teila was just about to cry!

Thomas the Train.  I love this cake!  So does my little Aidan, he kept saying "TRAIN, TRAIN!!".  I think I know what I'll have to make for him for his 3rd birthday.  This past weekend was super crazy.  Ryan came home and had hurt his back, so we were running back and forth to hospitals, chiropractors, for a massage, etc, etc...Anyways, I squeezed this cake into my craziness, but didn't even have time to take a good picture of it.  I took these when the customer was here to pick up the cake, talk about last minute! 

I have a lot of weddings coming up this spring, summer and fall.  So far, nine!  My first one is mid-May and I think I'll get in the wedding groove.  Wedding cakes take a lot of time and not only time baking and decorating.  There is more time put into sitting with the bride and groom (if he wants to come that is!) and figuring out what they want in a cake.  Sometimes this goes quickly, like a cake I booked last week.  She was the most awesome bride to be ever and booked her cake in 25 minutes!  She didn't car to have a taste testing, she trusted that my cakes are delicious, just by what she's seen and heard.  That make life a bit easier.  But some brides are different, some take months to figure out what they want.  That's fine, but I don't think they realize I have a life too and if I charged them for all the consultations and time and effort I've put into their cake, it would be very expensive!!  Sorry to vent, I think maybe I am just feeling a little frustrated with everything that's been going on.  It feels better to get it out! lol!~

Boobs and Quads

These novelty boob cakes are becoming popular!  Another was ordered for a 40th birthday party with specifications to make larger nipples! bahaha, I couldn't not laugh!! :)  So she didn't care what the bra top looked like and I wanted to try a zebra print bra and I used a very bright pink.  It looked awesome, until the next day that is.  I had left the cake on a counter locked in a room so I could shower without the kids or I mean Aidan attacking it.  When I got out of the shower and finished dressing, I needed to take pics of the cake and went to get it.  The entire bra top had faded!  It almost looked nude now.  So disappointing, but there was nothing I could do.  It was only about a 1/2 an hour before pickup and I couldn't recreate it in time, so I left it and apologized to Monette.  She didn't know what it was suppose to look like in the first place, so she wasn't upset, she loved it!  Looking at the pic now, I'm noticing an air bubble on the left boob, darn it! 

It was also her daughter's birthday.  She ordered cupcakes for the school kids party and a cake for the family party in the evening.  Great idea.  Jazbey loves her quad so I piped a quad with buttercream on the cake.  I love the pink, white and black!  The cake is french vanilla and the cupcakes are deep chocolate.

"cakes were awesome. moist and delicious. Thanks so much. The boob one was a hit."

Chocolate Chunk Buckwheat Cookies

So it was a rainy April day and fairly cold in my house.  My house is freezing and my furnace isn't working right now, so how do you heat a cold house??  Baking of course!!  This morning I made blueberry saskatoon muffins, which are such a nice treat for breakfast.  This kids gobble those up quickly.

Yesterday I was at my neighbour's place, who loves to cook healthy.  I really love finding new recipes or adapting ones to create a healthier alternative for my family.  (My cakes are so not healthy!) Anyways, they gave the kids and I a cookie each, which are these chocolate chunk buckwheat cookies.  So different, yet so scrumptious!  I've never tried buckwheat before, nor do I know a lot about it, but it gives this tasty crunchy texture to the cookies.  I quickly asked her for the recipe and had to make some today!  I didn't have any whole wheat pastry flour, so I mixed whole wheat flour with white flour.  I also reduced the sugar by half and they were still delicious.  I'm sharing this recipe, because I am really quite impressed. 

ENJOY!!!

Chocolate Chunk Buckwheat Cookies
(Whole Grains Cookbook by Robin Asbell)

1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar ( I used 1/2 cup)
1 lg. egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 cup plus 2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour ( I used 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and the rest unbleached flour)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buckwheat groats
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 F.  In a mixer cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg, vanilla and almond extract.  In a small bowl, mix flour, baking soda, salt and buckwheat.  Add to butter/sugar mixture to incorporate.  Add chocolate chips.  Drop on cookie sheet.  Bake 9-11 minutes, rotating half way.

Iggle Piggle and Heineken

A busy weekend for me.  I made these two cakes as well as the monkey from last post all in two days.  Thank goodness my husband was home and helped out with our little monkeys! 

In the Night Garden ~ Iggle Piggle.  I actually really like this show.  I think it's pretty cute and not annoying like many other toddler television shows on TreehouseTV.  The cake is marble and cupcakes are chocolate.

"the cake was awesome nevin loves your marble cake"

Heineken Cake.  Made in banana chocolate cake, my new favorite recipe.  The letters were a challenge to cut out.  I need to figure out a different technique to cutting out fondant using only a paper stencil.  From far away the letters look fine, but up close they were pretty rough.  Any suggestions??

" I just wanted to thank you for the cake, it was amazing and tasted so yummy!! Thank you again for doing it so last minute."

#1 Monkey

A friend of mine contacted me about making her son's cake for his first birthday.  I love first birthday cakes, they are fun and will always be a huge memory!  She gave me a list of things he liked and I took the monkey idea, mainly because I love monkeys and I haven't done a monkey cake before.  I did a little searching to get some inspiration and came across the cutest cake I'd ever seen.   I e-mailed it to Jodi and we decided that was the cake to make.  I don't know who to give credit to because there were so many on google that looked similar.  I made this cake in the banana chocolate...I thought that was fitting since it was a monkey!

The cake is all cake, no rice krispie.  Smash cakes are included with 1st birthday cakes and I really wanted it to make without using a pile of fondant.  I think the little smash cake turned out so cute!  This cake was a blast to make!!

"Hey mrs. Cake Boss. Thanks again and it was delicious. He really destroyed his smash cake. Lol"

Newest Cakes

Spring WAS here, but is now gone!!  *tear*  Almost every last bit of snow had disappeared until yesterday when I woke up there were 3 foot drifts!  And now today 4-5 foot drifts of snow.  Ryan and I couldn't even get out one door.  I figure today is a good day to blog, can't go outside...

Lady Bug Cake.   I love this cake!!  I saw this design somewheres and wanted to create this cake.  I absolutely love the turn out.  It just screams spring/summer!!

"The cake was awesome..Abby loved it,I brought it out for her and she didn't know what to say LOL.She just stood there with her little hands over her mouth and her eyes as big as saucers LOL..It was pretty cute..Thank you so much for the wonderful cake"

My brother-in-laws 30th birthday was approaching and my sister wanted a special cake for him.  She had no ideas and neither did I.  I wanted to go with something funny and didn't want to do another boob cake.  It took me a few days to figure out the design on this one and then it came to me.  Ryan and I had our weekend away that same time, so before I left I baked the cake and moulded the naked lady and left for our free time.  Came back Sunday and put the cake together in about 45 minutes.  I think it turned out awesome!! Jay really loved it!

Jade's present cake.  All she told me was she wanted  a pink cake with pink ribbon.  This is what I came up with.  I rushed myself with this cake, so the #7 looks a little sloppy, but I really love the bow.

John Deere Wheeled Feller Buncher.  This was a real CHALLENGE!!  The main part of the cake was pretty easy to make, quite similar to the previous tractor cakes.  But then came the actual buncher part, which I couldn't quite get.  I sculpted and moulded and took apart that darn thing so many times.  This is the final piece.  Not 100% satisfied, but I was getting so frustrated with it and didn't now what else I could do to fix it.  Kayden ordered my first tractor cake last year and now this for his party this year, I can only wonder what next year will bring!  I'm sure he'll come up with something interesting.  :)

"Hi Andrea! The cakes were great!! Kayden loved his buncher cake and was sad that we had to cut it. Thanks again for your hard work. Take care :)L"

Thomas the Train for Kayden's little brother, Kyle.  Simple, but cute cake.

Happy Easter!!  I love Easter, so do my kids.  I really wanted to make an Easter cake, so I was pleased to get this order.   She told me to do whatever I wanted and this is the design I came up with. I really loved making the egg part, it was just like decorating an Easter egg. 

"Awesome cake Andrea"

BOOBS, again!  My friend, Cherry, wanted to surprise her hubby with his own set of boobs.  He LOVED these!!  I tried a new recipe for this cake, banana chocolate.  It was sooo yummy... I will definately be using that again.

I'm Catching Up!!!

Yes I am!!!  It feels great to be almost caught up on something in my life!  Seems like there isn't enough time in a day to get everything I need done...I wish there were at least 5 more hours to a day or six....just round it off to 30 hours instead of 24!  Anyways, here are my creations for February!

Princess Themed 1st Birthday.  All pink and girly is what I was going for on this particular cake.  I was pressed for time, so I didn't have time to make my own crown...I bought one.  It worked well on top of the cake though.

Another Princess Cake!  This one I am really proud of.  I found this design and loved it, so I wanted to make it myself.  Making this cake taught me alot!  I learned the quilting technique, which looks very elegant as well as the crown I made from royal icing.  Oh and the draping.  Brooklynn was a happy little girl!

I made these as gifts for a Facebook fan page referral contest.  I didn't get as much response as I wanted, but I'd do it again...with a better prize that is!  It was close to Valentine's Day so I thought these were fitting. 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Andreas-Tasty-Treats/139377868866?ref=ts

Join my Facebook page!!!

I was asked to donate a dessert for a silent action in February.  It was for FASD fundraising banquet.  It's hard for me to find time to volunteer with the kids at home, so giving this dessert felt really good!  I would definately do it again!!

Do do do do Da Dora, Do do do do Da Dora!!  Dora again.   I was so happy to do this cake for a friend of mine as well as Ryan's cousin.  Heather also was the one who took our wedding pictures back in September of 2008.  Check her out!  http://www.pixelpiephotos.com/   Here daughter was born very close to Valentine's Day and she had a Dora Valentine's birthday party.  Heather and I worked together on this one and got a lot of the inspiration from one of the books.  I love how this cake turned out!!  Here's what she said "Beautiful job as always Andrea. And such a yummy cake too! I can now officially spout off praises for the way they taste too! Daysha absolutely loved her Dora Valentine cake! Thank you again!"

The BOOBS!  I ran into a lady at the grocery store and she wanted a 30th birthday novelty cake for her husband.  The boobs were a challenge.  I had a hard time getting them smooth and the ribbon on the bra was a bit difficult.  There were matching cupcakes as well as some bulldog ones ( I got the idea from Hello Cupcake!), his hockey team was Mad Dogs. 

"It was awesome. He said that it was the best chocolate cake he ever had. The whole pub got up and checked out his cake. Everyone was shocked at the amazing detail lol. All the guys were definetly smiling. Thank you! I'm really happy with eveything."

Minnie Mouse giant cupcake cake.  I've been waiting a long time to make a giant cupcake.  I didn't want to make a cake for myslelf, so I waited until I had a customer who said run with any idea.  This was for my friend Cherry's little girl.  All she wanted was Minnie Mouse and it turned out I had a little figurine I had purchased months prior hoping it would get used.  This is one of my favorite cakes!!

Snowboarding!  For a friend of mine who I used to work with her husband.  Her son is getting really into snowboarding and doing well at it.  She though this would be a perfect cake for him.  

 "In short: ur cake was a big big huge hit!!!!!!!Thank u very much!!!!!  The kids remarks were " this is the best cake ever!" etc and Ricky gave one look at it and just said that his cake is awesome cool!!!"