Brrr...baby its cold outside

It is FREEZING out today -27 right now (but it is still early morning the sun isn't fully out yet) a high of -19!! Yikes!!

Ellie and I have a few errands we have to run today so please send us all your warm thoughts! At least Ellie will get some good use out of her snowsuit! We're going to meet up with our Aunty Kathy for lunch, and hit the grocery store for our next baking project - cupcakes!

I'm just missing the ingredients for the coconut cake/almond buttercream icing cupcake - that and I really need to find a nice stand to display them on that will cost less than $100!!

Wal-Mart is having a sale right now, their 3 in 1 cupcake/slab cake caddy is usually $30, on for $10!! So I went yesterday to my local wal-mart and they were sold out :( I may have to try a different one today because that is just too good to pass up!

I was supposed to go to a playdate today, but Ellie's friend is sick :( poor girl. So I disected my cake...I took all of the flowers off (they're hard - made of royal icing and gumpaste/fondant) and stuck them back into their storage container so I don't have to waste them...LOL is that terrible?! So now my cake is just a big blue blob with some green vines in my fridge...it is delicious though...

Thats all for now! Have a delicious day!

Flower Cake!

No time for a long post - but here is my final cake for class 2 - from many angles as all sides of the cake are different :P

I've come a long way from this eh? LOL

Practice!

Practice makes perfect right?

Well I've been working on my rose - they leave something to be desired so when my daughter went down for her second nap today I whipped up a batch of royal icing, turned on an episode of dog whisperer and practiced my rose

I made many, many roses...they're still not great but they're coming along! Practice makes perfect right? right?!

I didn't make any more lily's today like I said I would, but here are the ones from yesterday

I baked a cake aswell and was excited to use my new tilting turntable - only to find it doesnt really turn unless I use two hands, so kind of defeats the purpose - there is a bunch of the packaging stuck under it though so I think I'll return it tomorrow/exchange it for a new one

Final Cake - Course 2!

Tomorrow is my final lesson for course #2 so I'm baking my cake. The weather sucks (20cm of snow since yesterday :( ) so I decided to make it a colorful cake to brighten things up. I was going to do a rainbow cake but since Matt is in Vegas this weekend and its just Ellie and I - I decided to go with a girl power theme and made it pink and purple.


Now I have to think of a design for it - I need to put a bunch of flowers on it but I don't want it to look too crowded and forced..I was thinking of doing violets on the sides with long windy vines and some bigger flowers on top...oh who knows!

I think we're learning the basket weave tomorrow but I really don't like the look of those cakes so I'll learn it but I doubt I"ll use it on this cake.

The lily's for the baby shower are coming along - I've finished 17 and ran out of icing so I should probably get back on track with those today - at least I have until wednesday! Baking the cupcakes and icing them will be a breeze its just these damn lilys!

Anyways I'd better run and get something done while Ellie is still sleeping

Have a delicious day!

Cakes Cakes Cakes!

It seems news of the cakes has caught wildfire! I'm going to be very busy this week - and likely covered in icing sugar ;)

I have my final cake for this course - a floral cake
I have 3 dozen baby boy themed cupcakes for a baby shower
and 2 birthday cakes!

I decided for the baby shower cupcakes to do 3 different flavors, top them all with a blue icing and a white lily on top - I know the lily's will take a while to not only create but dry so I got to work on them right away this morning...I did 8 in 45 minutes LOL they will look so cute once they're finished.

For flavors, chocolate, vanilla and  coconut have been requested, so that they know which is which I think I will sprinkly shredded coconut on top of the icing.

I've been dying to do a chocolate banana cake, I think I may do that for my final cake - it just sounds so yummy!  As for my birthday cakes, flavor hasn't been decided but I was thinking something along the lines of a cookies and cream for one of them

I have to make a trip out today to collect some more lily stamens, ingredients for all of these cakes and some decorative stands - maybe a new baking tin or two..

Have a delicious day!

From the beginning

When I first started this cake journey I had no clue what I was doing

In fact - the first time I attempted to make my own icing, I bought regular granulated sugar instead of icing sugar - you should have seen the result of mixing and mixing..I was very confused as to why it wasn't icing!

So here is the end result of my very first cake! (I want you to be able to see the progress - there is hope for me yet!)

But it wasn't all bad - it was infact a rainbow cake!

  Along came my second cake - a xmas cake (also a rainbow cake!)

 And these days I'm working on perfecting my recipes and my decorative flowers to add to my future cakes/cupcakes

My roses need a lot of work

Cate's Cakes

I've been hmmming and hawwing about creating cakes for friends and families events for a while now

After posting pictures of my creations on FB and having a nationwide drool session over them I received many requests to make some custom creations for friends and family.

At first I thought they were joking - until I started getting PM's with actual orders :D

So with that, Cate's Custom Cakes was born and here we are!

I'll be blogging about each of the special cakes I make for some very special people so check frequently to see my new additions!

Looking forward to taking this journey with you!

Cate's Cakes