Play Ball!!

Well hi there!

All I can hear in my head is music from the Damn Yankees musical. "Six months out of every year..."

Yup, I am that kind of geek! Sigh.

This week, along with the Canada Day Cupcakes in the last post I also was asked by a close friend Laura, do make a cake for her Dad. Her wonderful Dad is retiring from work at long last and they are celebrating this weekend. 

Now a baseball theme cake isn't a 'normal' retirement cake I guess but he LOVES the Toronto Blue Jays. I was told anything Blue Jays for the cake. Oh and he also loves chocolate. And peanut butter. Which (as long as you aren't allergic to either) is a match made in heaven.

Not to shabby for freehand cutting the logo out of fondant if I do say so myself!

It really was quite the funny scene me looking at the laptop and then back at the fondant and cutting out random shapes with a sharp knife...

And the maple leaf cutter came in handy a second time! 

The cake itself is a double layer chocolate cake with peanut butter filling and icing. The boarders are chocolate peanut butter icing. The whole thing tastes like a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. But fluffy.

Along with the cake, Laura asked for 12 cupcakes.

My mouth waters when I look at these cupcakes, and to be honest I am not even really a peanut butter fan. But these cupcakes are SO good.

Same chocolate cake as the cake, same peanut butter icing but with some crushed peanuts on top for a little added texture.

Congratulations on retirement to Laura's Daddy. I am excited for her family and the extra time he will get to spend with his wife, daughter and beautiful grandchildren! Lots of love to your family Laura!

Next week: birthday cakes and bridal showers.

Take care,

Sandy T

Oh Canada!

Hi!
Hope this finds you well and ready for the long weekend. I know I am more than ready for my time off coming up in July...
Anyway on to the cakes. Today I am posting a few pictures of some Canada Day Cupcakes. My lovely lovely friend Nancy Sue asked me to make some cupcakes for a family gathering she is going to in Edmonton. I was all excited to make little Canada flags, bought a maple leaf cutter and was ready to go. Then I discovered the two-toned icing technique that I did for Lisa's wedding cupcakes. Out the window went the flags and in came red and white cupcakes!  However not wanting the maple leaf cutter to go to waste I cut out 24 maple leaves and added them to the cupcakes.

I can't help it. The two toned icing is just SO darn pretty!!

I had let the maple leaves set on the flower drying rack so they were curved all different directions. Kind of like real leaves when they dry. 

So the cupcakes were simple vanilla cake with vanilla icing. I tried to make a case for maple cupcakes but there was some anti-maple fans in the crowd that these are going to! However one of my absolute favorite flavours is vanilla with vanilla icing. Love it.

Happy Canada Day to you all!!

Sandy

Tessa Turns One!

Hello out there!

At last we are reaching the end of this hectic week. Today is Sunday and all my cakes made it out the door, on time and to the correct owners. Add that to the last week of school for my daughter Julie and my husband's last week of the spring term for his M.Ed degree and throw into the mix hosting a birthday party for a herd of smalls, working my regular 'day job' and a few migraine headaches from the crazy weather we had this week... all in all was a busy time!
Regardless of the level of crazy at Valley Girl Cakes I am always pleased to see the outcome of a cake and learn a few things in the process. The featured cake for today is for Tessa. Tessa is a sweet as they come, and is called Tessa-bear by her family. As a result, the party theme of the day was Teddy Bears. I was thrilled to make Tessa her first party cake, since last year I got to make a "Welcome Tessa" cake and run it over to Jen and Tom right after Tessa came home. (And then I got to snuggle a new new new baby. So sweet!) I feel like I truly have made a full circle in the last year!

You may have seen the previews of the Tessa-bears earlier and here is the finished product for this weekend's party!

The bears fit neatly along the edge of the lower cake and each held a letter of her name.

The bears are made of chocolate as are the flowers.  The cake itself was two tiers of layered vanilla and chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream icing.

While I was quite pleased with the overall outcome of the cake and Tessa's happy face as she ate her piece and the chocolate flowers, I did encounter some problems with decorating this cake that I've never had before! One is rolling fondant with a migraine. Not much I can do about that one except pray like crazy I don't have to do it too often...  And the other issue is honestly not something I ever thought I would have to deal with here in Southern Alberta: humidity. Ya... so how does one decorate with moisture sensitive product in humidity?? I haven't a clue! I am going to have to learn a few tricks of the trade from all those baker types out there! Live and learn. 

Thankfully the cake stayed together and only the fondant (which I rolled super super thin) bubbled here and there. The cake was completely gone before we left the party and the kids had enough time on the trampoline after to burn off the sugar high! Thanks to Jen and Tom for allowing my family to spend this afternoon with yours!!

This week coming up: Canada Cup Cakes, and some Blue Jays (baseball not birds. I have to specify because I know my friends...)

Take care,

Sandy T.

  

Time sure flies...

Time sure flies when you are making cupcakes at 1am!
This week as you have all been aware has been a busy one here at Valley Girl Cakes. My baby had her 5th . birthday party with her Angry Birds cake, and Tessa's 1st birthday party is on Sunday. Then my regular evening job and Julie's last week of school... Which was busy enough as it was. And then it only got crazier...

Because I had gotten dates confused about a wedding. My friend Lisa got married this weekend (YAY! Congratulations!) and I TOTALLY thought that the wedding was NEXT weekend. D'oh. As luck would have it (or God watching out for me!) I had a quick text conversation with Lisa on Thursday and was able to get going on her wedding cupcakes after work that night. And even more thankfully I was able to bake and ice them with little to no interruptions. Whew!

Purple and White swirls. So pretty

A sea of yummy.

One of each type I made. (A little off center. Whoops!)

I wish the couple all the best for the future and can't wait to see what is in store for them!
On deck for the blog next: Tessa's First Birthday!
Take care,
Sandy T

Angry Birds Cake

Hello there!
As I mentioned last post this year my baby girl is turning 5. Times sure does fly!!
Julie loves pretty much anything but her current fixation is Angry Birds. And as a result we are now having an Angry Birds Birthday or rather an Angry Bird-day party for Julie.

There are no shortages of Angry Bird themed cakes out there that is for sure and after viewing a bunch online Julie requested one that looked like a scene from the game rather than a giant bird. I had a great time building the birds and the structure. The grass boarder took ages but I love the way it turned out. I left the base coat of icing a little lumpy partly because I was tired and this cake isn't going to a client and partly because ground is never smooth! Or at least that is what I am telling myself anyway.

The birds and pigs are made out of fondant.

The structures are half modelling chocolate (wood) and fondant (brick).

The cakes are two different flavors. The bottom layer is a vanilla cake with caramel icing. The caramel icing is made from homemade caramel sauce and to be honest if it is in the house I will eat both the sauce and icing so I figure combining the two into one item is really just efficient on my part! The top cake is light chocolate cake with coconut icing. The filling in the chocolate cake also has a layer of coconut added to it.  The fondant is homemade too. I try to do as much from scratch as I can!

Julie has claimed most of the birds and the pig with crown as hers to eat at her party. However one of our family friends can't make the party so she has ever so generously said he can have ONE of the birds (a small blue bird) and a slice of cake. The rest is hers.

And that is Julie's cake. She is pretty excited to have her party this week and I am so happy I was able to make her the cake of her little 5 year old dreams! I love that little girl with my whole heart.

Up coming posts: Tessa's first birthday and a bit about the caramel sauce!

Until next time,

Sandy

Sneak peeks of Upcoming Cakes!

Happy Sunday and Happy Fathers Day to all the Dads out there.

Just a quick post today with a few pictures of up coming cakes. The cakes themselves won't be made until later in the week and I will post finished versions of them after I am all done.
The first cake this week is near and dear to my heart because it is for my beautiful daughter Julie. This year my baby turns 5 and we are celebrating about a month early because we will be away visiting Nana and Papa for her actual birthday. Her party this year is Angry Birds themed and I am having a blast creating the birds and pigs for her cake.

Here is the crew! I am pretty happy with the way they have turned out. Julie is very excited that I included the nest with eggs AND the birds AND the pigs. She was pretty specific about which birds she wanted. The black one is her favorite because he blows up. And she wanted two of them. And then one red one and one yellow and a set of 3 blue ones. She asked for these because she wanted one for every number. I mentioned that she had asked for more than 5 birds and she said "Ya but technically the blue one is one bird that splits into three so I've only asked for 5."  She continues to amaze me.

The other cake is for my friend Jen's baby Tessa. Tessa is turning 1 this month and I am very excited to be included in the birthday celebration. Tessa's nickname is Tessa-bear so Jen asked for a bear themed cake. I am looking forward to setting this one up and getting all the details in place.

That's all for today! Hope you all had a great weekend and I will be back soon!
Sandy

Oh the irony

Hi. First blog post ever. Go me!
So the reason why this post is ironic is because I've started this home based baking gig making custom cakes and cupcakes.
And then the first order I get once I've got this thing up and running is for something savoury!
My friend Stacy tells me she has been blessed with the best father in the world. (I know how she feels because I have the best father in the world to!!) This weekend is Father's day and she wanted to do something special for him. Sadly he doesn't have a sweet tooth so Stacy asked me what I could to do help her out.
I was more than happy to come up with a solution. In fact one of the most yummy things to me in the whole world is a cheese biscuit sausage roll. I may love sweet stuff but nothing beats these bad boys! I told Stacy about them and her she was very excited because her father's favourite thing is a sausage roll too. Everyone wins!

Stacy couldn't just leave it with sausage rolls though. So we are throwing in a citrus cupcake with vanilla icing to go with them. This flavor of cupcake is rapidly becoming my most requested one!

mmmm.... sausage rolls....

Hopefully Stacy's Dad will enjoy these as much as my house does!

That's all the news for now. Next up: Tessa-bear's first birthday cake and Julie's 5th birthday Angry Bird Cake!

Take care!