A Very Hungry Caterpillar & A Very Happy Birthday Boy

I feel like it's been forever since I've posted something for a cake order that I've had! My little brother's birthday was in December (poor bug was born right before Christmas) and we postponed his birthday party until recently just so that the Christmas hullabaloo would be over and done with.

When chatting with a 6 year old about what they'd like their birthday cake to look like, your conversation can truly go in soooo many directions. Jordan loves Pokemon, Iron Man, Spiderman and all sorts of other things that I'm a little clueless on when it comes to cakes. However, I remembered coming across a post from the My Cake School Blog about making a Very Hungry Caterpillar cake out of cupcakes. It looked pretty straightforward and Jordan and I used to LOVE reading the book together. So truly this was a no brainer that this was the cake for him!

Start by arranging your cupcakes (including a larger one for the head) and frost random blobs across the gaps of the cupackes

Smooth the icing as best as possible and let it crust for 10 minutes before smoothing it with waxed paper.

Go a little crazy with the designs you include on each section and don't forget to add the chocolate chip feet!

Et Voila! Very Hungry Caterpillar Cupcake-Cake

The boy child truly enjoyed his cake! I mean look how excited he was with his buddies!!!

Foodie Find - Double Chocolate Mousse Torte

Following my making of the pretzel bites from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, I did some more browsing around her blog. While I was doing this, I stumbled upon Mel's recipe for a double chocolate mousse torte!

My goodness this looks amazing!!! I whipped up a batch of chocolate mousse not too long ago and let me tell you, I will use that recipe to make this scrumptious cake sometime soon!

Photo Credit: Mel's Kitchen Cafe

Thank you Mel for posting such deliciousness! I can't wait to make this and report back on how it turns out!

Happy Friday!

t

Lambs & Grass Cupcakes

My cake and cupcake orders have calmed down over the last few months and needless to say that when I was approached for an order recently I couldn't say no! Even more so, the order was for the 1st birthday party of one of the little girls that I babysit, Ellie!

Ellie's Mum, Claire, sent me an e-mail with a few photos of what she was looking for and a few specifications of what she wanted. The request list was for cupcakes that looked like little pink lambs, some with some grass and a few mini cupcakes with some pink frosting for the little birthday girl! I later learned that Miss Ellie is notorious for taking her pink lamb everywhere with her hence the pink lamb cupcakes.

The mission was on and I have to say I am so delighted with how they turned out! Half of the cupcakes were carrot and the other half were vanilla.

For any cupcake/cake orders or inquiries, please contact novicegoddess@hotmail.com.

t

Foodie Find - Halloween Cake

You guys know without a doubt how much I love the "My Cake School" blog. Not only are their posts informative, but sometimes they're just so darn cute, it makes you want to go and bake up a storm! Well, their Cute Ghost Topper & Pumpkin Border cake is no different! I think this may have to make an appearance at work for our Halloween party! It's boo-tiful! (I couldn't resist... I apologize!)

Photo credit: My Cake School

Happy almost Halloween!

tamara

Foodie Find - Grass Tip Cake

One of the blogs that I enjoy on a regular basis is 'i am baker'. I came across her post about making cakes with a grass tip and LOVED the rainbow one. I think it's gorgeous and soooooo lovely. 

Check out the link and enjoy :) 

http://iammommy.typepad.com/i_am_baker/2011/08/cake-challenge-wiltons-grass-tip.html

t

Pin-Up Girl Cupcake Cake

This was a cake that I had on order a few week's ago for my sister-in-law's (read: my brother's girlfriend) grandpa's 75th birthday party! I've never had the chance to meet any of her family (except her LOVELY sister for 2 seconds in the middle of the winter at a gas station... It wasn't as sketchy as it sounds) and so not only was I asked to make the cake but I was getting to meet the people who are the reason why I love this gal sooooo much! 

Anywhoo, when Taryn (that's her name!) asked me to do the cake, I was honoured and a little nervous. Then she asked if I could do the cake as a cupcake cake. Now, I'm not sure if you have ever seen a cupcake cake, so allow me to explain. It's a bunch of cupcakes that are all arranged closely together and then iced together so that they are one flat slab of cake. A perfect example of one can be found here (gorgeously cute cake by the by). I've never made one before and I was nervous considering there were going to be a lot of people there (approximately 80) and that this was for her family! But I decided to proceed. 

The decision was made that the cake would have a 1940s pin-up girl on it which brought on a whole other list of worries. How would I get a picture of the pin-up girl on the cake without making her look like an ape with boobies?!?!? Thankfully, my darling friend, Amanda, explained to me how she works through these things and told me about a local bakery that prints sugar sheets for you! 

Anyway, here is the final result of the cupcake cake. The cupcakes are chocolate and vanilla. The cake was made of 20 standard sized cupcakes and 84 mini cupcakes. 

I may or may not have an obsession with rows of cupcakes

Un-iced grouping of cupcakes

Iced as a whole cake :)

The Birthday Boy who proceeded to sing happy birthday to his pin-up girl :)

And now, because I can, here are some photos of the fam while we were up at the party! God, I love these people soooooo much! 

My brother and I... there really can never be too much sibling time! EVER!

Amy, Taryn, Me and Mum!

The Pioneer Woman's Carrot Cake

I LOVE the Pioneer Woman's blog! LOVE IT! Don't usually go 24 hours without checking it! If you haven't been.. GO NOW! (by clicking here). Naturally, I am a little more partial to the cooking section of her blog but the rest of it is amazing as well. 

After having gotten over the slight disappointment with some of the feedback concerning the Detroit Red Wings cake, I knew that for my next order, I needed a different kind of recipe. I needed a recipe that could be made in a sheet cake pan but that would taste delicious and moist and still look good. So naturally, I did a quick search for 'carrot sheet cake' (since the order was for a carrot cake) and was ironically brought to the Pioneer Woman's post for Sigrid's Carrot Cake. There is the most adorable story behind this cake and you should definitely read it on her blog. As you all know, I love the connections that people make to certain foods in relation to people they know and this recipe is no exception. 

Anywhoo, I made the recipe in an 18' x 22' x 1 1/2' cake pan (which I learned was too big to fit in my own oven! Thank you J for letting me take over your kitchen! You're my hero!!!) and baked a double batch of the recipe for about 45-50 minutes. It turned out amazingly and I was so happy. I once again learned the hard way that I can't make a cake from start to finish in one day. I get exhausted and then become irritated and frustrated and I pretty much throw a tantrum like this (click here) (once again, thank you J for not kicking me out of your house that night!!!! <3). Lessons learned and put aside, the cake turned out wonderfully... Super moist, not too overdone and it was enjoyed by all (ULTIMATE CAKE SUCCESS!!!!!).I am a bad blogger because I don't think I took any pictures of the finished cake. I have some process pictures at home but I don't have the finished product (again, please refer to the temper tantrum video found here). I'm so sorry!

BUT wait... there's more! I decided that since the Pioneer Woman says how versatile this recipe is that I would try and turn these babies into cupcakes (who here doesn't know about my love of cupcakes?). A single batch of this recipe will perfectly make 24 cupcakes. I baked mine for about 45 minutes or until they were light-ish brown on top. I'm not quite sure why but the top of the cake always bakes up looking a little lumpy. I personally don't mind it because it ends up looking like it's got oats in it too (it's always a good mind trick to make the brain think it's eating something 'healthy'). Really though, for me it's not an issue because there is always icing on top of the cake so you don't see it. 

And without further delay, allow me to introduce you to the most perfect cupcake of my existence complete with cream cheese frosting! 

I hope you all are having a wonderful week! 

Keep smiling :)

t

Detroit Red Wings Cake

I had a request to do my biggest cake yet... a cake for 60 people!!!! I was intimidated to say the least but agreed because I figured 'what have I got to lose besides a bit of sleep and some of my hair when I pull it out?' On top of it being the biggest cake I've ever made, the person who the cake was for adores the Detroit Red Wings and thus their logo was to be on the cake. Oh Sweet God was I nervous! I even had to ensure that my mum would sit with me while I did the design to ensure that it looked good. Needless to say, despite an issue with a really dense cake, this one turned out quite well (if I may say so myself!). Thanks, Christine, for thinking of me to make this cake!!!! 

Dirty 30 Cake

Here is a cake that I had on order a few weeks ago! It's an 11in x 15in  red velvet cake with a cream cheese flavoured butter cream frosting. I tried out a new 'pretty petal effect' as found on MyCakeSchool.com (here) and LOVED IT! 

Can anyone tell that I'm loving my new camera just a little bit?!?!?

As always, if you have any questions about orders, please don't hesitate to contact me at novicegoddess@hotmail.com.

<3

t

Food Blogger-cide? Maaaybe! Deliciousness? Definitely!

I have decided to coin a new term: Blogger-cide... Pretty much the equivalent of blogger suicide. Perhaps I should even further clarify it by calling it Food Blogger-cide. Allow me to define this term for you:

Food Blogger-cide - noun - A crime committed by food bloggers when they forget to take both process and completed product food photos. The end result is typically a photo once the dish has been half devoured (sad sad shame!). 

Anywhoo... I have committed Food Blooger-cide. It was my birthday a few weeks ago (hurray for the big 2-5!!!!) and I made my own birthday cake. Now, before you start thinking or saying (I can hear you!!!!) "Oh that poor girl had to make her own birthday cake. Does she not have anyone who loves her who could have made her cake?", allow me to clarify that I had 2 people offer to make my cake, however I decided that I wanted to make my cake. I had been craving to make a cake for a while since I haven't had any cake orders over the last few months and this was the perfect opportunity for me to make a cake. 

I decided that Anna Olson's Banana White Chocolate Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting was going to be the epic cake to celebrate my birthday with some family and friends. I learned the hard way that when making this cake (with 4 layers of cake - 2 x 9-inch cake pan with each cake cut in half) that 1 1/2 times the icing recipe is not enough... However if you find yourself in this bind, whip out some sliced almonds to cover up your slightly less than perfect cake sides. I was a little rushed while finishing the cake and the rest of the meal and welcoming guests that I accidentally forgot to take a picture of the cake before we cut into it. BUT I will recant my statement of total food blogger-cide for the simple fact that now that the cake is cut, you can see the layers and deliciousness in its glory! So here it is, I swear this recipe is delicious and will not disappoint! 

I hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Take care,

t