Wedding Cakes

Okay, finally! I'm sharing my favourite wedding project - the cakes! You might not believe this, but there was a time where I didn't think we needed a wedding cake, I figured there was a dessert course in the menu and that would be the sweet ending for the meal. But Howard pointed out that it would be weird for us to not have cake - especially with me being known as being a baker and all. So I thought about it and decided it would kind of be odd and I did like the idea of baking for our guests.

Then came the hard part, what type of cake would I make? What flavours? How would I decorate them? I looked in many cookbooks and my past blog posts. What did we like to eat? What would cause me the less amount of stress?

What I did know was that we wouldn't use fondant. Even though we started this blog showcasing fondant decorations and even though fondant looks really good, we personally don't enjoy eating it. I wanted the cakes to look natural to match the venue. This wasn't a sleek and polished event, it was small, intimate, and homey. I wanted the application of the frosting to look homemade. I wanted one to be naked with no frosting covering it. Then I wanted a cake that didn't look like much, but upon closer inspection, was something special.

So my next project was to figure out what types of cake toppers I wanted to make. Pinterest was extremely helpful in providing ideas and I eventually picked three: a "Mr and Mrs" bunting, a "LOVE" sign, and a "JUST MARRIED" banner. I used cardboard, paper, thread, and wooden skewers to make them. What I liked about these was the extra height it gave my six-inch cakes.

No one else would know this, but it bugs me that I made the mistake in pairing up the cakes with the cake stands. In my original plan and sketches, I had the naked cake on the white cake stand and the white cake on the glass cake stand. In my own nervousness, I accidentally set them up wrong on the day of. I could have also pushed down the skewers a bit more - like maybe an inch. This is just me over-thinking it and being critical. Since I was the one who set up the cakes, I have no one else to blame but myself! The staff did an outstanding job decorating the rest of the table with greenery and candles - seriously, best team ever!

Here we are, our first task as a married couple! Don't we look happy getting ready to cut the cake? (Another reason why I love my wedding dress, it almost looks like another dress when you don't see the bottom part of the gown. This could have been a knee-length cocktail dress since you can't tell with the table covering the bottom.)

We picked the easier cake to cut into. The restaurant provided the knife and cake lifter.

I'm over the moon here. If Howard fed me cake everyday, I'd be the plumpest and happiest wife on the planet.

I'm sure he doesn't feel the same.

When we were finished our photos, the staff took all three cakes back into the kitchen so they could divide them up and plate them. Then they were carried back out and placed on the table as a self-serve station. To my surprise - because a lot of my family members don't have a big sweet tooth - everyone went up for cake. At one point, I thought we didn't have enough (we did, there was like three slices left at the end of the night).

I made a chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting - a classic and one of my favourite go-to cakes.

The next cake I made is one that is a bit more unique. Not a lot of people have tried a mille crêpes cake before and I feel that it's that something extra for special occasions. Plus, it's a favourite of ours ever since we tried it in New York where we got engaged.

The third cake I made was mainly for Howard. Even though the mille crêpes cake is his all-time favourite, he also loves citrus flavours. This was a lemon cake with lime buttercream.

Wedding Photography: Ikonica | Venue: Auberge du Pommier | Cake Knife: Auberge du Pommier | Cake Lifter: Auberge du Pommier | Cakes: A Baked Creation | Cake Toppers: A Baked Creation | Cake Label Signs: A Baked Creation | Glass Cake Stand: Crate and Barrel | White Cake Stand: Crate and Barrel | Wooden Cake Stand: Chapters Indigo | Six-inch cake boards: PME Sugarcraft | Wedding Dress: Mori Lee Blu 5108

Birdy Baby Shower

Here's something to tweet about, we made cupcakes for my colleague's baby shower this week! The tricky part was to not do anything that screamed baby shower. We were looking for something subtle, but pretty, and one of the shower organizers suggested making little birds.

Okay, let me run with that. I decided that flowers and leaves would accompany the little birds really well. A spring theme in the middle (or are we in the beginning) of winter. If you want to get all meaningful, spring is for new beginnings. I'd say having a baby qualifies!

I wish I had my camera at work, one of the publicity managers made a diaper cake! Not a cake that looked like a diaper - she tied up a bunch of diapers and made two tiers with them.

These leaf cupcakes were actually inspired by Sugar Baking. She has this great photos of leaf cupcakes for a wedding that I love. It's so simple and clean.

For mine, I didn't do a fondant covering over the cupcakes, but used a dollop of buttercream. These cupcakes were actually topped with lime buttercream for the don't-want-it-too-sweet crowd in my office. If you look closely, you can see some of the lime zest in the frosting.

All the cupcakes topped with a swirl were vanilla buttercream. One of my managers actually said to me that she had a hard time choosing a cupcake. Did she go for the lime cupcakes for a different flavour, or pick the vanilla to get a birdy?

She picked the lime cupcake in the end. ;)

Liz and Andrew, congratulations on your little bundle of joy!

By the way, Howard took all the post-production photos with our new camera this time. What do you think? Did he do a good job? ;)

Yellow Cakes

Happy long weekend everyone! We're pretty ecstatic to have a break. Work has been kind of crazy for me - but in a good way. New projects and things to learn. Howard and I also have a wedding to attend next week. So it'll be another short week as we've taken a day off to help out. Stay tuned to see how we churn out 200 cupcakes and a square cake to go on top of the cupcake tower!

I hope you're out enjoying the nice weather, it's pretty rare here in Toronto. In fact, this is the first time this year that I've busted out shorts and a T-shirt. No cardigan or shawl required! This is nice...

Oh and I learned something new last night. Hershey's Chipits pure white chocolate baking chips are not easy to melt over a double boiler. And whatever you do, don't listen to the instructions on the bag. It says to melt a cup of white chocolate chips in the microwave for two minutes. Two! I thought it was too high and tried one minute and now I can tell you from experience that it will burn, turn black, and bubble before it hits the one minute mark. I'm still having nightmares about it. Every time I use my microwave, I can still smell burnt white chocolate.

Thank you to those who heard my cries of help on twitter, your advices were all very helpful!

Despite that mishap, I tried a new cake recipe today and for the first time, baked it sheet style. I will admit, I need more practice making cakes. I find them so much harder to make compared to my beloved cupcakes.

Does anyone know why yellow cake is called yellow cake? It doesn't have a "yellow" flavour, so why isn't it just called a vanilla cake?

Yellow Cake

From Confetti Cakes for Kids

(Makes about three sheets of 1 x 9 x 13)

2 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon of baking powder

2 sticks of unsalted butter

2 cups of granulated sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

4 eggs

1 cup of milk

1. Preheat your oven to 177°C (350°F) and line the bottom of your pans with parchment paper.
2. Using a mixer, combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3. On a low speed, add the vanilla, and the eggs, one at a time.
4. Sift together the flour and baking powder.
5. Alternate adding the flour/baking powder and milk in three batches.
6. Mix until well combined on medium speed.
7. Divide your batter evenly and bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
8. Remember to allow the cakes to cool before releasing them from the pans, about 20 to 30 minutes.
9. Flip the cakes over onto another pan or cake board. Peel away the parchment paper.
10. Yellow cake basically goes with any frosting flavour, so whip up your favourite one.

I trimmed out two cakes from the sheets, one 5 x 5 inches and one 5 x 4 inches. I love how I was able to get the thin layers of cake this way. It beats using a cake leveler!

The square cake was frosted with chocolate buttercream, iced with chocolate ganache, and topped with strawberries. My mom said in horror "chocolate and more chocolate?" Yes. =)

The rectangle cake was frosted with lime buttercream, something my parents can handle. This was piped on in logs and I didn't cover the sides. The citrus kick is making this weekend feel summery. Cheers!

Yikes, it just occurred to me... there are two cakes in front of me and six days before our friend's wedding. It's very likely that I'll be holding my breath when I put on my dress for their big day.

So how have you been doing? If you're a new visitor to my blog, welcome! I recently noticed that we now have over 900 likes on facebook and over 1,500 followers on twitter. That is pretty awesome! Thank you for staying in touch with us online, and please don't be shy, say hello or ask us a question if something on our blog isn't clear. =)

How: Pinwheel Cupcakes

Spring? Is that you? We really missed you and your cousin Summer. To welcome you, I made some pinwheel cupcakes for the wind you bring.

I think pinwheel cupcake toppers are adorable. I've seen places that sell them, but really wanted to make edible ones.

Fondant Pinwheels

Rolled fondant
Gel paste colours
Clean toothpicks
Water
A rolling pin
A knife

A square cookie cutter

1. If you are lucky enough to have coloured fondant, then you can skip these steps! Unless you want white-coloured pinwheels, you will have to dye your white fondant. Get the gel paste in the colours you want and use a clean toothpick to dab into the gel.
2. Transfer the gel from the toothpick onto the fondant. Knead and roll until the fondant is completely coloured. Please do not double-dip the toothpick, use a new one if you need more gel for a darker shade.
3. I use a practice mat, or you can use a clean surface to roll your fondant out. If you don't have a square (or square-ish) cookie cutter, use your knife to cut one out.
   
4. Then, make four cuts from the centre to the corners. Make sure you leave some room in the centre, do not cut all the way through.
   
5. Carefully peel one of the corners and fold it down. The tip should go towards the centre. If needed, dab a tiny bit of water in the centre to make the fondant stick.
   
6. Going counter-clockwise, I folded down the next corner.
   
7. Repeat.
   
8. Repeat until all four are folded towards the centre.
   
9. Next, create a little fondant ball and use it to "pin" all the folds down. Again, use a tiny dab of water if the ball does not stick. Gently move the pinwheel to parchment paper sprinkled with icing sugar. Let the fondant dry on top of the sugar (prevents the fondant from sticking to the parchment paper).
   
10. Keep the pinwheels away from sunlight, water, dust, and out of reach from children or pets. The should be firm enough in 2-3 hours for decorating. You can also make these ahead of time and use them within the month.
11. If you would like to, buy lollipop sticks for the fondant pinwheels. You can attach them on the back using royal icing.

Now make your cupcakes! I tried out the Lemon Fairy Cakes from Two Dishes, but used my own lime buttercream for the frosting. The cupcakes turned out too dry for my liking, I'm wondering if I over mixed the batter. I followed the recipe to the dot, which required more work than other cupcake recipes, so I am a bit disappointed that they didn't turn out as I hoped.

The pinwheels are easy to make and are a great alternative from fondant flowers. They will be pretty for Easter or tea parties!

I also want to add this: I took these 18 cupcakes to work and normally would leave them out in the kitchen for my colleagues. This time, I held a little bake sale and we donated $82 to the Japanese Red Cross Society. So, I want to thank my generous co-workers at Tundra Books, McClelland & Stewart, and the Random House of Canada Design and Typesetting team.

Lemon Lime Cupcakes

Now this is lovely spring weather! We hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend.
The May 2009 issue of Canadian Living Magazine had cupcakes on the cover! Inside, they had a special feature of a couple Mother-and-daughter bakeries in Canada (for Mother's Day of course). So naturally they had cupcake recipes in their food section! We decided to try the Lemon Lime Cupcakes because "citrus flavours add sparkle to these delicate cupcakes." However, instead of their Seven Minute frosting, we made our own lemon buttercream and lime buttercream.
Lemon Lime Cupcakes
Recipe from Canadian Living Magazine
(Makes about 12 cupcakes)

1/2 cup of unsalted butter
3/4 cup of sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of grated lemon and lime rind/zest
1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 1/4 cups of all-purposed flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cup of milk

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
2. In large bowl, beat butter with granulated sugar until fluffy
3. Add in eggs, 1 at a time. Then add in lemon and lime rinds/zests and lemon juice.
4. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
   
5. Mix into butter mixture alternately with milk.
6. Spoon into cupcake liners or cups.
7. Bake the cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
8. Let them cool for an hour before frosting.
   

The Lemon Lime cupcakes smell so good! You can really taste the citrus in the cupcakes - which we are so glad about! The only tiny thing we would have preferred was if the cupcakes were a little bit more moist and soft. Also, they didn't rise very high for us, so we would scoop more in next time. Other than that, they are delicious! We will probably try the Banana Buttermilk Cupcake in the near future!
Lime Buttercream

(Makes about 2 cups)

1 stick of butter

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice

1/2 tablespoon of fresh lime zest

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is nice and fluffy.
2. Add in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla, continue to mix till smooth.
3. Wash the lime and using a zester, zest the whole lime.
4. Mix the lime zest with the buttercream.
5. Cut the lime in half and squeeze out the lime juice.
6. Add the lime juice with the buttercream and mix well.
7. If you want, tint the buttercream lime green!

Lemon Buttercream

(Makes about 2 cups)

1 stick of butter

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice

1/2 tablespoon of fresh lemon zest

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is nice and fluffy.
2. Add in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla, continue to mix till smooth.
3. Wash the lemon and using a zester, zest the whole lemon.
4. Mix the lemon zest with the buttercream.
5. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze out the lemon juice.
6. Add the lemon juice with the buttercream and mix well.
7. If you want, tint the buttercream lemon yellow!

Cupcakes in the News!

How cool is this? Thank you to Angela for taking time to interview us. Our lime buttercream on vanilla cupcake photo and recipe was used!

You can find variations of the articles here:

1. CTV Toronto: Cupcake connoisseurs flock to Leslieville
2. Welland Tribune: Rising up to meet the cupcake craze
3. Fort Frances Times: Cupcake lovers finding new ways to make, share, indulge hobby
4. Bakers Journal: Cupcake lovers finding new ways to share hobby
   
5. The Record: Cupcakes the Main Course
6. The Daily Gleaner: Buttercream is the perfect topping for cupcakes
7. Prince George Citizen: Buttercream is the perfect topping for delectable cupcakes
8. kv style: More than a bit loopy for cuppies
   

Or, you can read the full article here on our feature's page.

Holiday Housewarming Cupcakes

Lastly, my aunt needed 3 dozen cupcakes for her in-law's holiday housewarming party today. We decided to make vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with lime buttercream, chocolate ganache buttercream, and vanilla buttercream with a variety of decorations. I also got to try out my new piping tip to create these swirls!

Housewarming Cupcakes: Telephone, spoon, teapot, lamp, bed, key, armchair, outdoor lamp, and bathtub. These were made from fondant - except the outdoor lamp. That was just a cute cake decor we had from a Christmas cake. We could never make fondant look clear like glass! It is not pictured here, but we also made a wok, a house plant, and a small, red Monopoly house. There are always more individual photos on our facebook page.

Hey there Santa! Santa here was made from fondant using brown jimmies for the eyes.

Christmas wreath! This wreath was made from fondant using red, white, and green sprinkles as wreath ornaments.

Hey there red-nosed Roo! This reindeer was made from fondant, using brown jimmies for the eyes and antlers.

How about some frosting recipes as our gift to you? That way you can enjoy cupcake goodies this holiday!

Lime Buttercream

(Makes about 2 cups)

1 stick of butter

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon of fresh lime juice

1/2 tablespoon of fresh lime zest

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is nice and fluffy.
2. Add in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla, continue to mix till smooth.
3. Wash the lime and using a zester, zest the whole lime.
4. Mix the lime zest with the buttercream.
5. Cut the lime in half and squeeze out the lime juice.
6. Add the lime juice with the buttercream and mix well.
7. If you want, tint the buttercream lime green!
   

Chocolate Ganache Buttercream

(Makes about 2 cups)

1 stick of butter

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1/4 cup of heavy cream

1/4 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Heat the heavy cream over a double boiler until the edges begin to bubble.
2. With the chocolates in a heat proof container, pour the heated cream in. Let it sit for a minute and then whisk the chocolate and heavy cream together. Set aside to cool.
   
3. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is smooth and fluffy.
4. Add the confectioner's sugar and continue mixing.
5. Finally, add the chocolate ganache mixture into the buttercream and mix until smooth.
   

Vanilla Buttercream

(Makes about 2 cups)

1 stick of butter

2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1/8 cup of heavy cream

1. Using a mixer, beat the butter until it is fluffy.
2. Add in the confectioner's sugar and vanilla extract.
3. Add the heavy cream and continue mixing until the frosting is smooth.