Honors Baby!

I just got my college transcript in the mail and I will be graduating with honors October 26th! I'm gonna do a little self horn tooting here and say that my lowest grade was an A- and I only got one!  Let me tell you, it feels great!

And to honor this honorific occasion I shall make cupcakes tonight!  I haven't decided yet but I'm leaning towards peanut butter cupcakes from Made With Pink.  I shall test, taste, and take pictures of this crazy delicious sounding cupcake and report back tomorrow.

But for now, since my son's second birthday just past, I will leave you with a picture of the 3D duck cake I made for his first birthday.  Well this picture is actually of the cake I made for an order but it is the same mold and I can't seem to locate the picture from his actual birthday.  The difference was I used a softer icing for his and wasn't able to pipe it and I had blue and white bubbles pipped on the bottom to look like it was in the bath.

Thanksgiving side effects

 I hope every had a Happy Thanksgiving! Hope everyone had a lovely meal and some good family time. We had our family meal on Saturday and it was fabulous. And the pumpkin cheese cake was a huge hit! We carved our pumpkins yesterday with my little one and two nephews. It's always a crazy time when all three boys are together. But we always have a great time and get even greater pictures. We took a walk behind my dad's place where there's a little forest and LOTS of leaves. The boys and I found a huge pile of leaves and had a blast.

I realize what I'm about to say next is probably what a lot of people say or think right after thanksgiving or any big food holiday, but this has been put off for far to long. I really must change my lifestyle and start a real low impact exercise regime and start eating better. So starting today I will do my very best to at least do three 30 minute workouts a week. And working my way up.

You see baked goods and I have a love/hate relationship. Love because well who doesn't love baked goods, I mean really? And hate because I hate what it does to my waistline. It's bittersweet really, and not like the chocolate. So this will be hard to do but it must be done. I'm not saying I'll never eat sweets again, just cut down... a lot. So folks wish me luck! (I'm gonna need it)

Terrible Twos anyone?

It's official. I have a two year old. And let me tell you this; the terrible twos do not start the day your child turns two. In fact it starts earlier. I know right. As if a normal crazy toddler wasn't enough that they now throw tantrums and everything is mine and they say no to you. It's enough to drive anyone a little crazy. But then there's those special moments where he says "G'night mom, I love you" and then puckers up his lips and asks for "un beck"(for those non-bilinguals out there it means a kiss), and all that just makes it worth all the tantrums in the world. Okay maybe not all the tantrums but you get what I mean.

It was his official birthday yesterday and since we had already had his party last weekend and my sister's birthday two days prior, cupcakes and all, I thought I would instead shake things up with a chocolate fondue for two. I melted toblerone chocolate over a double boiler and had a mix of fruit to dip in there. but not even two minutes of dipping and Fionn just takes the spoon and eats the chocolate but who can blame him.

So now I'm working on getting ready for thanksgiving weekend. I've got to go and do groceries and I'll be able to make the pumpkin cheesecakes in advance and have them out of the way while I do the rest of the cooking. This year we're all going to Grandpa's house. Let's hope everyone is on they're best behavior. And I'm not talking about the kids.

Happy Birthday

It was my sister's birthday yesterday and for her cake she requested the oh so delicious oreo cheesecake cupcakes. This time with 100% of the cheesecake. I also added extra crushed oreo(They were on sale). The recipe says it makes 30 but I somehow got 42 out of it and they were a good size too. They're life was shorter lived then that of a fruit fly. Suffice to say that they are all gone.

In other news my giant cake was a hit. I stuck around the party until they cut the cake and they asked me to do the honors along side two local politicians and I'm pretty sure someone from the local newspaper took our picture. Would be cool to see. But back to the cake. Everyone told me how much they loved it and I was just glad it worked out. And I'm pretty certain I got a client out of it. Should be getting an order in two weeks. I'm loving this, just wish I had a bigger kitchen and better appliances. But who doesn't?

Next on my list will be my son's birthday tomorrow. We already had his birthday party last weekend where we had 'a very hungry caterpillar' theme I made plain vanilla cupcakes with thick vanilla buttercream from the primrose bakery cookbook. It was very good but really rich. Then I took several of them and sprinkled them with green and one red to make the caterpillar. But I have to make him something on his actual birthday. So maybe I'll make caramel cupcakes with a caramel buttercream. Oh wait I just got a brilliant idea, mocha caramel icing. Okay maybe not mocha for a two year old but its something to think about.

Cakes 'R' Us

Finally this week has come to an end. Sort of. In terms of my baking orders for this week, it's all done! I am typing this mostly one handed as I fend off my nearly two year old son, Fionn-pronounced Finn, from the keyboard as we watch Finding Nemo for the zillionth time. I have to find time to write any chance I get. Being a single mom, finding balance is a tad more complicated. But I'm not complaining.

I spent the day in hospital yesterday with my sister and nephew. My nephew had to have surgery to remove his tonsils, adenoids and have tubes put in his ears and having been there myself I was there for emotional support and to help her out. Dylan, my nephew is doing marvellously well for a 2 year old and he's still in the hospital but should be out sometime today if all is well. Kids are such troopers, and he is one tough little dude.

The dozen cupcakes for my friend turned out beautiful and I found these super cute cupcake liners that were red with white polka dots(I love polka dots!) so I decorated them with a white buttercream swirl and pipped some red dots all over.

So after getting home from hospital last night, putting Fionn to bed and having a small puppy training session from my neighbour, it was now time to decorate the giant cake. At 8pm I started making the buttercream in 2 one kilo batches and I was up until 1:30 am last night icing that bad boy. But it's done and they picked it up this morning and were very pleased.

I will head out to the anniversary party this afternoon to make sure it's a hit. I like to see people enjoying my cakes, don't you? The inside of the cake is half vanilla and half buttermilk chocolate, recipe taken from the Magnolia Bakery cook book which I got while ago and I love it. I'm planning on making their pumpkin cheese cake cupcakes with gingersnap crust for thanksgiving. It's my new tradition to make a new pumpkin desert every thanksgiving. Last year I made a Jamaican spice pumpkin pie which was sooo good. The difference was mainly that it had coconut milk, rum and a few extra spices in it but it made all the difference in the world and topped with some delicious whip cream(Starbucks style, since I make it exactly the same way- I use to work there and managed to grab an old whip cream maker before they threw it out since they hadjust received a shipment of new ones and this one is still in fine condition. Anyways all that to say that doe

sn't Starbucks have the best whip cream?).

I would like to take this evening to relax but I am babysitting my other sister's newborn baby girl, Zoe, while she and her fiance go to their good friend's wedding. I will be in close proximity and just a text away from calling mommy when baby girl wants a meal. My boobs are closed for business and are out of production, sorry baby girl.

Great friends & Chocolate cake

I have this great friend who is one of my best customers and all her love and support just warms my heart. I made her father's birthday cake several weeks ago and it got rave reviews from her whole family. It was a moist chocolate cake with a chocolate buttercream icing after which I added chocolate shavings all over and rosettes around the top. The happy birthday was written with pipping gelly.

This week is pretty busy with looking for employment in the baking field(hopefully), dealing with my son's asthma diagnosis(and he had his shots yesterday, poor kid), trying to focus more on my writing, and two orders for this week. The same friend as mentioned above needs a dozen cupcakes for Thursday and she's given me full artistic and flavour freedom and then I have a big cake order for 75 people needed for Saturday morning. It will be the biggest cake I've ever made and I will be making half of it vanilla and half of it chocolate and covered in a classic buttercream. It is for the 20th anniversary of Emilly Murphy Non-Profit Housing. Not sure my fridge is big enough to fit everything in it! So now its up to me to balance and organize my time and keep on schedule and everything will be fine! I hope.

Officially a baker?

So I recently finished my program at Algonquin college for Baking and Pastry Arts which is partly why I haven't updated in a while. School, an almost 2 year old and a new puppy will keep you very busy, as I have learned. But anyways so now that I am done I guess that makes me an official baker? As it is I'm looking for a baking gig but in the meantime I'm still doing a few cake orders on the side. I'm waiting on my business cards and I'm really excited to see how they turn out. I'd like to post a few pictures of things that I made during school, some good, some great and some not so good at all but hey it's all part of the learning process right? The first of which is the wedding cake I decorated. We used a dummy cake for the tiers, covered them with fondant and decorated using royal icing. I had fun with this and for my first wedding cake, I think it turned out more then okay.