Fancymolasses

Fun At Work...

2015-03-02T19:42:00.002-05:00

Here is a cake I made for the company I work for. I ended up doing this cake with a few friends from work as well - a really fun way to spend a Sunday!

The cake is a Victoria sponge, with buttercream and jam filling. The outside is a mixture of black fondant and modelling chocolate, which I found a bit of a challenge to work with, but it's only my first try. Jessica Harris has a lot of info on modelling chocolate if you want to try it!

The top was also hollowed out and partially filled with jam.

The jar on top is pretty much a 3d version of the company logo. The letters were hand cut.

Donuts are the New Black

2015-01-18T16:05:00.000-05:00

So I haven't been updating, and hadn't planned to due to being too busy, but I got a donut pan for Christmas, and well, these turned out pretty great. Also it was fun to get out the old camera again, rather than just taking phone pictures...

The recipe for these yummies is super easy and can be found here. Enjoy!

Soccer anyone?

2014-08-02T10:05:00.001-04:00

Had a crazy last few weeks, where I had a deadline in my day job, plus this cake due at the same time! Also, with a set of 30 cupcakes, for a large birthday party. Tons of work, but got through it with no disasters. I hope they enjoy it! Time for a break!

Special thanks to the folks at Edible Images for the Spanish team logo!

Baby Shower cupcakes!

2014-05-04T16:45:00.002-04:00

I won't lie to you, these toppers are totally inspired by/copied from a pin on my Pinterest board. Done by Lynlee's Petite Cakes, check out her work because she is a master at teeny tiny toppers!

I hope my toppers are somewhat comparable in cuteness levels.

Under Pressure

2014-04-04T10:30:00.000-04:00

We artists put a lot of pressure on ourselves!
Take for instance, a gluten free cake for a boy's birthday, a boy who is only 3 years old but already knows what power tools are and how to use them.

Well I'd better make those power tools look as realistic as I possibly can! They'd better be a realistic size too!

C'mon they've got to be as real as possible! Just because I draw cartoons doesn't mean they have to look cartoony!

And that wood grain detail had better be perfect!!

*Sigh* Alas, the ego is never satisfied. But as long as the kids eating it are. It's cool. Really. I'll get over it... :P

Orders!

2014-03-24T11:10:00.002-04:00

The ordering page is back! If you'd like to place an order in the Ottawa area please write to leisl@fancymolasses.com!

Sunday Morning

2014-01-19T11:08:00.000-05:00

A snowy Sunday morning is the perfect morning for blueberry scones and tea!
Well... I guess any morning is really. Get the recipe here!

Sketches to Final

2014-01-08T13:09:00.000-05:00

For a while I've wanted to do a post showing my rough sketchs before the cake is done. I pretty much always do a sketch of some kind, just to have an idea of what I want. I'm not always the best at following it to a T, but I'm trying hard not to change things on the fly... I like being experimental and sometimes my ideas run away with me, lol. Here are a few examples!

Fit For a Princess Cake

2014-01-07T19:00:00.000-05:00

When someone asks me to do a Disney Princess cake I can't say no!

As someone who works in animation and still has a secret lifelong dream of someday working on a Disney film, I really wanted to do something awesome.

I wanted to do a cake that somehow represented all of the princesses, without actually having to mold each one. So I decided to take something that represents each one and make that instead.

And well, I'm an animator, so instead of printing each princess image and sticking them on I thought I'd draw little sketches of them, and make them like vintage cameos.

And have them going all around the cake. The birthday girl's favourite princess is Mulan, so I put her picture on top.

The cake itself is a victoria sponge with pink almond buttercream icing.

Here's a view of the top. Hopefully people can have fun guessing which thing belongs to which princess! ^_^

Christmas Cookie Extravaganza 2013

2013-11-29T13:52:00.000-05:00

This year's theme is: A touch of gold!

Who will be the lucky recipients of these cookies? Only Santa knows!

Cupcakes and Books

2013-10-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

'Cause yeah that's why!

Sooo chocolately!

2013-10-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Found this amazing brownie recipe! Get it on my Pinterest!

Hello again!

2013-10-21T20:43:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted here. Mostly because I've been doing a lot of work and not nearly enough baking!

Though I haven't stopped completely - oh heck no! Usually my baking lately has involved whipping something up last minute for family or friends. Like these apple and almond tartlets. They turned out to be the perfect after dinner dessert when you don't have room for too much dessert.

And it's brought to me by the awesome people at Fortnum and Mason.

That's right, they made an amazing book which I spotted in London but didn't buy, but when I came home realized I wanted it so ordered it from Amazon (luckily they had it).

The original recipe is for plum and almond, but I'm not a fan of plums so I decided to make it a little more "Canadian" by using apples!

Apple and Almond Tartlets (modified from Fortnum and Mason)

For the Pastry
50g Unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
100g sifted flour
1 tbsp golden sugar (I used brown)
1 large egg yolk

For the Filling
50g butter, softened
50g sugar
50g almond flour
1 egg, beated
2 apples, sliced
2 tbsp apple jelly

-Preheat oven to 375 F
-To make the pastry, rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar and egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of cold water and knead into a dough. Chill for 10 minutes.
-Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use a 7cm (about 2-3 inch) cookie cutter to stamp out 12 circles. Line them in each hole in an ungreased muffin pan, or whoopie pie pan.
-Beat together the butter sugar and almond flour, then add enough egg to make a creamy mixture. Divide the mixture among the pastry cases.
-Cook the apple slices in a pan until they are just softened, then push one slice into each tartlet and bake for 20 minutes until the pastry is golden.
-Brush each tart with warm apple jelly.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes!

2013-08-18T20:28:00.001-04:00

Some cupcakes I made for a family get together this weekend! Perfect for a late summer dessert. I found this recipe on the Java Cupcakes blog long ago and I've wanted to try it forever! I wasn't able to find regular limeade, so instead used some frozen lime margarita mix. ;) Click the blog title for the full recipe!

Fried Dough

2013-04-27T11:35:00.000-04:00

Throw away the diet this week, dough is where it's at!

Once upon a time I saw a donut cutter at a Williams-Sonoma in Toronto, and yesterday I finally got to try my hand at using it. Being from Hamilton, aka, the birthplace of Tim Hortons, donuts are an important part of my life I must say. ;)

The recipe is from Krissy's Creations. It's a great, simple recipe, and they're BAKED! Yay for no deep frying! I mean, they're still bad for you, but whatever... :P

The only thing I did a bit differently was adding more flour. I just kept adding as it was mixing, until the dough was sticking together. Maybe another 3/4 cups.

You can even get a little creative and try different toppings. I tried Oreo cookie crumbs and cocoa nibs.

Now where's my coffee!

Blingy Wedding Cake

2013-04-07T16:14:00.000-04:00

I know I've been MIA for a while due to work and such, but here's a wedding cake I did this past weekend. Simple, clean and BLINGY!

I do think I'm getting the hang of fondant covering, which I've had so many problems with in the past; cracking, air bubbles, fondant sliding off, you name it. I was really happy with this one!

Cake underneath is Victoria sponge, with vanilla bean frosting.

Urban Craft Show review

2013-03-12T10:58:00.002-04:00

Well my first time at the Urban Craft Show went really well! I sold all but 2 lemon curds and one broken cookie (which I've been advised to give as samples next time).

Chocolate cupcake went REALLY fast. As did my bikini cookies. There were tons of kids there too which I didn't expect for some reason, lol. I learned a lot and met a lot of nice people. Good times!

I've actually decided to keep my cake making as a fun hobby for the time being. I've recently had a ton of day job freelance work come flooding in, and realized there are some goals I'd still like to accomplish art wise. Baking takes A LOT of time and patience, is hard to do alone, and there are so many things I want to improve on, so we'll see what happens.

Lots to do! :D

The Insane month of March

2013-03-07T21:08:00.000-05:00

This month has been a bit crazy! Ok more than a bit.

I've got two freelance jobs going on at the same time, and I like both, but I'm kinda kicking myself for it now. Achy hands at the end of each day >_<

Plus I have the craft fair, and a baby shower cake for family, which I really REALLY wanted to do. Why do I do this to myself? Overachiever much? Oh well I think I may be taking some serious time off after all this is done. :D

For the craft fair I decided to try and get a dummy cake together, just to have a nice display. It's the first dummy cake I've done since cake school really. I should do more of these. I'm not entirely satisfied with the design, but I'm kind of fascinated by the metallic trend with cakes going on right now and I wanted to give it a try. :P

I really do love how the anemones turned out though. Maybe I should just go into making gumpaste flowers!

Urban Craft Show!

2013-02-26T12:38:00.001-05:00

Come see me at the Urban Craft show and get your treats on! March 10th!

V-Day

2013-02-15T16:12:00.001-05:00

A little late with this post, but it doesn't matter, cause Valentine's day should be EVERY day!

In celebration, here are a few wedding blogs that aren't sucky. Cause I was one of those "offbeat" sorts of brides who did things differently. There's a community out there for our types! ;)

Rock N' Roll Bride
Offbeat Bride

Farmville Inspired - Strawberry Lemonade!

2013-02-03T21:09:00.000-05:00

This weekend I decided to try making strawberry lemonade.

Doesn't it look good? It is! And a good way to get rid of the winter blahs.

I got the recipe from My Baking Addiction, and it's pretty much a keeper! I thought it was a bit too sweet, so next time I may use a bit less sugar.

2/3 cup - 1 cup sugar
1 cup of water
2 cups strawberries
1 cup lemon juice
4-6 cups cold water (I used 4 cups)
ice
1 sliced lemon

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan. Place over heat until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

Place the strawberries in a food processor or blender, with 1/4 cup of water and puree.

Place the sugar syrup, strawberry puree, and lemon juice in a pitcher. Add 4 cups of water, ice and a sliced lemon and stir to combine.

Farmville Inspired - Apple Scones!

2013-01-31T20:03:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me in real life knows I'm kind of addicted to Farmville 2.

One of the things I love most about it is the kitchen, where you can craft yummy looking foods! Each thing in the menu looks so tasty, it makes me want to try to make it in real life...

...so maybe I will!

I made some apple scones! Kind of a combination of a few recipes, plus adding a few twists of my own. Does that make it my recipe? Not sure. But they turned out pretty good!

Farmville Inspired Apple Scones:

85g chilled, unsalted butter, cubed
250g all purpose flour, sifted
250g whole wheat flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
2 apples peeled, cored, and shredded
56g apple butter
200ml buttermilk
1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Cover a flat baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and both flours until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, mix the shredded apple with the apple butter. Beat the egg into the buttermilk and add to the apple mixture.

Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and add the apple mixture. Mix until combined. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, drop the dough onto parchment pape.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly browned on the edges. Serve warm.

Winter wedding cake

2013-01-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

I did a big wedding order this weekend! 100 strawberry champagne cupcakes with a 6 inch top tier. All of the cupcake wrappers were handmade.

Happy Holidays!

2012-12-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

Knitting Basket Cake

2012-12-22T13:03:00.000-05:00