SweetThings

Butterflies and Flowers

2013-05-21T07:55:00.002-04:00

A pretty cake with some butterflies and flowers for a 2 year old. Have a fabulous week everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Mini Cake Tower

2013-05-14T09:00:00.002-04:00

There are a few colors that go really well with chocolate brown.... all shades of pink pink, light blue and definitely teal. This was a fun wedding mini-cake tower.

Nurses Week Cupcakes

2013-05-07T10:14:00.002-04:00

It's National Nurses Week which is celebrated every year starting May 6th to 12th. Everyone of us knows a nurse - whether it be a family member, friend, acquaintance or someone who has helped ourselves or a loved one.

They truly are very special people who do a very special and tough job. And there are always those extra special ones that go beyond the call of duty. Thank you to all the Nurses in our lives!

1st Birthday Cake: Sesame Street Cake

2013-04-30T08:57:00.002-04:00

I sure love making Sesame Street themed cakes! Here's a simple and fun design for a 1st birthday cake.

My daughter's 2nd birthday is a couple months away and Cookie Monster will be the main theme of the dessert table. I'm so excited and found so many great ideas on Pinterest.

2nd Birthday Cake: Bubble Guppies Cake

2013-04-23T08:23:00.004-04:00

There are so many different TV shows for kids out there... have you heard of the Bubble Guppies? A cute little show that my daughter also loves, but calls it "Buggies". And she recognized the characters so I knew it was toddler approved.

The cake was strawberry vanilla cake filled with strawberry preserves and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. I was able to use some of the design techniques that I learned from the Cakelava Clownfish cake design.

5th Birthday Cake: Transformers Cake

2013-04-16T08:54:00.001-04:00

I say this every year, but one of my favorite things is to make a birthday cake for my wonderful nephew. Here's a review of his past birthdays!

1st birthday was a Heffalump cake
2nd birthday was a Tractor
3rd birthday was a Crane
4th birthday was a Stegosaurus

This year, Maseo turned 5 and he loves Transformers. The cake was 6-layers of zesty lemon cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. He even saved all the handmade sugarpaste decorations.

Monkey Cake

2013-04-09T08:56:00.000-04:00

It's been over a month since I last posted. I took a bit of a cake break and slowly getting back into things. Finally getting around to posting this fun monkey cake I made for the March Issue of Today's Parent Magazine.

Monkey's are always very popular with the little ones because they are such monkey's themselves :-) Hope everyone is happy, healthy and enjoying the springtime!

Lavender Baptism Cake

2013-03-05T09:00:00.001-05:00

A wonderful lavender cake for a little girls baptism. I always find shades of purple and blue hard to get just right. I loved how this lavender turned out!

The top tier was strawberry vanilla cake with cream cheese icing. The bottom tier was banana sour cream cake with cream cheese icing.

Spiderman Cupcakes

2013-02-26T08:31:00.001-05:00

Last week was Batman cupcakes. This week it is Spiderman cupcakes for a little boys birthday. Chocolate Sour Cream cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing - yum!

Batman Cupcakes

2013-02-19T08:41:00.000-05:00

A short and sweet post today of some batman cupcakes for a 6 year old.

Vanilla Bean cupcakes with vanilla cream cheese icing and chocolate cream cheese icing - yum!

Elephant Baby Shower Cake

2013-02-12T08:58:00.000-05:00

One of my most popular posts was an elephant inspired baby shower cake. I was so excited to make this cute cake to welcome the upcoming arrival of a baby girl.

I have seen this elephant holding a balloon design as a cake topper (I'm not sure who it originated from). I thought it would be a cute idea to put the elephant at the bottom with the balloons which reminds me of that cute movie Up and from this wonderful cake design by Cup a Dee Cakes which I have admired for so long.

Year of the Snake Cupcake

2013-02-09T21:34:00.001-05:00

Happy Chinese New Year Everyone! The chinese lunar new year starts on February 10th, 2013. This is a 15-day festival which ends with a lantern festival.

In the chinese zodiac, we say goodbye to the Year of the Dragon and this year is represented by the Snake. It is your lunar year if you were born in 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989 & 2001. Happy Chinese New Year!

Running Shoe Cake

2013-02-05T08:26:00.000-05:00

Any runners out there? Any marathoners out there? How fabulous is it to cross that finish line for the very first time? A perfect occasion for a cake with a handmade sugarpaste replica medal of their Disney Marathon medal.

I had so much fun making this cake as I have always been a runner and one day hope to get to Disney to run their marathon!

Baby Shower Sweet Table

2013-01-29T08:44:00.000-05:00

I had the pleasure of collaborating with my client to put together this lovely baby shower dessert table. The color theme was yellow with a little grey. There was a lovely array of desserts and flowers that we discussed with sketches and over email. How wonderful it was to see everything come together on the lovely Sunday!

The desserts included: Mini Donuts, White Chocolate dipped pretzels, lemon tarts, strawberry vanilla cake, brownie cake pops (made by the host), double chocolate chip cookies and milk, passion fruit and vanilla macarons (made by Bobette & Belle), cinnamon rolls, two-bite brownies and a selection of candies.

It was a beautiful collaboration and I can't wait to do another sweet table!

Dr. Who Cake n' Cupcakes

2013-01-22T08:56:00.002-05:00

For all those Dr. Who fans out there.... I had a lot of fun making this cake and handmaking the sugarpaste characters. It was harder than I thought it would be, but I loved how it turned out!

I also dug out this photo from a while back of these cupcakes that I never posted. Enjoy!

Cute Pink Cake

2013-01-15T10:18:00.000-05:00

Today is a short and sweet little post... of a cute pink little cake for an 8 year old girls birthday. Have a sweet day!

80th Birthday Cake

2013-01-08T11:07:00.002-05:00

I try never to duplicate a cake design, but this is a copy of an 80th birthday cake I did a few years ago. This design is fabulous as I can personalize it for the birthday boy. This 80th birthday boy enjoys his morning paper with his coffee, loves golf and tennis.

It may be hard to see in this photo, but I was also able to personalize the newspaper with his other hobbies of bowling, biking, skiing and travelling.

New Years Cupcakes

2012-12-31T10:51:00.001-05:00

Can you believe it is the eve of 2013? Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! I hope you can take some time to reflect on sweet memories in 2012 and look forward to making more wonderful memories in 2013!

I am so grateful for all the wonderful things in 2012, although it was a busy one. For 2013, I am going to focus on two simple, but tremendously significant words that my wise mom said. "Be Happy" I'm not sure what it means yet, but I may spend a little less time on some things, a little more on other things or maybe do some new things. I wish for everyone to "Be Happy" in 2013!

Little Snowman Cake

2012-12-24T08:11:00.002-05:00

A wintery cake nspired by a cute YouTube video that my 18 month old daughter loves... Little Snowflake.

Thank you to all my blog readers, clients, friends and family for following my little blog and making 2012 a wonderful year for SweetThings. Happy Holidays to you and your family!

2nd Birthday Cake: Sesame Street Cake

2012-12-18T08:32:00.003-05:00

A very popular theme for 2nd birthday cakes: Sesame Street! I can see why, as my daughter is almost 18 months old and just discovered Elmo!

At first, I wasn't sure how to blend a pink cake with the bold colors of Sesame, but I think it worked! I love how it turned out and my daughter really took notice to my handmade sugarpaste decorations this time.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and happy week as we approach the holidays! I will post again before that with some holiday sweetness!

Tinkerbell Cake

2012-12-11T08:37:00.000-05:00

Many people ask me how long it takes to make a cake. I never have a good answer as it really depends on the design, the size and the details. I usually say that it takes a minimum of 5 hours, not including baking. Sometimes it takes much much longer because of the size, sometimes there are so many time consuming details and sometimes there is just a stubborn element that I just can't get right.

For this cake, there was definitely a very stubborn element: Tinkerbell. It took forever, I must've made Tinkerbell 3 times until I got her just right. I just couldn't figure it out in the right proportions. Then finally, in the wee hours of the morning - I was happy with her. Do I know how long this cake actually took? Nope, I'd rather not count :-) I loved how it turned out, so it was worth every minute!

And a view from the top!

50th Birthday Airplane Cake

2012-12-04T08:32:00.002-05:00

I was lucky enough to be asked to make another airplane cake. This time, the model was a Piper Lance and it was for a 50th birthday celebration.

Here's the top view of the cake. Isn't that a cute quote to add to the cake!

3rd Birthday Cake: Pink Castle Cake

2012-11-27T09:02:00.001-05:00

The last princess castle cake I made was gold and blue. This time around, the color theme was pink!

It was 2-tiers of chocolate sour cream cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. The turrets were made out of rice krispie squares.

I love how it turned out! And yes, the cake board did take me a long time - but it was worth it! :-)

4-tier Wedding Cake and a Set-up Tip!

2012-11-20T08:59:00.003-05:00

I had the pleasure of making this elegant 4-tier wedding cake with handmade sugarpaste orchids (my favourite!!) and gold accents. The cake was chocolate sour cream cake and strawberry vanilla cake with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream.

Here's another photo of the cake with flash. Make sure you check out my facebook page to see the gorgeous photo that the bride posted.

Cake Decorators Tip: Always bring a level tool! Actually in this case, I didn't need a level because the cake table was ridiculously wobbly. You spend so much time levelling each tier and stacking the cake perfectly, so it really sucks when the table is not level.

I will not mention the venue because they were very nice, as helpful as they could be and vowed to get a new table for cakes. I'm not sure if you can see, but the table is a little "battered", on an elevated platform that also wasn't too steady and the resolution was actually a pad of paper tucked in all corners of the stand to keep it level. However, in the end, I was satisfied with what they could do and they also allowed me to take photos of the paper-tucked table.

So, my tip is to have the venue help resolve the issue to your satisfaction and document it somehow. If you are still uncomfortable, make sure you have the table moved to a different lower traffic area or set up the table somewhere else.

Hot Air Balloon Cake

2012-11-13T08:36:00.002-05:00

I had the pleasure of creating this fun hot-air balloon themed 1st birthday cake.

Here's the lovely inspiration that I was given - isn't that fabulous?

Another view of the cake. I should also mention that this design was originally done by Jessicakes. Make sure you check out her awesome blog full of gorgeous cakes and very helpful tutorials.