Annie and The Shelter

Annie was a foster dog of mine, she had been in foster care with me for about a year. Annie is super sweet, loving and loves kids!!!

After being in care for a year with little to no interest we had to make a hard decision to take her to the shelter for more exposure. She was in the shelter for about a month, I hated every moment that she was in there I couldn't go to the shelter to get pictures and she was all I could think about.

A foster dog leaving is never an overly easy thing, but this was different. The shelter we work with is one of the good ones, she got walked everyday and lots of love and play time.

I cried all the way to the shelter, Susan (the shelter manager) pretty much at to force me to leave and I cried all the way home. I was physically sick knowing she felt abandoned.

From the moment she came into care she was a special little lady. She came leaps and bounds from the scared of her own shadow to a confident loving baby. Yes she had her issues with other dogs when it came to bones but that was pretty much it.

I had only planned to leave her there for a week and then bring her back home. We stopped at the pet store and got her tons of raw hyde and food to make through the week.
At the end of the week I went to the shelter with all intentions to pick her up. Annie was soooo happy to see me, Susan said she was doing fine at the shelter and should stay. I struggled with the decision but decided Susan new best and she stayed. She was out in the yard when I left and Annie tired to chase the car it broke my heart seeing the pain in her eyes that I left without her. Right then and there I decided that no matter how long I had a foster dog I would not send them back to the shelter no matter what.

I don't know how owners of dogs they have had 10 years can just drop them at a shelter without even looking back. Especially those who leave their dogs at high kill shelters knowing they will be killed.

 

Annie waiting for Richard to come out of the pet store.

 

Stay tuned for a wonderful update on Annie!!!!

 

 

Super Hero Cake

A friend of mine who has been a huge supporter of my cakes and cake business, came to me with an idea for a for a super hero cake. I had fun with this cake along with some challenges.

I am a huge comic movie fan I have seen pretty much all of them. The challenge I had with this cake was getting the icing red I ended up having to use my air brush gun to spray it red.

All in all the cake turned out looking pretty good. My favourite is the Wolverine tier.

graduation cake: Not my best work

I was asked to make a graduation cake. It ended up not being my best work at all and well as all my blog readers know I am a tad bit of a perfectionist.


Both Tiers are vanilla, the hat is not edible.

Facebook Share Rant: Dogs in need!!!

In the dog rescue world there is always high emotions and strange poltics that have to be carefully navagated, but there is nothing that makes me more angry and upset then seeing a picture of a moose on facebook that says share me for no reason gets 5000 shares, but a dog that has hours to live only gets 3 shares.

We can share thounsands of usless pictures and videos on facebook without a second thought, but people can't take the couple of seconds to share a dog who is in need.

For those who doubt it, sharing works. Annie had been my foster dog for a year with little no interest in her for the entire year she was with me. I ended up taking Annie back to the shelter to get more exposre hoping that it would help her get adopted. That was the second hardest day of my life (next to Owens adoption day). I wanted to bring her back "home" so bad, but the shelter said she was having people come in and look at her. After a month and me sick almost everyday at the thought she was there (I couldn't even go to the shelter to get pictures), some of the most wonderful ladies that I have the pleasure and honor of working with in the rescue world went down to the shelter and got photos of the dogs there for the facebook page. Once the pictures were online they went on a, sharing and begging for people share her photo, frenzy. The next day, after hundreds of shares Annie had 4 people interested in her and went on a 10 day trail. With 3 other approved adopters in the wings I crossed my fingers and not prayed but begged that it work out for her. By Friday 3 days after her trial started her adoption was finalized. Annie found her forever because of that simple little share button that everyone can click for silly pictures.

If you think about it if everyone who shared that mousse shared a dog in need of a forever home we could have so many more happy endings. All it takes it a click of a button and you move along your news feed.

2 Shares and he is even CKC registered.

5000 shares, just because.

Snack Necklaces

What better way to spend a girls night in then painting fingers and toes, doing pretty hair dos, watching princess stories and making snack necklaces.

I got the idea for these from of course Pinterest.

We went to the bulk barn and picked out all the candy that had holes in the centres so we could string the snacks through.
I used ribbon as the string to hold all the goodies.

The girls were allowed to use as many or as little candy on their necklaces as they wanted.

One thing we will never use again is anything with chocolate on it. They picked chocolate covered pretzels and it ended up all over their shirts.

Chocolate mess!!

Candy Necklaces

Here is the link to the Pin on Pinterest

Browning Cake

I was given a challenge by one of my regular cake client's husband. He said I bet you can't do the browning symbol on a camo cake. I took up this challenge without even knowing what a browning symbol was lol.

I think the cake turned out very well. This cake is chocolate covered in fondant. The browning symbol is made out of icing.

Picture Cake

This was one the first cakes I made while my arm was in a cast. I am glad it was a picture cake.

Our picture cakes are printed on an edible printer that uses icing sheets and edible ink to print off family photos or pretty much any image that you want.


This cake is vanilla cake with vanilla butter cream, yes it was not my best icing work but not bad for only one arm.

Car Accident

My little red sports can isn't so good in the rain, the snow or even on damp pavement. I was slowing down for a red light when I hit water and couldn't get stopped. It was just like being on ice and scared the crap out of me. I ended up rear ending a compose. Lucky for me there was no damage to the my car or his compass. My left arm swelled up right away and the kind man was more worried about my arm than the cars Sascha made me go to the hospital they took X-rays and said there was too much swelling to see if anything was broken so they wrapped me up and sent me to see a bone specialist.

Well at least it was only going to be a week with this thing on, with this on I had no use of my left at all. 

Once I got into the bone specialist he wasn't sure if it was fractured or not so he decided to cast it for 4 weeks. What a time that was I had my sister's wedding coming up and well they didn't have any pink cast so I had to go with purple I was really hoping that once it came off I would be okay and good to go. The doctor had told I needed to come back for a bone scan  in 4 weeks and see what was going on.

At least with this I could use my fingers. You would be surprised on how much you rely on your thumb to do things. With the cake business and everything else going on I was very frustrated to say the least.




At my 4 week appointment they took 13 x-rays they didn't even do a bone scan. First they cut the cast off then did the x-ways. He was still worried and decided I need to have an actual bone scan. So with that appointment booked and my cast taped back on I went on my way.

I ended up having to duct tape it on because this tape only stayed on for the first few hours.

Well my bone scan didn't go great to say the least, I had a friends 3 year old with because I was looking after her. The nurse injected me with the dye and I started to feel hot and not so good. I asked him if there was any risk for reaction, he said no. I then started to dry heave and faint. I told little lady when I came to a few minutes later the it was okay I just got really hot and had to lay down for a few minutes. I am very glad she is only 3 and believed what I told her. Once the dye was injected I got to leave for about 3 hours and then I told little lady that we had to go back she "ok, but no getting hot and laying down this time". I must have scared the poor thing.
Once the bone scan was finished I had an appointment with the specialist 1 week later.

Rash caused from when they cut the cast off. Guess me and fiber glass don't get along.



The appointment after the bone scan went well. Turns out nothing is broken or fractured. I have damaged tendons and ligaments along with a a severe sprain. I am in a lot of pain with it and wishing it was a break. I have to wear a brace for the next 8 weeks and go to phyiso. The doctors answer when I asked how long will I be in pain was a long time.

While in the cast and even now my cast are not up to my normal standards and it disappoints me. I am thankful to get out of the cast and able to use my left hand to an extent. My sister is very happy too as her wedding is this weekend and I can take the brace off for pictures.
I start phyiso on Tuesday as there was a mix up between the specialist office and the phyiso office.
I do have to say I will be happy if it ever gets back to normal with no pain!

London Children's Museum

We decided to take the kids on a day trip to London. I had heard they have a great kids museum where they can touch everything. The London Children's Museum was not what I expected at all, it was better. Both Keira and James LOVED it. There was so much for them to see, do and touch. The prices were great, we spent about 4 hours in there and then played on the playground for about an hour. The people who work there are amazing at making learning fun!!

We will go again and this time I will remember to bring lunches so we don't have to leave as early.
The kids said they can't wait to go back and they couldn't pick what was their favourite part, just all of it.

Drumstick Cake

We got this order through the business for a customer. This was a fun cake to make, we were asked to not use nuts so I came up with using cut up Carmel's for the peanuts on the drum stick.

The bottom of this cake is chocolate, the top of the cake is vanilla.

DIY: Blackhead Remover

I found this on pintrest for getting rid of blackhead. Its very simple to make and you can do it with things you have on hand.

What you need:

1- tablespoon unflavoured gelatin
2-3 table spoons milk

What to do:

Mix unflavoured gelatin with milk.
Microwave for 15 seconds.
Apply it all over your face right away.
Leave for 15 minutes.
Peel off.

How for me it didn't peel off the same way it said it would on the website it took forever to get it all off.
Don't get it near your eyebrows or you wont need a wax for a bit.
In my opinion it did hurt to come off but, it did work.

I am not adding a before and after photo to this because no one needs to see a close up of my nose.

 Here is a link to the pinterest

Bridal Shower Cake

I was asked to do the cake for my sisters Bridal shower. My mom said I could do anything I wanted, so I sent her a picture of this cake and she loved it! I did it in the colours that she had chosen for her wedding and it went along with the theme of bridal shower.

This cake is chocolate with buttercrean icing. Everything on this cake is edible.

Dogs and hot sidewalks

Lets talk about our doggies feet, not to many people put much thought into their dogs feet when they take them for walks. Walking the dogs daily are important both to you and the dog for many reasons, but you need to keep your pets safe while doing this, their little/big paws as well.

My rule of thumb is if its too hot for me to walk on barefoot then the dogs walk on the grass. Most of the time mine walk on the grass anyway but for the pups and foster dogs who do not know better I keep on the grass or we go walking before or after sunset when things are cooler.

Photo of a dogs paws burnt by hot asphalt

Skateboard cake

I wasn't sure how this cake was going to turn out I was nervous about it. I am always nervous when doing shaped cakes that require me to shape by hand because I am never 100% sure how they are going to turn out. This cake is chocolate on both ends and vanilla in the middle. I used vanilla buttercream for the icing. The logos were done on our edible printer.
The only thing on this cake that is not edible are the wooden dowels that I used as axles to hold the wheels on. The flames I used my edible air brush to paint.


Everyone LOVED the cake!!!

Batman Cupcakes

I LOVE doing themed cupcakes, yes I know I love a lot of things about baking cakes and the cake business. Well other then I am kinda of slack on the paperwork and filing right at this moment :).

I was soooo mad I bought a mini bat cookie cutter just for the purpose of making Batman shapes, do you think I could find it NOPE!! So I had to cut all of these by hand which by the way is a huge pain in the but. Turns out no one sells bat cookie cutters any time other than Halloween, so I have decided this Halloween I am stocking up :).

I think despite having to hand cut them and it taking twice as long as it normally would, that they turned out pretty good. The kids and parents were happy with them so that is the important part!

Half of the cupcakes are vanilla and half are chocolate!

With all the flavours that we offer those two seems to be our most popular. Of course they are covered with my homemade buttercream!

Cashmere and Jays Stag and Doe

What a night that was!!! My little sister is getting married now in 8 days, but we had her stag and doe in April. It was a blast lots of good friends, family and food!!!
I did most of the food for the stag and doe. Everything was a huge hit including the peanut butter jam sandwiches that went the fastest despite what my aunt had said about serving PB&J :).
There were games, drinks, contests and draws. Everyone had a great time myself included. I was the Jell-o shot girl which turns out comes with doing Jell-o shots yourself. By the end of the night I was very drunk and had won a TV!!! I am excited about the TV I have wanted an LED forever its 32" and was a door prize. I had no idea I had even won anything thanks goes to Mikey for pointing that one out!
I think everyone at the party had a great time. We had an awesome DJ she played great music.
I hope my sister and Jay had a good time even with her being sick at the end of the night. I was a social butterfly making sure everyone had everything they needed and were of course having a good time.
I think it went pretty well in-Lou of a few bumps in the road. I hope the wedding goes off without a hitch!!

My cousin Sasha was in charge of my camera and got some awesome shots of everyone having a great time! I am glad I handed my camera off to her to have photo memories of my sisters stag and doe. We held the party at the Portuguese club in Sarnia. At about midnight they ordered pizza it was soooo gross.

keira and the piping bag

Keira (my niece) loves helping me decorate, bake, cook and pretty much do anything. She is not allowed to help with cake orders for the business because I feel she is a bit to young yet. I decided to play with the cupcake bouquet idea and made enough cupcakes that she could decorate her own. This time I wanted her to try out the piping bag, she has never used one before but I figured now was as good as any time to teach her how to use it.
I gave her 5 cupcakes and her own piping bags, which I am glad I did. Keira decided that every time she used the piping bag she would like the end. Just another reason she is not allowed to help with cake orders.
I showed her how to hold and squeeze the piping bag she caught on very quickly.
I only showed her once and let her go. She watched me do mine and tried to mimic what I was doing.



She did awesome once she got the hang of it and from her pictures you can see that she was really catching on after the first few cupcakes.

It wont be long now before she is helping me with cake orders, well maybe a few years :)

Mothers Day Contest

Every month at C & K Custom Cakes we do a draw. Each month the contest is different and so is the theme of the prize. For May we naturally did a Mothers Day theme. The winner was given a choice between 12 cupcakes or a small cake. I actually knew the winner this time and she picked a cake.

I LOVE doing fondant flowers, I am not a girly girly by any means but fondant flowers are fun and so pretty once they are done!

This cake is vanilla with vanilla butter cream icing.

Brave birthday cake

I had fun making this cake and watching the little bears come to life.

This cake is chocolate and vanilla. The only thing that is non-edible on the cake is Brave herself.
The number   is made out of white chocolate!

Cupcake Bouquets (First attempt)

It has been a long time since I have blogged, things have been very busy I am hoping to get all caught up with my blog posts including a new update and photos of Owen!!

I decided around mothers day I would give a new idea a try. They are called cupcake bouquets, now my first attempt wasn't that great and I haven't really had time to work on them.
These photo's show the basic idea on what I was trying for.

I am hoping once things slow down a bit I will have a chance to get them perfect!