Hunting Cupcakes

These were interesting to make, I couldn't get the browning symbol on the hats small enough to fit a cupcake topper, I hand painted the gold ends of the shot gun shells and it was a last minute order.

Everything turned out pretty cute and I learned a few new techniques working on this order. It is always great when I get to learn something new.

The shot gun shell ends took forever to paint as it was a very slow process between coats of pain to get the gold colouring just right.

Shared Kitchen

A couple weeks ago I moved into a shared kitchen, no I didn't move everything I have so much baking stuff I could fill my own store, I do my fondant work and baking in the shared kitchen. I started out being there 6 days a week from 10am-6pm but I ran into a couple of issues that we are trying to work out. I didn't see the point of being there all day when no one comes in so I do my baking at night there and fondant work while cakes are baking.

I wish I was able to still do it from home I liked it much better when I could put a cake in the oven and go on with cleaning, working on fondant etc plus my house has central air so fondant or butter cream melting really wasn't an issue, where in the shared kitchen it is.

The guy who I share the kitchen with is pretty awesome, he is very funny and easy going which is great. He owns Philly Cheese Jakes here in town and his food is pretty good from the items I have tried so far.

With this big step of moving into a shared kitchen it is making me realize how badly I would love to be in my own kitchen. As for the business its not ready for that just yet but maybe in a year it will be.

With the cake business I am pretty lucky I have some pretty great clients!

In the shared kitchen Jake's youngest daughter is there a lot she seems to really enjoy being there and is a very nice girl, she knows her way around the kitchen that's fore sure. She always has lots of questions of fondant and such and really likes to try the cupcakes when them! So far she has tried a few flavours she was unsure about and turned out to really like them.

I am lucky to have found such amazing people to work around just miss doing it from home, people will say oh I know lots of people who make cakes and stuff from their homes well it depends where you live and your by-laws, Sarnia has strict health codes that make it very hard to do it from home, I know one other local baker who rents a kitchen to do her baking and has had an old car port turned into an add a room to be able to decorate her cakes at home. It is very rare in Sarnia-Lambton for a home to be approved to use their kitchen as a home bakery etc.

My first day in the kitchen I was a ball of nerves, I didn't know much about Jake and wasn't sure if our personalities would mix, one of my best friends came in early brought me flowers and bought a couple cupcakes. She made my day and I relaxed, Jake and I get along great, from what I can tell.

I changed my hours to only being there at night to bake and do fondant and such and I am only "open" on days I have deliveries or pick ups. I started out offering cupcake of the day, everyday a different cupcake never the same twice in a month, but now I am going to offer them when I am "open" So right now I will mainly be there on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays depending of course as more and more people are ordering cakes for during the week.

When I told Jake was wouldn't be in until Saturday his response was awesome! He said well now what am I going to do, he mainly works alone and he comes back and chats with me and such.

I just bought a bakers rack in order to display my baked goods when I there for people to see his daughter is going to paint it the colours to match the store for me, she is quite the artist so I am sure its going to look amazing.

I am in the process of looking for a cold display that will fit in a certain spot but right now its not an option they run $2,000.00 plus for a used one so I must wait. As of right now anything that has to be kept cold I keep in a stand up freezer that was given to me!

Hippo Cake

I was asked by my sister to make my moms birthday cake for a small get together of just us. It took a long time before my family started to ask me to make the cakes for their birthdays and such.

Of course my sister picks a super cute cake, and says make sure you can do the eye lashes on the hippo or I can pick a different cake, lol as if the eye lashes make or break a cake.


The little details is what I love about making fondant figures. The eye lashes were a lot simpler than I had originally thought they would be. I am pretty good at looking at an image and recreating.



Of course my family is great at last minute planning so I wasn't given much time to create this cake but it still turned out really cute and was a huge hit.

Vendor Events

I love doing vendor events with the cake business, it gets my name out there! Normally I make just enough to cover my table cost and nothing more, but these events always go to great causes and that's why I do them. I have done events for a little bit of everything, relay for life, Sarnia Humane Society, Optimist club etc etc. How vendor events work is I sign up, pay a table fee if I am lucky I don't have to drag my table with me or dig out a chair lol, I bake my butt off (about 20-30 hours), load the car up (some times I have to be there for 7:30am), set up my table at what I hope is an outside table and not a middle one, I have been very lucky and only had to be on the inside twice, then I wait for them to open the doors and hopefully for the sake of the event lots of people show up. Some charge $2.00 a person, plus the raffle table money and the money from the vendors it all adds up for the group putting it on. I normally donate a 15.00-20.00 gift cert for the raffle table.

This past winter, as I am sure all of you are aware I am an animal rights advocate, I was asked if I would have a booth at a vendor event supporting the Sarnia Humane Society, that's a silly questions and an easy answer YES!!! A very dear, sweet, heart of gold friend was hosting she is amazing she does a lot of work in the community as well and I am hoping to team up with her to host an event in the fall, anyway I was so excited it was the first of its kind for to go towards a cause that is dear to me.

Sadly I was unable to attend the event in the end, I have a serve allergy to latex one that causes my throat to close up and well that never ends well. A face painter (not the normal one who comes to the events I go to) was coming, face painters are amazing at events both children and adults love them, normally at the events I am at a wonderful lady named Cat is at them and normally she is in the other room or doesn't bring the balloon guy with her. Well My dear friend talked to the face painter and asked if it was possible that she not bring balloons because it a small hall, the face painter completely went off the handle on her, I couldn't believe it, when I do events that are at school and such I am asked to not bring any baked goods with peanuts in them, I of course I agree no questions ask, I know how serve allergies are and I would rather not make a student ill just by having my product there.


My dear friend was at a loss on what to do so I gracefully backed out, a little upset about it but some people are just uncompromisable. With that said, I made and donated all the baked goods for their bake table, I make a cake for the raffle table along with a gift cert. I sucked it up and moved on. I was very proud to be able to donate the baked goods, oh and of course my dog cookies were there which were a huge hit! They are nothing fancy by any means but they are loved by dogs and they are human grade, not that I would eat them.

The event did amazing!! It raised over $1,000.00 for the Sarnia Humane Society and I am so proud of my dear friend for going above and beyond like she always does!

The vendor events not only help local small businesses and home businesses get their names out there it helps local groups with funding, please go walk around a vendor event and support your local community!!

I am truly blessed with the ability to give back even if it is in small ways.

Pink and Brown Baby Shower Cake

I love when clients say to me I want a cake that has flowers on it and is pink and brown, gives me the ability to play and create.

Flowers are one of my favourite things to make out of fondant.

Everything on this cake is edible!!!

Pinterest Recipe: The BEST Broccoli cheese soup

I LOVE broccoli and cheese soup and over the years have I have tried many different recipes but none have ever really stuck with me and tasted the way I wanted them to, so in many cases they were a one time recipe.

I came across this one browsing through Pinterest. Now this recipe is kinda pricey because of the cost of Velveeta Cheese but its very much worth it. 

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 (10 ounce) can cream of chicken soup
1 1/2 cups milk
1 lb Velveeta cheese, cubed
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped broccoli


Here is a link to the recipe and a link to the Pinterest page.

I make this soup a couple times a year but not nearly as often as I would like because of the cost of the cheese. I normally do a double batch because one is just never enough!!!

John Deere First Birthday Cake and Smash Cake

This cake was fun to make and everything on it is edible.

The hay bails are made out of rice crispie treats.

The main cake is 1/2 vanilla 1/2 chocolate and the smash is vanilla

I have another John Deere first birthday coming up and my tractor looks way better this time.

My first tattoo

So I took the leap and this past fall I got my first tattoo done in London at Hardcore, one of my best friends Erin came with me. Dion is an amazing artist.

I have seen Dion's work in the past as I have a friend who I went to London with while he got one of his done there. Compared to the work I have seen done here he is well worth the trip.

Everyone had me so freaked out that is it was going to be very painful but no not at all. I got it just above my ankle and I plan to get more work done to it after the baby is born. I told Dion what I wanted and he personally hand drew my tattoo.

I got Ace's name and I intend on getting Jake and Bossco done in the same area just adding to what is already there.

There was a couple spots that were painful but other than that it was easy going, I am thinking because of the spot I wanted to get it done in is what made it not hurt.

Erin came with me and I think the next time I go she is going to get one herself. Now there are spots that need touched up because my skin didn't take the ink but no big deal. Jakes name will be the next I get done.

Zebra Print cupcakes with whipped icing

I hate this icing type its horrible, yes its a light icing but I am not a fan at all of how unworkable it is. This icing can not be left out for more than 15 minutes at a time, it can cause the fondant to dissolve and you can not put edible images on it.

These were a last minute order for 24 cupcakes 1/2 chocolate 1/2 vanilla with pink whipped icing and zebra striped.

Casi June 2012-March2014

This is something I have been avoiding blogging about, sadly in March we had to put foster dog Casi to sleep, she had been in care for almost two years. Casi came into care with her brother in June 2014 at just 5 weeks old, way too young to be away from their mother. They both were sweet as pie, Casi started to develop back end issues at about 4 months old, the vet said it was too soon to tell she might just grow out of it but is may also be something more serious. Great this sweet girl now had two strikes against her being adopted one she was black and two she had hip issues. Casi was the sweetest girl around but was protective of her bones and rarely played with the other dogs, when she did she was pretty much pouched for the day. This past winter she started to go down hill not being able to get up on the couch and other such things. She would cry when we came home from walks and not want to be touch so we reduced our walks to 20 mins tops.

We took Casi into the vet for x-rays to see what was going on, her one hip looked completely separated but it wasn't, there was severe arthritis, hip dysplasia and bone spurs. The vet said it looked very bad for her young age at this point we can keep giving her meds but she only had maybe a year left with any mobility in her back end.


About a week after we took Casi home she slipped badly and wouldn't let anyone near her, she couldn't get on the bed or couch at all and limped. She would barely get up to eat her meals and wouldn't let the other dogs anywhere near her. We had a hard decision ahead of us, it was fair for her to live in pain like that any longer. Richard took her to the vet and stayed with her while she was put to sleep. She passed away mid lick.

It broke my heart and still hurts when I think about her. This is the reality in rescue though we do whatever we can to save as many as we can but there are some that we just can't save or hard decisions have to be made. At least she lived two years loved and well taken care of.

After Casi's passing I decided to keep her brother Bossco and stop fostering for now, Jake is getting old and can't stand young dogs anymore or even really being bugged so we are going to let him live out his years in peace without the added pain in the butt fosters.

I am still very active in rescue just not fostering, there are many ways to help and fostering is a big one but still only one.

Casi's kick name was pretty miss and she sure lived up to it, loving being groomed all the time and lovins from kids and people she knew, although she was very timid of other dogs and adults.

Horse/golf cupcakes

Last minute orders seem to be the thing to do, I don't mind going out of my way for people, but when they get upset with me because it's not perfect it annoys me, giving me two days notice for this order, then changing the time for delivery the same to an earlier time sorta have made me in more of a rush. I like to ice the cupcakes for the order the day of.

I get asked on Thursday to have these cupcakes ready for 3pm on Saturday, no problem I say, I throw together the fondant pieces and the morning of while I am getting ready to ice them, she calls and says I need to pick them up in 30 mins. GREAT!!! Well I throw the icing on, load them into her car and get on to the other 6 orders that order in a normal time frame. That evening I get an email stating "I am very disappoint, I thought the gold cupcakes were going to look like grass" well they would have looked like grass if you picked them up at 3pm like you originally had said.

This order was for 48 cupcakes 1/4 horse themed and 1/2 golf themed. For the time frame I was given they look pretty okay to me.

Crochet Cart Cover

I decided to make a crochet cart cover out of a bunch of yarn I have that I am not never going to use for much else. When my grandmother passed away a few years ago I got her yarn collection, sadly most of it is odds and ends or discontinued colours so I use it for small projects.

I got this simple pattern from my Crochet World magazine.

It turned out very nicely and I will make more once I get a chance!