Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Vacation/Renovation Break

I think I hinted at this in previous posts, but I thought I should officially say that I am taking a break from cakes for a bit.

Dale and I are going on vacation to Kelowna next week for a much needed break. So obviously that means no orders for that week :)

But as I mentioned in this post, our basement is under some MAJOR renovations due to a sewer backup. The basement has been demolished and we are just waiting for some things from our insurance company. When we get back from our vacation, we should know which contractor we will be using and will be able to discuss some changes that we want to make down there. We are hoping the contractor will be able to start very quickly after that.

Since the basement is already demolished, we have had to move a lot of stuff upstairs, and we've had to move a lot of stuff around to accommodate the basement stuff. So because of even less space then before AND the renovation MESS that I hope will start very shortly after we get back AND the stress that will be in my life because of these renovations, I am not going to take any new cake orders until I have a better idea when the basement will be finished.

So, I am terribly sorry to anyone who was hoping to get a cake from me in the next couple of months, but unless we have already discussed it, it probably won't happen. There are a couple of people that I have said I will make cakes for, and I will absolutely still do those! But no new orders probably until October. But I will post when I am ready to take orders again!

Thanks for your patience! Stay in touch!

Megan

Monday, August 10, 2009

Louis Vuitton Purse Cake

I got this cake order months ago from an online friend named Jyl :) I can't remember how we found each other, but now we know a lot about each other despite only having met a couple times now.

Jyl had a really fun 30th birthday party where all of the guests came dressed as celebrities and there was a red carpet and everything. She asked for a Louis Vuitton purse for this extravaganza.

The cake was 4 layers of lemon poppyseed cake filled with lemon cream cheese icing then frosted with buttercream and covered in white fondant.


The buckles and handles are all out of gum paste. Some are painted with gold pearl dust.

The pattern was painted on with get food coloring. The "zipper" was imprinted using my stitching wheel and then painted with gold pearl dust.



Buckle detail


This photo is from Jyl. It is the cake next to her knockoff LV purse. I had a great time making this cake and meeting Jyl!


I finally got a couple pictures of the Birthstone Wedding Cake that I had shipped off to Calgary unfinished. It looked fantastic with all of the flowers on it. Please see these pictures in the cake's blog post.


That's all for now folks! I'm taking some time off to focus on our basement renovations. I will let everyone know when I am ready to start taking orders again. Have a great summer (or what remains of it)!

75th Birthday Cake

It was my husband's grandpa's 85th birthday on August 6, so I was commissioned to make a cake and some cupcakes for the party.

The cake was lemon cake with lemon cream cheese icing as a filling, then iced with buttercream and covered in white fondant. Decorated with gum paste flower and leaves and royal icing border and writing.


The cupcakes were also lemon with lemon cream cheese frosting. Decorated with a dash of emerald green sprinkles.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Disaster? Or Blessing In Disguise?

Hello everyone

Well, it's been a busy few weeks and this week is not going to be much different. However, some stuff has happened that is going to sort of force me to take a vacation from cakes for a while.

On the evening of July 29, our house alarm went off. We were both inside and all of the doors were shut and everything looked normal. Dale checked the alarm and it said "low temperature". Weird. He went into the basement though, and found a nice puddle of water around our sewer drain. Nice. The carpet, the wall, everything was pretty wet. Luckily we have a wet/dry vacuum and Dale sucked out a bunch of the water that night.

Dale happened to be off last week, so first thing in the morning, he called in a plumber. The plumber snaked out the clog, but didn't know what it was. But everything was all fixed up. Next Dale called in an insurance adjuster to take a look. We figured we would have to at least clean the carpet, OR they would possibly get us new carpet. We were unprepared for what the adjuster said.

He did his inspection and then told Dale that yes, they would replace the UGLY carpet. And since the carpet runs all through the basement and up the stairs, they will replace all of it (except for the two bedrooms down there) including the stairway. Next he told Dale that since there was water damage on our UGLY wood paneling on the one wall, and that they would never be able to match that paneling because it is so old, they will replace all of the walls where that paneling is. Which is pretty much the ENTIRE basement (excluding the bedrooms again). Then the adjuster said they would re-do the entire laundry closet where the drain is. Then he said that because they will need to be moving the suspended ceiling while re-doing the walls, it is actually easier to put an entirely new ceiling up there then put the old tiles back in.

We are actually pretty excited about this disaster. We have been thinking of re-doing the basement since we moved into this house 4 1/2 years ago, but weren't prepared to spend the money to do it yet. Even if all we get is cheap carpet and unpainted drywall, it will be better than the depressing ugliness that currently exists down there. I know dealing with insurance and contractors and the MESS that will be in the house will be exhausting, but it is exciting that something will be done down there! I think the sewer backup was a blessing in disguise.

So this week will be demolition time and figuring out what the heck is going on and getting quotes from contractors and all of that fun stuff. We are also allowed to have the contractor do some extra work (out of our own pocket of course) if we want it done. We have a few fairly minor other jobs that we would like taken care of if the price is right.


So, to make a long story short, it is with sadness, but also happiness, that I will not be taking on any additional cake orders until this whole mess is sorted out and the construction is winding down. I just can't be baking cakes when the house is a disaster area. I will of course still be doing cakes that are already on order, but will not be taking any new orders until....well, I'm not sure when! I will definitely keep everyone posted. I HOPE it won't be too much longer than a month, but there's no way to tell for sure yet.

Goodbye ugly grey/brown/almost purple cheap paneling! May you rest in peace...at the dump!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Jackie's Wedding Cake

Jackie's wedding cake was started on Wednesday evening with the baking of the biggest tier. On Thursday I baked the 2 smaller tiers. On Friday evening, before I started working on everything, this is what my table looked like:

I had made some flowers to put on the cake, but ended up not using them because once I got the cake stacked, it looked fantastic without them!

The cake was all white chocolate cake, filled with white chocolate frosting and blueberry filling together, then iced with buttercream icing and covered in fondant.





I forgot to take any photos of the decorated tiers, but I decorated them at home and then transported them separately to the venue. At the hall, I stacked the tiers, put the topper on, and did the bead boarder around each tier.

See why I didn't put flowers!? It was perfect just the way it was!








Jackie and Gerald loved it and so did the guests. While I was cutting the cake in the kitchen, Dale overheard people saying it was the best tasting wedding cake they had ever had! And it was fun taking pictures of the cake while people were there and hearing everyone talk about how pretty and cool it was when they didn't know the decorator was right there! :)

Congratulations Jackie and Gerald!