bellinis, Ryan Gosling and cheap shots

Two posts in one day?!  I'm on a roll baby!

My husband and I went on a date last night.  He doesn't like calling it a 'date'...he prefers calling it an 'outing'.  Whatever it's called, it's great to go out without children!

We went out for dinner at Milestones...he knows I love their bellinis! 


Milestone's bellini and lemonkiss martini

 

calamari and ceasar salad

  

portabello mushroom chicken and steak & lobster



pecan pie and white chocolate cheesecakes

After dinner, we went for a movie, right in a theatre where they were showing TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) movies.  The theatre was crazy busy!  We watched 'Drive' with Ryan Gosling.

Ryan Gosling in Drive

I've never paid any attention to Ryan Gosling before.  I won't spoil the movie for you but dang...his character caught my eye!  There's something kinda sexy about a quiet, psychotic dude.  No doubt, this movie is so far the best movie I've seen this year.

The hubby and I rushed back home to catch the Mayweather vs Ortiz fight.  Luckily we got back on turf right in time to catch the infamous Ortiz headbutt and Mayweather cheap shot! 

This is us attempting to take self-portraits on the train after an awesome 'outing'...Enjoy!

my topsy turvy experience



Almond cake with almond buttercream

 It's been a long time since I've created a wedding cake...8 years to be exact.  :-s

In July, a friend of mine asked me to make her a topsy turvy wedding cake.  Of course I said yes...although I had never made a topsy turvy cake before.  I was uber nervous!  Just thinking about the words 'topsy turvy' made my tummy go topsy turvy! 

I scoured the world wide web and found an excellent tutorial from my sweet and saucy.  Suprisingly the cake was quite easy to make!  The bride and groom loved it and I received so many props from the guests!  This was also my first time making fondant roses.  I watched a whole bunch of youtube videos but found that this tutorial was the easiest to follow. 



Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache filling

I also made a chocolate birthday cake for a friend's friend.  The birthday girl is a tap dancer and my friend had asked me to add a purple tap shoe on top of the cake.  No offence to all the lovely tap dancers out there but tap shoes are not very sexy shoes.  So I made a different dance shoe instead and used disco dust from Flour Confections for the decorations on top of the cake. 

There are a few more confections I've created the past few weeks I need to tell you about...hopefully when the girls go to sleep tonight, I'll add another post.  I know...I suck at blogging.  I need to win the lottery so I can just blog and bake all day!  #wishful thinking  :-(

Let's get married...

A few weeks ago, I was asked by one of my favoritest couple to make their engagement cake.  They opted for a mini-cupcake tower with an 8-inch cake topper. 

This was actually my first time making a fondant bow.  I used brown fondant and added a bit of tylose powder to help the fondant dry out harder.  I used cling wrap to stuff in between the strips of fondant while it dried out to help make the ribbon puff out a bit. 

The cake was vanilla bean cake with raspberry filling.  The bride-to-be had a large engagement ring decor that I placed in the middle of the bow.  I thought it turned out very pretty!

Mini-cupcakes were chocolate and vanilla flavours, to go with the brown and white theme.  They're also topped off with pink fondant daisies, painted with pink petal dust.

It's funny because the hardest part of the whole process was making the "&" fondant cutout.  I didn't have a fondant cutter for it so that "&" was cut by freehand and is probably the part of the cake I'm most proud of! 

I also made the cupcake tower...my first time making a cupcake tower!  I made sure to take lots of photos of the tower...so look out for my tutorial posting soon! 

It's after midnight...time to tune in for Big Brother After Dark!  Peace and chicken wings!



Guess who's bizzack?!

Howdy!

It's been a minute since I've blogged anything!  Life has been pretty busy the past few weeks.  It's summer...so there's always some type of outing or birthday party or wedding to attend.  The last two weeks, I've had to make 10 dozen cupcakes, a hundred mini cupcakes, an 8-inch cake, and a 3-tier topsy turvy wedding cake...so that plus my everyday mommy/wifey duties AND my regular 9-to-5!  I've been mad busy!

The first Justin Bieber theme cupcakes I made a few weeks ago were a hit and I've had a few requests for them.  Here is the second batch of the Bieberized cupcakes I made for a friend's little cousin, who was having a Bieber Fever party. 



Out of all the cupcake toppers, I spent the most time on the JB face topper.  I had to make sure his hair was perfect!  I think his combover turned out much better this time than it did the first time!  And yes people...I know in real life, he's not sportin' the combover no more!  You can't represent the Biebs without his combover!



My absolutely faves were the "I heart JB", the sunglasses and the mini-microphone toppers...I thought they were uber cute!

I also made single cupcakes for two friends from work.  This is the great thing when you're a baker...edible gifts are always welcome!  :-)

I made this cupcake for my creative, artsy-fartsy, and very good friend.  I figure she'd appreciate the fondant swirls and the hydrangea flower...it looks delicate and is uber pretty.

This cupcake was for another friend at work.  She's a very bubbly and outgoing chick...and this topper, with a demure and shy face, is her complete opposite!

Those are just some of the d'vyne confections that I've been working on the past few weeks.  I've got more to show but I'ma save those for my next post. 

So on top of all the cakes I've been creating, working my 9-to-5 and attending to my wifey/mommy duties, the new season for some of my favourite shows have also started! 

Ugh...there's just never enough hours in a day!  :-p



Guess what I'm doing all day today?

I have a whole bunch of cupcake orders throughout this coming week.  It's funny how some weeks I have no orders at all.  Then there are weeks where everyone and their moms' holla at me for orders...and this coming week is one of them!

Stay tuned for the final products later this week!

about to step my game up...

Got my gear ready for tomorrow's class at Bonnie Gordon College of Confectionary Arts!

I don't ever remember being this excited to go to school! 

Shout out to the lovely ladies at domistyle for the cute apron I copped from them a few years ago.  Love their uber cute aprons!

cupcakes for my lola...

Made some cupcakes for my lola (grandmother in Tagalog) today.


It took me over an hour to get to my grandparent's place!  Traffic on the 401, going thru Toronto, is no joke on a Friday afternoon.  By the time I got to my destination , the frosting was starting to melt and turn blue from the heat!  Grrrr...

This was my first attempt at making buttercream roses on cupcakes.  Although I used the wrong tip (I used a 1M instead of a 2D tip), the roses still turned out very pretty. 

And best of all, my lola still loved my almost blue cupcakes!

OH CANADA...

HAPPY BELATED CANADA DAY!

I would've posted this yesterday but I had to go to my day job and I crashed when I got home (ask my husband...I fell asleep before my 10 year old!).

I made Canada Day cupcakes for my fellow nine-to-fivers.  I used a small cookie cutter to make the fondant toppers.   

I wanted to add red sprinkles too but I thought it looked too busy.  I'm a simple kind of gal and a little anal so I like my cakes simple and neat.  Too bad I can't say the same about the state of my house!

futbol?!

It's been a while since I posted anything on hurrr.  My day job, my husband, my dog, my kiddies and their messes have been keeping me busy!  Since my last post, I've made about 2 dozen more cupcakes...which I didn't take photos of.  :-(  I did manage to take photos of this cake!   



A friend of mine had ordered a cake for her father's birthday and she had told me that her father loves soccer.  I had originally wanted to make the whole cake as a soccer ball however I really wanted to have grass and a soccer ball on the cake.  I mean, what's a soccer ball without grass?!  Or vice versa?!

Some of my closest family and friends may know that I'm a perfectionist.  It took me a while to come up with the perfect pentagon to add to the soccer ball!  I also took forever to make sure that the black pentagons were placed perfectly to create the white hexagons.  Who woulda thought making a soccer ball would be so friggin perplexing?!

Anyway the cake turned out great and I had an awesome time making it!



baby...baby...baby oooooh...

My 10-year-old tweener got invited to her friend's birthday party and since I happen to adore this friend of hers, I offered to make birthday cupcakes for her.

My daughter told me her friend LOVES Justin Bieber (what tweener doesn't?).  She says her friend has 5 posters and all 3 albums of the Biebs...the Biebs has 3 albums out???  Really?

So I made chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting, topped with JB inspired cupcake toppers.



I LOVED making the tiny guitar and microphone but most of my time was spent on trying to perfect the Bieber hair.  It took me THREE tries to get the Biebs hair just right...and I still wasn't 100% happy with the hair.  I just couldn't get the combover right!  I wanted to chuck this hair piece and start with a fresh new combover however working with fondant at 1 o'clock in the morning with droopy eyes wasn't the best idea. 

Anyway the birthday girl still loved her cupcakes and everybody still loved the not-so-perfect Bieber combover! 

graffiti of the future

Ok...so yes...I'm a geek.

Not only do I get excited about cakes and pastries, I have an insatiable love for yarn.  Just like cake designs, I taught myself how to crochet.  And just like cake designs, I did it for my kids.  I just couldn't fathom the idea of paying $50 for a knitted/crocheted doll! 

My crocheting has taken a back seat the past few months because all my attention has been on baking.  Now that I seem to have a bit of time, I really should pick up my hook and start crocheting it up! 

Months and months ago, I stumbled upon this amazing street art called yarnbombing.

For those of you who know me, I'm a hiphop head.  And although yarnbombing isn't very hiphop-ish, I was still quite excited at the thought that I'm able to make something that is kinda, almost, but not quite, considered as an element of hiphop. 

I also found out that the very first International Yarn Bombing Day is on June 11 of this year.  Soon as I read that online, I knew I had to be a part of it!  So I did a practise run...

I put up my yarnbomb right in the middle of a recreation centre while one of my kiddies was in swim class.  Sunday morning...with a whole bunch of parents walking around with their own kiddies going off to swim class...AND the registration desk was a few feet away from me...with the rec staff working away behind the desk...it was EXHILARATING!  So this is what real bombers feel when putting up their tags! 

Needless to say, I'm hoping to continue my reign of lawlessness on June 11.

Oh and if you happen to be in the Pickering Recreation Centre, watch out for my pretty crocheted flower across from the registration desk.  :-)



jumping the bandwagon...

I've decided to jump on the blogger bandwagon...

I started my blogging adventure...which by the way only started 2 days ago...with tumblr.  I did more research and it sounds like I'll be able to reach more peeps on blogger...ergo here I am!

Like I posted earlier on tumblr, last week was uber busy for me.  I had 2 dozen cupcakes and 3 different cakes to work on.  One of the cakes I created was for my good friend's little brother's 30th birthday.

I was asked to make a replica of an MPK...a drum machine for all you old school heads.  :-)

The cake was chocolate with peanut butter frosting as filling between the layers.  I used dark chocolate buttercream to frost the cake and covered it with Satin Ice fondant. 

I attempted to make my own homemade BLACK fondant...my fondant ended up in a dark, army green colour.  I guess I can always use it next time I have to make an army theme cake. :-p

I LOVED LOVED LOVED making this cake!  I loved adding all the little details, all the buttons and doohikeys.  I had to make sure the sliders and knobs had the 3D effect...I think those sliders and knobs turned out very well!

I made sure to do a Barry Horowitz and give myself a pat on the back for a job well done.