Happy birthday to me!

I love making my own birthday cake! People seem bothered by the fact that I have to make my own cake but I love experimenting and frankly, it's the only time in the year that I only have to please myself. In this case, I did a sort of self-portrait in cake...

Just ducky

When my co-worker Scott asked me to make a cake for he and his wife's upcoming baby shower, I jumped at the chance. They loved the idea of a duckling theme and since they are leaving the gender of the baby a mystery until birth, "Waddle it be?" worked out perfectly.

Elephant and balloon baby cakes

 A baby shower celebration with an elephant and balloon theme. Gender neutral colours because we weren't sure whether it was a boy or a girl.

 As it turned out the ultrasound was scheduled for the Friday before the party and guess what? It's a girl!

So the cupcakes ended up being gender reveal cupcakes, stuffed with pink buttecream filling. What fun!

Greetings of the season

Wishing you all the best for a wonderful 2018. Cheers.

Driving through Algonquin Park

 This year's trip up to Huntsville, Ontario for Thanksgiving saw fabulously warm weather.

 Ya never know. Sometimes it rains. Once it even snowed.

 It rained in the morning and then was sunny all day with a high of about 20C

 Our return home lets us drive through magnificent Algonquin Park, in all its fall splendour.

These photos were all taken through a car window as we drove through the park. Dont' worry, I wasn't driving! What beautiful vistas. Love the park. Happy fall!

Peach galette

Sometimes you have over ripe peaches and you don't have time for a fancy pie! This time I made a galette, pretty fast and easy and I love the look! Yummy too.

Save yer fork...

...there's pie!
Yep, it's that time of year, when apricots, peaches and blueberries, all grown in Ontario, are ripe at the same time. What's a gal to do? Make pie, I say! And so, I did.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me...

 ...a Mercedes Benz? Always been one of my favourite tunes.

Peter, who is general manager of a Mercedes Benz dealership, was celebrating a milestone birthday, so a road scene with a wee vehicle seemed to be the thing to do. (The car is a vintage model with a hood and trunk that actually open. It's not edible.)

Happy birthday to Peter. Hope he loved his birthday cake!

Happy 13th Harry!

 Harry loves motocross so I made him a cake that I thought would make him happy.

Here's Harry with the cake and he did love it!

Gone fishing

Lucky Marcel lives near the St. Lawrence River and goes fishing as often as he likes. For his birthday, his wife Lori asked me to make him a fish cake. And so, here it is. I hope Marcel got to go fishing on his special day.

Happy 150th Canada!

To celebrate Canada's 150th birthday, I made a strawberry rhubarb (both locally sourced, natch) pie, and am celebrating with my sis who's joining me from the U.S.A. It will be a Happy Canada Day indeed!

Ready for my close up

 My friend Deb is an amazing photographer!

 Wasn't I lucky to discover that she was the official photog at Joyce's 90th birthday.

 I asked her to send me a few pix of the kitty cat and butterfly cake I made for the occasion.

Since it was one of my all-time faves, I was so happy that she took quite a few snaps...and sent them my way.

Many happy returns of the day to Joyce. Lookin' great at 90 years young!

Cat and butterfly cake

 My friend Mandy's grandma was celebrating her 90th birthday and I was asked to do her cake. Mandy told me that Joyce loves cats and flowers and I could do whatever I liked designing the cake. I had so much fun!
The cake was half chocolate, half vanilla, the kitten was made with Rice Krispy treats, covered with fondant, the butterfly was made of gumpaste and the daisies were fondant.

Apparently Joyce was delighted with the cake and it fed 50 or so guests celebrating her big day. Happy birthday Joyce!

Buttercream tulip cake

My friend Peter gave me a set of "Russian tips." I had seen them on various websites and figured it was time to give them a try. What fun. I love working in buttercream and if you stripe the bag with different colours, the tulips are striped too.
I thought this cake covered with beautiful tulips was a perfect statement now that spring is finally here.