Picnic will have to wait

Walking in the woods on the weekend and thinking that it's almost winter picnic time...

...and then came upon the picnic table and plastic chairs. Uh...think we'll have to wait a bit, eh?

SPCA Cupcake Day

 Monday is the fundraising day for the SPCA with their National Cupcake Day.

I decided to do pups, like I did last year and a dozen Grumpy Cats. Luckily, Knatolee is selling these plus a bunch of other folks' baking at the courthouse in Cornwall and hopes to raise some bucks for our friends at the SPCA.

Snow Daze

 Fun in the cold weather? Richard got all dressed up and spent two days cutting dead trees...and loving it!

 Meanwhile, other critters wanted in! Feed me now this squirrel was yelling.

 So...I put some seeds out for him on my board. It snowed a bit but this clever fellow knew exactly where to dig.

Cold and sunny days bring out my two starlings, that I've named Heckle and Jeckle. The real Heckle and Jeckle were magpies...but these two hang around together and could likely get themselves into some trouble if they tried!

Fun Valentine's Night

 Richard and I enjoyed a night out last night for Valentine's. A dessert night was put on at our local cafe, where all the dessert choices (11 of them!) were made by local teens and served by teens too.

Of the 11 choices, you were allowed to pick three. We shared a bunch too so we got to taste almost everything. Here were some of the standouts!
Top: Chocolate truffles. Pavlova. Middle: Lemon curd tart. Stack of brownies with salted caramel drizzle. Bottom: Caramel pot de creme. Savoury cheese platter.
A lovely evening, we were also serenaded by teens playing violin and cello. What fun.

Your KISS is on my list

Every now and again you get a challenge that really works out. My friend Chantal was celebrating her 40th birthday and her husband asked me to do a cake for her. He said, "A kiss cake." Since her birthday is on Valentine's Day I said, "Like lips?" He said, "No, the group KISS. She's a huge fan!" I had some fun getting this graphic image of Gene Simmons, 3-D fondant tongue too on the cake. And silver dragees, placed one by one, on the KISS logo turned out great I think.

Trees and Spaceman cakes

 I was asked to do a cake for an environmental scientist. His partner asked for an evergreen tree and a little light bulb went off when I realized that the logo for his environmental services company was in fact a tree! I blew it up, cut it out of fondant and placed it on a background inspired by the late great Canadian artist Ted Harrison.

My friend Dave loves toy robots so when his wife asked me to make a cake for a gathering to celebrate his 60th birthday I decided that no ordinary robot would do. I thought back to a story Dave told me about his best-ever yard sale find. He poked around at a table and came across a Fighting Space Man toy, still in its original box. Cost? The same as it went for 40 years before. $2 (I think). At any rate, he took it home, plugged batteries into the space man and it worked!
I loved the story and decided to make him his very own Fighting Space Man cake with him as the spaceman. The box was chocolate cake with an edible label. Dave, the robot, was mostly made of fondant and M&Ms.