African Cake!

After being asked to make an African themed cake, I immediately had a bunch of different ideas floating around in my head. Before committing to one, I decided to do what I usually do when I'm unsure of which idea I should use for a cake; I Googled!

There were so many different African themed cakes! Some had animal print, some had animals, others were even in the SHAPE of Africa! With only a few days to get the cake done, it was only logical to scratch the mini-African-animals idea, it would be too much of a meticulous and time consuming job for the amount of time I actually had to work on the cake. So instead, I went the animal print route and here's how it came out!











Every angle of the cake is different so I thought I'd share a few more pictures of the cake than usual!

Instead of going with just one print, I decided to split the cake up into zebra and giraffe prints. Around the cake I put some huts and piped grass to really emphasize the African theme (as opposed to just animals!).

This Africa-inspired cake has quickly become one of my favourites!

Habs Puck Cake!

With my friend Diana's birthday coming up, I knew it had to be hockey themed (of course)! Instead of doing the usual giant Habs logo cake, I thought I'd get more creative and make a Habs hockey puck instead! It was definitely a nice change from the usual!



Though you can't really tell from this picture, I covered the cake board in white fondant and brushed it with some pearl dust to give it a little shimmer, like ice. Instead of making the usual happy birthday tag, I decided to write it out on a wooden hockey stick accompanying the puck, to complete the whole ice hockey theme.

Diana was so surprised! I had told her that I'd make her a special birthday treat for this Saturday instead of for her actual birthday because I inconveniently had an exam today (and her birthday was yesterday)! But I really did have the cake ready for her actual birthday!

Needless to say, she loved it!!!

Finally, NOT a Habs Cake!

When my friend Emily asked me to make her mom's birthday cake, I immediately jumped at the opportunity to make NOT a Habs cake!

Emily sent me a bunch of pictures of adorable and pretty cakes with stripes, polka dots and all that other fun stuff to give me an idea of what she wanted for her mom's cake.

This is what I came up with!



About half an hour after I dropped the cake off at their house, I got a call from the birthday girl herself raving about her cake!

That pretty much made my day! :)

Happy Birthday Lisa!!!

A Special Shoutout!!

So in case you haven't noticed, I will restate that for the past couple of months, my family and friends have truly been amazing when it comes to my cakes! They've been encouraging me, supporting me and motivating me every step of the way and I cannot begin to thank them enough in a way that would truly show them how appreciative I actually am (besides making them specialty cakes, of course!).

The last Habs cake I made was for my friend Diana's father. Not only is her dad a huge Habs fan, but Diana is as well (who are we kidding, we're in Montreal, who ISN'T a huge Habs fan???). Diana is actually suuuuuuch a huge Habs/sports fan that she is currently interning at Team 990 - Montreal's Sports Authority - everything sports in one convenient radio station! Since the Habs cake I made for her dad was pretty huge and only meant to be for 3 people, Diana took the leftovers (she and her family conveniently ate around the Habs logo!) to the station to share it with everyone.

By the time everyone at the station had tasted the cake, I was in the car with my mom on my way home from school chatting away with the radio on in the background when suddenly, I hear my name! It was coming from the radio! It was Diana, on air, talking about me and my cakes!! My mom pulled the car over in excitement and we sat and listened intently to Diana explain how I'm a university student but started "Cakes by Jess" in my spare time. My mom and I were SOOOOO excited that the rest of it is kind of a blur!

Now when I say that my family and friends have truly been supporting me every step of the way, you get a crystal clear picture of just how amazing they've actually been! Thanks to Diana and her faith in my cakes, I got my first 15 minutes (...or more like, 40 seconds) of on-air radio fame!

Thanks soooooooooooo much Diana and Mitch Melnick!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Now THAT deserves a special cake!

Habs, Habs, Habs!

So once again, I was summoned to make yet another Habs cake! For whom, you might ask? A friends dad of course!



After making the 2 previous Habs cakes and experiencing the dozens of logo failures that accompanied each, I am pleased to say that this was the first Habs cake I made that didn't make me want to completely pull my hair out!

Since the Birthday boy and his brother were born a day apart, I was also asked to make a dozen cupcakes for another mini event to help celebrate both birthdays.



Knowing that I couldn't possibly create a dozen mini Habs logos for each individual cupcake, I made two instead, one for each of the Birthday boys, and the rest I simply piped with the Habs colours to keep with the hockey theme.

Everyone loved both the cupcakes and cake! I used an AMAZING chocolate cake recipe given to me by the Birthday boy's wife/my friends mom! It's definitely a recipe that I will be using for a long time!

Thanks Judy! :)