Dory's cake

Today's cake is for a very close friend of mine - Dory. Although we don't have the chance to meet often, the time spent together is always full of value. As good friends we share a lot of things, we feel very comfortable with each other. Last week I invited Dory at home with her sons (by the way they are good friends with my son) . I decided to make a small cake for her but I wanted to surprise her. And because of lack of time she presented while I was preparing her own cake. I pretended that I have a cake order and asked her to help me with some ideas. I told her that the client ask me to make a cake and I have to choose the colors and all the decorations. Then I showed her different colors fondant that I had at that moment, asked what she would like if this cake is for her and finally I made this...

While I was working on the cake I asked for the correct spelling of her name although I knew it perfectly well.

And when I put down the name she understood what's going on. Dory was pleasantly surprised. I was very happy that I could surprise her in that sweet way.

Zebra raw cake

This raw cake is made out of ground dried figs and plums, cranberries, some cocoanut oil, water, some ground cookies, almonds, lime zest. And all these I put in 8" (20cm) spring form pan and then left it in the freezer for a while to set. After that I placed the cake on the board and I wrapped it with green marzipan. The top I covered with pink marzipan. This marzipan you can find in almost all Arabic grocery stores. There are 3 different colors - white, pink and green. Then again I wrapped the cake but this time with this zebra edible sheet where you can find at Michael's or at the other specialized cake stores. Honestly I use it only for the decoration. On the top I spread some cocoanut flakes and goji berries.

Bon apétit!

Babies

Today's cakes in my humble opinion are very cute. The main reason, of course, are these sleeping beauties. The cakes as you can notice are completely identical. The only difference is the color. Probably you have noticed also that these cakes are copy of a cake that I made last winter for the newborn Lora. 

And now the reason why I created these cakes. Lora's mother adores the cake that I created for her daughter and this time she ordered two different color "cake babies" for the daycare ladies. It's very elegant and sweet way to say "Thank you!" 

Lotus cake

Today I'll share with you my first lotus cake :). But before that I would like to wish all the best to Krasimira. She had a birthday and together with her husband they picked up the idea for the cake. The picture that they sent me was stunning - very beautiful and delicate cake, two tiers with lotus flowers....I tried to make something similar. Of course, the biggest challenge was the flower. At the very beginning I didn't realize how complex is the lotus. Actually the difficult part comes from the air humidity. What a bad luck for me :). The petals couldn't dry although I put them in cups full of rice (the rice helps for fondant dryness). But hopefully everything was perfect for the day of the party.

Now some words about the cake, this part that is under the lotus :). It's completely raw cake made out of ground organic cookies, dates, almonds, cranberries, carob powder, cocoanut flakes, raw hemp seeds, vanilla extract, lemon zest, cocoanut oil and cream...And all this blend is covered with fondant. It sounds delicious, isn't it?

And now it's time for more photos...

Here with the sound of Hindu origin OM

I'm sorry if you are tired of my photos but I am addicted to this cake:)

Raw cakes with pears

While waiting for my fondant decorations to dry out in this humid weather, I decided to show you my last two cakes. Both of them are raw cakes. The only difference are the dates that I put in the base. And of course, I change the top decoration but it's still with the same ingredients....

 And now the second one.Your task is to find the differences :)

 

The base is made with ground pears, flax flour, sesame tahini, honey, carob (and dates in the second cake). The filling is made out of ground bananas with agar-agar and almond extract. The decoration - goji  berries, cocoanut flakes, carob powder and ground almonds.

Here it's the time to thank Vania who is the author of this amazing cake recipe. Here you can see all her creations. The original recipe of this cake is with quinces. But I couldn't find any of this fruit and I decided to replace them with delicious sweet pears. Unfortunately I can't compare with the quinces to tell you which one is better option but you can make them and then let me know, please...

Birthday cookies and cupcakes

Being busy with Rapunzel's cake I completely forgot to show you the cookies and the cupcakes that I made for Sophia's birthday. Proudly I can share with you that the cookies were hit. All the kids liked them. Probably for the pictures with Walt Disney's characters but surprisingly to me they ate the whole cookie. And here it's the interesting part why I was so surprised that kids loved them. I made the cookies from buckwheat flour without using all purpose flour. Beside this change these were my traditional cookies.

The cupcakes were especially for the guests who love chocolate - chocolate with chocolate chips. In that way I hope there was a little bit of everything for everybody - cake with vanilla cream and vanilla eclairs (first floor) and red velvet with light cream with fresh blueberries, buckwheat cookies and chocolate cupcakes...

 

Happy birthday, Sophia - part two

As I promised you couple of days ago the story with Sophia's birthday will continue. My daughter is very lucky in the way that we celebrate her birthday 2-3 times. Once at home, second time - at the day care and the third time - with friends at our closest park. For each celebration I prepare different cake. The first two you saw in one of my previous posts. Today I'll present you the last one for this year :) Probably it sounds very funny or weird for most of you. For me it's not so fanny. I am simply exhausted :) But pleasantly, of course. We, parents, do unbelievable things for our children....My daughter's biggest desire for a cake this year was Rapunzel. If you have a girl, you probably know what I am talking about. If you are only with boy(s), I'll explain you shortly - a beautiful girl with very, very long hair that lives in a very tall tower. For more details you can watch the movie. It's really interesting even for us, the adults. Only this short description is enough to explain  why I made this cake:

This is my river made of blue colored butter cream. I don't know exactly why but this was the most desirable part of the cake for the kids. Everybody wanted from "the water" and "the stones". While my husband was cutting the cake pieces our youngest daughter was standing next to the cake, on the other side, and undisturbed by anybody carefully picked up and ate all the flowers and stones :)

The first cake is made out of 2 vanilla sponge layers and the space between them was filled with 2 layers of  mini eclairs. The gaps between the eclairs were filled with vanilla cream. For the people who don't like vanilla was the second cake, the smaller one. It was made out of 4 red velvet cake layers with cream that I created by myself. And here it's the "secret recipe" - sour cream, cheese butter cream and fresh blueberries. It think it was a nice combination - light and juicy.

And now the tower....

It's made out of Oreo cookies stuck together with blue butter cream (the same one that I used for the river). The house where Rapunzel was kept is made out of rice crispy and chocolate frosting. Everything is covered with fondant. And somewhere it should be Rapunzel's friend - the little lizard or iguana (I missed that part form the movie, I'm sorry).

It was a hard work but worthy. My daughter was happy! That was the most important and that was her desire for the 5th birthday...The most difficult part was how to transport the cake from our fridge to the park. But, of course, and this time my husband helped me and we brought the cake unbreakable to the party. Finally I would like to thank everybody who shared with us this special for my daughter day!

Cake for Lora

Last week I made a small cake for a friend. The lady decided to surprise her family because on that day their youngest daughter made 8th months. Time really flies. I remember like it was yesterday when I heard the news that Lora (the name of the 8th months old daughter) came to this world. And now we are so close to her first birthday...

The mother suggested immediately something with flowers and butterflies. The baby will just enjoy the cake design and the colors. The decorations are for the other kids. The cake will be for the parents and in that way everybody will be happy :)

The cake consists of four thin layers - 2 chocolate and 2 vanilla stuck together with light filling made out of mascarpone, sour cream and wild berries.

I wish you, Lora, to be always healthy and happy! Here you can see the cake for her birth. I made it with a lot of love and for extremely short time :)

Flower cake

Today's cake is one of my favorite. I like flowers as much as the girl with the cake. Her name is Nia and she celebrated her 10th birthday. The mother who ordered the cake shared with me that her daughter likes very much  flowers, butterflies and everything connected with nature. This was the only requirement for the cake. Immediately in my mind came so many ideas that I didn't know which one to choose - trees, birds, nests, flowers....Finally I decided to be something more stylish although this cake was for a kid's birthday. And because it's for a child I made the cake very bright and colorful. I hope that Nia liked her cake and that she had memorable birthday.

Happy birthday, Nia!!!

Happy birthday,Sonya!

Besides Sophia's birthday today there is another friend with a birthday. Our little friend Sonya is celebrating her second birthday. She is Nadia's daughter. A week ago I mentioned you about my friend but then there was another occasion - her son's birthday. I made a cake for Maxim and today it's Sonya's turn.  What a party month for our friends!

Dear Sonya, happy birthday! Be happy and healthy girl! I hope she had an amazing birthday party at the daycare this afternoon. Her mother surprised her with a thematic cake based on her favorite movie Rio.

The vanilla cake is filled with my favorite cream - mascarpone with strawberries and blueberries. I covered it  with bubble gum flavored butter cream which you can feel it immediately when you open the box. Such a challenge for the kids :)

Let's stop talking about the cake....It's party time!!!!

Dear Sophia, happy birthday!

Today is the fifth birthday of my daughter Sophia. We love you so much! And we wish you always all the best! I am so excited with the birthday not only because Sophia is my daughter but because I know how impatient was my girl. She waited for this day for so long time. Everyday she pointed on the calender the date for her birthday and the date when she will start school. By the way, Sophia eager to go to school. I cross my fingers that this desire won't continue only the first school week :)

Besides all the emotions around her birthday I had to make several cakes for my clients. I'll post the cakes in the next couple of days. And because today it's my daughter's day  I'll start first with her cake (or cakes). Today I present you the first two cakes that I made for Sophia. The first one is for the party at the daycare. The cake is an abundance of fruit - a little bit of strawberries and freshly picked blueberries. I can even proudly announce that all the blueberries that today you will see on my cakes are personally picked by all our family members.  This afternoon we went to blueberry farm in Montérégie where we experienced for the first time to pick our own blueberries. It's useless to mention kids' emotions. It was such a fun! I highly recommend this outdoor activity to all of you. And here is the cake:

Here it's the time to apologize  for the pictures - made in the evening, no daytime light... and you can see the result. But how can I expect to make a good picture at daytime light with a cake made at 10:00PM...

Anyway, the cake is vanilla sponge cake filled with homemade vanilla cream. As a border I used butter cream colored in pink with bubble gum flavor. Around the cake you can see finely ground tea cookies stuck to the cake with very light whipping cream.

The second cake is for ourselves :) How can we miss a birthday without a cake?!?!That's why immediately I made the same one as this for the daycare with some changed decorations on the top. Just for fun (for myself). I made another flower cake, of course, with blueberries. Each petal is formed with yellow colored butter cream. And because my daughter is a huge Rapunzel's fan I bought for her this tiny figure. I am sure she will be very happy when she will see it. Around the cake I used for decoration edible sheet with flowers bought from Michaels store.

Next cake for Sophia (yes, there will be another one too - for her party guests) I will show you later, when I make it. There are only ideas in my head...

to be continued....