my fondant class

ok, for those of you who don't know what fondant is it's a sugar paste that bakers use to cover cakes and also make figurines and other decorative elements. Marzipan can also be used, this is almond paste; personally i prefer the taste of marzipan but it is twice the price of the fondant. Either are super fun to use, it's like play-doh for adults! So here's the cake we decorated in my fondant class that ended last week, it was only 2 evenings but so informative. our teacher Steve Paquin from St-Bruno is awesome! I took this class and all the other cake decorating classes at Creations Gourmande in Ste-Catherine.

it's a bit of a modge podge of different techniques so the cake looks a little odd but it was oh so good. Of course i couldn't just make a regular white cake so i made a coconut flavoured buttercream and them sprinkled coconut between the layers. it was good but really sweet.

Thanks for stopping by!

grown up Ian

i got the "grown-up" Ian from TGF and i think they are gorgeous! it's funny because i definitely see one that reminds me of Brady and the other is totally Charlie. I used the Cosmo Cricket boyfriend papers and made good behaviour jars for the boys. well i'm sure it would work well if i kept it up but it's a big job for me to be consistent doing it so it kinda went by the way side. i'm probably gonna use the pics on the jars and make something new for them with it, maybe a sign for their bedroom door or something.

TFL!

Dora birthday cake

My very good friend Claude asked me to make the cake for Kira's birthday, which was last week-end, i was very honored to make this and it was so much fun since i have two boys and will not be making princess, Dora or anything pink for them. Sorry the picture isn't that great but Claude has a good one on her blog. Mommy wanted fondant over the cake but i told her kids usually like the icing better so i iced the cake but make those cute little swirl lollipops out of fondant just for her! The rectangular cake was white tinted purple, because when asked what kind of cake she wanted Kira just said "purple!" Ok so a purple cake it was! the white icing is buttercream and purple one is cream cheese icing. Dora's skirt is a chocolate cake. the road is make with multicolored non-pareils and multicolored licorice and jujubes are used to decorate the rest of the cake. it was very yummy and i love how it turned out! you know sometimes when you make something it just doesn't come out the way you had imagined it in your head? well it happens to me all the time! so i sketched out my idea for this one and it worked out great!

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yummies...

tomorrow, my good friend Michelle invited me and the family over for supper. Julie and Steph's families will be there also. We try and get together for supper at least once a year, which is kinda pathetic when you think about it. we all live within a 15 or so km radius from each other. Last year we did a girls only supper at Le Local in Old-Montreal, OMG the food was amazing!

So when Michelle started talking about this whole dinner at her house thing i had just finished my first cake class and was so excited about it that i offered, or begged, to make a cake. Ok now since then, with the other classes i've done (pumpkin, fondant...which i have yet to post the pics of the cake) i've made about 1 cake per week in the last month and a half and i have a request

from Erin to make one for next week-end so i'm a little caked-out! (but wait till you see the cake she requested it's so awesome i can't wait to make it!) So when we confirmed with the girls yesterday i told them i was taking care of "dessert", that left my options a bit more opened! I decided to make a Tiramitsu, with real mascarpone not some weird combo of whip cream and cream cheese, it's gonna be so yummy!

i'll post pictures of it later, it has to sit in the fridge over night before finishing it up. Since there is espresso and Brandy in it i made something else for the kiddos. They will be having a brownie pizza for dessert and Charlie helped me with the toppings, ok i think more went into his mouth then on the pizza but that's what's fun about it, right?!

this is super simple to make and takes about 45 min from start to finish. Make a Betty Crocker brownie mix and spread it in a greased round pizza pan, i cooked it at 350F for about 15 min and it was perfectly done. remove from oven and sprinkle some white chocolate chips on top.

let sit on hot "pizza" so that they melt and spread with an offset spatula, they weren't quite melted enough when i tried to spread mine and it pulled off some of the top of the brownie so i put it back into the warm oven for 3-4 min.

Once the "cheese" is spread out sprinkle with your choice of candy toppings and you are done! it's that simple and i'm sure the kids will love it!

thanks for stopping by!

charisma cardz challenge

found this great little card challenge blog and since i've been making tons of x-mas cards lately i thought i would submit one since that is this week's challenge. check out the challenge here.

i made this card yesterday morning and i think it's just so cute! but that's my personal opinion of course.

materials:

cs: kraft (not sure which company), Bobunny dots (yellow), prism simply smooth

pp: cosmo cricket

stamp: TGF

ink: memento, versacolor, Copic markers

ribbon: bazzill

other: spellbinders nestabilities ovals, stickles (diamond), glimmer mist

thanks for stopping by,

wedding card

here's a wedding card i made for friends of ours that got married last week-end. i used a digi stamp from The Greeting Farm and with PS i removed little music notes that were on the girl's skirt.
materials:
pp: Basic Grey, BoBunny, My Mind's Eye
ribbon: Offray
punch: Martha Stewart
digi stamp: The Greeting Farm
ink/pen: copic markers, Sharpie
other: pins (Maya Road), stickles, pop dots

thanks for stopping by!
Bella

PS: i apologize for the wonky look of my blog - I feel like revamping my blog and it deleted some of my lists RRRRR..... not happy about that! i should have it completed soon.

good news!

i have some great news! however i cannot tell you what it is just yet but it's good... you will find out in a month or so; i know it's long but be patient...i have to be!

i made another (see here) pumpkin cake yesterday for my husbands employees (aren't they lucky?!) i also send them cupcakes when i make some since i cannot in good conscience have that many cupcakes in the house.

i need to find a way to put all my cake pictures in one place on my blog for easy access. anybody have any ideas how i could go about it?

thanks for stopping by,

Bella

a few cards, a layout and a cake...yes another one!

i took another cake decorating class at Creations Gourmandes; this one was a Halloween themed cake shaped like a pumpkin. it was fun we learned how to carve a stacked cake into a pumpkin shape (which would also make a great x-mas ornement or with a straighter bottom - a great igloo, which i might just make during the holidays...i can already see little fondant penguins!) we worked with Almond paste instead of fondant, i think it's way yummier! isn't that little mouse the cutest! i am gonna enjoy eating his little almond paste butt!

Ok now onto the cards,

materials: cs: doodlebug
pp: Jillibean
chipboard: maya road
letters: carolee's creations
ribbon: ? i never remember these!
other: EK success border punch, stickles, pop-dots

materials:

cs: bazzill

pp, stickers: cosmo cricket

ribbon: ? again same ribbon, don't remember

stamp: impression obsession

ink: memento

other: copic markers, stickles, pop-dots, spellbinders nestabilities

And i just realized that i never posted the last mixer. it was a sketch challenge, you can see it here. Unfortunately Mel has decided to close MIU due to the lack of time to keep it up - it's totally understandable, she has a crazy busy life! but i do want to thank her for asking me to be a part of it since the beginning and doing the banners for the site, that was fun.

thanks for stopping by!

5th birthday party

so we celebrated Brady's 5th birthday last saturday, it was a long week-end here in Canada and my sister was passing through from Saskatoon. she had turned 30 on the thursday before her arrival so it was only fair that i make her a cake too! Brady had chosen a Halloween birthday theme so it was a pretty easy b-day to plan; no food just candies and chips. i know not really healthy but it's halloween :)

so here's the main cake. there was supposed to be a haunted house on top but it broke so i put a nice candle and some swirls on the top layer. This was my second attempt at fondant and it turned out great, the first one was my sister's cake and the fondant cracked and bubbled but i know what i did wrong. The bottom layer was an orange cake with a fudge filling and the top layer was chocolate cake with a fudge filling. both were really yummy!

i had also made some cupcakes for my trick or treaters that are made with the halloween cupcake stamps from Taylored Expressions.

we also had the visit of two ghouls

so this one is my sister's 30th birthday cake. it's a butter pecan cake (betty crocker mix) with a dulce de leche filling with roasted pecans. oh yeah it was really yummy!!! as you can see the fondant kind of started to bubble and "melt". two reasons for that: 1- i didn't remove all the air bubbles and 2-i closed it up in a box and it created humidity or something like that.

i hope you enjoyed this post; i know we enjoyed the cake - goodies- and the party!

5 years ago...

tonight at 7h05 pm to be exact: Brady became a part of our family.




Thanks for stopping by!
Bella

a cake!

i just took this cake decorating class and it was awesome! the class was given at Creations Gourmandes in St-Catherine, Qc. The teachers were awesome! i skipped level 1 and went straight to level 2 'cause i think that i've had enough experience on my own to manage. thank goodness i was fine! the class was basically to learn how to properly ice a cake smooth, make roses and borders. My next class is fondant; i cannot wait to do this one!!! Here are some pictures of the cake we made. oh yeah; it was very yummy too! next cake coming up is Brady's 5th birthday cake in a week and a half! this one will be covered with fondant so i have my great friend Amelie coming over to give me a hand in case i screw up!

for the fun of it, today i took the left over icing bag they sent us home with and the tip to make the roses and had fun making a few. i'm happy to say that i'm getting the hang of it. of course they are not professional looking since they've made thousands to get where they are at but i'm pretty proud of myself!

here are the roses close up

the side of the cake with the ribbon garland

the swirl-reverse swirl border (i love this one)

and the other side of the cake with the basket weave (i love the look of this) and a wave border

i'll be back later with the latest mixer and a card or two.

thanks for stopping by!

Taylored Expressions birthday bash

last Saturday was Taylored Expressions first anniversary and they had 13 challenges that were posted through out the day and some really awesome reveals. i just love that potion tag set with the bottles. i got some great ideas for Brady's birthday party which will be Halloween themed this year (his idea). Here are my participations for the 13 challenges! the grand prize winner by random draw) will get a major gift card and a painting from the cupcake artist Jessie Oleson, check out her Etsy store.

challenge #1

TEBBTV - photo inspiration

Challenge #2

TEBBKM - sketch

challenge #3

TEBBDB - paper piecing

this is made from two different stamps - the igloo and the snow hills with a fence. the igloo is pop-dotted.

Challenge #4

TEBBCI - color challenge

Challenge #5

TEBBDM - photo inspiration

challenge #6

TEBBLF - sketch

Challenge #7

TEBBDE-paper tolling

(when you 3-D only certain parts of the image)

the coins and diamons are pop-dotted 1 and 2 times; the back sails are pop-dotted once and the front sails are pop-dotted twice

Challenge #8

TEBBJC - color challenge

Challenge #9

TEBBSH - photo inspiration

Challenge #10

TEBBKG - sketch

Challenge #11

TEBBLS - distressing

Challenge #12

TEBBSW - altered item, buttons as main embellishment

Challenge #13

TEBBJP - stitching or faux stitching