Birthday Bash: 2nd Edition.

This weekend I went to Saskatoon so that I could make the cake for Cadence's second birthday party. I hope that it will become a tradition for me to make this Little girl's birthday cakes. I made a cake for her baby shower and I also made her first birthday cake. I decided this year to make a two tiered cake for a two year old girl. :)

The cake

The kid and her cake.

The cake on the kid.

Opening up her gifts.

Making room for herself in the car.

Happy 2nd Birthday Little Girl!

It has been a long time since I have blogged about my all time favorite topic. Can anyone guess what (who) that is? Her name is Cadence and she stole my heart on the day she was born, two years ago yesterday. I reflected on this special day a year ago, and also included a picture from the day she was born and another from the day she turned one. I couldn't be in Saskatoon yesterday to get an "official" birthday picture but the one I've included below was taken last weekend when I was there. Isn't she cute? Everybody say "Aaaaaaaaaaah"! :)

This time last year Cadence wasn't walking on her own but now she's walking and running and getting into all kinds of mischief. She still doesn't say much at this point but she has her own ways of communicating her wants and needs.

While I was away in India I missed my Little girl so much. After being gone for 6 months I had become somewhat unfamiliar to her and that was a little hard on me. I'm glad that I've been able to spend enough time with her since getting back that she knows me again.

Happy second birthday Little girl!!!

Happy One Hundredth!

Yesterday Bella Dobni, one of the residents of the care home where I used to work, turned 100. I had decided some time ago that I wanted to make her a cake. It's not every day that you get the opportunity to make a hundredth birthday cake!



The base tier was chocolate fudge, the middle tier was butter pecan and the top tier was french vanilla. It was iced in butter cream with fondant numbers and a fondant banner. It was my first time using real flowers on a cake. I wasn't completely satisfied with how it worked out but it was something to learn from for the next time. The evening before I went to five different stores before I found white roses. I was beginning to worry but my perseverance payed off and I found some pretty nice ones. The care home put on a big BBQ to celebrate and all of the resident's families were invited. It is apparently going to become an annual event. The cake was a big hit with everyone. Bella loved it which made me very happy.

Bella with her cake. She looks pretty good for 100!

Birthdays Birthdays Everywhere

Yesterday was a very special day. Most importantly it was my brother, Dirk's 30th birthday! Happy Birthday Dirk! He had a wiener roast party with some friends from work on Friday night and so I made him a cake. He is a little bit of (and by that I mean HUGE) Star Wars fan. So I decided I wanted to do something Star Wars related. Here is what I came up with.

R2D2

I got a little creative with this one. There are actually FIVE cakes that make up R2D2. The body is 3 8" round cakes stacked on top of each other. I baked a fourth cake in a pyrex bowl for the head and his legs were baked in a long loaf pan. I then cut and shaped the loaf into two legs. I inserted 4 plastic dowels into the 2 bottom round cakes and place a cardboard circle for support before adding the third round cake and the bowl cake on top. I then inserted a long plastic dowel through the middle of all four cakes to give it some stability. I also inserted plastic straws down the length of the legs to add support. I iced it with white and grey buttercream icing. The detailing is done in blue and grey fondant and then some grey buttercream piping. I was running out of time and icing near the end so the legs and some of the details are not as nice as I would have liked. It was my first time using fondant and making more than a two layer cake. Both worked out pretty well for me and I'm looking forward to playing around with the techniques on future cakes.

The other reason that yesterday was a special day was it was Canada's 141st birthday. I didn't make a cake, too much R2D2 left over! I did go watch the fireworks with Dirk and his friend Devon though. I like fireworks. Good times. Happy Birthday Canada.

First Birthday Bash!

When I found out that Lisa wasn't going to plan anything special for Cadence's first birthday I asked if I could. So I got some decorations, baked a cake and told Lisa to invite people. I'm pretty sure she invited close to 2 dozen people but in the end only one couple came with their 5 month old son. At the last minute Lisa invited their "across the street neighbors." And so they came over and helped us sing happy birthday and eat cake. Lisa and Paul had prepared a lot of food but with the small amount of people we didn't eat much of it. Cadence loved the helium balloons, they were not only fun to look at but they were also fun to bat around. I think she got more amusement out of the balloons than any of the gifts she was given.

This is the beautiful birthday girl standing up in the kitchen.

I was having a little fun with static electricity. :)

This is the birthday cake.

She wasn't sure what to think when everyone started singing happy birthday.

Paul ended up blowing out the candle but she sure wanted to get her hands on that bear!

I guess it passed the taste test.

I didn't think about making a chocolate one in order to make her face look more messy. There are some crumbs there if you look close enough.

After eating cake she got to open presents. She wasn't extremely into it.

Lisa ended up opening this one. Cadence tore the paper but only a little.

Turned out the tissue paper was the best gift of all. The little blue shoes were part of my gift to her.

Happy First Birthday Little Girl!!!

It is so hard to believe that a year ago yesterday my little niece Cadence was born. In some ways it seems like just the other day. But when I look at how much she has grown and changed I can hardly believe that it's been only a year. The picture on the left was taken on September 5th 2006 and the one on the right September 5th 2007. The picture on the right might be a little deceiving. It looks like she could be walking but she hasn't hit that milestone yet. Currently she is quite content to get everywhere she needs to go on all fours. She is crawling very well and she likes to pull herself up on just about anything. She'll even walk the length of the couch while still holding on. She knows that the walker on the other hand is not stationary and so will only stand beside it and then sit down. I don't think it'll be long though until she's motoring around on her two little feet.