Giant Cupcakes Take Over!

I had a giant cupcake pan kicking around for the longest time, and I could not wait use it. Finally, the first few request for them have come in, and I am so happy with the turn out!

Giant cupcake number one:

This giant cupcake contained vegan chocolate cake, with a vegan chocolate ganache filling. It was decorated with a vegan fondant (made using agar instead of gelatin). The cupcake liner was made from candy melts.

Served with some vegan baby cupcakes!

After fellow cupcake lover @Cupcakedujour saw this giant cupcake, she said "I want!!", only her request was that her's also be gluten free!

@CupcakeDuJour with her giant cupcake on her birthday

I am LOVING these giant cupcakes! So cute, and so fun to make!

Bling Wedding Show!

Such a fun and fabulous day yesterday at the Bling Wedding Show! The event was held at the National Nikkei Musuem & Heritage Centre in Burnaby, and was organized by Harumi Suzuki of Harumi Signature Wedding and Events. The show featured a pamper room for brides, appies, drinks, and an impressive group of vendors and wedding professionals.
I had such a wonderful time meeting all the bride to be's and grooms, as well as all the talented local vendors and professionals.
Here are just a few photo's for all of you that missed it:

Le Gateau's booth-

Fantastic table settings-

This was my first wedding show, and I loved the whole experience. Really, I just love weddings and im still dreaming and looking forward to my own. But in the mean time, I happy helping other people enjoy there special day :)

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday, Smashy Smashy!

The concept of smash cakes is still new to me, although I've already done a few this year. For those who have never heard of a smash cake, it is basically what it sounds like it would be - a cake that is meant to be destroyed. Traditionally by children on their first birthday.
I recently made a couple of smash cakes for Nate and Levi's first birthday. Yep- twin boys.
Being a twin myself, I know what a handful and challenge they could be. I wanted to make sure that the guests of the party, and the guests of honour had a special day.
We had a theme of building blocks for the party. The little smash cakes themselves were made to look like building blocks. They were made from vanilla cake and buttercream icing, covered with fondant icing and bears.





Ready, and...



SMASH!



The guests of the party celebrated with a two tier cake. One layer made from chiffon sponge cake, soaked in Grand Marnier and filled with vanilla flavoured Italian meringue buttercream. The other layer was carrot cake made with raisins, walnuts and pineapple filled with cream cheese icing.



And thats not all, each of the guests took home cookie favours! Classic sugar cookies, made to look like building blocks to match the smash cakes.

Baby Boots

It has been just about one year since I started Le Gateau, and can you believe in all that time I have never done a kid's cake? Weird but true. Only weddings or creative cakes for adults. So naturally when I was asked to make a cake for a little boy's first birthday I was excited to do something different.
One thing that I have wanted to try for a while are the adorable little baby shoes that I had seen on so many cakes over the net. These shoes can be totally customized and are great for boys or girls birthdays as well as baby showers.
For little Zeyan's first birthday I decided to go with a little blue converse style shoe. Result:



I was so happy with how they turned out. They were super fun to make as well as super simple! I was lucky because I found this awesome step by step tutorial on you tube that also gave out a template.



As for the actual cake, I made a vanilla chiffon cake with raspberry preserves and vanilla flavoured italian meringue buttercream.

2010 Bridal Showers Begin

Although for most brides, its a bit early for ceremonies and wedding receptions, most brides are still ready to celebrate. Im talking about bridal shower season. Now is the time, and my calendar is filling up with them!
This year a new creation we featured were these adorable mini three tiered cakes:

One bride to be had these little cakes at her shower as a dessert, one for each guest. These little vanilla sponge cakes were so moist and flavourful, they didn't need the icing (and needless to say the bride and the bridesmaids were happy to save the calories!) They were served apres lunch with a side of fresh berries.
These little cakes are also available from Le Gateau in Chocolate sponge, Vegan cake, and if your feeling extra delectable: dark chocolate brownie.


And for the guests to take home there were these cookie favours, made from our sugar cookie recipe, decorated with royal icing.

But for the brides that want to make a big impact, sometimes you just have to give them a big cake!



This cake was our decadent chocolate sponge cake with chocolate ganache filling made from Callebaut chocolate. The teal and white colour are the chosen wedding colours.

Birthday Bites!

I recently made two very special birthday cakes. The first was for my boyfriend. I had to think about the design of this cake for quiet a while. I wanted something exciting and eye catching, but the real challenge for this cake was for it to not look cute and girlie. This would be the difficult part for me indeed!

I thought of his favorite colors first, red and black. Mike also plays drums, so something kind of rock and roll came to mind, so I choose shapes that would give this cake kind of like a "tattoo" type of feel. The skull and crossbones fit into this theme as well, perfect!

End result:

The top tier of the cake is a rich and flavorful carrot cake. Sweet carrot and spice from cinnamon gives this cake the most irresistible taste and aroma. Filled with cream cheese icing sweeten with honey. The bottom tier is Le Gateau's signature cake: Chiffon Sponge soaked in Grand Marnier syrup with vanilla butter cream. I had made this cake many times before for weddings and other occasions so I knew he liked this cake. This cake was a definite success, Mike loved it!

The second birthday cake was for my twin sister and myself! My sister was a bit surprised when I called her to let her know I had started working on a cake, " Your making your own birthday cake?!" as if I deserved some sort of break from cake making. But for me it wasn't even a question, its a excuse to make cake! Besides, I was in the mood for making flowers.

Again, this was carrot cake. I have to say, I've been making carrot cake a lot lately. I think its pretty underrated! I find a lot of people prefer it to chocolate! This cake was the perfect end to our birthday dinner with our family.

August Bridal Showers

I made this cake for for a very special bride to be, a friend of mine since grade school. As one of her bridesmaids it was my job to make sure she had the perfect bridal shower, that means we needed the perfect cake! This bride wanted simple but stunning. This cake was designed as a mini version of the cake to be served at her wedding, pink being her wedding colour. The bottom tier is 6" and the top is 3.5". Inside is a rich chocolate cake with layer of raspberry preserves and creamy chocolate ganache filling.

Here's the recipe:

2 cups all-purpose flour (I recommend unbleached organic if available)

1 cup unsweetened cocoa

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar (again, organic!)

4 large eggs (free range)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/3 cups milk (organic)

Method-

1. preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 13" by 9" pan OR three 8" round cake pans OR 36 muffin pans. Line with paper.

2. In a medium bowl combine flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt.

3. In a large bowl mix at low speed butter and sugar. once they are blended beat at high speed until light and fluffy (about 5 mins).

Reduce to medium/low speed and add eggs one at a time. Scrape down sides.

4. Alternate flour mixture and milk into the bowl, beat until smooth.

5. Pour into prepared pans. Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean - about 25-45 depending on the size of the cake.

This cake was a hit at the shower!