The 2nd Annual Cupcake Throwdown!

Wow, a year has gone by so fast. Remember the 1st Annual Cupcake Throwdown?

Now we've just finished round 2! This year the cupcake throwdown raised $1600 for the H.A.V.E ! Amazing.

Here some photo's. Sorry, I tried to get photo's of everyone's cupcake but I did miss a couple.

This year I did a Vegan Cardamom Carrot and Cashew Cream Cheese Cupcake! I love carrot cake, but this cupcake is nothing like your regular carrot cake. Crushed cardamom seed give this cupcake amazing taste and aroma. Recipe to follow!

My friend from Picture Perfect Cakes and the Pink Happiness. This cupcake won "Best Dressed", way to go Jen!

The H.A.V.E's contribution, ice cream cone cupcakes!

Beer and cheese cupcakes!

The Twisted Smore cupcake

And here is our recipe:

Vegan Cardamom Carrot and Cashew Cream Cheese Cupcake

makes 30 cupcakes / 350 degree oven

1 pound carrots
2 tablespoons Earth Balance (or vegan margarine)
1/2 cup water
1 cup Coconut milk
1 teaspoon cardamom seeds
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp egg replacer powder- mixed with 3 tbsp water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup coconut milk
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoon cardamom seed, crushed
1 cup cashews, chopped

1. Peel, rinse, and grate the carrots with a fine grater.
2. Sauté the carrots in earthblance for 3 minutes. Add the water, bring to boil, cover and simmer for 3 minutes.
3. Remove the lid. Stir to cook off any remaining water.
4. Boil the coconut milk with the cardamom seeds Allow to steep for 3 min.Add to carrot mx and simmer for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.
5. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and stir to dissolve. Simmer for 5 more minutes.
6. Remove of the heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
7. In a large bowl, mix together the cooled, cooked carrot mixture, egg replacer, vanilla, 1-1/2 cups sugar, vegetable oil, and coconut milk.
8. In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cardamom.
9. Stir the flour mixture into the carrot mixture. Continue to stir until combined.
10. Add the chopped cashews and stir to combine.
11. Scoop out into cupcake papers about 3/4s full.
12. Bake at 350 degree oven for ~25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cream Cheese Icing:

1/4C Earth Balance (room temperature)

1 8oz container or Tofutti Vegan Cream Cheese (room temperature)

4 1/2 C Icing sugar- sifted

1. Beat earth balance until smooth. Add Tofutti and whip until lump free. Scrap the bowl down and mix again. Add icing sugar.

ENJOY!

Topping off 2010

Woah, 2010 just flew by! It has been such an amazing year! To end it, I thought i'd do a little countdown to my top 5 creations of 2010:

5: My ICES show cake

Not only does this cake remind me of the awesome time I had at the ICES convention, all the wonderful people I met, and everything I learned. It also makes me laugh as I think back at what a challenge it was to transport this cake, and its ever so delicate gumpaste mask all the way down to San Diego in my suitcase. If you look closely you can spot a small crack on the mask. I was honestly surprised that was the worst of the damage! I never bothered trying to bring the cake home.

4: Finding Nemo Cake

I just had too much fun making this cake. I had never tried making fish before, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I was really pleased with the end result.

3: The Butterfly Cake

People love this cake! Brides keep asking for this design, or a similar one - adjusted to their colour choice. Simple and cute.

2: The cupcake pop!

Everyone knows i'm obsessed with cupcakes. Now, mini ones on a stick?! Really do I need to say more?

1: Duff's birthday cake!

Okay- this cake was not made at Le Gateau Bake Shop, but I did made it at Whole Foods. For those of you that don't know when i'm not busy running my business I spend my time working as assistant manager of the bakery at WF- one of the busiest bakeries in Vancouver.

Anyways, back to the cake. Duff Goldman, from the famed show "Ace of Cakes" was doing an autograph signing at Michaels on his birthday. The good people at Michaels asked your truly and WF to provide a birthday cake for him! At first I jumped at it- I was so excited. Then reality sunk in. I was going to make a cake of the Ace Of Cakes! "The guy". And- make it at Whole Foods, using only natural ingredients. Even food colouring had to be natural. One thing about plant based food colouring, its very unpredictable. To top it off, I had less then 24hrs to come up with it! This would truly be a challenge- a challenge not to embarrass myself it seemed like.So I decided to go for a fresh and natural approach, no fondant!

End result:

Really I was pretty happy about the turn out. I had made all the chocolate panels in record time. When the people at Michaels came to pick up the cake, they were so excited about it they asked if I would present it to him myself! That was the best part. I can honestly say Duff was one of the most awesome persons i've ever met. He was so nice, and fun to be around. I was so nervous, it was almost embarrassing. The whole experience was a great way to end the year :)

Santa's Workshop

I was asked to create an extraordinary gingerbread house for Whole Foods Market. Having made a few gingerbread houses in the past, I knew two things: this would not be easy, and I could not do this alone. So I enlisted the help of my friend Lise Depres, who is an amazingly creative and talented baker that I worked with in the past.

The theme we came up with for the house was "Santa's workshop". The idea was that we would create a house (a min. 3ftx3ft in size) where the front was set up and decorated like your average gingerbread house, and the back was open so you could see inside the workshop with all the busy elves.

One thing I had learned from watching Food Network Challenge was that if you are building an extreme gingerbread house, you were going to need some extra support. So we made a trip to Home Depot for some wood. Lise ended up sawing the pieces of wood to fit herself (superwoman!). Me being an extremely clumsy person, was not going near a hand saw!

Step 1:

The walls of the house were so large, that we had to bake them in multiple pieces and glue them together with royal icing.

See those fancy windows? Gelatin leaves! The perfect glass window.

Next we constructed the second level of the house, along with the stairway.

A fireplace, chimney, and kitchen was also added...

After that came the fun part, decorating!

Taa Daa!!!!

This house will on display at Whole Foods Market Cambie location. There are also 8 other smaller houses on display that are built and decorated by each of the departments in the store, so there's lots of stuff to check out while you do your holiday shopping!

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!

Hello Bella Halloween Soiree - October 29th

Le Gateau is excited to be at the Hello Bella Halloween Soiree! A fun and spooky night of pampering, shopping and sweet indulgences. We will be selling spooky cookies and cute cupcakes and cake pops! Limited quantities, so come early!
Friday, October 29 · 6:00pm - 11:00pm, 248 East 10th Ave -parking in lot behind building.
More info at here.

ICES 2010 Hanging 10 in San Diego!

What an awesome experience! This was my first time attending an ICES (International Cake Exploration Societé) convention, but they have been doing this convention for 35 years now. Once a year ICES holds a convention and sugar artists from all over the world come together to share techniques and learn from one another. Most bring display pieces to exhibit. This years convention was held in San Diego, CA.
International Cake Exploration Societe is an organization of sugar artists/cake decorators, 4000+ strong, featuring the best vendors and sugar artists from around the world. The goal of ICES is to promote, encourage, and teach/learn the artistry of sugar. Needless to say, I learned a lot, and met a lot of amazingly talented and inspiring people. People who were so supportive and willing to share any and all information to help others. The society's mission statement is sharing and caring, after all.

I brought down a cake for the cake show. Let me tell you- that was a challenge! I wasn't expecting the cake to make the journey from Vancouver B.C. to sunny San Diego. One of the masks for the cake broke while I was packing my bag! Surprisingly it made it down with only a few scratches and small dents. Too bad the cake didn't make it back home.



There were so many amazing cakes - here are just a few of my favourites:

We will be closed August 10-16th 2010

Le Gateau will be closed August 10 -16. Im heading down to the ICES Convention in San Diego to learn all the latest and greatest in the world of cake decorating. During this time any inquiries can be sent to Tanya@LeGateauBakeshop.com and i'll respond as soon as possible. Thanks!