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.

Owl Cups and Cakes!

I am just loving owls right now! The last few times I've had creative licence on orders I find myself just wanting to make owls. Here are a couple examples of my owl creations:

This is a cake I designed for the HELLO BELLA! pamper party:


Its a chocolate cake with chocolate icing.

And, a cupcake set created for a friend's surprise birthday party :



They are chocolate cupcakes with strawberry cheesecake filling, topped with chocolate ganache.

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.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! This year for Easter Le Gateau featured chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream topped with jellybean "easter eggs". I also made bunny and chicks fondant toppers, as well as little flag toppers made from easter ribbon.

And of course there were matching easter cookies! Classic sugar cookie with fondant icing.

Le Gateau moves to a new location!

Starting April 1st Le Gateau is moving to a bigger and better commercial kitchen. We are so excited, so to celebrate Le Gateau is offering 15% off all orders for the month April! That includes cakes, cupcakes and cookies.

Contact us at Tanya@LeGateauBakeShop.com for more information.

The Cupcake Throwdown!

A few weeks ago I was asked to take part in a Cupcake Throwdown competition. As soon as I heard about it I knew I wanted to do participate, there had never been a competition in Vancouver like this before. The best thing about this Throwdown was that all the money raised went to charity, an organization called H.A.V.E that teaches homeless people how to cook so they can get jobs in restaurants.

I searched recipes for a long time. When it comes to cupcakes there are endless flavour combinations. There was one recipe, as soon as I saw it I wanted to make it: Mexican Hot Chocolate from the book "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World" . When I read the title I instantly thought of when I was in Mexico on vacation, out of all the interesting foods and flavours I tried when I was down there, what I remembered best was drinking Mayan Coffee every night. Mayan coffee is made with coffee beans, nutmeg, cinnamon, cayenne, milk and dark chocolate.

So, imagining what this cupcake tasted like, and that fact that it was vegan, and the competition was being held at the vegetarian restaurant Cafe Deux Soleil, which is on Commercial Drive, where they have held the famous Parade of Lost Souls, which got me thinking of the day of the dead which led me back to Mexican theme, I decided that this cupcake defiantly was the one.

I experimented with this recipe quiet a bit. I remember the first time I made it I could barely wait to try it. I ended up smothering the still warm cupcake in icing and shoving it in my mouth and turning to my boyfriend with a mouth full of cupcake and saying "This tastes exactly like mexican hot chocolate!!!". However, I did end up tweaking the recipe a bit for a little added kick. First I decided change the icing to a straight up vegan creamcheese icing, and also ended up filling the cupcakes with a chili and spice "ganache" made from coconut milk.

I decided to finish the cupcakes with a day of the dead inspired fondant topper. Most fondant is not vegan, but the brand Virgin Ice is.

*Photo's by Cherry Vega

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes.

ingredients
1 cup coconut milk

1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons corn flour or very fine cornmeal

1/4 cup almond meal

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (more or less to taste)

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup canola oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

Cream Cheese Icing

1/4 cup tofutti better then cream cheese

1/4 cup earth balance buttery spread

2 cups icing sugar

1 tsp Vanilla

Chili and Spice Ganache

1 cup coconut milk

1 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate (I used a combination of semi sweet and cocoa camino chili and spice 71% dark chocolate)

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

Pinch of chili powder and cayenne

directions
Preheat oven to 350F and line muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Whisk together coconut milk and flaxseed and allow to sit for 10 minutes, then whisk in sugar, oil, vanilla, and almond extract.

In another bowl, sift together flour, corn flour, almond meal, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and cayenne. Gently mix in wet ingredients.

Fill cupcake liners with 1/4 cup of batter (approximately 2/3 full). Bake for 20 -22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a cooling rack and cool completely.

For frosting soften creamcheese in mixer, and the earth balance (it should be at room temperature) and beat on med speed until combined. Scrape down the bowl. Add icing sugar and vanilla then mix and low speed until smooth.

For the Ganache, chop chocolate into small pieces and put in a large bowl. Bring coconut milk and spices to a boil then pour over the chocolate. Slowly whisk together until combined. Let cool in the refrigerator.

Tip for stuffing theses little guys. These cupcakes and pretty fragile at room temperature, so when you remove a hole from the top make sure the cupcake are cold straight from the refrigerator.

For a complete review of the cupcake throwdown with some amazing photo's, check out SpillingLight.com . But I can give you the general summary - I WON!!! I have to say it was definatly stiff competition, there was alot of very talented bakers and very yummy cupckes. Thanks to all of my friends and family that showed up and help put a few extra votes in my pocket. The grand prize that I won was a free cooking class at The Dirty Apron . Im really looking forward to taking one of their classes.

Thats yours truly ^ Thanks everyone. Happy baking.