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!

Austin Mini Car Cake

The Mini Car was created by the British Motor Corporation in 1959. It was a British icon for the 60's. It was actually voted the second most influential car of the 20th century.

Here is Le Gateau's take on the Mini:

This cake was for a very special lady's 50th birthday.

Its made from alternating layers of chocolate and vanilla cake with vanilla meringue buttercream. Everything on the car is edible, all made from fondant and gum paste.

The birthday girl and her hubby are in the mini, along with their cute little puppy. The cake board is actually a map of the world, with flags to show all the places they have travelled together. Its painted on with royal icing.

Guest Blog by Candice @loveyourcake!

I am excited to bring you this GUEST blog entry by Candice (aka @loveyourcake), cake enthusiast and blogger extraordinaire! I have been following Candice on twitter for quite some time, and she always has interesting/funny/entertaining thoughts, idea's and story's to share.

If you agree that this blog has any or all of those qualities, please leave a comment for Candice and myself!

******

I think anyone who loves cake has looked at one that was professionally made, and said to themselves 'Gee - I wish I could do something like that!'

Ok, so maybe you didn't say 'Gee' - but the point is, there is a curiosity about fancy cakes that has spread world wide. The internet makes it very easy to type in what design of cake you are looking for, along with countless "how-to" videos and blogs. For some people born with an artistic side, attempting to duplicate one of these fondant masterpieces can sometimes be a piece of cake. (ha ha) For those people that are less talented in the artsy department, they need to rely on videos and images to show them the way.

As a self-proclaimed cake decorator, I have had my share of successes and failures, and I know how difficult it can be to end up with a product you would actually show in public. When I asked some of my fellow cake lovers (who are artistically challenged) what they would want to read on a blog about cake, they said "start from the beginning!" and "show me the way!"

That sounded like a reasonable request.

I know how annoying is it to compare your own work to a fancy cake photo, only to be left disappointed with the final result. For this lesson, we are going to avoid any comparisons and will to do this pre-internet way. The written way. Now go put on your apron and proceed to step one.

Step 1: Go to the kitchen and bake a 9" round cake. Find a recipe, any recipe, and bake the cake.

Step 2: Let the cake cool (ALL THE WAY - don't get ahead of yourself or all hell will break loose)

Step 3: get some icing from the store, pref. vanilla. Any kind will do, but chocolate will be messy.

Step 4: use a knife, or dental floss wrapped around your fingers, and cut that cake in half. simple.

Step 5: flip the cake over, so the bottom becomes the top and you have a flat surface to work with.

Step 6: put something in between the layers: fruit, more icing, chocolate bars, icing & chocolate bars...

Step 7: brush off any crumbs with your hands, then cover the whole cake in icing. just slop it on.

Step 8: take a piece of cardboard, cut into a square that is as tall as your cake. Wipe the excess icing off with the cardboard, first from the top, then from around the side.

Step 9: put your cake in the fridge for 1-2 hours. This is the crumb coat. LET THIS HARDEN.

Step 10: take cake out. repeat step six (minus the brushing of the crumbs because there shouldn't be any)

Step 11: get a ball of fondant the size of a grapefruit. Dye it whatever colour you want. Wear rubber gloves.

Step 12: roll out the fondant on a counter, using icing sugar or flour so it doesn't stick.1/4" thick. flip often.

Step 13: pick up your giant piece of rolled out fondant and plop it onto the centre of your cake. use your hands to flatten the top and then come around the sides, stretching the fondant wherever it is folding.

Step 14: trim off the excess fondant that will be hanging off the bottom, and discard.

Step 15: take some more fondant, whatever colour you want, and roll it into little gumball sized balls.

Step 16: put balls around the bottom of the cake so you hide any bumps, and at the same time, it looks fancy.

Step 17: use a shaped cookie cutter and cut out some shapes in more colours of fondant.

Step 18: mix icing sugar with some water, and use this to attach the shapes to the cake, anywhere you want.

Step 19: DON'T PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE - fondant sweats in the fridge, and this can be all sorts of trouble.

SO EASY!!

It should look something like this:

No?!

Slightly different?!

Well - at least you tried and that's what really counts! Now sit back, drink wine and move onto the next step..

Step 20: email Tanya@LeGateauBakeShop.com and let her worry about it. That's what she's there for. Le Gateau Bake Shop will make sure your cake looks like the photo, and no one says you have to tell anyone that it didn't come from your kitchen ;)

Our Lovely Little Space

We had the opportunity to take over the space we were sharing with another talented cake designer, due to her leaving to take time off to spend time with her new family.

I love decorating, so the first thing we did was a good cleaning out of the space, and a paint job in one of my favourite colours, pink! We also changed some fixtures, and put up some art work. The place now looks amazing, I love it! We have a nice little garden space in the front, which I cant wait to fix up once the weather gets warmer.

Thanks Nina, and Jennifer for all your help!

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!