Take me out to the ball game.....

Hello my sweets!

I apologize for the lateness of this post...  there is really no excuse as to why I haven't posted about this cake yet.

So I have a cousin and a sister who both work for the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre and thanks to both of them I admit I have become a fan of the game of baseball.  Anyways...  it was recently two of my cousins birthdays (Diana and Tricia) and we decided to surprise them both.  So the plan was hatched since Christmas that my sister (Ashley) would take Diana out for the day and then "cook her dinner for her birthday...".  Tricia was in on the plan but she didn't know that we were also surprising her as well with a visit from her family.

Enter Ashley and Diana...  SURPRISE!!!  Diana drops to the ground in shock at all the people in her own house! 
You can see the surprise for yourself here...  Sorry for the camera angle. :(

A few minutes later, Tricia's parents walk in for surprise number 2!  It was great!  I wish I had it on camera.

Then came time for the cake. 

It was a pretty simple cake.  Not too much details...  just the logo and their names on it.  The actual cake on the inside was one layer of chocolate and one layer of vanilla.  Seems to be a favourite recently in my house.

Well...  the timer just went off on the next cake I'm working on...  I promise to post some pictures by the weekend.

Until then...
Stay sweet
Xo Robyn

All you need is love...

I know it has been almost a week since Valentine's day and I'm sorry its taken me so long to post pictures...

So I gave you a quick glance as to what I was baking for valentines day...  yes it was red velvet cake and was it ever yummy.

So I made two cakes for the day... one for my boyfriend to go with our dinner....

And one for my work family. 

I honestly love making cakes for them. 

This one was made to look like a box of chocolates and the chocolates in it were chocolate covered cookie dough truffles.  Yes I made those too.  Here's the link for the recipe.

I would love to see pictures if you lovelies try it out.

Til then...

Stay sweet

Xo Robyn

Love is in the Air...

Hello all you love birds out there!

 

Yes...  Valentine's Day is just around the corner.  A day where you can give and receive chocolate and not be ashamed to eat the entire box in one day... 

It's also a good day for cakes...  and my choice of cake for today....

 

Stay tuned.....

A Musky cake for a Fisherman...

So I will warn you now....  This post is gonna be a long one... So if you want to go get something to drink... maybe go to the washroom...  whatever you need to do... because honestly... I'm truly proud of this cake and there is a lot to say about it which is why I posted it after all my other cakes!

 

One of the reasons why I love doing cakes so much is because it makes me happy to see others happy from the cakes I have created for them.  Sometimes they give me the ideas and other times I just come out and surprise them... with a cake. 

 

That's what happened this time... and it couldn't have happened to a nicer person!

 

So I have a pretty freaking cool boss... let me put this out there right now!  He is awesome and most people would agree with me!  So when we found out that his birthday was on Christmas Day the managers and I at work got together and planned.

 

Thank goodness he played right into it and gave me two weeks off just before Christmas cause this was going to be big!

 

So during my holidays I kept in touch with all the other managers and kept them up to date on the progress of the cake wwe were going to surprise him with.

 

 Yep...  that's right... 48 inches long...  my largest cake to date...!

 

 Day One...  Carved and dirty iced...  Thank goodness it was cold enough in my porch to keep it out there.

 

 Day Two...  Covered in fondant... and the markings of the fish, hand drawn according to a picture I had from Google...

 

 The entire cake was then hand painted with scales and everything.  It was by far the coolest thing to watch the colours blend and create the fish pattern.

 

 Still day two...  here's looking at you...  This eye just made the cake so realistic it was creepy.

 

End of Day two...  Back out in the porch to stay cold.

 

 Day three...  Who knew that in doing this cake I would also need to be a 'dentist'.  Each tooth was hand made and placed into the mouth... 

 

End of day three....  ALL DONE!

 

The cake measured 48 inches long and probably weighed close to 20 pounds.  It was all vanilla with vanilla buttercream icing.  Yum yum.

 

If only I had taken pictures of my boss' face when we surprised him with it.  It was definitely a day I wont forget.  It reminded me why I do these cakes in the first place.

 

Dude was Shocked!!!

 

 

The surprise could not have gone any better! 

 

Happy Birthday Bossman!

 

Stay sweet

Xo Robyn

 

P.S.  My boss recently posted about his experience with the cake...

Read about it here:  http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=67911

 



It's All About the Pink!

Ok... so I will admit... sometimes I can be a bit of a girl...  Nothing wrong with it... But I LOVE pink!  And when it came time for my own cake for my birthday... Pink was definitely the main colour!  And a chance for me to do more with my airbrush machine.

 

 My blank canvas.....

 

You know when something comes out EXACTLY like you had it pictured in your mind!

 

At the end of it all I couldn't just have the cake... I needed a whole desserts table where I could really go nuts!  So not only was their a pink leopard print cake, but I also made pink cupcakes covered in gold sparkles, pink cake pops... and what was probably the best dessert (since it was all gone in half an hour), egg-less cookie dough truffles... on a stick... covered in milk chocolate.

Don't worry...  those will be made again!

 

Overall though... everything turned out really well...  the table looked amazing... and I was able to really showcase what I was teaching myself.

 

Stay Sweet

Xo Robyn

Feeling a little patriotic...

So for Christmas my boyfriend decided to surprise me with an entire airbrush system for me to start using on my cakes.  It sat there for almost a month without me getting to use it on anything!

 

My Mom had seen some of the cakes I had created recently and asked if I could make one for my Uncle for his birthday.  As she could tell me was that he liked Vodka and not a specific brand.  Ok that's great... I could do a vodka bottle and no... I had a better idea... plus it would give me a chance to use my airbrush machine that I was so dying to try out!

 

So I ended up carving a full slab cake into the shape of Guyana (which is where he is from) and then, after covering the cake in white fondant, airbrushed the entire cake as the flag of Guyana.

 

The day the cake went to the party I was getting text message reports from my Mom.  It was almost as good as being there myself.

 

"your cake is like a celebrity... everyone wants a picture with it!"

Totally made my day!

 

Stay Sweet

Xo Robyn

Soccer...? Football?

This cake was awesome!  It was the first time I was using a round cake pan to make a 3D ball and it definitely wont be my last.  The cake was a half slab vanilla cake with the soccer ball in the center.

 

The ball was covered in fondant and then sprayed to look like leather and once placed on top of the half slab cake, I hand piped the rest of the cake to look like grass. 

 

Was my hand ever tired...  but it was well worth it in the end!

 

Stay Sweet

Xo Robyn

For a Princess

 

This cake my friend and I did in one night.  We had plate from the dollar store to use as our guide for this cake for a little princess.

 

The two tier cake was completely covered in a thin layer of fondant with different girly elements (all edible except for the crown) to decorate it.


Stay Sweet
Xo Robyn

Something simple...

 Let me tell you something first...  If at any point you need to colour fondant...  don't!  hahahahaha!  If the colour you need is available to buy... use it! But...  if you have to colour fondant...  USE GLOVES!!  This is what will happen if you don't!  And trust me...  it doesn't go away after just a wash or two...  My friend and I had a good laugh at this.

So this cake that we did was very simple.  A three tier round cake with stars all over and ribbon on each tier. 

 

Stay Sweet

Xo Robyn

A Vince Carter fan's Birthday!

This cake was a fun one to make. 

 

At the time neither my friend or I had the proper pans to make this cake in one go so we had to make four separate cakes and then create the shape of a jersey.

 

We covered it in fondant...  cut all the letters and shapes out freehand and put it together!

Voila!  The customer loved it! 

 

Not just cakes...

Here are a few of the many cupcakes I have made through out the year... 

Originally this was what I enjoyed to do the most.

 The cupcakes above are chocolate mint cupcakes.  The actual cupcake was mint with chocolate pieces and the frosting was dark chocolate buttercream. 

 

 These cupcakes are probably my absolute favourite ones to make.  Pina Coloda cupcakes with a cherry on top.  The cupcakes are light and fruity, infused with pineapple and coconut flavour and then the frosting is simply whipped coconut milk with a run flavouring.  one bite and you feel like your enjoying a drink on a hot beach.

 

 Nothing like a bright red cupcake to get you into the holiday spirit.  Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and edible berries and holly to make them a bit more festive.  I absolutely enjoyed making these cupcakes but also seeing the faces on my co-workers when they walked into the room and saw these.

 

I love these chocolate butterflies.  They honestly look so realistic and just make a cupcake look so much better.  Each wing is poured and made by hand and then built on each cupcakes with chocolate buttercream. 

 

These cupcakes were just too cute to pass up making.  Coke float cupcakes!!!  The cupcake itself has Coca Cola in the mix and one of the two layers of icing has it as well.  Top it off with a vanilla buttercream frosting, a cherry and a straw just to give it that right look.  I think they looked even better than the picture.

 

I have made more cupcakes but did not take any pictures.  I promise I will take more as I go.

 

Stay Sweet

Xo Robyn

Welcome to XO Cakes!!!

Hey lovelies! 

I want to welcome each and everyone of you to my baking website/blog.  Here I will be posting the cakes, cupcakes and all around delicious treats that I make. 

I do also take orders for any goodies so if you would like anything you can email me at xocakes4u@gmail.com

Can't wait to show you my creations :-)

Until then...
Stay sweet.
Xo Robyn

NBA2K11 craze!

My first cake I ever made.

This was for a nba2k11 fan.  It was all painted by hand.  The logo I printed from a picture on the internet and then hand painted it onto fondant.  After dry brushing the court with different browns I took a food colouring marker and added the little details on the court.

More pictures of cakes to follow.

Stay Sweet
Xo Robyn