Doggone It: Jet Pet Resort Opening & Coco Cake!

What a fun order... oodles of cupcakes for the celebration opening of Jet Pet Resort, a new... yes... luxury pet hotel located in Richmond, BC! When you walk into this place it's quite surreal ... the front lobby is like a boutique hotel. Sparkling chandeliers, Juicy Couture pet-wear for sale and a plush setting. Then you walk into the main area and it's built like a film set! Faux exterior brownstones, a pet spa, a central courtyard area in the middle for dog-play, and outdoor area for exercise and fun, and many rooms for your beloved pet's comfortable overnight stays!!

Visiting Jet Pet made me miss all my pets that have long passed into Pet Heaven... or Rainbow Bridge, as some say! Our beloved family dog, Woody the boxer... my hilarious and dear little cat Coco who was with me through all my formative years, as I got her from the SPCA when I was 19! (she inspired my business name... though I have always loved the name Coco...) and more recently, our sweet fatcat ChubChub. I am sad I no longer have any pets of my own but we hope to get another pet one day in the future... !

For Jet Pet, I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes in red and white striped liners, with grey, white and black accents including grey and white FUR buttercream! Many thanks go out to Lisa, Cate and Cam for having Coco Cake as a part of the fun... and all the very best to the success of Jet Pet! :)

Pale Palette Perfection at Kate & Chris's Wedding!

Kate was a very astute bride in her sense of design and colour! I loved working with her pretty colour palette of white, grey, green and lavender. A slew of rainy days bookended Chris and Kate's sunny late September wedding -- pretty amazing and flukey to have a small block of sun amidst days and days of grey rain!

The cupcakes were white vanilla buttercream rose topped raspberry jam filled vanilla cupcakes, dark chocolate cupcakes with vanilla creamcheese frosting (some tinted lavender) and dark chocolate cupcakes with pale green rosette buttercream, all in silver cupcake liners. The cake was a dark chocolate cake covered in fondant with quilting and pearling, and a simple grey fondant ribbon trim with mini bow!

Matching the colours to the paper colour swatches reminded me of mixing colours in art school... !

Congratulations Kate & Chris! ^_^

Smash!! Annie & Luke smash the heck out of a Coco Cake

If a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?

If you place a cake in front of a baby, will they smash it to pieces?

This is a question I am curious about now! I made a vegan vanilla "dotty" covered cake for Erin for her sweet little twins' 1st birthday photo shoot with fantastic baby photographer Jillian Kirby. Having been an auntie three times over now and seen the nutty little things my niece and nephews do, I have certainly noticed that babies like to: poke stuff, touch stuff, throw stuff, eat stuff (even nonedible stuff)... would all babies poke and prod a cake, and end up smashing a cake?? Baby Psychology 101!

Happy Birthday Annie & Luke!

Little Girl Cakes!

A mini round-up of some recent cakes made for little girls! Yes, many little girls love those colours of pink and red... I have always loved blue and green... when I was a little girl I played with both Barbie and Transformers/He-Man equally... ! Barbie would take a cruise on Battlecat, He-Man would take a cruise in the Barbie corvette... no big deal!!!

Pauline & Kai's Sweet Woodland Themed Wedding

Good morning Fall. Here in Vancouver, Fall can hit rather abruptly. One minute you're wearing sunglasses, a summer dress and flip flops walking outside enjoying the sunshine. The next day you're cuddled up in a wool blanket and socks on the couch while the sky is grey and pittling with cold rain. Such is the life in Vancouver, BC! But here in Coco Cake Land, you just keep on truckin', rain or shine!

I met the adorable Pauline and Kai at a Blim market a while back while hawking cupcakes. Pauline was an awesome bride to work with -- so creative and with such a vision for her and Kai's woodland-themed September Fall wedding! The details and decor of the wedding were so cute, as Pauline is a designer. She even made the most adorable bride and groom cake toppers for her cutting cake! For the cake itself, Pauline wanted a little mushroom, fern and leafy-look cutting cake in browns and greens. I also made two custom flag toppers for them, one a brown and gold fern flag.Their wedding took place up Burnaby Mountain at the Diamond Alumni Center, surrounded by ages-old tall trees and a beautiful view. The cupcakes were Lemon Frill, Coco Cake Chocolate and Berry Good topped with fresh raspberries.

Thanks again Pauline & Kai! Happy happy times and congratulations to you! :)

Baby Tanner's 100 Day Dinner & Tiger Cupcakes!

Wowzers. My sweet and super cute new nephew Baby Tanner, also known as TanMan, or Tan Tan, or Tanner Banner, celebrated his very special 100 Day dinner here in Vancouver. Yes, he's just a little 4 month old chubalub! He has the lightest ginger brown hair, pale alabaster skin and one double eyelid and one single eyelid... plus a little adorable Chinese face! And he actually has an all-natural mohawk...! Poh-poh and Gonge-gonge (Grandma and Gramps in Chinese -- well actually, grandparents on your mother's side -- and the spelling of P&G varies from family to family) threw this 100 Day Chinese banquet at our fave family hot spot, Golden Ocean.

I love the names of Chinese restaurants. They can really do it up mythical styles! Golden Ocean, Pink Pearl, Flamingo, Shanghai Wonderful... like a magical, mystical world of bamboo forests, hazy sparkling skies and cool breezes. Imagine! Swimming through an ocean of GOLD? The MINDS of these people! ;)

Lobster, Peking duck, roast chicken, oodles of noodles... TanMan got a party worthy of a little Prince! If RT and I ever have kids, there will be definitely be a designated vegetarian's table! Tanner was born in the Year Of The Tiger, so Auntie Lyndsay (also known as: ME, also known as Auntie Coco Cake) made special little tiger topped cupcakes for him and the kids, and classic swirl with rainbow sprinkles cupcakes for everyone else! The party was a total blast... and big brother Brody is a budding photographer. He's 2.5 years old...! The photos he snapped were seriously cool!

The last two pics are of the family! Party Man Dan (that's what I call my bro-in-law, or Party Man Dad) and my sis Leanne a.k.a Awesome Mommy of TanMan and Brody! :)

Welcome to the world, little TanMan! Can't wait to see what kind of crazy little nutbar you will turn out to be...

Love, Auntie Lyndsay