Ziggy The Cat Starring In: Cat Cake!

Can we talk about best friends for a second? How lucky am I to count so many amazing people as dear friends. Kendra emailed me requesting a cake for her best friend Melissa's birthday based on Melissa's dear kitty Ziggy. Who am I to refuse a cat cake? I cannot! So happy to have made this Siamese cutie with the bright blue eyes.

You are only as rich as the great people who surround you, those who are your supporters til the end - friends, family, lovers. Happiness!

Thanks Kendra for the fun order and happy birthday Melissa!

xo Lyndsay 

Ziggy the cat and his cake likeness from Melissa's Instagram! 

A Real Cool Cat: Cat Cake!

Well heeeeyyyy cat buddy! Aren't you just a fluffy and friendly looking cool little cat! I loved this sweet and cute vanilla buttercream frosted cat cake pal I made for 2 year old Zoe's birthday. It also has pink vanilla cake layer insides. Zoe's mom Cheryl had this to say, which I had to share: 

"It was the CUTEST cake ever!!! Zoe was so happy. Her reaction was incredible! Thank you! We didn't have the heart to cut into in. Thank you for making such pretty cakes!"

Making two year old kiddies happy is like, the REASON to make cakes. So cute! Happy 2nd birthday, Zoe!

xo Lyndsay 

Rainbow Cat Birthday Cake!

Happy birthday to meeee! 

Yes, today is my birthday! To celebrate, I wanted a rainbow cake, but I also wanted an animal cake - so thanks to some of my Coco Cake Land Facebook fans, I had the idea to combine the two into my dream birthday cake. So here ya go: RAINBOW CAT CAKE! It maybe also kind of looks like a bunny but when I showed it to Teddy he made a MEOW sound (he's 15 months old) so I think it's legit enough for me! :)

Yep, I'm 37 years old today. A lady isn't supposed to share her age but it's 2013, guys - and we need to stop being so freaked out about women aging. So there you have it. Sounds golden oldie to be 37 but I've got some pretty sweet Asian genes on my side, so I'll keep on trucking and hope for the best. Besides, growing old is a beautiful thing, right? We're slathered and badgered daily by the idea of staying "young." But I've had some amazing times in my 37 years. Rough times, too - but that's what makes us stronger and wiser. And more wrinkly. And prone to ice cream binges. 

People often ask me how I got into the cake biz and how I started making cakes. Well let me tell ya - I've had 101 careers, and truly, I'm always thinking of what my next "career" will be. In the past fifteen years, I've worked at a photo developing shop, I was a secretary for a mental health centre, I temped in a lawyer's office, I worked in an art gallery, I toured in bands playing music across North America and even Europe, I taught art to children, when I was 30 I even worked at a snow cone stand and had an 18 year old "manager"! I traded a snowcone for a fake tattoo from the teen who worked across the fairway from me.

Too many jobs to even remember. A couple of years ago I even started taking classes to become an elementary school teacher but then didn't end up following through with that idea (man, Canadian Geography SUCKED!) and now it's been five years since I started making cakes! I've learned and grown and developed a particular design niche with it - and met so many awesome people along the way. So yeah, learning to bake at 31 has been a pretty, pretty good turn of events, I'd say.

For anyone reading this who might be wondering what the hell they're doing with their life - there's been many times I've felt lost and unsure of what I was doing or what I wanted to do next. I guess now I feel like my life is a continual work in progress and that it will continue to ebb and flow. I'll always be wondering and searching and learning, but with a firm base of my belief in the utter importance of family, friendship and love, and love most especially for my little boy, and my husband R.

Oh, and crazy mad love for some RAINBOW CAT CAKES!

RAINBOW CAT CAKE DIY 

A note about this cake: due to the multiple cake layers and a LOT of buttercream, this cake is a heavy block-headed, cat noggin on a plate BEAST! I used 7 inch cake pans and still the cake will feed 20+ guests for sure. (When the cake is this tall you don't need huge slices. Or do you?? :) Also, place your fondant "face" bits on the cake just prior to serving, so the fondant doesn't get too melty. 

You will need: 

A double recipe for a vanilla cake - box mix or from scratch, whatever you like!

Five 7 inch cake pans

Five bowls for mixing your rainbow cake batter colours 

Gel food colouring in your fave rainbow colours - I used pink, yellow, green, blue and purple for my layers!

8 cups (woh!) of vanilla buttercream

An offset spatula for frosting your cake

A piping bag fitted with a multi opening tip (also known as the hair/grass tip)

White fondant and gel colours to mix and create your cat's eyes, ears, nose and whiskers

Make it!

1. Make batter according to recipe instructions. 

2. Divide batter into five bowls - add gel food colours to each and mix to combine. (the amount is up to you - just know that a little goes a long way!)

3. Pour into greased and floured cake pans. Bake according to recipe's instructions. 

4. Let cakes completely cool. 

5. Make buttercream according to recipe instructions. 

6. Level your cake layers with a serrated knife.

6. Place your first coloured cake layer on a cake board or cake stand. Frost the top, and add the next colour. Continue until you reach your last cake layer!

7. Frost the entire exterior of the cake.

8. Pipe the entire exterior cake with buttercream "fur!" 

9. Make your fondant face pieces using piping tips for cutters, or just your hands, and make ears by creating fondant triangles and placing them on wooden BBQ sticks.

10. Place your ears into the top of the cake - pipe "borders" around the edges of the ears if you like!

11. Place your fondant eyes, nose and whiskers on!

12. MEOW - you are ready to party SO hard! 

Gad it is SO exciting cutting into a rainbow layer cake! Eeks! It is pure beautiful magic!

Rainbows and sunshine and kitties - that's not a bad analogy for life, right? I hope you guys are all doing great - and thank you for coming to my blog and having a cakey visit in Coco Cake Land! 

Happy weekend, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay 

Scaredy Cat Cake Topper DIY

Meowrrr! These scaredy cat cake toppers are simple to make and super cute, too - and they will instantly Halloween-ize your cupcakes or cake. Bake some cupcakes in orange liners, or plunk one of these cat toppers in a simple store bought cake and your Halloween party is all set in the blink of a cat's eye. 

 

Find the whole scaredy cat cake topper tutorial over at my guest post on Poppytalk! 

So what about you... Do you have any Halloweeny plans or costume ideas? Or are you a Halloween scrooge? Gah, I don't have a costume yet but at least Teddy will have a choice of cute hand me downs from his cousins - pink owl, pink cat or spotty dog? Thinking of laying them down on the floor and letting him choose (ie drool on) his favourite... 

See you soon, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay

Halloween Cake Tutorial! Hairy Green Witch Cat!

I know. I'm a weirdo. Hairy witch CAT cake?

Well, I wanted to make a Halloween tutorial for my wonderful readers out there. But I really don't like the typical Halloweeny type business - orange and black and gory yucky bloody stuff. Why not keep Halloween kind of cute? Kind of hairy? I thought of making a warty-faced witch cake. But then I thought, who wants to bite into a witch's big old wart, even if it's in cake form? Instead, why not bite into a cute little fuzzy cat face... Okay... that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.

Another reason I wanted to make this cake was for my little baby Teddy's first Halloween party! I invited over some other new moms and their little babes for a super mini Halloween party. Teddy's costume this year is pretty sweet. You'll see it below.

So now... I present to you, a Coco Cake how-to! Halloween it up, everyone!



You will need: 

1. Two layers of baked round cake. Bake your cake in two round cake pans according to a recipe's instructions, let cool, level the cake with a serrated knife and you're ready to go! I made an 8 inch dark chocolate cake.
2. 4 cups of buttercream. You will need to frost the middle and sides of the cake plus have enough to pipe hair all over it, so 4 cups should cover it. I made vanilla buttercream and tinted it green with a dab of gel colour.
3. A multi-opening piping tip
4. A piping bag
5. A cake board, cake stand or plate
6. Some fondant, for making the face, ears and hat. You can buy pre-colored fondant, or buy plain white and buy some gel food coloring to color the fondant. Fondant can be purchased at your local cake supply shop or craft megastore in the cake supply section.
7. An offset spatula for frosting your cake - not crucial, you can also use a butter knife!

Okay! Here we go! I made a custom cake board by cutting out a piece of polka dot craft paper to the size of a 10 inch round cake board and glued it on top! I also made a custom Happy Halloween circular "flag" which I will tape to a toothpick and plunk into the side of the cake once it's finished.

Special piping tip: I call this the "hairy" tip or the "grass" tip. I think it's official name is the multi-opening tip (BORING) ... you can get this at a craft supply megastore in the cake section, or at a cake supply shop! Or, online at a place like Scoop N Save in Canada, or Bake It Pretty in the US of A! 

I bought those horrid green disposable piping bags in bulk, but you can also buy them through the above sources. I need to get some normal piping bags. Those green ones are so ugly for photos.

A drawing! I always do a little sketcheroo of my cakes. Heehee! A drawing is great as you can refer to it as you're working. Or you can freestyle it. Up to you.

Place one layer of your cake on your cake board. I always blob some buttercream underneath to stick it to the cake board and hold it in place when I frost. You can also tuck little pieces of parchment paper or wax paper just under the cake so the cake board doesn't get all buttercreamed out. Frost the top of the cake layer evenly, as this will be the cake's filling.

Place the second cake layer on top, serrated side down, lightly press down into the buttercream. Now, starting at the top of the second layer, frost away!

Frost the entire cake. This is called the "crumb coat", where you trap in all those pesky crumbs with buttercream. Usually I chill the cake in the fridge at this point to set the crumb coat and then apply another layer of buttercream so it looks all smooth and non-crumby. However, since we're making this into a hairy cat, you won't see the crumbs in the final product so I didn't bother with frosting it further.

Snip the tip off of your piping bag and place the multi-opening tip in. Fill 'er up, sir! I place the bag in a yogurt container for easy-filling. Twist the top of the bag and start squeezing out the hairy buttercream times!

Remove the parchment paper strips. Now, with the piping bag, squeeze out some hair and start from the bottom and pipe a line of hairiness up to the top. You can practice piping first on a plate until you get the hang of it if you wish. Go all the way around the cake in this same way... then pipe the top of the cake, too!

Now you can make all the parts for your cat face. Black whiskers, eyes, two round circles for cheeks, a little pink nose, a tongue, a witch's hat and two ears. To adhere the ears and hat to the cake, I place wooden skewers into the ears and hat, then plunk into the cake wherever I want the ears and hat to be...

Place all your fondant elements on the cake... pipe some additional hair onto the ears after you've put the wooden skewered fondant ears in place... and now you have...

HAIRY GREEN WITCH CAT CAKE!

Side view! Pretty hairy, eh.

Displayed and ready for party-time! That paper pumpkin: I free-hand cut the pumpkin out of orange craft paper and used a black sharpie for the details. Really, it's because I forgot to get a real pumpkin when I ran out to the store. So paper pumpkin had to do.

Sliced cake! Gad I love a picture of a cake that's sliced into. And my baby: TEDDY THE LOBSTER!

 I love these things when Fall rolls around. Orange dingle balls? No, I think they're called lanterns?

Yeah!! My new mom pals and their adorable babes (between 6 and 16 weeks in ages) and me holding Teddy in his lobster costume!!! The lobster outfit was an awesome hand-me-down from his 1 year old cousin Piper. That thing was so warm though that Teddy zonked out and fell asleep within minutes of wearing it, and I started sweating just carrying him, it was so hot. Great for a cold October night of trick or treating, though!

Why is a baby in a lobster costume so hilarious to me!

Hope you all enjoyed the cake tutorial - I plan on doing more of these tutorial-type posts, so please do come back soon!

Happy Halloween... !

xo Lyndsay