Mountains + Moon Snowy Cake For Poppytalk: Holiday Cuteness!

I'm in love with this super sweet cake topper DIY I made for Poppytalk - I want to face-plant into that white, billowy whipped cream and make, like, fifteen snow angels. Click here to see the full mountains and moon cake topper DIY.

You can find Coco Cake Land (me!) elsewhere this week over at ye olde Craftsy this week, too - with a helpful Cake Inc blog post on Tips On How To Write A Business Plan For Your Cake Business. 

More beauty on the internet - fave posts of the week: 

The coolest puffy sculptural honeycomb wreath DIY by Chiara over at Oh Happy Day.

Gosh darn it Amelia from The Homebook is such a funny, cool creative mama. Love her book-inspired gift wrap over on You Are My Fave.

Love this simple triangle wreath DIY over at Almost Makes Perfect.

Happy weekend, dear cake pals!

See you soon with more cakey cuteness.

xo Lyndsay

Holiday Party Idea: Pink + Green Cupcakes

Make cupcakes for your holiday party this year! Update the classic Christmas colours with a party blaster of light pink, a fresh raspberry for contrast and green cupcake liners. Totally cute, totally party time and a nice modern feel.Find me elsewhere this week: Check out my post I wrote for Craftsy on how a blog may help your cake business! As you know,I'm a blog lover and fanatic - but along the way it's really helped Coco Cake Land grow! Plus my favourite holiday DIYs of the week: Sparkly sweet DIY geometric pastel garlands from La Maison De Loulou.This adorable and majorly simple gold triangle garland from Almost Makes Perfect!The cutest mini boxwood wreath DIY via Poppytalk. The most gorgeous photos of Linda's soft gingerbread cake with creamcheese frosting over at Call Me Cupcake - these photos will make you cry deep, beautiful Christmas tears, they're so lovely!Happy weekend, everyone!xo Lyndsay 

Melted Snowman Cake DIY

This guy! I love this melted snowman face. I was pretty much chuckling away while I was making this. I've seen this idea on sugar cookies before but hadn't yet seen it on a cake. Poor dude. Get the full tutorial for this DIY melted snowman cake over at Handmade Charlotte.

I would be so stoked if this guy became part of a family's yearly repertoire: "Mom's busting out the melted Frosty cake again this year for Christmas Eve!" I can't wait for my Teddy to have Christmas memories. We put up our Charlie Brown tree this past weekend and he can't stop pointing at the Banquet Atelier letterpress star and owl ornaments shouting "cahhr!" and "owrrrlee!" Makes me so happy.

Do you have any holiday cakes or cookies you make every year?

Happy Baking, cake pals! See you soon.

xo Lyndsay  

Peppermint Party - Silver Fringe Letter Garland DIY

Today's post is sponsored by Minted.com 

Happiness and joy - I finally made something fringe! I admire my pal Kelly over at Studio DIY's magical wicked awesome fringed wonders all the time - I pin them and drool over them and say, oh yeah. I'll make that - but never get around to it! My peppermint party for Minted seemed like the perfect opportunity to make a silver fringe letter garland - since I'm nuts about lettering and typography, too. Plus, I'll let you in on an easy breezy supplies secret - (also known as: didn't have time to source silver mylar) - I used regular old tin foil and some recycled cardboard to make it. 

You can find everything you need to make this super cute JOY letter garland in your own home, bringing some wordy sparkle to your holiday this year. 

I was also inspired by the insane in the membrane crafty awesome Jenny over at Hank + Hunt - I saw her super cute LOVE letter garland and I... loved it. Hee! 

Here we go - get into the garland party zone!

You will need: 

• Tin foil, cut into strips - I cut mine into 1 inch tall strips. 
• Scissors
• Gluestick
• Cardboard
• String
• Tape

Step One: Cut out your letters from cardboard. I freehand drew my letters onto the cardboard - if you wanted a particular font you could always print out large letters off your computer, trace onto cardboard and work from there. My letters are about 8 inches in height. 

Step Two: Cut strips of tin foil off in 1 inch high strips. Start fringing away your strips - snip snip snip! Approximate the length across the letter you're working on and cut to the general size. Note that the tin foil has one extra shiny side and one more matte side. Glue down your first fringed tin foil strip, shiny side up, at the bottom of the letter and work your way up. Don't worry if your tin foil fringe length is too wide for the letter you're working on - you can trim it up later. 

Pretty fringey bits! You can save this for table confetti if you like - so shiny!

Step Three: Turn your letter around. Trim away the excess tin foil along the edge of your letter to regain the shape of your letter.

Oh joy, you finished! Yay! In the end I decided to cut a triangle V out of my letter "Y" to make it look more "Y"-like. Then I had a fringey little triangle shape, so of course I turned it into a cake topper.

 Step Four: Turn your letters over and adhere it to a nice piece of string or twine using good old scotch tape.

Minted has these ridiculously adorable and insanely easy to use tissue paper fans for sale that add so much cuteness to your party set up in literally twenty seconds. If you are familiar with my party design style, I like a simple mix of modern, vintage, DIY and playful. The tissue paper fans did the trick as a sweet backdrop for my JOY garland. 

It wouldn't be a Coco Cake Land party without a cake! I made a chocolate cake with mint green peppermint buttercream piped in a vintage style. That "V" shape? I taped it onto a wooden BBQ stick and BLAMMO - cake topper! :) I found those pretty pastel scotch winter mints in the bulk section of the grocery store. 

Minted makes the cutest custom holiday cards probably ever! Love how my card turned out with my little T-man. It was so easy to make, too - go internets go!

Ah, DIY love! What word(s) would you make into a shiny silver letter garland? That was fun - see you soon, cake pals!

xo Lyndsay 

This post was sponsored by Minted.com. Order your Minted holiday cards now - total cuteness awaits! Tissue paper fans, cake stand, little cake sign and holiday cards also provided by Minted. All opinions expressed are my own - yes, I do love Minted! 

DIY Mini Rosette Cake Toppers

Sharing a super cute and simple mini rosette cake topper DIY over on Poppytalk. 

Click here for the full tutorial!

My post on modern cake toppers on Craftsy

My cute and easy DIY Raindrop & Cloud Cupcake Toppers for Handmade Charlotte

My post on Owl Themed Cakes on Craftsy

Plus, a couple of cat-cake-head worthy Friday shout-outs (my slang is so brutally 1990s, sorry guys)

This modern holiday craft party from Studio DIY is so bubbly, bright and swinging - you'll want to throw on a record and start mashed potato-ing like, instantly. 

Mini present gift advent calendar from You Are My Fave - fill em up with candy and treats! Jam mine with peanut butter cups, please! 

Mer Mag's turkey Thanksgiving place setting buddy is so cheerful, simple and hilarious. Love his feathers!

Are you getting your holiday gifting on yet? You must take a look-see at the Poppytalk Handmade Market. It is truly where all the goods are.  

Happy weekend, everyone - see you next week with more cakey goodness. 

xo Lyndsay 

Raindrop and Cloud Cupcake Toppers

File under: easy town. I am in love with the idea of funny, original and possibly silly birthday party themes - how about a weather themed party? Raindrop and cloud garland, a pinata made to look like a big ball of sun, cloud cookies and these simple raindrop and cloud cupcake toppers.

Find the whole raindrop and cloud cupcake topper DIY over on Handmade Charlotte.

What was your most successful party theme? Do tell -and leave me a link to your party - I wanna see! :)

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