Chocolate Raspberry Purple Ruffly Cake Cuteness!

Honestly. Sometimes I just want to put it on my head and wear it around like a pillbox hat. But then it would tip and unbalance and flop on the floor and I would have a big old cakey buttercream insanity mess to clean up! No to wearing cakes as hats, says me.

This cake! I loved it. And it was for a really lovely baby shower for the amazing Miranda of Blue Olive Photography, and all of her dear and crazy-creative friends threw her this really amazing looking party. Jeanie and Andrea were behind the shower awesomeness set-up and gorgeous decorations, in such a cute colour palette - yellow, grey, blue, orange and purple! No one asked me to make the cake purple but when I think of Miranda's photography and style I think vibrant, fun and bright. Violet purple ruffle-puff buttercream cake just seemed like the right thing to do!

Thanks ladies for having Coco Cake as a part of the beautiful celebration. 

And CONGRATULATIONS Miranda and Riley! Super exciting baby boy times ahead! 

xo Lyndsay

Last photo of cupcake set up with adorable bunting by Jeanie Ow!

Ginormous Cupcake!

It's a biggie. I wonder how many it would feed? I'm thinking 15 people. Or 1 super hungry maniac. Digging in with forks... oh man that's a lot of cake and frosting! I made this for a little cutie baby named Kai - and for a "smash cake" photoshoot for his 1st birthday! I can't wait to see the pictures. The ever-amazing Jeanie Ow took the photos and I just know they will be bonkers cute!! I will post some when I receive them!

I love the idea of the giant cupcake. So pop art, so surreal. Inherently comical!

This ginamo dynamo cupcake is vanilla with vanilla buttercream, a whackload of rainbow sprinkles and a big old fondant red cherry on top! Oh, giant cupcake. Sorry you got the daylights smashed out of ya!!

On another note: HAPPY MOTHER's DAY to all those supermoms out there!! I will do a belated mother's day post in a few days... just as soon as I serve up the cake I made for it! ^__^

Coco Cake at Indie I Do!

Make a statement without saying a word! Did anyone out there love Sassy magazine like I did as a teen? I remember my older sister buying them when she started high school, and me getting to take a peak at them, along with poring through her high school annuals and dreaming about my own high school experience that was yet to come...

Sassy magazine was like an early teen bible for my friends and I... it was feminist without being outrightly so, it taught young women about self-esteem and being strong and following their dreams. It had amazing fashion and true life stories (It Happened To Me) and real advice for real problems that young women faced. It didn't candycoat readers with a typified tween existence of boys and prom and weight loss. It gave young women confidence and the power to think for themselves. Of course as a teenaged girl you still want to feel pretty and be liked and have crushes and dream about boys (or girls) and so on. Sassy was a perfect balance for that - allowing girls to be teens but empowering them at the same time.

So yes, I was a proud reader of Sassy!! And within the pages of Sassy there were always ads for Exclamation! perfume... with the tagline "Make a statement without saying a word!" The colour scheme was always black and white stripes or polkadots, with a splash of pink! Very late 1980s/early 1990s... so this was my visual inspiration for this year's Indie I Do wedding fair!

I've been wanting to make one of these adorable cupcake wrapper garlands ever since I saw it online here! So with the colour inspiration in mind, I sat at my table with This American Life playing in the background and strung together a lovely, fluffy, crinkly garland of black, white and pink. I also made a super cute new Coco Cake sign in pink and grey (two colours that are so pretty together, and, let's face it, 1980s!) and then made oodles of flags to go with it all. My favourite thing is to make things matchy and designy - I had lots of fun doing this!

For the cupcakes, I made light pink rosette buttercream topped vanilla cupcakes in silver wrappers, dark chocolate cupcakes in pink gingham wrappers and dark chocolate cupcakes with white vanilla creamcheese frosting blobettes. Pink carnations rounded out the late 1980s vibe for my Coco Cake wedding display table!!

I had a blast and a half at the wedding fair, partying it up with my amazing friend Sharon. We met lots of great brides and grooms, chuckled it up with some fellow wedding vendors and met lots of new friends too. All in all a great event!

(last photograph of my table by the amazing Jeanie Ow!)

Jeanie & Ian!

cupcake tower!

Ian and Jeanie in Scotland!
Gazing at their wedding cupcake tower in Vancouver! (heehee)

Ahhhh-dorable.

Bahh bahh black sheep!! I like these little guys' shocked faces.

This photo is pure beauty and a half, times infinity. Can't you just hear the grass "shushing" and the wind blowing as they run through this field? Jeanie's dress is amazing too.
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I've known Jeanie for quite a few years now, through our mutual involvement with the Powell Street Festival, then through the wonderful Vancouver wedding industry -- her with her amazing photography skills, and me with my crazy cake-ing! So it was quite flattering and sweet when Jeanie asked me if I would make cupcakes for her Vancouver wedding reception. Jeanie and Ian tied the knot in a castle in Scotland... yes, it's true!! Check out those gorgeous photos Jeanie's brother took of them above. Dreamsville.

Jeanie and Ian then had their wedding reception here in Vancouver at Ironworks, and the lovely hard-working ladies at Dreamgroup performed the task of making this "cabaret-themed sexy red and black " party come to life!

Jeanie is the sweetest person... and so detail-oriented and cool... she writes her cheques with an old fashioned typewriter, in fact! And lovely typewriter-written notes. These are the types of details I can also appreciate! Her vision for the cupcakes was a dark sexy red rosette with black liners, as well as elegant and dramatic black special cupcake wrappers! She is also thoughtful -- she wanted to have some kid-themed cupcakes for the kiddies in attendance too. I made dark chocolate cupcakes with dark red vanilla buttercream rosettes, and dark chocolate buttercream. I loved how the kid's cupcakes turned out -- sheep "bahhhing", very "Scotland"! It was all displayed on a damask stand provided by the Dreamgroup girls.

Happy Happy Matrimony to Jeanie and Ian... an amazing couple with a lifetime of happiness ahead of them!

xo Lyndsay

(photos of Jeanie and Ian by Jeff Ow. Cupcake photos by Tracey Heppner.)