Kermit Cake for my little Brody

How could my little monkey cutie nephew be 4 years old already? It feels like just yesterday I remember holding him for the first time, this teensy thing in a mini Canucks newborn toque. Now Brody is obsessed with cars and is sweet and sensitive and funny and full of questions and is just the cutest little boy. Our family clan is growing and growing... my sister Leanne has three children now, and my other sis Shelley has two girls!

And... yes... when I say our family is growing... so is my own tummy. I'm also expecting a baby! I'm due in August of this year and I found out it will be a baby boy.

I dream of summer birthdays, homemade popsicles, BBQs, a cooler of ice packed with icy cold drinks, crisp summer salads and swimming. Backyard parties with colored balloons, running around on grass, ice cream cones and the giggling of little cousins, and a special cake made just for my future little guy. My birthday is in November and I was always so envious of summer birthdays - November birthdays are rainy and always indoors...

For Brody's birthday, I made him a Kermit cake, chocolate with vanilla buttercream, and matching frosted green cupcakes. Brody and his little buddies ran around in a gym full of little cars, balls, a bouncy castle and gymboree gear. To be a little kid again with none of the worries and sadness and stress of real life! Children get to be children only once. It seems so very special to me right now.

Happy (belated) birthday to my lil BroBro! Auntie Lynds loves you lots!

Coco Cake's Favourite Cakes Of 2011!

2011 was a pretty whirlwind year of cake-mania in good old Coco Cake Land of Crazy Times and Cool Moments. It kind of blows my mind when I scroll through my zillions of photos of cakes - I think to myself, "I made all of those!? I'm an insane person." Yes, I think it's true! As the year draws to an end, I thought I'd do a little round-up of my fave cakes of 2011! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year, everyone! I also want to give a major heartfelt THANK YOU to my wonderful readers, clients, blog buddies and fellow cake-makers for all of your support of Coco Cake in 2011!

See you all in 2012 - fun times ahead! Have a healthy and happy New Year, everyone!

Love,

Lyndsay

Two Little Cutie Birthday Parties

Yay kids! Yay kid birthday parties! Yay cool parents! Yay to all!

Aaro's 2nd birthday - construction themed! That little moustachioed construction worker is killing me. He's a cool guy. Thanks to Jenny for the construction-themed inspiration! And blue and green robot head? I made him for Fox's 1st birthday! I can't get enough of fun birthday orders like these ones. Thanks so much Andrea and Rachel for the awesome orders.

Happy 2nd Birthday Aaro and Happy 1st Birthday Fox!

Happy "Ice Cream Sundae" Friday!

Sundae! Stripey "cup"!

Cutie custom flag for Mia's 3rd birthday!

Dive on in! The ice cream's fine!

Banana slices and sprinkly bits

MEGA SPOON! Heehee

Celebrate life... with cake!

ICE CREAM SUNDAE cake! Even my own cake-making eyes were tricked by the scoop of vanilla "ice cream" peeking out of this red and white striped ice cream cup. I just loved doing this order - it was lots of fun and I was chuckling the whole time. Leila really wanted an ice-cream themed cake for her daughter Mia's 3rd birthday - I was thinking of using my round sphere cake pans to make ice cream balls so did a little research and came across this wonderful inspiration!

So hilarious, and of course I love making fake food cakes so much...

The cake was dark chocolate with vanilla buttercream with chocolate ganache. The decor is vanilla buttercream, more ganache for the chocolate syrup and fondant bananas and fondant ruffly wafer cookie!

A sweet email from Leila post-cake:

"The cake was a hit!!!! And this is probably the first time in 5 years that there's no left over...not even the crumbs! Thanks again for your fabulous work, and for making a 3 year old girl (and her family) very, VERY happy! She was all smiles :)"

This is what cake-making is all about to me.

Thanks so much Leila for the fun order and happy happy birthday little Mia! xo Lyndsay

Little Pink Cakes for New Babies!

I never knew it was possible to love so many little people so dearly the way I love my little nephews and nieces. If I'm ever having a crapola day and feeling down in the dumps all I need to do is look at some hilarious photos of Tanner eating soup or watch a video of 2 year old Kensie pounding on the piano singing a made-up song and suddenly life seems much better...

Recently two more babies were added to the growing brood my sisters have created - baby Piper and baby Brooklyn. To celebrate, my parents threw a combined 100 Day Chinese Baby Banquet celebration at one of our top favourite Chinese food haunts, Golden Ocean here in Vancouver...

Baby Brooklyn and mama Shelley (my middle sis!)...

baby Piper and my eldest sis Leanne!

Adorable Tanner with his chopstick

Kensie and Brody going loco-dingo wild, post-cupcakes

I made pink rosette frosted vanilla cupcakes and little bunny flags (as both babies are Year Of The Rabbit)! It was a magnificent dinner and there were guests a-plenty, including tons of kids who darted out and around the legs of bustling servers carrying trays of hot food, running around like wildchilds and gazing with mystery and laughter into the live water tanks of crab, lobster and fish.

It was a great evening and Auntie Coco Cake is just thrilled to have two more sweet and adorable nieces to love and help care for (and, of course, to make cakes for...!) I love you Pipey and Brooky!

xo Lyndsay