Slap Silly in the Studio

We take our work seriously.  


Okay, so we're BARELY EVER serious, actually...but, there are just some days that we've worked so hard that we need to unwind and laugh at ourselves.

Take this past week for instance.  I worked on a cake for 3 days!!!  It was ridiculous.  Just one cake. This bad boy looked pretty awesome though.

 

Before Ken went to go deliver the cake, he was taking some photos in the studio and I was just exhausted and happy to see this cake go...  

BUT not before I enjoyed a good cup of tea with him...the cake that is!

 Shared a Red Velvet cucpake!

Introduced him to Aislinn

Good Times!

The last two Saturdays we've been decorating sugar cookies like mad.  We finally finished this Saturday and my staff has estimated that we hand decorated over well 200 DOZEN sugar cookies and gingerbread men.  To end our cookie decorating for the year, I had Aislinn create the 5 of us who were working on Saturday in Gingerbread...Viewer Discretion is Advised!!!

Naughty Gingerbread School Girl, Heather!

Dominatrix Gingerbread girl, Aislinn!

Ken's Gingerbread man wearing not so sexy blue long johns and Ambet wearing his work apron and ball cap.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE NAUGHTY AND NICE Ginger-gals from Whimsical Cake Studio!

What would your Gingerbread Person look like?

 

Gingersnap Bundt Cake

Christmas is just around the corner, but you still have time to get baking!  Lianne Faulder from the Edmonton Journal asked me a couple of weeks ago if I could submit a recipe that folks at home could make a not be intimidated to create on their own.  I've got a great recipe to share with you for a simple & delicious cake to serve at your Holiday party!  

This cake will fill your kitchen with the cozy scent of cinnamon and ginger and the richness of molasses and everything Christmas!  It's also so simple to decorate...nothing frilly or time consuming and the end result is this beauty...

So, roll up your sleeves, put on the Santa hat and get cracking.

Gingersnap Bundt Cake

Using a stand mixer, cream together until light and fluffy:

1-1/2 cups butter, softened

1, 8 ounce grams package cream cheese

2-1/2 cups sugar

Slowly Add:

5 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 to 4 tablespoons  molasses

In a separate bowl, sift together then combine with the wet ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon allspice

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cloves

2 teaspoons ginger

1 cup crushed gingerbread cookies (I like President's Choice English Style Gingersnaps)

Butter and lightly flour a 10-cup Bundt pan** and fill with batter. Bake at 325F/160C for approximately one hour and 10 minutes. Cool on wire rack and dust with powdered sugar or frost with creamcheese icing (recipe below)! Store in airtight container or refrigerate.

**for the cake in the photograph, I filled it only 2/3 and then used a mini bundt pan for the remaining batter so I could stack the two.

Cream Cheese Icing (optional)

With a mixer on medium speed, beat together until smooth:

1, 4 ouncepackage cream cheese, softened

1-1/2 tablespoon butter, softened

Gradually add and mix on low until smooth: 

3/4 cup icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

The best part is, this cake makes an AWESOME "french toast" if you have any left over the next day!  Just slice up the cake, dip in a mixture of eggs and buttermilk, sprinkle with cinnamon and bake or put it on the griddle...YUMMO!

HOLIDAY SWEET LIST!

We have so many goodies we want to share with you, I don't know even know where to start!  We've put together some great ideas for gifting and for sharing at your holiday parties...here's what we have so far!

BAUBLE CAKE

Th perfect center piece cake for Christmas. Serves ~10+

$125

BAUBLE CUPCAKES

Comes in any of our Whimsical Flavours 

$21 for 6

SUGAR COOKIES

Trust us, we make awesome sugar cookies! They come in assorted shapes and colours 

(colours may vary from photograph). We'll even package them up for you in 6's and 12's for Gifting!

$3.25 each

HOLIDAY CUPCAKE FLAVOURS

These will be available in the studio from December 1st to December 24th or by special order

~OH SNAP!~ 

 Gingersnap cupcake topped with cream cheese buttercream drizzled with chocolate and a mini gingerbread man cookie.

~CHOCOLATE CHEER~

Chocolate cupcake with a cherry pie filling topped with our vanilla meringue buttercream.

~SNICKERDOODLE~

Vanilla cupcake baked with apple pie filling, topped with our vanilla buttercream and a snickerdoodle cookie.

CHOCOLATE CAKE TRUFFLES

The perfect sweet bite everytime!  Chocolate truffles come in assorted flavours (in a bon bon cup or on a stick): chocolate raspberry, pecan rum, peppermint & white chocolate coconut.

$18 per dozen

SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Melt in your mouth shortbread cookies!  Cookies are available in boxes for gifting or on platters for easy serving and come in assorted flavours: strawberry pecan, lemon, craisin and milk chocolate.

$15 per dozen

WHITE CHOCOLATE COCONUT MACAROONS

Moist, chewy and sweet!  Delicious down to the last bite.  Our macaroons are made with condensed milk, sourcream and whipping cream...completely guilt free! HA

$1.50 each 

or Package them up for Gift Giving $10 for 6



SUGAR COOKIE DECORATING KIT

Decorate your own sugar cookies! Makes for a great activity with kids of all ages! Boxes include: sugar cookies, royal icing, piping bags and sprinkles!

Box with 6 sugar cookies: $20

Box with 12 sugar cookies: $30

DRESS UP GINGERBREAD MAN DECORATING KIT

Have you ever eaten gingerbread men cookies come with accessories? You can now! Try our yummy cookies and decorate them yourself!

Boxes include: baked gingerbread men cookies with gingerbread cookie accessories (hair, hats, skirt, shirts, shorts, mittens), royal icing, piping bags and sprinkles!

Box with 4 Gingerbread people to accessorize: $25

Box with 6 Gingerbread people to accessorize: $35

HAVE WE PUT YOU IN THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT OF SHARING, EATING & GIVING?

Please call us 780.988.2253 to inquire about any of the above sweets.  

We'd be happy to take your order.  

Please note that advance orders are requested for any of the above sweets.

Christmas Decor Ideas!

We're busy working on samples of all our Christmas Sweets!  I will have a new post in a day or two on all the tasty and colouful goodness that will be available for pre-ordering for your Holiday Parties or Gifts!  I am soooooo EXCITED to share this Season's Sweets with you.  You're gonna LOVE IT!

In the meantime, here's some great decor ideas for your home!

I have been really into shabby chic style decor, but I also love textures & patterns...Here are some fun ideas I found online for you crafty folks! 

Click on the photos and it will bring you to the pages where the ideas have originally come from with instructions!

Buttons and scraps of paper! I love it!

Peppermint Trees...sweet!

Love this! I never know what to do with my cards.

I am Definitely going to do this with Kenna's socks!

I think I might wait a couple more weeks to start decorating.

When do you decorate your home?

Below are some BEAUTIFUL decor ideas for your parties.  The following tables were designed by Elegant Touches and were a big display at Christmas in November in Jasper.  You can find all your holiday decor for your parties there so be sure to check out their website (they are based in Edmonton).  We are lucky to work with Katherine and her team over at ET on many events and have seen their work up close and it's always breathtaking.

 

Here are some FUN ways to decorate your home as well!  These photos are of POINT CABIN at the JPL. It was all too cute.  IF only I had the time to decorate each of the rooms in my home....actually, I probably could, but I hate the clean up part of it all! haha.

Interested in making your own garland...great for all you DIYers.  All you need: garland, ribbon, fun inserts like twigs, indoor lights, berries, flowers, etc. and VOILA!  A nice mantle piece or center piece for your dining table.

Chris Standring, Retired Life Editor for The Edmonton Journal, hosted and taught how to make them at Christmas in November.

 

HAPPY DECORATING, EVERYONE!

Mega Cake Update

I work with some wonderfully talented people! I have to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT to my peeps for all the hard work they do to make RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME cakes that continuously EXCEED my expectations....and of our clients of course!

If you have ever made a cake before baked from scratch and hand decorated every detail, then you have an appreciation for the time we put into creating our cakes. They are NOT just cakes to us...although we often say, "relax, it's just cake"...because really it is. But, each cake you take home with you means a little bit to us.

GRATITUDE and RESPECT to my team for your CREATIVITY, PATIENCE, HARD WORK, TIME...and did I mention patience? (harharhar)...Staff Yoga 2011 to de-stress!  We're just a small family run business and its because of the help we receive from family and friends that we are able to do our "jobs" the best that we can.

Our bakers: Albert, Eddie & MP

Our cake designers and assistants: Ais, MP, Brenna & Heather

Our Jack of ALL traits: Ken (manager, stand maker, 3D cake carver, email and phone answerer, grocery shopper, delivery man, accountant, web guy, photographer, cupcake NINJA...you name it!)...and yes, although he sometimes gets bogged down with answering emails, it's only because we get about 100+ per week, plus the loads of voice mails daily that he honestly tries to get back to each and every day!

MY OVER-time supporters, farmers market reps, cleaning crew, babysitters, front-end customer service : MOM & DAD Santos

Here is just a TEENY TINY peek at some of the cakes we've created over the last few months...ENJOY!

This is one hilarious Lego man!

Wedding cake inspired from our Bride's Dress.

Replica of the actual bags!

These were HUGE cakes!

My first standing Elephant!  Thanks for keeping me challenged, Florence!

If I could show you his actual collection of 8-tracks, you would FLIP out!  An entire garage full...too awesome!

Best baby shower cake design yet!

Beheaded, but still cute and delicious!

This might be the strangest request we've had...maybe.

Sassy Sheep

Too cool for school!

Rare buttercream covered cake in our midst, perfectly piped by Heather.

YAY for LUIGI! Everyone of us has now decorated a Mario Cake.  We can't tell you how refreshing it was to create a Luigi!

This was a 2 day process and took about 5 of us to complete.  We video taped us making this cake and it was insane!!!

Bride brought original inspiration for this cake from Papillon Cakes.

The bride brought in a similar photo for inspiration and we changed it a bit to make it more personal.  If I can find the original inspiration, I will definitely share it here.

This cake had a good and evil side!  Evil was too cool.

 

This cake was for  a SUPER TROOPER special girl!  In our prayers.

And we could not update our cakes without sharing a couple of our PURSES.

You might wonder what kind of cake I would have for my own birthday!  No, it wasn't a 3D replica of myself, haha.  I turned 31 at the end of September and this was my cake...small and simple!  Sorry to let you down, but when you're making cakes all the time, sometimes "simple" is all you need.
But don't call me asking for a simple cake...we don't do simple here! HAHA

xoxo,
A.