Haven't you ever seen a talking snowman before?

I can't think of a better way of getting in the Christmas spirit than building a gingerbread house and the best way to pass along some of that spirit is to help raise money for a worthy cause.

I was contacted by Habitat for Humanity and asked to take part in their annual gingerbread house auction. I jumped at the chance! I wanted to create something that would remind people of their childhood, but also capture Habitat's vision: A world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live.

I combined characters from my favorite holiday movie, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and a Habitat for Humanity build site to create a festive gingerbread scene.

The Cake or Death gingerbread house, as well as others created by local celebrities and chefs, is up for auction through December 10, 2009. All proceeds go to help build homes for local families in need. Please bid and help Habitat for Humanity make families Christmas wishes come true.

Performance Anxiety

Three years ago I had a son. He was beautiful and precious. Our first born. Everything was new and amazing and overwhelming. My husband and I watched every little milestone, every new smile. My son wore the cleanest clothes, played with the most educational toys, and ate the healthiest foods. As his first birthday approached I dreamed about the cake I would make for him. I struggled with the perfect design and how I could encapsulate absolutely every aspect of his personality and my love for him within the confines of pastry. Yeah, no small feat.

After weeks of thought and hours of painstaking work, this is what I created:



Each tier was made to represent favorite bedtime stories that I read to him. Then the whole cake was tilting as he climbed to the top to reach his "smash cake". I was pretty proud of this one.

Then I became pregnant with my second child. Someone jokingly said, at some point during my pregnancy, "How are you going to top that first 1st birthday cake?" And that's when the terror set in.

My second son was born on November 5th, 2008. Another beautiful boy who showed me his dimples the second he was in my arms. If you haven't heard, adding a second child is more like multiplication than addition. Suddenly there are two to feed and change, two to rock to sleep and cuddle. And the first year just flew by. Suddenly I was faced with the big date on the calendar and the terror was there again. How was I going to create a beautiful and sentimental token of my undying love for my child in cake form?

Then one day, not too long before the cake was due, I started looking at pictures. And this is what I created:



A collage of my son's first year, some of the things he loves (music, beach balls, blankets) and bright colours. This would be the cake's stage.

Aside from his bubbly personality and stunning dimply smile, my son loves to be upside down. He crawls and climbs in an effort to flip himself over. So, I thought nothing would be more appropriate than a cake that would do the same.



Happy birthday, sweet boy. I hope that you like your special cake. I hope you know that just because you came second, there's no second place in my heart.

Digital Graffiti

After creating the 300 mini cakes for Jessica Biffi's LG Fashion Week runway show, I had the pleasure of creating a fun, "out of the box" cake for her after-party. Jessica is a lover of artistic and over-the-top cakes, so I really wanted to blow her away.

Using the same cube idea to represent "digital", I created the design based on her collection, sketches, and inspiration.

Because of the time crunch and exhaustion after 300 mini cakes, I enlisted the help of my friend, Lori Hutchinson (The Caketress) to help me bring my design to life. She worked on the base tier while I created the top tier. In the wee hours of morning, we finished the middle tier together. It was challenging and incredibly fun.





Hand-painted illustrations based on Jessica Biffi's designs and Fafi's graffiti artwork:







Jessica and I at the afterparty:


I had such a blast working with Jessica to help support her wonderful collection. I loved the idea of being able to merge cake and fashion. I hope to do so again in the future!

300 is a Very Big Number

I love fashion. I love the fact that you can put art on your body and walk around in it. Because of this love I watch fashion television shows, read fashion magazines, and spend a little too long deciding on what to wear when I get dressed in the morning.

While watching one tv show about fashion, "Project Runway Canada", I watched a fashion designer create dresses with charm, humor, and skill. I was so impressed with Jessica Biffi. Several of her creations inspired me to bring them to life through cake. We live in a pretty amazing world in which I had to but ask someone I knew on Twitter for an introduction and I was set to meet Jessica!

Through a common love of art, fashion, and cake we discussed the fusion of cake and fashion for her Spring/Summer 2010 collection presentation at LG Fashion Week in Toronto. I jumped at the chance to offer sponsorship, through cake, for her show!

And the rest was history!

Jessica was wonderful in allowing me full artistic control of the cakes. I created 300 mini cakes based on her collection titled "Digital Graffiti". I chose the shape of a cube to convey the feeling of a digital universe. I then airbrushed each cake with graffiti in the colours of Jessica's collection. She has explained that some of her inspiration for the line came from a graffiti artist called Fafi so I wanted to really showcase the graffiti element.

I had never done 300 mini cakes before. 300 is a very big number. Very big. I had a lot of help to get them all done and even with the help I felt like I could hardly move or think by the time they were all done. But man, they were a thing of beauty.

This is what 300 mini cake toppers looks like:



This is what 300 squares of fondant looks like:



This is what 300 mini cakes in a refrigerator looks like:



But this makes all that work worthwhile:



Thank you, Jessica, for inviting me to be a part of Fashion Week and congratulations on your wonderful SS10 collection!

Thanks, also, to The Caketress, Lori Hutchinson, for coming by and helping to cover many minis and to my dear friend and assistant, Sam Leeson, for more help than I can list here! Also a big thanks to Bonnie Junyk, owner of The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Square One, Mississauga, for all her help and the donation of 300 white chocolate pieces for the mini toppers!