On Holiday!

I wanted to thank each and everyone of you for all your support in the past year... It makes this world a little bit nicer, a little bit sweeter... Thank you! And best wishes for a wonderful new year! I will see you again on Monday, January 4th...

Merry Christmas to all...

My Favourite House?

The White House, but in its chocolate version...mmm! I don't care about its tiny vegetable garden, but all that white chocolate...

To see the whole story click here!

Happy Birthday, Snow Queen...!

I hope you are having a lovely day, full of magical moments... Happy Birthday!

Christmas Cookies...

Don't miss this Cookie Workshop at Michaels, West Vancouver...

Christmas Workshops at Michaels, West Vancouver

This coming weekend we are having a Gingerbread House workshop at Michaels, Park Royal, in West Vancouver. Check for the schedule at Michaels...

www.bccakes.com ... is not on Holidays!

http://www.bccakes.com/ website is temporarily down... But the classes at Michaels, West Vancouver, are still in full swing... We are having quite a few workshops this weekend. I will keep you posted...

Are you baking your cookies yet?

What are you waiting for? With all these lovely cutters out there...! I have to go get some more... These cutters are from the Williams-Sonoma website. I love this picture... Mmmmm... I'm off to bake... Bye!

Christmas Spirit...

Amaretto Cake...

This Amaretto cake is one of my favourite cakes with liqueur, really nice... Hope you like it, too!

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 cup of sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
1 tsp of almond extract
1 cup of canola oil
½ cup of buttermilk
2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
3 tbs of ground almond
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ cup of Amaretto

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease two 9” cake pans.
2. Beat eggs, sugar, vanilla and almond extract until well combined. Add oil and buttermilk.

3. Add next 4 dry ingredients. Mix well until combined.
4. Add Amaretto until batter is smooth. Pour into prepared pans.
Bake for 25 – 30 minutes.

The Barbie Pan...

One of the questions I often hear from students is what pans would give them more than one design possibility. Well, the barbie pan is one of those. Apart from beautiful dollies, you can make mountains, volcanos, islands...

And more...

Even a watermelon...

Have fun with it...!

White Chocolate Christmas...

There is this white chocolate cake recipe, that I would call it white velvet instead. The result is a very soft and velvety cake, although very little of the white chocolate flavour remains... Nevertheless, this cake is a winner!

White Chocolate Velvet Cake

175 gr. white chocolate
1 whole egg
3 egg whites
1 cup of milk
1 1/2 ts vanilla extract
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 cup + 3 tb. sugar
1 tb. + 1 1/2 ts baking powder
1/4 ts. salt
1/2 vegetable oil


1. In double boiler, melt white chocolate, stirring frequently. Remove from water.

2. In medium bowl, combine egg whites, 1/4 cup of milk, and vanilla.

3. Combine dry ingredients and mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the oil and remaining 3/4 cup of milk. Mix on low speed until dry ingredients are moistened. Increase to medium speed and beat for 1 1/2 minutes to develop the cake structure.

4. Scrape down the sides. Gradually add the egg mixture in 3 batches, beating for 20 seconds after each addition. Scrape down the sides.

5. Add the melted chocolate and beat to incorporate.

6. Scrape the batter into prepared pans and bake for 25 to 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

* This recipe comes from "The Cake Bible" by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I changed some of the ingredients to suit my own taste.

What students are doing for Christmas...

The first picture shows the Christmas Choir, by Praveena, as her final project for the Fondant and Gum Paste Course. The second picture corresponds to Martin's final project for Course III. The house and tree are made out of cake. The amount of detail both students put in their work is really amazing! Congratulations again!

Heartbroken...

My heart is broken... While I was away at the Wilton seminar, somebody ate all my Christmas cookies I had done for the cookie display... So sad...
Anyhow, if you are looking for the Sugar Cookie recipe, you will find it in the Blog Archive for the month of August ...
So sad...

Wilton Seminar...

We had a very busy weekend at the Wilton Training Seminar here in Vancouver. But we had a lot of fun, too. You can see in this picture the charming Eugenia showing us the fondant rose... Thank you, Eugenia, and thanks to Susan Brisbois, too, for all your hard work...

Snow white...

The beauty of winter snow.... Photo by Liz Soergel

Lovestruck...

Why do I love Lovestruck? There is something kind of magical about it, the location, and the people behind it...But above all, it's all that great effort on the part of Angela Girard from Reflection Events.

This year we were located at the beautiful conservatory which is full of light, a great place to be. Next to us, the Lazy Gourmet. They were so busy feeding everybody... decadent food! You should have a look at their website... On the other side, we had Erin Gilmore, with her very refreshing style. I also heard that her photography workshop was very interesting...

Other interesting vendors there? The Photobooth... a lot of fun! Just check their blog! Also, two of the best magazines in Vancouver, Real Weddings, and Perfect Weddings were there...

Also, worth mentioning, the people from Ivory Bridal, the stationary from i said yes, and Casbah ...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

After a very successful Lovestruck, I came home decided to relax and take it easy, just to realise I had this gingerbread village to finish for tomorrow... So here I am in the middle of all these houses, with all this royal icing and candy... it sure looks a lot like Christmas.

Anyway, Lovestruck people really rock... it was a very nice show thanks to all those fabulous vendors, the great effort of Angela Girard and all her team, and the people from the Vancouver Club, too. Way to go!

Now, to all those people that are already writing to me, I would ask you, please, be patient. I will answer all your emails as soon as the last little house of the village is finished (plus a couple of Christmas trees, too)...

Lovestruck...Don't miss it!

This coming Sunday! Be there! You will LOVE it!

Christmas Red...

How do we make red fondant? The easiest way is usually using Christmas Red until your fondant looks quite pink, and then add Red no taste or Red Red (both Wilton colours). You need to add quite a bit of colour, but don't get discouraged. Keep on adding colour until fondant looks close to the shade you are looking for. The let the fondant to rest for some time before using it. It will darken eventually...

Flanders Fields...

Lovestruck... is coming!

This beautiful picture was taken by Melissa Nguyen during the bridal show last year... This year Lovestruck will be even better! Don't miss it!

How to make a Lego Cake?

This Lego Cake was covered in Buttercream, but I used Fondant for the Lego blocks, people, flowers, and border...

Thank You, Cake Boss!

Thank you very much! I know many of you are watching the Cake Boss, and that is the reason you are taking the courses...


But some students still prefer the Ace of Cakes. What do you prefer?

Let's start November in the right way...

I think this is the best advice I can give you... Relax and have fun!

Boo Hoo...

I can't believe Halloween is over... It is always so much fun...

Anyhow, I just need to get over it... but before that, I just want to share some pictures of some Halloween cakes done by students as their graduation projects... "The Witch" by Patti, and "The Dark Forest" by Georgia...

I hope you all had a great time...!

Itsy Bitsy Spider...

Cupcakes are coming along really well... For these ones, I am using a Wilton Halloween cupcake wrap... I am loving it!

Halloween cookies...

If you are looking for some fun ideas for Halloween cookies, this is it... The recipe is from Pillsbury. Really easy to make. But you can use any other sugar cookie recipe, too. Well, I am back to my cauldron... to get ready for tomorrow...

Bewitched...

From the Halloween collection, made out of gum paste. Her hair? Royal icing...

Gerbera Daisy...

This sugar daisy has been made with the biggest cutter of the daisy cutter set from the Fondant and Gum Paste Student Kit. It is made out of fondant and it is almost as big as the cupcake itself...

Boo!

Don't you love this cute treat bag idea? If you want to learn how to do it, visit Lynda's website Stampin'Up! for this and many other ideas...

Penuche Icing...

I used to get frustrated when preparing my husband's birthday cake. Whenever I asked him: "What kind of cake would you like for your birthday?", and I was thinking of all those nice themes to create a master piece... But, he would invariably answer: "Angel food cake with penuche icing..."
So, no room for cake decorating with this kind of cake, and it was also hard to come up with a cake like those his mom used to make for him for his birthday...not to mention to find a recipe for this penuche icing that I had never heard of before...
But with the years, I have been feeling more and more at home with this cake, and I came to love this penuche icing, sweet and rich, kind of fudge...

Penuche Icing

1/2 cup of butter

1 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup milk

1 cup icing sugar

Melt butter in saucepan: stir in brown sugar. Cook and stir till bubbly. Remove from heat. Add milk, and beat until smooth. Add icing sugar, beat by hand until spreading consistency. Immediately cover Angel Food cake with it... Enjoy!

Haunted...

Sometimes, on these rainy mornings, I have some ghosts from the past that come to haunt me... And then... I eat them! Yummy ghosts!

On a Halloween note...

On this rainy morning, with my two kids with the flu, this picture brought me back to life... a still life, but a beautiful and amazing life... The creator of this picture? Matt . Thank you, Matt, for such a beautiful shot...

Restoring dried Wilton icing colours...

If your Wilton icing colours seem a little bit dry, you can restore their normal consistency by adding a small amount of Wilton glycerine...

Happy Thanksgiving to you all...!

Gracias a la vida... que me ha dado tanto...

Violeta Parra

Lovestruck is coming...!