It was as though the second Mike and I set foot back into the city from the cottage [after labour day long weekend], we stepped straight into a whirlwind of ‘busy’.  September flew by and now at the end of October, and on the eve of football week 8, I am writing my 1st in-season post.  It was an eventful 2 months and though I had been documenting the weeks, I’m beyond behind on posting.

So, let’s rewind to September to when I took on the challenge of baking a Shopkins birthday cake; my 1st buttercream creation!

After baking a [belated] bday cake in honour of my fellow July-baby colleagues, I was asked if I could bake another.  This request was for a Shopkins themed birthday party for a soon-to-be 10yr old.  On a tight deadline and knowing very little about Shopkins, I Googled the characters, Insta-searched cake inspirations, and YouTube-d cake decorating tutorials.

 [cake inspiration pics from @katherine_sabbath Instagram]

The end result was this hybrid Ice Cream Kate + candy cake.

To create this cake I utilized the following tutorials and recipes

• Ice Cream Kate decorating Tutorial by Renee Conner [note, I crumb coated before decorating]
• Ron Ben-Israel’s swiss meringue buttercream recipe 
• Swiss meringue buttercream colouring Tutorial by Renee Conner
• Cake Boss chocolate cake recipe 

Like all things I think I plan sufficiently for, this cake took longer than expected.  Though my ganache melt drips could use some work, I was ecstatic with how my cake came together; not bad for my 1st!  All things considered, I decided that this buttercream cake was a lot easier than my passed fondant cakes, however, transporting it was not – definitely a 2 man job.

During football wks 1 to 7, I baked, decorated, baked some more, planned a trip, went on a trip, ate a turkey dinner, got over a cold [twice]….eventful to say the least.

Stay tuned as I work to get up to date.