Here Comes the Bride!

I would like to invite all you brides-to-be to attend the upcoming Bridal Trade Fair in Fort St John on January 9, 2010 at the Pomeroy Hotel. I am really excited be a part of this trade show. There will be fashion shows and lots of draws. I will even be handing out cupcakes to sample. So, come out and check out the show! Come see all the latest wedding trends and meet all the exhibitors. I am looking forward to meeting you. See ya there!

Let's Wrap Things Up!

Christmas baking season for Just Like Gram's wrapped up this week with the usual last minute baking orders and another "horse-themed" birthday cake. This cake was created for a former bride who I had designed her wedding cake. Her husband phoned me a while back wanting to order a birthday cake for her. Isn't that sweet? Anyway, he left most of the cake details up to me, only just make it with something to do with horses. So this is what I came up with.

Horseshoe, flowers and boot are made from gumpaste. Horses are cut from fondant. The cake flavours were similar to their wedding cake - chocolate cake with chocolate pudding, Italian Meringue buttercream and fondant. Happy Birthday Lisa!

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Roberta, winner of our Facebook Group contest. She won a dozen FREE cupcakes. Roberta chose lemon flavoured cupcakes with traditional buttercream.

And It Keeps Going, and Going and Going...

Right now, I feel like the Energizer Bunny. It's Christmas baking season right now, and I never seem to get a chance to sit down and take a breather. I just keep going, and going and going. Baking all those wonderful goodies means early mornings and late nights. I am usually up by 6 and don't crawl (literally) into bed until after 1AM. Yup, I'm exhausted. But, you know what, I love baking. There is something soothing and peaceful baking christmas cookies while listening to Burl Ives and Frank Sinatra singing those Christmas classics that we all grew up with. In addition with all the Christmas baking, there is the usual orders for cakes. People don't stop having a birthday just because it's Christmas. Here are a few of the orders we put out this week.

We designed this surprise birthday cake for a guy who loves hunting with his favorite dog and pack horses.

Lynette from Unforgettable Memories ordered these adorable mini-cupcakes for their Christmas party. Cupcakes were topped with white chocolate snowflakes. Yummy!

Here is one of MANY Christmas baking platters we have sent out this week.

That's Alot of Belts!

The Red Dragon Taekwando club in Fort St John celebrated their annual Christmas dinner this weekend. Just Like Gram's donated 150 little taekwando boy and girl sugar cookies for the event. Each cookie featured a different belt illustrating the different levels of expertise.

Recent Cakes

Here are some recent cakes created here at Just Like Gram's.

When I attended the Ladies Day Out show here in Fort St John, I had a draw for a FREE cake. Gail was our lucky winner. She chose a simple vanilla cake with Italian Meringue Buttercream featuring a shoe and purse theme for her daughter's birthday. Her daughter's favorite colors were pink, black and green.

Cupcakes with funky retro flowers were the choice for a young girl's 9th birthday. Cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate buttercream and vanilla with orange creamsicle buttercream. I loved making these and thought they looked so funky.

This last cake was created for a very special person, my daughter Elizabeth. She celebrated her 6th birthday this weekend. She chose a picture of a cake she wanted from a cake magazine and I added a purple brooch, purple ribbon and flowers. I even topped the cake with a purple chocolate crown. The cake was tuxedo flavour with chocolate truffle filling, and Italian Meringue buttercream. Happy Birthday Missie!

No Excuses!

Yes, I haven't written on here for a month now and I have absolutely no excuse. So much for my well-laid plans to write on here once a week. Anyway, the beginning of the month of November was relatively quiet in the cake world. Halloween was just over with and people weren't quite ready to start thinking about Christmas. SO, I decided to do some much-needed fall cleaning and clean out that unnecessary clutter that we ALL seem to accumulate over the years. Why do we do this to ourselves? With dumpster in hand, I went to town and just chucked junk, junk and more junk. I couldn't believe how much space I opened up in our basement. Yahoo! Now, I guess I have the next 10 years to fill up on junk once again and then start cleaning it all over again. SIGH...

We Got PICKED!!!

What a great way to start the month of November than to share some exciting news! Just Like Gram's is excited to announce that our Wedding Cupcakes were featured in the Wedding Cupcake Gallery on bride.ca . Check it out!

Christmas Baking Ready to Order

Yes, I know we still have Thanksgiving and Halloween to make it through, BUT, before we know it Christmas will be here, and if you're like me, you'll be rushing around to get everything done at the last minute. Well, why not get a head start on the rush...

Our Christmas Baking Packages are now available for booking!

Each package contains:
Butter Tarts, Christmas Sugar Cookies, Gingerbread Men, Almond Shortbread, Jeweled Cookie Slices, Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods, Thimble Cookies, Chocolate Truffles, Gift Wrapped Brownies, Chocolate Dipped Crescent Logs, Snowflake Chocolate Sugar Cookies, and Almond Cranberry Bark

Select a package that is right for you:
1) Just a Nibble $25.00 - 24 random assortment of treats
2) Family's Coming $75.00 - receive a half-dozen of each treat
3) Tis' the Season to Celebrate $150.00 - one dozen each of all 12 goodies

Packages are available for pickup: Nov 28, Dec 5, Dec 12 and Dec 19

Please call or email us to book your holiday baking today.

Facebook Contest!

Let's Celebrate - Just Like Gram's is on Facebook!!! What better way to celebrate than to give away FREE cupcakes!!!

The contest requires YOUR help. What you need to do is invite your friends to join our Facebook group by November 30, 2009. I will draw (1) lucky member's name from the group and they will WIN a dozen FREE cupcakes of their choice.

Now, who doesn't LOVE free cupcakes!!! Let the contest BEGIN!

NOW on Facebook!

Just Like Gram's is excited to announce we are now on Facebook. Come check us out!

"Quack, Quack", says Baby Ducky

Another recent cake created here at Just Like Gram's. I really enjoy making baby shower cakes. What a fun way to celebrate a baby's birth than to create something cute and adorable. Now what could be more adorable than a cake with a rubber ducky swimming in a rain barrel. Add some baby clothes hanging on a clothes line. Awww!!!

Whimsical Princess

I had the pleasure of designing and creating this whimsical and tilted Princess-style birthday cake for a friend's little girl. She absolutely loves the color purple. Adorned with a flowing fondant dress, pale pink rose buds, ruffles and a chocolate crown, the perfect cake for a little "princess". Happy Birthday Sarah!

Cupcakes and More

This past week was full of cupcakes (200 and counting) with the usual wedding cake orders to boot. I was busy baking 240 chocolate and vanilla cupcakes topped with our newest frosting, Orange Cream Cheese. Yummy! This frosting has been so popular this year that over 1/3 of my brides have requested it as filling for their wedding cakes. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture since the bride picked up all the cupcakes the day before her wedding.

To make it short and sweet, here are the recent round of wedding cakes:

A small and simple wedding cake for a bride getting married at home. Sweet and simple...

Another Camoflauge wedding cake created at Just Like Gram's this summer. This was for a created for a couple from Tumbler Ridge, BC who enjoyed the outdoors, hunting and fishing and all that fun stuff! Congratulations, Stephanie and Roger!

Caramel Apples Anyone?

Just Like Gram's is proud to introduce a new product to our list of goodies - "Caramel Apples".

This past weekend I was asked to create some caramel apple wedding favours. Now, having never made these before, I thought why not and played around for a week searching and perfecting recipes. Came up and created these "OMG, so delicious" Chocolate Caramel Apples. Now, I must confess, I don't like raw apples (yes, call me weird), only cooked apples. Plus, I don't like caramel - I hate how it sticks to my teeth. BUT, since I had to try out these first, WOW, I couldn't stop eating them. I absolutely LOVE them. I think I found a new addiction!

Chocolate Carmel Apples are NOW FOR SALE! We'll drizzle them in chocolate, dip them in nuts or even put your choice of sprinkles or whatever topping you desire. Hey, we'll even package them for you too!

"Is that for People or for Us?"

That's a question asked far too often here at Just Like Gram's. Whenever my kids see me baking something, they always ask who it's for. Well, I'm sad to say, but 9 out of 10 times, it's for a customer. To be quite honest, after baking and decorating cakes all day, the last thing I want to do, is come home and bake - even it's for my family.

Well, seeing how school is fast approaching. OMG, is it tomorrow already? I had thought I had better whip up some goodies for school lunches. So, I actually spent some of the day baking for my family. I made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and used up some bananas and made some banana bread.

What - NO CAKE? Yep, my family doesn't really like cake anymore. After trying out so many recipes on my family, they are sick of cake. So if I have to try something new, I usually wait until we have company over and I make a new cake flavour and then send the rest home with them.

So, there my guilt trip is over and I actually did some baking for "us". I got my daughter into helping me and she stirred, poured and mixed - my son though preferred to be taster, trying to steal cookie dough. We had a fun and relaxing afternoon.

Now, back to "baking for people". Hapy Labour Day!

Free Cookie Giveway Winner!

Congratulations to Kim of Fort St John who won 2 dozen free oatmeal cookies!

The Quiet Before the Storm

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I decided a much-needed break was in store for me and I went to Edmonton to visit my sister and her family for a week. I did lots of shopping, stayed up and drank tea with my sister and had lots of "girl-talk" and played with my nephews. THEN, I came back home and the STORM hit - the storm of cakes, that is.

Been craaazzy buzy with cakes, so I'll just make it quick and give you a quick peek of a few of the cakes we have completed so lately.

Red Cherry Blossoms with Black branches winding gracefully up the sides of this cake.

Baby shower cake for a couple who were avid hunters.

Suitcase cake decorated with whimsical purple flowers for a young lady travelling abroad.

A simple white fondant covered cake with orange tiger lilies.

ENTER to WIN FREE COOKIES!!!

That's right - here's your chance to enter to win 2 dozen delicious homemade oatmeal chocolate chip or oatmeal raisin cookies from Just Like Gram's. All you have to do to ENTER is email us at justlikegrams@xplornet.com and tell us (1) thing you love about the season FALL. Contest is open to residents of Fort St. John, BC only. Contest deadline is August 31, 2009.

Recent Cakes

Sorry, it's been a couple of weeks since my last post, but I have BEEN BUSY with cakes. Let's not forget it's summer vacation and the kids are STILL at home. Cakin' can be, well, a bit challenging when you have kids hanging around, cause their bored, or it's too hot to do anything.... and the list goes on. Anyway, here some of the recent cakes we have created recently here at Just Like Gram's

This cake was created for another couple who had a hunting and outdoor theme to their wedding.

This brown and fuchsia wedding cake was created for a small wedding. The bride and groom also chose to have their monogram on the cake.

This simple cake was created for a couple of ladies who were celebrating their birthday together. Cake was lemon with raspberry cheesecake filling, traditional buttercream covered in light green fondant. The cake was adorned with sugarpaste flowers and butterflies.

This past weekend I created this wedding cake. It was made to replicate the bride's aunt's wedding cake. The bride chose fresh Gerber daisies to adorn her cake.

Just Like Gram's finished off the week with this traditional wedding cake. The bride chose a design based on one of Martha Stewart's wedding cakes. She, however, changed the colors to black to match her wedding colors.

I said I have been busy lately, didn't I?

Black & White Camoflauge

I created this cake for a couple who were married this weekend. The groom was an avid hunter and they planned a wedding with a hunting twist to it. Since their colors were black and white, we decided to do a black and white camouflage wedding cake.

When I went to set up the cake, the banquet room was set up in very formal black and white colors, but on each table surrounding the centerpieces was a small antler. It looked very elegant, yet keeping in with their theme. Congratulations!

Retro Blue

A simple 2-tier cake requested by a customer who wanted to surprise his girlfriend on her 30th birthday. He wanted to get her an "extra-special" birthday cake to celebrate the occasion. Isn't that sweet? I love it when I get men who call and order a celebration cake for that "special" woman in their lives.

A Western Wedding

This weekend I created this Western theme wedding cake. The bride had seen a cake I created earlier based on my own wedding dress and wanted a similar design. She had pink roses adorn the cake with straw flowers she had grown and dried herself. A western bride and groom topper completed the overall look of the cake. Congratulations Robyn.

Jet Bound

A simple cake for a regular client of mine. She wanted a birthday cake for a friend who liked to travel the world and a was a connoisseur of wine.

Cupcake Giveaway Winner

The winner of our Cupcake Giveaway was Arlene of Fort St.John, BC. She won a dozen free cupcakes just by subscribing to our newsletter. Congratulations, Arlene!

Stay tuned for our next giveway! Details will be posted soon.

Animal Cupcakes

These cute and whimsical cupcakes were created for a baby shower. The theme, based on the baby's room decor, was Noah's Ark. All decorations were made from fondant. I had fun creating these.

Shades of Purple

This weekend was the weekend for the color "Purple". I created these cupcakes for Chantel whose wedding colors were green and purple. All the daisies were created from purple gumpaste and then were dusted with additional purple petal dust. Chantel chose classic white and red velvet flavoured cupakes with green traditional buttercream for her guests.

The other purple wedding I did this weekend was this cupcake tower for Sarah. Sarah didn't want fondant on her cake rather going with the traditional buttercream. On each cupcake, I created a small gumpaste flower dusted with purple dust. Sarah also wanted a light scattering of small flowers on the top cake that was to be shared among her bridal party.

The last "purple" cake I created this weekend was a volleyball graduation cake for a young lady who just graduated from high school. The love of purple must run in this family because I did her sister's graduation cake last year which was a purple purse. I really enjoyed making this cake.

Just Like Gram's Makes the List

Bride.ca created a list of Interior Cake Designers and Just Like Gram's was at the top of the list. Click HERE to see the complete article.

Our First Official Newsletter

Just Like Gram's is excited to announce it's first official newsletter. This newsletter (which will run on a quarterly basis) will include lots of great ideas for new and fun cakes, helpful hints and tips, upcoming specials, recipes and most importantly, a chance to win FREE cupcakes.
Subscribe to Just Like Gram's newsletter and enter to win a dozen delicious homemade cupcakes (your choice of Chocolate or Old Fashioned Vanilla) valued at $27.00. All you have to do to enter the draw is to subscribe to our newsletter. Just email us at justlikegrams@xplornet.com and let us know that you would like to subscribe. Your name will be then entered into our draw. Cupcake offer is open to residents of Fort St. John BC only. Winner will be drawn June 30, 2009

"A Shopping We Will Go"

After the trade show, I headed to Edmonton for a much needed break and to do all my spring shopping for the upcoming wedding season. It also gave me a chance to visit my sister and her family. I also got the opportunity to be there to celebrate my nephew's 1st birthday. Of course, Auntie Tara made the cupcakes with all the trimmings.

With so few supplies in Fort St. John, I have to order most of my supplies from either Edmonton, Vancouver, Ontario and even sometimes overseas. I try not to order too much from the US since duties can be quite costly. Plus, you can find such a better selection in the big cities. So my vehicle was packed to top with cake boards, drums, colors, chocolate moulds, chocolates, a new turntable, a few new cake pans, plus a trip to Costco to stock up on baking supplies. My most treasured purchase was 3 silver plated scroll work cake stands. I have been wanting some for so long, but couldn't find any locally. I did the happy dance when I saw them and had to buy them on the spot.

Now, not only did I buy cake supplies, but I also did the usual spring shopping for my family, like shorts, t shirts, sandals and stuff. I even managed to snag myself some cool new jeans, capris, a brand new purse and some really cool new Cake books.

So now my cupboards (and closets) are bulging and ready for the upcoming wedding season!

Trade Show Weekend

On April 17-19, I had the opportunity to attend the annual CKNL Trade Show in Fort St. John. It was the first time I attended and I had a wonderful time. I shared a booth with my friend Tammy from TLS Wedding Designs. She is an amazing decorator and event planner. She was the brains behind decorating our booth, and, well, I was the "holder" of this and that while she put the decorations up. In fact, our booth won Honorable Mention for Best Decorated Booth. We both had a wonderful time and complimented each other well. We are already planning our booth for next year, BIGGER and BETTER.



We had lots of visitors who stopped by and visited our booth. Around 15,000 people attended the fair that weekend. I made over 1100 cupcakes for sampling and over 75% of them were gone by the end of the weekend. It was also neat to meet so many vendors from the community and also those who attended from Alberta and to do some networking. I even got the chance to do some Father's Day shopping. Sorry, can't say, since my hubby likes to "surf" and do some sneaking.

I want to say THANK YOU to all those who came by and visited our booth and had a chance to have a cupcake. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with you and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Scissors Cake

Last week I was approached by Chelsey, the owner of our local bridal store, The Glass Slipper, to design a cake for her. She wanted to present a cake and cupcakes to the girls of the local high school hair dressing program. The girls had helped out at the bridal shows by doing all the hair styling for the fashion show.

Chelsey wanted the colors to be black and pink with a pair of scissors on top of the cake. I really enjoyed designing the cake and loved the colors she chose. It looks whimisical, yet trendy. The top cake is vanilla filled with Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream, iced in Italian Meringue Buttercream and covered in fondant. The cupcakes were both vanilla and chocolate iced in Italian Meringue Buttercream and then covered in fondant. Scissors were gumpaste and dusted with silver luster dust.

Black Wedding Cake

Last fall, Ashley came to see me about making her wedding cake for this past weekend. She emailed me a picture of a cake she liked, saying her colors included black. She seemed quite settled on her cake, that is, UNTIL, she walked into my studio. She took one look at one of my display cakes for an upcoming bridal show and decided right there and then that she wanted an all black wedding cake. Over the past couple of months, I happened to see Ashley at the bridal shows and she was very excited at the thought of having an all black wedding cake. So was I. I absolutely love doing cakes that are out of the ordinary. I'm sure she had the only BLACK wedding cake in Fort St. John.

She chose alternating tiers of chocolate and classic white cake with homemade raspberry filling (picked from my very own raspberry bushes in my garden) mixed with raspberry liquor, iced in traditional buttercream and covered in fondant. Cake is airbrushed black with silver scroll work and sugar diamonds. The crown is made from a mixture of fondant and gumpaste with clear beads. Ashley chose to have her initials with her fiancee on the crown.

Congratulations Ashley! I wish you all the best.

Easter Special!

Now that Valentine's is past us, it's time to focus on the next holiday Easter. Sometimes, I think I'm going a bit too fast, but when I walked into the stores the day after Valentine's all the Easter stuff was out and on the shelves.

This month we are offering an Easter basket full of goodies. I thought about going away from the tradtional chocolate bunnies and Easter eggs and focus on some good old-fashioned baking. So, each basket will contain a loaf of freshly baked Easter Lemon Bread, Hot Cross Buns and a dozen hand-decorated sugar cookies.

We are also offering Easter cupcakes and Decorated Egg-shaped Brownies too. Check out our website for current pricing.

Recent Cakes

I have been soooo busy lately. Funny, usually during the non-wedding season, most cake designers use the slow period to catch up on stuff, like inventory, cleaning, learning new techniques and such, BUT, I have been so busy I haven't had the chance to do this. Right now, I am cooking dinner, so while it cooks, I thought I would write a bit about what I have been up to.

First, wedding season started early this year with a wedding on Valentine's Day. This particular cake was for Krystal and Danny. Her colors were gold and ivory, so we came up with this design based on one of Peggy Porschen's designs. I absolutely LOVE her work. Cake was covered in fondant with scrollwork painted in gold luster dust with gumpaste flowers.

I was approached by one of my regular clients, Diane who asked me to design her son's birthday cake. He loved bowling and requested an orange creamsicle flavored cake. Little did Diane know, but I was also asked to design her birthday cake at the same time by a close friend. Diane loves to shop at IKEA (who doesn't???), so I came up with an IKEA shopping bag cake for her. Happy Birthday Diane!!!

Another birthday cake I did for a little boy who turned 1. I guess he loved Curious George, because his mom requested a cake with a modeled monkey sitting on some building blocks surrounded by palm trees and bananas.

A Busy January

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. January has been a busy month with the usual cake and cookie orders. I also attended 2 bridal fairs within a two week span. Both bridal fairs in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John were well attended by lots of brides from all over the Peace River region. I also got to meet lots of new vendors and see all the new and latest wedding fashions. I want to thank all the brides who visited my booth. I really enjoyed meeting you and getting the chance to talk all about your upcoming wedding plans. If you are getting married and would like to book a consultation, feel free to email me at justlikegrams@xplornet.com.