Fort St John Annual Ladies Day Out Show

This past weekend I attended the annual Ladies Day Out show in Fort St John. I have attended it for the past 4 years and every year it seems to get better and better with more people coming out to see local business' in the community. I prepared over 400 cake samples and they were all gone by the last hour of the show.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of my booth, because I forgot my camera. On this one occasion my husband was supposed to meet me and help me set up, so he was going to bring my camera. When I got to the venue, he phoned me to tell me that our son was sick with a 24hr flu, so I had to set up on my own. When I got home after the show I took some pictures of a few of the cakes that were on display.

Unlike bridal shows, I do an assortment of display cakes for people to see, because a lot of the people who come to these shows are moms, grandmas and aunts.

Baby Shower cake in pastel colors complete with modeled baby animals.

Now when I go to these shows I always ask my kids for ideas for cakes for boys and girls. My son who is in Taekwando asked me to make a taekwando cake. So I grabbed his uniform and used it for inspiration. Here is his Taekwando shirt complete with belt and tips.

I designed this cake over 3 years ago based on my own wedding dress design. My wedding dress was white cotton eyelet over baby blue satin. I have taken this cake to several trade shows over the years and I was about ready to retire it, but it seems every time the response is overwhelmingly positive. PEOPLE LOVE THIS CAKE! Hmmm, maybe I will keep it around for a while longer.

Sometimes when you come up with a design and you think it is SUPER, yet you get the oddest or more like, LACK of response from people, then you think hmm, maybe the design was so great after all. THEN, on the other hand, you do a design that you think is "way out there" and people love it. This was the story of the KISSING COUPLE design. I thought of this cute idea of putting red lips all over a cake with a heart and silhouette of a couple kissing on top. Neat idea, right? Let me tell you that cake was so frustrating. Working with red icing is totally non-negotiable when it comes to errors. THERE is no room for making a mistake. You screw up and it is very hard to remove that red stain. It was very frustrating and time consuming to stencil all those lips and then brush them to add some texture. I wasn't too sure on the final outcome, but at the show it was ONE of THE most popular cakes at my booth.

Lastly, for all you winter brides out there, I designed this Silver Snowflake wedding cake. The outer layer of each tier was embossed with a snowflake stamp and then I created gumpaste snowflakes which were dusted with silver too.

Christmas Baking Anyone?

Can you believe it's only 8 weeks until Christmas? Before you know it, the holidays will be here and you will be rushing around getting your Christmas shopping done. What about all your Christmas baking? Can't be bothered or don't have time? Just Like Gram's offers Christmas baking packages suited for a variety of budgets. So, beat the rush and book your Christmas baking today!

Each package contains the following:
Butter Tarts, Christmas Sugar Cookies, Gingerbread Men, Chocolate Tartlets, Shortbread Snowflakes, Chocolate Dipped Pretzel Rods, Raspberry Ribbon Cookies, Chocolate Truffles, Chocolate Dipped Brownie Bites, Christmas Butter Cookies, Chocolate Dipped Almond Logs, Almond Cranberry Bark, Homemade Marshmallow Whoopie Pies

Select a Package that is JUST right for YOU!
1) Just A Nibble $35.00 - a random assortment of 2 dozen treats
2) Family's Coming $85.00 - receive half-dozen of each treat
3) Tis' the Season to Celebrate $175.00 - one dozen of each goody

Also Available: Beautifully hand decorated Christmas Sugar Cookies & Christmas Chocolate Caramel Dipped Apples. We can even package them individually! Just the perfect Christmas party favour!

Dates Available for Pick up: Dec 3, Dec 11, Dec 18 and Dec 21.

A Sweet 16 Birthday

I received an email from a client over a month ago requesting a cake for her daughter's upcoming 16th birthday. She wanted something girly yet pink and fashionable. I suggested going with either polka dots or zebra print. We finally settled on the colors of pink and black with the top tier pink with black polka dots and the bottom tier pink with black zebra stripes. I added the bow with a sugarpaste brooch. We also added some whimsical pink sugarpaste roses sprinkled with black disco dust on top surrounding the 16. I also added some edible diamonds for some additional bling.
I received a lovely phone call from the mom a couple of hours after I delivered it. She said she loved the cake and thought it was absolutely beautiful. She also commented she didn't know how she was going to serve it since she felt it was too lovely to cut.

He Shoots! He Scores!

Yes, I know there what you're thinking... "what's going on, you haven't posted anything in eons?" Yes, you are right, I haven't and I have no excuses. Life was so hectic this summer with wedding cakes, plus the normal business of birthdays. This summer was the busiest it has even been. We did more wedding cakes than ever before. So, now that wedding season has died down a bit, I have been just kinda playing a bit lazy and doing the mom/wife thing. Baking for my kids, taking them to their after school functions and spending time with my hubby doing our favorite pastime - "hunting". AND, yes, I am still doing cakes, but wedding season has slowed down so I have had a bit more time to breathe.

Here was recent order we did this past week. I love when I get calls from repeat customers wanting to order again and rave about our cakes. This customer ordered cupcakes and cake for her 3 year old son's birthday. The theme was tractors and hockey. Way to go, Canucks!

Tractor cupcakes were white with strawberry filling iced in traditional buttercream. Hockey stick cupcakes were decorated with fondant hockey sticks and pucks. These were vanilla filled with Boston cream pie filling and iced in traditional buttercream.

These cupcakes featured the hockey jersey of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. One of my favorite flavours were vanilla with raspberry cheesecake filling iced in traditional buttercream.

For the birthday boy's cake, she chose a design featuring the Vancouver Canuck's logo complete with hockey puck, stick and skates. Cake flavour was red velvet (their favorite) with cream cheese filling, iced in traditional buttercream and covered in fondant.

Remember the Baby Shower Cake with the Cradle????

A while back I was asked to create this baby shower cake for a friend of my husband's. Well, I received a sweet thank you note from proud MOM and DAD.

"Thank you so much for the wonderful cake you made for Danie. It was very kind of you, alot of work must have gone into it. It looked beautiful and tasted so good!"

It's Half Over... Just a Little Bit Longer

Yup, wedding season is only half over and I still have August, September and October to go. Yes, I have wedding cakes even in October. Then a month to breathe and get ready for the Christmas rush.

RIGHT now, I am going to focus on this week, and then I'm outta here for a week off in Edmonton. When I say a "week off", it's just a week off from cak'n, but I'm going there to do my usual big FALL shopping trip and stock up on cake supplies, school stuff and do some early Christmas shopping.

Anyway, here are some of the recent cakes we have done here at JLG's.

I created this cake based on a design by a popular cake designer brought to me by the bride. Sorry, I don't know who it was. The bride opted for a 3 tier, instead of the original 4 tier design and we changed it to match her colors. My camera wasn't working properly, so Christina was kind enough to send me a picture of her wedding cake. Congratulations Christina and Tyrell!
She also sent me this lovely note:
Hi Tara! just wanted to say a huge thank you for doing such a great job on our cake! it looked amazing and everyone thought it was one of the best wedding cakes they'd ever seen.
and just so you know...all of it got eaten! I've never in my life seen a wedding cake get completely devoured. it was great!


This 3 tier square wedding cake was created this weekend. I loved the color combination of delphinuim blue and silver on this cake. The bride chose lfor her flavours: lemon cake filled with lemon curd and spice cake filled with white chocolate cream cheese.

This cake was created for a couple who were married abroad. They had a small reception when they got home and ordered this cute cake. The bride collects Mr and Mrs Potato Head stuff and asked if I could create a topper for her cake. Isn't that cute?

Lastly, we completed a cute baby shower cake for a baby girl. The client requested a "baby in a peapod" theme with polka dots. Butterflies were added as an extra touch.

Comments Anyone?

I love receiving comments on my work: both constructive and flattering. Who doesn't? However, my BLOG has been under attack by those who seem to want to write comments that contain info that I can't even comprehend to understand. Basically, the content is largely filth in my opinion. SO, I have had to change the way comments are received. If you want to leave a comment, then you must FOLLOW my BLOG.

Black Wedding Cake

I love it when the occasional bride walks through my door requesting a design that is "outside-the-box". When I met with Amanda last year, she presented me a picture of a wedding cake she liked but wanted me to use her colors: black, red and white. Her wedding dress even had black accents. So we opted for an all-black cake with white fondant stems and leaves accented with deep red roses. She chose carrot and red velvet cake for her flavours filled with white chocolate cream cheese. I absolutely loved how the cake turned out and is so far one of my favorites. Congratulations Amanda!

Wedding Cake Season is in Full Swing

Well, it's that time of year again and wedding cake season is upon us in full swing. Can't you tell from the recent lack of post's lately? Sorry!!! Anyway, here is a quick run down of some of the few we have done recently here at Just Like Gram's.

3 Tier vanilla cake filled with raspberry buttercream and covered in fondant. We added sage green ribbon and artificial calla lilies and grass. Simple, yet beautiful.

This 4 tier wedding cake was delivered to a wedding in Tumbler Ridge last weekend. Cake was covered in pale ivory fondant wrapped in brown ribbon and filled with fresh pink roses.

Cupcakes are still in demand these days as an alternative to wedding cake. The bride chose vanilla and chocolate cupcakes iced in traditional buttercream and raspberry buttercream and then each one was topped with a fuchsia gumpaste flower. The top cake was iced in ivory fondant with a simple monogram topped with fresh flowers.

It's Time to Grow Up

Just Like Gram's continues to grow. We decided that our website needed a brand new look to reflect that growth. So out with the old and in with new. We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new website. Check it out! WE LOVE IT!!!!!

It's time to step out into the BIG world now!

This week was filled with creating graduation cakes. Here are just a few of them. First one was created for a client's nephew who was into sports. He loved baseball, fishing and his favorite hockey team was the Calgary Flames. He was also the lucky recipient of a wining a full scholarship for post-secondary education. Congradulations!

Here is another cake I created for a client's daughter. She played volleyball.

We created this 4 tier square wedding cake this weekend. Bride's colors were dark blue and deep pink. Since she was having gerber daisies on top of her cake, we created gumpaste daisies to adorn the ribbon.

Black Lace and Pink Ribbon Wedding Cake

This weekend we created this 3 tier wedding cake covered in fondant wrapped with black lace and pink ribbon. Marie chose a design based on one created by Maisie Fantaisie. She wanted the top tier to be gluten-free vanilla since a member of her wedding party was sensitive to wheat with the other two tiers white velvet. All 3 cakes were filled with cream cheese and iced in Italian Meringue Buttercream and the covered in fondant.

In addition to her wedding cake, we created these wedding cake cookie favours to coordinate with her black and pink color scheme.

"I said you would make cookies for my class, MOM"

I hear this quite frequently, now that I am in the cake business. My kids have become experts in "volunteering" me to make stuff for their class parties. And, OF COURSE, it always happens when I am the busiest, RIGHT? Nevertheless, I can't turn them down, and spend late nights creating cool treats for their classes. This week was one of them. So, here they are....

My son asked for sports ball cookies and happy face cupcakes. I couldn't resist and make some flower cookies for the girls in his class too.

My daughter requested cupcakes with pink butterflies and stars with "shiny sprinkles" on them.

Just Like Gram's is going back to SCHOOL!

Yes, that's right. I am going back to school. I am going to Ontario in November to attend a 3 day class on making lifelike sugar flowers from none other then Ron Ben Israel hosted by Flour Confections. I will be learning how to make flowers such as roses, peonies, callas, etc. I am SOOOO excited about this.

You see, up here in the north and basically, western Canada, there is absolutely NOTHING in the way of additional training in the art of cake design. Everything is basically offered in Eastern Canada and in the United States. So, I have been so envious of those taking some cool classes from some of the top cake designers in the field. So, when this one came up, I said "what the heck" I AM GOING! I booked my spot in the class. NOW, I HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NOVEMBER. I don't know how I will that patient. I'm sure my family will go crazy in the meantime listening to me everyday. I'll definitely keep you posted and give you a full run-down on the class.

Green Sage Ribbon and Scrollwork Wedding Cake

I created this 3 tier square wedding cake this weekend. Sorry, I don`t know who the original designer of this cake was since the bride brought me a picture she printed off the Internet. The bride chose green sage ribbon to go around the base of each tier and a whimsical playful cake topper. Cake flavours chosen were spice with cream cheese filling and lemon with raspberry Italian Meringue buttercream. I really loved how the scrollwork turned out on this particular design.

We were excited to receive this comment from the bride:

"Thank you for making our day special with your gorgeous creation of cake. It was everything we wanted. Our guests commented repetitively how delicious the cake was as well. Thank you very much. "

Been a Bit Busy!

Yes, I know I haven't written anything for a couple of weeks now, BUT as the title says "I have been busy" lately. Now, as with most people, my life just doesn't revolve around cakes (my husband would disagree though). I help run my husband's environmental consulting business, run my business, help raise 2 kids and take care of an acreage. So with the coming of summer weather, comes with the usual yard work. Living on an acreage means for me growing a garden, 3 days mowing lawn, 1 day weed eating and weeding all my flowerbeds and all that other FUN stuff. One day I will write all about my life living on an acreage up here in northern BC, but right now it's 11:40 pm and I'm just kinda tired. So here has been just a few of the cakes we have completed here at JLG's (my short form for Just Like Gram's)...

Created this cute baby shower cake for a baby girl. Design was inspired by a cake created by Wild Cakes. Cradle was created from chocolate and all the other decorations were made from sugarpaste.


Client came to me and asked me to create a cake for her husband`s 39th birthday. Since she couldn't`t decide on a theme we decided to go with a fun and playful design yet including a clock ticking down to 40.

Ivory & Pink Butterfly Wedding Cake

This weekend we created this 3 tier square cake for Kara. Her colors were ivory and pink. She wanted a pale ivory cake wrapped with soft pink ribbon adorned with silk butterflies. The butterflies were a personal touch since Kara loves tattoos, and all her tattoos are butterflies. For flavours, Kara chose chocolate and classic white tuxedo cake filled with rich chocolate truffle filling and iced in Italian Meringue Buttercream. Congratulations Kara!

Let's Take a Walk Down Memory Lane

Back in December, I received a phone call from a former groom whose wedding cake I did 2 years ago. He phoned me to say that he was planning a surprise birthday party for his wife and if I could create a cake for her. He said that they loved their wedding cake so much (the bride cried for joy when she saw it) and if I could recreate a smaller version for her birthday. Oh my, I was so touched, plus, I LOVE it when guys phone and order cakes for their sweeties. Happy Birthday Mandy!


This week was my son's 9th birthday. Unlike my daughter who has a passion for creative things and is always asking me to make really "fancy" cakes for her birthday, my son really doesn't care. Much to my horror, he likes to pick out the cakes from the grocery store and says "I like that cake, can I have it?" So, when I asked him this year what he wanted for his birthday cake he said he wanted a picture of the movie character "BLADE" with lots of blood on it. Hmmm, okay not really what I wanted to create, but that's what he asked for so that's what he got.


I am often asked to create wedding display cakes for the bridal and florist shops here in Fort St John. Tasha from The Copper Moon Flowers and Rental asked me to create a "springy" themed pink cake for her store display. So I quickly came up with this design of pink daisies cascading down.

The beginning of another season...

Well, another wedding season is open us, it officially began this weekend. Also, it was Mother's Day too. Here are just a few of the cakes we completed here at Just Like Gram's.

These adorable cupcakes were ordered all the way from Toronto. Darcey emailed me and wanted to do something special for his mom who lives here in Fort St. John, so he ordered some of our Gourmet Filled Cupcakes. Isn't that sweet? Flavours chosen were Icy Mint Blast and Autumn Twist.

This humorous moustache cake was requested by a client for her father-in-law's 65th birthday.

The wedding season started off this year with this simple 2 tier cake adorned with white and gold ribbon.

Carnival Cake

I created this cute carnival cake for a little boy's first birthday this weekend. I had a lot of fun creating the clown from sugarpaste.

Fort St John Trade Show

Last weekend I attended Fort St John's CKNL Trade show. It is the largest trade show in the Peace area with approximately 12,000 people attending. I had a wonderful time, even though my feet were getting pretty sore from standing by the third day. We handed out over 1200 cake samples. Our booth was so busy that we ran out of cake samples hours before the show closed for the day. I just want to say a BIG "Thank you" to all those who came by and visited our booth. I really enjoyed meeting you and look forward to working with you in the future.

Here are a couple of display cakes we took to the trade show.

Baby shower cake complete with butterflies and flowers.

My favorite - Red Dragon Wedding Cake.

A Rocketship cake - perfect for a boy who is into rocketships and outer space.

What little girl would love to have a fairy castle for her birthday!

Lastly, a Hard Hat cake with custom corporate logo ideal for promoting your business.

Just Like Gram's featured on The Sugar Cove Blog

Just Like Gram's is proud to be featured on The Sugar Cove Blog Cake Shoe Diaries . Click HERE to read our feature.

Feast or Famine?

One thing about the cake business is either it's really quiet and you go for a week or so having few orders and you wonder "HUH, What's going on?" and then all of a sudden, "WHAM!" you get hit with customers ordering cakes all at once and wanting them all on the SAME day. That's just the way it is! This week at Just Like Gram's we had one of those crazy weeks. We completed 2 wedding cakes, a whimsical tilted cake and a last minute "work farewell" cake. Enjoy!

"Alice in Wonderland" theme bridal shower cake done in colors of black, red and white. Cake was decorated with sugarpaste playing cards and clock.

We received only 48 hours notice for this last minute small wedding cake. Cake was adorned with gumpaste butterflies and gumpaste purple blossoms.

Another small wedding cake created for this weekend. Simple and elegant with the dark navy blue bow and gumpaste flowers.

Another last minute cake order. We completed this cake in 48 hours too. Cake was created for a work farewell party. Springtime yellow with gumpaste butterflies and blossoms.