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.

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.

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.

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.

"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!!!

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.