Chocolate Banana Pecan Bundt Cake

One of our favourite cakes to make at home is still this Banana Pecan Bundt Cake.  It is so moist and flavourful, every time we have some bananas sitting on the counter I seem to whip this up!

The other day I was also craving a bit of a chocolate fix, so I decided to dress up this easy bundt.  Some chocolate chips and a little chocolate ganache later and we had a treat that was both tasty and pretty!

Lego Groom's Cake

A couple of weeks ago two people who are very good friends with my brother tied the knot!  It was a gorgeous ceremony, and we felt so lucky to be there to support the two of them.

My brother looked pretty handsome standing next to the newlyweds in his tux too :)

August in Pictures

This August was a pretty fantastic month! Here is an iPhone summary to give you a small taste of how fabulous it really was :)

Banana Caramel Cake - I still dream about this cake 

Baby room reno's are coming along!

A Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

This past weekend a great friend of mine married her perfect guy.  The wedding was so much fun, with lots of tasty food (how can you go wrong with a Ukrainian wedding?), great friends, and an awesome reason to celebrate!

I was so honoured when they asked me to make the wedding cake and cupcakes! The wedding colour was orange, and while the bride requested vanilla and chocolate for the cupcakes, I was given free reign with the wedding cake flavours.

Zebra Birthday Cake!

This past weekend we celebrated my sister's...21st birthday! (again?)! Yay! 

She had originally requested a lemon poppyseed dessert, but then we found out that a family member was allergic to poppyseeds so the morning of her birthday I woke up and had no clue what I was going to make!

Another one of my sister's favourite desserts is strawberry shortcake, so I decided to make a vanilla cake and fill it with vanilla buttercream and strawberries to try and bring some of the flavours together.

Weddings Galore!

Despite the noticeable decrease in activity on this ol' blog of mine, I have been keeping quite busy in the kitchen this summer.  It seems like almost every weekend I end up with some sort of event or party to bake for. There have been a ton of weddings, showers (wedding and baby), stagettes, birthdays, etc etc that I have been whipping up something sweet for over the last few months. It has been a blast!

Cupcakes still seem to be a huge hit for weddings, so my cupcake pans and stand mixers have been getting quite the workout! At the end of this month I will have my biggest challenge yet, a 2 (or 3 maybe!) tier cake AND cupcakes for up to 400 guests! Oh dear, wish me luck! I think my stand mixers might to into hiding when they find that one out.

Banana Caramel Cake

Remember last week when all my husband wanted was some 'normal' food for supper? He had requested these super easy Fish Tacos, but instead I couldn't get this cake out of my head?

This cake was so good! Incredibly moist (you might want to store it in the refrigerator, not on the counter of your AC-less house like I did), tons of banana and caramel flavour, and it really classed up my counter since it turned out so pretty.

Double (Triple?) Cake

Remember the "unbirthday" cake I made last year? This year they had a slightly bigger request! A Welcome Home/Happy Birthday/Unbirthday cake! 

I made a marble cake and filled it with this amazing chocolate frosting. It was then coated in vanilla buttercream and the decorating began!

Birthday cake for a little monkey!

This past weekend one of our neighbour girls turned 1! 

A marble cake was requested, and the theme? A pink monkey cake! How fun is that?

Banana Pecan Bundt Cake

This cake. Ohhh, this cake.  


Please make this cake.


I don't know if it is the pregnant lady talking or not, but this cake is pure heaven! It is the perfect texture, and the pecans work so well with the banana flavour. This cake doesn't even need any extra adornments! I'm sure a chocolate or classic glaze poured over the top would be amazing, but maybe try this cake without those, just once.  Just so you can appreciate how perfect it is!

A Simple Baptism Cake

A couple weeks ago we attended a baptism for our friend's little boy where we were also honoured to be the Godparents! My girlfriend had asked if I could make a simple cake for the gathering afterwards so I decided to make something fitting for a little boy. 

This cake is a simple vegan vanilla bean cake that I filled with alternating layers of blue and yellow buttercream in order to match the outside of the cake.

I then covered the cake in vanilla fondant, and decorating it with some whimsical yellow, blue, and brown stripes and polka-dots. 

I really think this cake turned out cute, and judging by how fast it was disappearing I think it was just as tasty too!


Congratulations again little dude :)

Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake

Alright friends, this dessert, oohhh this dessert. It is everything it promises to be and so much more.  This is the first time I have perfectly (in my opinion) cooked a cheesecake that had no cracks AND I successfully made caramel from scratch! What a day!


The recipe I used was originally for a cheesecake more along the lines of a Turtle Cheesecake, but since we had some company with some extreme nut allergies we decided to forgo the pecans in favour of more caramel and more chocolate ganache. A pretty favourable exchange if you ask me!

A Spring Birthday Cake - a Chocolate and Coffee lover's dream!

Right before we left on our trip I received this amazing box of goodies from Joy the Baker and King Arthur Flour. When we got back, it was my mother-in-law's birthday, and I knew this would be an amazing opportunity to use these new treats, and create something that I hoped she would love!

With these goodies came a recipe from Joy for Deep Dark Mocha Cupcakes. They sounded amazing! I also had a recipe for Annie's (of Annie's Eats) Chocolate Frosting bookmarked in my inbox (I am currently on a hunt for the best chocolate frosting recipe).  Deep dark chocolate cake + coffee buttercream filling + chocolate sour cream frosting?? Oh man, this was going to be good!

iPhone Cake

I think it was only a matter of time before someone asked me to make an iPhone cake!  We recently celebrated my neighbours birthday and his wife had asked me if I could make an iPhone cake as a surprise.  She is pretty awesome, eh?


Pretty much everyone I know with an iPhone never puts it down, and this guy was no exception.  It actually took her a whole week to get a screen shot so that I could get it printed for the cake! I can't imagine the ninja-tactics she had to employ to make it happen.

A Shopper's Birthday Cake

Hello! I'm still here, I promise! We are gearing up for our big trip next week, but no worries, I have still been cooking and baking up a storm! Now all I need is some time to get to work to share all of these delicious things with you :)

This is the third pink cake that I made in as many weeks back in January, which lead to the creation of this orange-yellow ombre cake in order to introduce some colour variation into my desserts. I still love that cake!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!


I know I am supposed to be posting something pink, red, and full of hearts, but isn't something a bit different a nice change? This orange-yellow ombre cake was for my cousin/roomie's birthday this past weekend and I think it is also the perfect pretty cake to celebrate a special day with your '+ 1'.  What can get better than a cake covered in roses for Valentine's Day?


After making three pink-themed cakes in the past two weeks or so, I couldn't bring myself to make yet another cake along the same lines.  Plus, variety is the spice of life, is it not? :)

A Pink and Purple Birthday

This past weekend I was lucky enough to make a birthday cake for a beautiful little girl's 2nd birthday!  When her mom had asked her what kind of party she wanted, she replied with "pink and purple!". Now there is a little girl who has it figured out :)

Ruffled Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake

Do you have any big exciting plans for Valentine's Day? Maybe a snazzy dinner out on the town? Or maybe you have decided to have a romantic and cozy night in with your someone special?  Regardless of how you wish to spend your Valentine's day this year, I think you need this cake to be a part of your plans.

This is a 3-layer 6" round cake. Perfect for two, or to completely demolish with your family on the 14th! It is made up of three layers of Devil's Food Cake (my husband's favourite) and filled with Strawberry Buttercream and Chocolate Ganache (just like chocolate covered strawberries! yum!).  

Baby Shower Cake - Welcome Mason!

‘Tis the season for baby showers I think! After making the desserts for my friend’s baby shower a few weeks ago, I was asked to make a cake for a bouncing baby boy that has made a recent arrival.  This was another time that I was given free reign on the cake design and I wanted to try my hand at some more fondant figures.

I covered the cake in baby blue (appropriate, no?) and decorated it with green and yellow stars.  It was then topped with a bear that was made out of chocolate fondant.

The cake itself was a vanilla bean cake iced in classic vanilla buttercream. Always a crowd pleaser!

Welcome baby Mason!

Jungle Baby Shower Sweets (Vegan Sugar Cookies)

Last Saturday I attended a baby shower for one of my best friends! She is due in the middle of December, and her family decided to throw her a Jungle themed baby shower. So excited!


I was asked to do the desserts (yay!) and was given free reign with the design. The only request were "mini cupcakes (carrot cake and lemon funfetti) and ninja cookies".  The ninja cookies are kind of an inside joke, just go with it.

Oh, and everything had to be vegan. After making these sugar cookies I have to admit that this is the best sugar cookie recipe that I have come across so far. I love how they rolled out, baked up, and tasted! I am also really happy with this vegan icing (ie: no meringue powder could be used!) that I used to decorate the cookies, one batch was enough for 3 dozen of these! Since cookie decorating isn't my forte, I think I will stick with this icing recipe for now.

In addition to the cupcakes and cookies I decided to make a jungle-themed cake to highlight the main baby shower theme. It is sometimes hard display a theme with something as small as mini cupcakes and I had some fun ideas for the cake.

The cake was an 8" vanilla funfetti cake that I topped with chocolate fondant.  This was the very first time that I was able to completely cover a cake in fondant with NO rips or tears!! I happy-danced all over the kitchen over this one.  

I then rolled out two different colours of green fondant and cut it with a variety of cookie cutters. I realized quickly that I only own two different leaf cookie cutters! A maple leaf and a tiny 1" leaf.  Oops.  So I used a funky heart cookie cutter and a snowflake cookie cutter as well to add some extra shapes. Since I was going to be layering the leaves I wasn't too worried about people noticing snowflakes and hearts on the jungle cake :)

The animals were also made completely out of fondant.  I think the Elephant and the Giraffe are my favourites! My idea of Lion needs some work though... I still can't believe I was able to make something like these out of fondant.


I hope everyone enjoyed the desserts at the shower! I had an absolute blast and I CANNOT WAIT to meet this little ninja!


This cookie recipe made 3 dozen ninja cookies. The original recipes for both the cookies and the icing are from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.

Vegan Sugar Cookies

• 2 1/3 cups flour
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup margarine, room temperature
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp additional extract (could be lemon, maple, almond, more vanilla, etc. I used maple)
• 1/4 cup soy milk

1. In a large bowl whisk together the flour, corn starch, salt, and baking powder
2. In a second large bowl cream together the margarine, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy
3. Add the vanilla, other extract of choice, and the soy milk to the sugar mixture and beat well to combine
4. Add half the flour to the wet ingredients and mix well
5. Add the remaining flour and mix until a soft dough just begins to form
6. Divide the dough in half and press each half into a disk that is 1" thick
7. Wrap each disk in plastic wrap, and then place in a ziploc bag and set them in the refrigerator
8. Let the dough chill for a few hours, or overnight
9. When ready to roll the dough, preheat the oven to 350 F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper
10. Flour the counter, and then roll one disk (keeping the second disk in the refrigerator until you need it) until it is about 1/4 - 3/8" thick
11. Cut out the desired shapes and place on the prepared baking sheet
12. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes until the edges just start to turn golden brown
13. Repeat with the remaining disk of dough
14. Let cool completely before decorating
15. Enjoy!

Vegan 'Royal Icing'

• 4 cups icing sugar
• 4 tbsp soy milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• Food colouring (optional)

1. In a large bowl sift the powdered sugar until no lumps remain
2. Whisk in the soy milk and vanilla until smooth
3. Divide the icing into several bowls and dye the icing any colour you like
4. Using a pastry bag with a small round tip, or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off decorate the cookies until your heart is content
5. Let dry completely before storing (they can be stacked with layers of parchment paper between the cookies)
6. Enjoy!

I'll post the vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes and the vegan Lemon Funfetti Cupcakes recipes later this week :)