Home Economics

Thanksgiving 2009: the tradition continues. The meat cake tradition, that is (check out the inaugural cake here). This season, I went for a nice, big, glazed ham. Here is my recipe:

Step 1.
bake six red velvet cakes (always a crowd pleaser).

Step 2.
Stack ‘em, and stack ‘em high.

Step 3.
Cut into the shape of a large ham. Start getting the buttercream on there.

Step 4
Smooth out the ‘face’ of the skin. Insert a large marshmallow to act as the ham bone (if you think about it hard, this act is an act of ‘completing the circle’… in a really twisted reality). Add appropriate texture and white, ah, ’stuff’….

Step 5
add ‘outer’ skin texture to remaining body of ham

Step 6.
Don’t forget the cloves!!

Step 7.
Next, glaze the beast with melted caramel

Step 8.
Finish the ham with classic maraschino cherries as a garnish

The ham was a real crowd pleaser. As the tradition calls for, I carved slices for all.

…is a fabulous kids book illustrated and written by multi-talented Lisa Cinar. I was fortunate enough to collaborate with her on making a cake to celebrate the book launch! We did a cake shaped like the book’s main character, Mr. Tadaa. How can this guy not make you smile?

The launch, and the book (which went on to win a prestigious award!), were a big hit, although it was sad to cut up Mr. Tadaa and see him go! He went down OK, though

A while back, the lovely and talented Rebecca Chaperon had an opening at Little Mountain Gallery in the Vancouver neighborhood Mount Pleasant, and I had the pleasure of making a cake to celebrate the opening night. I went out of my comfort zone – and made something pretty for once. The feature image on the cake is a reproduction of one of Ms. Chaperon’s drawings, and the hand-piped detailing around the perimeter is of a pattern borrowed from the background of one of her works.

one of the most exciting design features of this cake was reserved for once it was cut…………..

The best store in Vancouver is The Regional Assembly of Text on Main Street. Go now.

Every August, they throw an anniversary party for their store. Since moving to Vancouver and meeting the lovely ladies that run the Assembly, I have had the pleasure of making their annual anniversary cake. For their 3rd anniversary, I made a classic Smith-Corona mint green typewriter:

………with Smartie keys

……and their coat of arms inscribed on the back

the cake was true-to-life scale of a real typewriter, allowing for good times photo-ops…..

The successful ladies cut their cake….

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.

It has become tradition for me to attend a Thanksgiving potluck that is held every year in a Vancouver house I once lived in. It’s one of the best events of the year – so much good food, good music and good people. It has also become a tradition that as my potluck contribution, I bring a cake shaped and decorated as some type of meat. This tradition started because my dear friend and hostess is a vegetarian, and is having none of the traditional big meat-type centerpiece for the dinner. So I make one out of sugar to fill the void. and making meat-cakes is really a good time. This is the first one in the series – a traditional turkey:

one of the most exciting elements of this cake for me was the use of materials, or “content” if you will. I used chocolate cake for the dark meat and pecan cake for the light meat (perfect for that greyish turkey meat colour). Then I made a stuffing compote out of a selection of chocolates, candy, cherries and marshmallows. For the finishing touches, I used popcorn for the drumstick ends and glazed the skin with caramel sauce.

…also with this cake, the act of cutting it was performative in itself: the moment of “carving the bird”. Each guest was individually served and asked if they preferred light or dark meat, and whether they would like skin ands a side of stuffing. A true holiday meal.

During the day, I work at a gallery in Vancouver. Recently, one of the most wonderful and loved staff members announced that she was retiring, after 14 years of service! Obviously, the most extreme cake was in order for her retirement party. The design: a replica of the building everyone works in. On the front of the building, there is always a huge banner advertising the current exhibitions. On the cake, this banner would bear the “happy retirement” exclamation.

Here’s what I did, step by step:

1. baked many, many marble swirl cakes (get it?)

2. Stacked ‘em up

and up

and UP

and a little more

that should do it.

3. iced it

4. paid attention to the details…

…..details…….

…..details…….

…..details…….

…..details…….

…..details…….

…..details…….

…..details…….

…..and a few final touches

5. finished the cake by adding the Happy Retirement banner. Also garnished with paper cut-out speech bubbles with messages from co-workers coming out of the windows they work in

6. and finally, for the best part: cutting up the workplace!