Saturday, December 4, 2010

I WON!!! The 2010 Gingerbread House Championship at Upper Canada Village

This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending & entering the competition at Upper Canada Village. What a hoot!!!  I took home the grand prize of $1500 & a weekend away at The Guest House Cabin with fabulous food from Willard's Hotel, The Antiques Tearoom and Upper Canada Cookhouse plus 18 holes of golf with a cart at Upper Canada Golf Course. What a thrill! I can't wait to enjoy this weekend away!
Oh yes and most importantly Bragging Rights!!! LOL

Here is my Grand Prize winning piece.






















































Here are the pictures I do have of the entry houses from the competition.

1st Place
2nd Place






















3rd Place



















Here is my friend Lorrie Gauthier's of  Eat Dessert First entry.
Her Hansel & Gretal cottage had this amazing poured sugar bay window in front with this perfectly laid out roof top. And I love the little green army men piled up to make a tree!!!


This one mesmerized me.
I love the roof line & the candy lights glittered with the Christmas lights. I would love a cabin like this!
This here was a miniature house. The skater on the pond was 3/4 of an inch tall at best. The whole house might have been 10 inches long.




















Friday, November 5, 2010

Why I don't do Bridal Shows

I came across a blog post that explains a lot of how I feel. There are many more reasons but I thought this article was just so well written I had to share. And yes I did add a comment at the end of this post. That I am attaching here as well.

Life in Weddings (click Life in Weddings to read blog)

THANK YOU!!! Shayna Walker & Kara Buntin for this post. I am so hoping more show operators read this. I too have given up presenting at shows. Not that I have ever done a huge show as the costs involved are extremely prohibitive in my area ($1500+ just for space). I never did progress beyond the smaller more intimate shows where there was only one professional participant from each speciality niche allowed. I loved doing these shows. However there is one more consideration slightly touched on here that needs to be expanded upon. This is the time/income lost to actually take that week off to accomplish the display cakes and attend the show. For myself, when I add up the cost, $1500 for space, $500(approx.) for booth display, $500 in product for 2000 people AND $1000-$1500 to lost revenue, this $4000 out of pocket is the reason I won't do these shows. This is $4000 that can go towards direct marketing with bridal magazines or internet advertising that is in circulation much longer than one weekend. In fact that could be up to 4 years worth of ads for the cost of one show. Again thank you for this posting, I wish more people understood.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Canadian Cake Decorators Guild

NEW OTTAWA CHAPTER
Why not check it out!

 
The Ottawa Chapter will be having their first CCDG meeting on Tuesday November 23 at 7:30 pm.
The meeting will be held at 617 Bank St. (The Flour Shoppe).
This first meeting will be an "open house" so all members are invited. After the first meeting you will need to be a privileged member to attend.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Capitol Cupcake Camp

SUGAR HIGH!!!
What a great day over $6000 was raised for for Women Alive and Youth Services by Ottawa's Capitol Cupcake Camp
I took a million pics ... ok not a million but I'm still up at past 2am posting pictures mostly cause I'm still so full of sugar I can hear my veins screaming for a chelation LOL.

So I have different categories of pictures I took: the cupcakes themselves, bakers, volunteers, judges, eaters/crowds. Hopefully I will post them in that order.

First is my cupcakes. Been so busy that there was no time for fancy decorating :~( They were gone in a flash, I had some folks come back for seconds and one lovely lady told me they were the best cupcakes she had ever tasted.... my newest bestest friend ever LOL. Was awesome to see couples that I have previously done their weddings and my blogger friend Smoothie and her hubby!!





















My stash of goodies to try

Okay now here comes the sugar load of cupcake pics in not particular order.




































Some of the very happy bakers whom without this event would....have no cupcakes !!












Do you not love this business logo tunic?

Some pretty boxes were floating around.

Volunteers were easy to spot in these pretty pink Tees.

No volunteers, no event. They had things running just peachy all the time, THANKS!



The judges doing their thing...... I know I could not have done it!!!


The event sold out. There were lots of people.





I found them parked on the floor eating.

Priceless!!!

And then I made a point of Meeting Ottawa's Premier Executive Chef of The NAC I know I'm a camera hound but I love to meet people with the same type of passion for what they do, that I have for cake!!!

I think a great time was had by all and I can't wait for next years event!!!