Fun Cakes

So, life kind of took over for the month of May and I didn't get a chance to blog anything. Holy crap, sorry for that.

I've been working hard and have had a lot of cake requests that have taken up a lot of time, but it's been really fun too.

Our dog, Tessa, has been taking up a lot of our energy too and I'll write about that separately, soon, when I have a bit more strength to deal with it.

Anywhooo, this past week was just an avalanche of work and I had a few 7:30am to 2am days, so didn't have much time for anything other than working, eating and sleeping. There are some very exciting things happening in The Sweet Kitchen that are going to keep me chained to the ovens very soon, but it's going to be fantastic. Again, I will blog about that soon too, but I may start a different blog just for the business side of things. I just need to find the right blog designer and find the time to blog on it...

A good friend had a birthday this week and her husband requested a birthday cake with their dog's face on it. It turned out really well, but didn't get a pic as they showed up to pick it up just as I was icing it and I didn't feel I could ask them to wait some more while I set up a photo shoot. They promised to take pics and will bring them over when they can. I can't wait.

But THE BEST cake request came for a retiring biology prof at Trent U. The prof that ordered the cake asked if it would be possible to include some of the animals from the invitation to be included on the cake. Absolutely, no problem, I said and waited for the emailed images to arrive. I'm thinking a maybe something cool like wolves, bears etc. and was getting quite ahead of myself in what it was going to look like, when the email arrived. Umm, are you sure this is what you want on the cake?????? Let's just think a little smaller in terms of animals. How about a cod? How about a frog? Maybe a crayfish? And lastly, wait for it, a SEA CUCUMBER! I swear to God, I'm not going to do anymore cakes for men. It's all sports and slimy animals. How am I going to make this look good? So I put it off and I put it off and the day got closer and closer and I panicked more and more...and then inspiration hit and I started to think this was going to be really fun. And it was.


I decided to put a bit of a marsh scene with the frog, bull rushes, lily pad and water lily.


I had watched a few videos on sea cucumbers and they're not a nice looking creature, so I decided mine would be a burrowing sea cucumber and that took care of about 80% of it. He was going to be in the process of burrowing into the cake, which is kind of gross, but I figured the biologists could handle it.



Then, I decided to place the crayfish on the corner just curled over the edge of the cake.


The cod? Didn't make it. I just couldn't find a way to include it, but I think I did OK otherwise.


Then I had a request for a nice girly cake which brought everything back to normal again, YAY!

Market 2009 Begins

YYYYAAAAAYYYYYY!!!!!! The Farmer's Market is open, the Farmer's Market is OPENNNN!!! After a long winter the Lindsay Farmer's Market is open for the 2009 season (until the last weekend in October) and it was a great day.

The sun was shining, for the most part, and the turn out was solid.

Our day was a disaster from the get go. The van refused to start. At least Doug tried it before it was all loaded up, so that was the silver lining. We started loading the Echo, drove down at 5:30, unloaded and Doug left me to start setting up. An hour later the second load arrives and we maniacally throw everything together and were almost ready for 7am opening.

In our haste, Doug was unloading a container of tea in glass jars and guess what - the bottom fell out - tea, broken glass EVERYWHERE. Ugh, so let's stop and clean that up shall we?

Start to brew the coffee, nothing to open the bags with. Borrow scissors from Shirley next door and we're in business. Shirley, by the way, makes THE BEST roti and curry, flavourful hot sauces, breads (both sweet and savoury) and is a wonderful, fun person to boot! We love Shirley! Oh and she's Doug's Aunt, so I'm not just saying it because she's family, I'm saying it because it's true!


Everything's brewed, hot water ready for tea, get 1st tea order, no teabags. Now I have to make a 3rd trip home for all the other things we forgot. It was like we had never done this before - a sign of age when you can't retain information for 6 months - sad really. I could not for the life of me remember if it was 80 or 90 grams of beans per pot of coffee, so I went with 90, but I should have gone with 80 - oh well, it was early and I think extra caffeine never goes amiss.

Things settled into a familiar routine, once the day got going and it was so great to see all our "regulars" again. Lindsay really supports it's Farmer's Market, rain or shine, and we are so happy to be a part of it. The start of the market is always so full of possibilities and such a welcome sign of spring that it's hard not to be happy.(shadows of the disastrous morning faded quickly, and all was good again)

Here are some photos of some of the very best vendors you will ever encounter, and we'll give you updates as the season goes along.

These are the Van der Veens, who grow amazing potatoes and Pat makes wonderful jams, jellies and preserved veggies. Her daughter Emilee makes jewellery that helps finance her higher education - isn't that great? Helping to fund a young adults' education is a noble thing and you'll look prettier with the added bling - so do it!

This is Franklin Farm Herbals and Jill, who makes fabulous soaps and also supply The Sweet Kitchen with honey for their tea and coffee!


King's Wharf has beautiful perennials and will have native plants as the season goes on. It's a good thing to have native plants and owner Bev - is a master gardener and always willing to answer a few questions about gardening woes.


This is Doug, tending The Sweet Kitchen, while I wander around taking photos. Isn't he cute?


Sam makes great soap that'll make you not only clean, but you'll smell good too and that's always appreciated by everyone.

Since this baking and dogs, we have to add a picture of one of The Sweet Kitchen's favourite dogs - Bronson.



Isn't he awesome? He is part of the Jim and Nancy (favourite regulars of The Sweet Kitchen) family and is a Cairn Terrier mix that just overflows with personality and sweetness - until he sees a big dog and Bronson starts with the "trash talk - yo' mamma bit". Too funny!

So we look forward to seeing you this year and who knows - you may end up on the blog. If you don't live anywhere near here, find your own local Farmer's Market and support it - it's worth it - you'll meet the people who grow your food and help support your local economy which is VITAL given the current economic climate. You'll feel good about your choices and you'll meet some pretty terrific people who are passionate about what they do.