Closed for vacation

Flour Confections will be closed for holidays from October 17th until October 26th. All emails and phone calls will be addressed upon my return.

Sweet Sites Down Under

I love cake as an art form. That is the reason why I started doing what I do...because I could express myself artistically.
I also love to view cake art at its best - so I'm constantly searching the web to find fabulous artists doing what they do best.
I thought it would be nice to highlight some of my favourites. Every now and again I will post the websites of some of my favourite cake artists from around the globe. You may notice that I keep saying "cake artists" versus "cake decorators"....the reason is simple - because this is an art form - these people take cake and turn it into an edible sculpture that is the highlight of any event. We don't see cake as "cake" - a mixture of flour, eggs, sugar, etc...we see it as a blank canvas upon which we can express the desires and dreams of our clients. The cakes and the artists that I will be featuring are not ones that you would find at your local grocery store.
I hope you enjoy viewing these sites as much as I do.

For my first post in my section entitled Sweet Sites, I will be highlighting some of my favourites from Australia. The Aussies have a unique style which I adore! The lines are crisp, the workmanship is flawless, and they often express a sense of humour in the designs. I have become fortunate to become friends with many cake artists around the world, including some Aussies.

First off is Planet Cake When and if I can ever get to visit Australia, I will not miss out on a chance of visiting Planet Cake - their style and workmanship is above and beyond WOW! I love their signature Funky Couples and the Off Kilter style cakes are beyond amazing!

Next is Sweet Art Again a great sense of style and whimsy....their carved cakes and couture cakes are amazing, and I love their signature wrapped cakes.

Another favourite and a dear friend is Cakes By Francesca Fran does the most amazing sugar flowers, her workmanship is flawless, her designs are fabulous - so much so that she made such an impression on the folks of Planet Cake that she will soon be teaching with them!

And yet another favourite and dear friend is Natis Cakes Natis luscious cupcakes and mouth watering mud cake flavours are just some of the reasons why she's a favourite Down Under!

For amazing cupcakes look no further than Le Cupcake Amazing designs, custom made stands, fabulous photography - cupcakes at their finest!

Faye Cahill Cake Designs just makes your mouth water the moment you open the home page! Look at that cake!!! mmmmmm luscious! Go further and you'll see some very imaginative designs beautifully executed!

For beautifully done modern cakes with a twist, visit Cake Stories A gorgeous site - clean and stylish.

Back from Tulsa OK!

OMG what a trip! The 20 hr drive to Tulsa and the 20 hr drive back just about did me and my friend Karey of Kake Kreations in! Wish this competition was closer! But it's so worth it....the experience, the talent, the opportunities....all worth the drive!

Not withstanding plenty of drama on both the way down and the way back....we managed to make it and not only that...but we both placed in our given divisions.

This year I entered a few of the divisionals and also the Grand Wedding Cake Competition - the mother of all wedding cake competitions! It is judged by 4 separate judges on a 100 point system. After all the cakes were judged, a Grand Champion, 1st Runner up, 2nd Runner up, 3rd Runner up, 4th Runner up and Honourable Mention to the 5th Runner up are chosen. The remaining cakes will either receive a Gold, Silver, Bronze or Certificate of Merit based upon their given scores. Gold = 90 or above, Silver = 75-89, Bronze = 65-74.

I had the privilege to witness first hand my good friend Rebecca Sutterby of Sugar Creations win the whole thing and take the title of Grand Champion for her GORGEOUS Western Innocence cake. I'm so proud of her! Her cake was beyond outstanding and it's a well deserved win.

I was also lucky to place 1st for my Master's Confections entry of the Flower Fairy cookies, my Canada Day Holiday cake took 2nd and my Mucha inspired Summer cake took 3rd. My 6 year old daughter Isabella also sent in an entry - her little mermaid cake took 2nd place in the Junior under 7 category!

My wedding cake entry inspired by Coco Chanel and her love for the camellia flower placed Silver in the Grand Wedding Cake Competition - just 1.5 points shy of Gold too!! This news was beyond surprising since I had my share of tragedy with this cake! On the drive down there was a mishap causing the cake to fall over and some of the flowers became damaged....I repaired what I could in the room only to get to the show and as a result of a bump from a spectator, dropped my box containing my cake and more damage occurred! At that point it was simply to put on a brave face and accept it, move and and learn for the next year. So any award after that is simply "icing on the cake"! The biggest thrill was hearing that Brides magazine's Wedding Style Director Maria McBride was there to chose her top 10 cakes to be featured in the upcoming 75th anniversary of the magazine! And after all my cake went through, it made that top 10 (well actually she chose 14 because she loved that many of them)! So now my cake is to be en route to New York City to be photographed for possible inclusion in the 2009 Brides issue! OMG that was a thrill beyond all thrills!

Here are some pictures of all of my entries - the wedding cake photos are courtesy of my dear friend Becky Willard from Kansas.

Going to Oklahoma!

Well I'm off for my long drive in a car packed to the brim! My wedding cake competition entry is complete, less a few elements that must be applied on site. The other entries I managed to complete are for the divisionals in the categories of : cookies, summer cakes and holiday cakes. I never managed to finish any others that I had planned on creating. Here's a teaser for you to enjoy until I post the completed entry!

Suffice it to say that Flour Confections will be closed from Thursday September 25th until Tuesday September 30th. All calls and emails will be addressed upon my return.

Thank you from Shantell & David

I had to post these gorgeous pictures from Shantell & David's wedding in August!

"Lisa, Thank you so much for the amazing cupcake tower and topper. The cake was such a great extension of the vision we had for our wedding day! Your designs are beautiful and everyone loved the lemon and raspberry butter cream flavours"

Shantell and David, August 9th, 2008

Photos courtesy of Darren Scala Photography

10 more days!!!

10 more days until I'm to be in Tulsa Oklahoma for the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show! I will be competing again not only in the Sugar Art Show but this year I'm going to enter The Grand National Wedding Cake Competition!!! This is the wedding cake competition!
So needless to say I've been working away on my entries trying to get them all perfect before I'm scheduled to leave, not to mention I still have weddings as well.
For more information about the show visit the Oklahoma State Sugar Artists website.
I will be sure to post my entries and details about my experience when I return....wish me luck!

Calling all 2009 Brides!

If you are planning a wedding for 2009, then be sure to come out to the Ajax/Pickering Fall Wedding Show this Sunday September 14th at the Ajax Convention Centre.

Here you will be able to meet many fabulous vendors from the region - including me!

Be sure to come by booth #14 where you'll be able to see my work, taste my creations and talk one on one about your dream wedding cake.

For more information please visit:

Durhamweddingsource.com