Sweet Balancing Act

Holiday Sweet Options!

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 01:27:14 +0000

Holiday Sweets for 2011

For order info, please contact Jessie Deleskie 902.270.2864

E: jessie@cocoapod.ca Web: www.cocoapod.ca

Squares:

$7.50/dozen

Brown Sugar Apricot- shortbread base, brown sugar apricot filling, tangy lemon glaze.

Twix- shortbread, creamy caramel, milk chocolate.

Turtle- shortbread, coconut, pecans, chocolate chips, caramel drizzle.

Lemon- made with fresh lemon juice, our best lemon square to date!

Peppermint Brownies- rich and dense, with fresh peppermint and dark chocolate.

Skor Bar- crushed crackers, sweet condensed milk, skor bits, vanilla bean buttercream.

Cranberry Date- traditional date squares with cranberries, fresh orange, and cinnamon.

Cookies:

$10/dozen

Royal icing decorated Christmas shaped cookies, available in vanilla sugar, chocolate, or gingerbread.

Chocolate Dipped Shortbread

Chocolate Almond Snowballs

Orange Sparkle Shortbread

Lemon Cranberry Oatcakes

Red Velvet Whoopee Pies

Pecan Caramel shortbread

Raspberry Almond Linzer cookies

Chocolate dipped Oatcakes

Biscottini, chocolate hazelnut or almond

Squares and Cookies, assorted sweet trays are now available!

Small, 10-15 ppl, $20

Medium, 15-20 ppl, $35

Large, 25-30 ppl, $50

Truffles:

$1.75 each, 6 for $9, 12 for $15

Dark Chocolate: Fleur de sel or espresso

Milk Chocolate: Toffee Amaretto, Irish Cream, or Hazelnut

White Chocolate: Macadamia Nut, or Vanilla Bean

Peppermint Patties

Pecan Caramel Clusters

Brown Sugar Salted Caramels

Chocolate Barks:

$5 for 125 g.

Cookies and Cream

Coconut Milk Chocolate

Dried Fruit and Nut

Candy Cane

Toblerone (homemade nougat)

Toffee Almond

White Chocolate Ginger Cashew

Sweet Petites:

Mini Snowflake and Mitten cookies $6/dozen

Rumballs $7.50/dozen

White Chocolate Coconut balls $7.50/dozen

Florentines $9/dozen

French Almond Macarons $10/dozen (variety of colours and flavours to match any occasion!)

Carrot Cake ‘truffles’ $10/dozen (carrot cake, pecans, cranberries, lemon cream cheese, rolled and dipped in white chocolate!)

Creamy Oreo ‘truffles’ $10/dozen (dipped in white chocolate)

Rochers $12/dozen (dark chocolate toasted almond clusters with lemon and ginger)

Cheesecake Balls, dipped in chocolate $15/dozen

Mini Lemon Tarts $15/dozen

Sweet Petites Tray:

Small $45. Medium $60. Large $75.

Assortment of fancy sweets, see above for variety!

Gift Baskets:

Small $25, comes in a fancy holiday polka dotted shopper.

Medium basket $35

Large basket $50

WOW factor basket $75

Contains a variety of lovely sweets, beautifully decorated. Or, opt for a healthier alternative, and we can fill the baskets with freshly made scones, granola bars, muffins, pannetone and oatcakes.

Panettone $6. Yeast risen sweet bread, with candied orange, aniseed, and raisins.

Light Fruit Cake $6 Candied fruit, lemon, almonds in a traditional cake base.

Gumdrop cake with lemon glaze $5

Gingerbread Scones with honey butter glaze: $12/dozen

Cranberry Cream Scones with lemon glaze: $12/dozen

Freshly baked Cinnamon Buns: $10 for 6 (or $2 each). Take and Bake: 6 for $5!

Granola Bars: $2 each

Muffins: $5 for 6 (each flavour). Choose from: pumpkin ginger, lemon berry poppyseed, apple cranberry and carrot bran.

Cakes & Cupcakes

6” $25, serves 6-8

8” $35, serves 10-12

10” $45, serves 15-20

12” $55, serves 25-30

Cupcakes $2.50 each, minimum order of 12 (min. 6 per flavour).

Mini Cupcakes $12/dozen. December pricing only!

Rudolph: Red Velvet cake, cream cheese icing, fresh raspberries & white chocolate curls.

Pucker Up! (Under the Mistletoe): Lemon buttermilk cake, fresh lemon curd, vanilla bean buttercream and raspberries (or pomegranate seeds).

Nutcracker: GF chocolate fudge cake with creamy hazelnut filling, dark chocolate ganache, and sugar snowflakes.

Hansel and Gretel: Black sticky gingerbread with lemon curd, pomegranate seeds, and cream cheese icing.

Candy Cane: Chocolate peppermint cake, dark chocolate ganache, crushed candy canes, and vanilla bean or chocolate fudge buttercream.

Salted Caramel: almond butter cake filled with creamy salted caramel, milk chocolate ganache and vanilla bean buttercream.

Winter Wonderland: chocolate sour cream cake filled with strawberry milkshake buttercream, finished with fluffy marshmallow icing.

Coconut Milk Chocolate: Coconut butter cake, creamy milk chocolate buttercream.

Irish Coffee: chocolate sour cream or vanilla bean cake with creamy Bailey’s Irish cream buttercream, and dark chocolate espresso ganache.

All lit up

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 16:11:44 +0000

When Amy emailed, and asked if I could incorporate mini lights into the design of her wedding cake, I was a little bit skeptical. I hadn’t done it before, nor had I seen a cake with lights! But, as always, I love to do something different. She was so easy going, and so easy to work with, just gave me a basic idea on what she would like, and let me work out the rest. The results: stunning. I would love to see a photo of the cake when the night grew darker, my afternoon/daylight photos look good, but I’m sure it was beautiful at night.

Amy sent me a sweet little note too:

“Hi Jessie,
We just returned yesterday from our honeymoon and I wanted to send you a quick note to say thank you so much for everything you did for our wedding.
The wedding cake was absolutely beautiful. I loved everything about it. The lights looked awesome and it tasted great. I will definitely recommend you to all of my friends.
Thank you again for doing such a great job.
All the best,
Amy

All 4 tiered were red velvet with cream cheese icing.

Autumn Air

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 17:23:28 +0000

Aahh… I love that cool, crisp air that comes when Summer turns to Fall. The lovely summery afternoons with cool evenings, making their way into sweater worthy mornings. I love the change of the seasons, particularly this one. Autumn is my favourite by far, for the temperatures, the fibres (wools, heavy cottons, chunky knitted things), the gardeners bounty, the colours. Autumn in Nova Scotia, Cape Breton as well, is so beautiful.

With Autumn, comes back to school time. It’s been a long time since this has meant much in our home, but this year CheshireCat has started a new adventure. Pre-school, but it’s full time, school hours, at the Acadian School in town- in French. He likes going. He loves the songs, he says. The kids are fun, and funny. We’re still adjusting to this new change, but so far, so good. Gnocchi has been quite happy to have the run of the house, the toys, while his brother is out.

I’ve also realized, as I always to this time of year, that I haven’t kept up with my photo posting very well! Summer is just too busy, period. Since I haven’t posted any wedding photos in a long while, I’ll start getting at them first. We’re back in full swing booking for next summer (there always seems to be a brief lull in booking, while everyone is attending weddings in the heat of the summer), so it would be nice to show some new work. Here we go:

Angela’s 3 tiered chocolate cake was finished with buttercream icing, a charcoal grey fondant trim and these beautiful feather butterflies.

Leah & Steve’s cake: A 4 tiered square cake, with a towering look! Each tier was made a layer taller, and set on an angle to create a staircase effect. A simple scroll to elongate the tiers even more, and a few large handmade sugar roses with just a brush of colour to finish it off. I love how this one turned out, it looked almost like porcelain. All 4 tiers were marbled chocolate and vanilla cake with vanilla bean buttercream.

Megan & Tyler’s 3 tiered square cake was simple and very sweet, with the tiers set on a slight angle. Finished with a pop of colour in the sugar orchids, it brings in a playfulness, without being overstated. I love it! (I didn’t get a great photo of it, unfortunately..) The flavours were: red velvet with cream cheese icing, and vanilla cake with vanilla bean buttercream. We also did some mini oatcakes, as favour bags for their guests.

Lisa’s cake was a lovely 3 tiered buttercream finished cake, finished with brightly coloured gerbera daisies. Gerbs are so cheerful, no wonder they are so popular for weddings! The flavours for the cake were: vanilla/vanilla bean for the top (for her husband, not an adventurist foodie : ) and chocolate sour cream cake with fresh strawberries and cream cheese icing.

Ashley’s wedding was LAST summer, but I just came across the photos recently, and wanted to share. This 3 tiered vanilla bean cake was decorated with loads of lush tropical flowers, orchids, roses, stargazer lilies… and was such a showstopper. The leafy detail piped onto the sides adds to the tropical feel, just by adding texture. LOVE this one (as did she)!

Boy, oh Boy!

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 17:08:23 +0000

Yesterday, I swept my floors 8 times. Seriously. 8 times! And not because, I felt like it- because I NEEDED to. Every time we eat, or DO anything, the floors are covered with whatever it is that we were eating or doing. (That’s also not counting the spills that needed to be mopped up- Gnocchi’s thinks when he is finished with his drink, the best place for it is the floor. So he can splash in it. When will I learn not to give him open cups??) We were playing with some foamie people stickers the other day, it’s a good activity- I do the hair and face on the person, and CheshireCat plays shopkeeper, giving them clothes ( his prices are high, but if one of the people only has a dollar, they can still get a new outfit). Gnocchi then takes all the dressed characters and tears everything off of them- hair, clothes, limbs… well, at least it’s a quiet activity that can occupy almost an hour. It was great, until I tried to clean the hundreds of foamies, and their paper backings from the floor. Those stickers do not easily come off. Now we’re left with multicoloured sticker remnants all over the livingroom floor. Well, you win some, you lose some.

Today, I’ve gathered together some photos of boyish cakes, in celebration of all things boy! Here they are:

The first are photos Lindsey sent of Finley’s First birthday party. I love the frog theme she chose! The cake was vanilla bean with vanilla bean buttercream, and the cupcakes were a mix of chocolate & vanilla with chocolate fudge & vanilla bean buttercream. They are some of my favourite people to see at the market each Saturday, and though they’ve picked up lots of cupcakes, I’m sure that this was Finley’s first taste. He’d been eyeing the cupcakes since about 6 months. ADORABLE!

The next are from Tara & JR’s baby shower! Chocolate and Vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream, and a vanilla bean cake topper.

Luke’s first birthday cake was also vanilla bean with vanilla bean buttercream. A sweet monkey face, polka dots, and matching chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

Parker’s first birthday and Sean’s second birthday cakes, both construction themed in boyish colours. (I started out this blog post with lots of time, but now I’ve run out- I had a few blurbs to share, but times up for today!! : ) I’ll also have to sort out the layout later..

A Sweet Baby Shower

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:02:29 +0000

In May, a friend of mine had her third baby. Everyone was so excited, it was her first girl! We threw a baby shower for her, just a casual get together/pot luck. Lisa, from Annfield Manor was the host, she and a few of the girls did the decorating. It was the first chance I had to meet baby Penelope, at 3 weeks old. Oh my. I love a new baby (ok, any baby, doesn’t matter the age!). I was happy to bring along some sweets for the happy occasion, a cake, some cupcakes, and cookies to match the colour palette. It was a lovely evening, as is always the case with this group of Moms.

Photo credits go to Marilyn- the proud Mama of (now) 3!

Baby Cookie Mania!

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 22:34:09 +0000

This week, I think I’ll dedicate my posts to baby themed sweets. I have been kept quite busy making cakes and sweets for baby showers, baptisms, and first birthdays… and mostly for girls! 2011 has been the year of the female baby- at least in the babies around me!

I’ll start the week off with some baby themed sugar cookies… some trains, flowers, onesies (my favourite to do!), and sweet hearts with baby prints.

Amber & Malcolm

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 16:21:10 +0000

Amber & Malcolm got married a few weeks ago, at the Inverary Resort in Baddeck, NS. It ‘s a beautiful location for a wedding, tucked away at the edge of town by the Bras d’Or lakes, and the service is top notch. I cater quite a number of weddings there each summer.

I always like to do a cake that shows a little fun, and personality. This 4 tiered, off set layered square cake has a little bit of whimsy, but the topper says it all. Their adorable bobble headed toppers were so cute- and really looked like them! Before I left to go home, one toppled off from the top of the cake(a little bit top heavy!), so I had to place them around the base of the cake, but still cute.

The flavours were: Red Velvet with white chocolate buttercream and fresh raspberries & Marbled Chocolate and Vanilla cake with cookies & cream buttercream.

Black, White, & Red. Classic!

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:38:38 +0000

Black and white will always be a classic choice for wedding colours. It’s easy to find ideas, to match the colours, and you can add in any other colour as an accent. Hot pink and red seem to be the hottest choices right now, but sunny shades of blue, green, and the ever popular purple are not far behind!

I’ve made a few wedding cakes lately with the black and white colour scheme. Here are a few to share:

Lynn & Mark’s 3 tiered cake, with a black floral pattern on white fondant. The red really pops on this cake! The flavour: Snickers! Chocolate sour cream cake, with vanilla bean buttercream, creamy salted caramel, dark chocolate ganache, and salted peanuts.

Lisa & Jim’s cake was a very simple 3 tiered square, white with black ribbon trim. This is one of the most requested wedding cakes, I think because of it’s simplicity. Red roses off set on the top add just a touch of colour. The flavour: Marbled chocolate and vanilla cake, with cookies & cream buttercream.

Tara’s cake, adorned with black and clear crystals to match the monogram topper. The flavour: Banana Split. Banana cake, with cream cheese icing, and fresh strawberries.

Shauna & Colin. Cheerful gerbs add a pop of colour to this cake. The flavours were all based on a chocolate, vanilla, strawberry combination- to take advantage of the fresh summer strawberries. The top was marble with chocolate fudge icing, middle neopolitan cake (pink, white, and chocolate layers) with vanilla bean buttercream, and the bottom was chocolate with cream cheese icing and fresh berries.

And an anniversary cake, just because it matches the colour scheme too! The flavours: Red velvet cake with cream cheese icing, and vanilla bean with fresh strawberries, and vanilla bean buttercream.

95th Birthday!

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 01:24:43 +0000

In June, I made a very special birthday cake. It was for Tuney, who was turning 95. What a …. well, what a feat! What a wonderful reason to celebrate! 95 years. Tuney sounds like an amazing woman, still lives in the home she’s always lived in, alone. No indoor bathroom, and probably has one of the few ‘party lines’ left in Nova Scotia. Her niece was telling me stories while she was here to order the cake, I probably could have kept her here all day listening. ”Nothing gets tossed in the garbage” she said, “unless it’s really got no use left- she’s probably the original recycler! When a pair of panty hose gets to the point where it has too many runs in it to wear (and it’s really got to have a lot!), Tuney will cut off the legs, sew up the openings and use the bum part as a hair net.” Genius.

Here’s a few photos of the cake:

Each tier was a different flavour, “blueberry cheesecake” for one (vanilla bean cake with cream cheese icing and blueberry compote), chocolate hazelnut, and vanilla bean with fresh strawberries. I did a little bit of Tuney in each of the accents, some Cape Breton tartan, fiddle and music notes, snowshoes, an outhouse, black & white tv with rabbit ears (not that she watches a lot of television), a hot water bottle, and a pair of rubber boots (holes in the toes, just as she has now). Happy Birthday Tuney, I hope you enjoyed your celebration!

Mari & Sean

thecocoapodsweetcatering — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:58:54 +0000

I’ve been going through my photos from last summer lately, and have found a number of cakes that I had meant to post- and didn’t! This one, is from Mari & Sean’s wedding. Mari is from Japan, and wanted the cake to show off the simplicity and elegance of Japanese style. She brought a photo of a cake with her, which was the same layout as this cake, but with barren twigs and branches, it looked so winter. We brought this one into summer with some sparse greenery, which turned out lovely. As far as I remember, it was a Coconut cake, with a coconut & lime meringue buttercream.

Mari had also asked me to make some birthday cupcakes for her friend, who was going to perform some traditional Japanese drumming at the wedding. I’ll include a photo, in case you’re reading, Mari! The cupcakes went missing in the busy weekend, and never made it to her friend!