With the big holidays upon us, I decided to offer a seasonal tutorial. I tried my best to make it thorough and well-illustrated. There are numerous photos (over 60) of every step from the roof and chimney construction to the tiny details of Santa’s face.

This tutorial allows great flexibility. It can be turned into a smaller project of decorating a miniature fruitcake, for example. In this case the roof sculpting can be omitted altogether and you can only make the chimney with cheeky Santa inside. Or, if the needs are completely opposite and you need a cake to feed a crowd, then the roof can be made longer, or even steeper, the chimney can be done taller, yet Santa still will fit nicely. Demonstrated on styrofoam chimney and fondant blocks for the roof, the tutorial still covers in great detail how to sculpt the cake and adjust its size to your requirements.

I want to emphasize that if you have any questions or need an advice, I’m always here to help. These questions will be my first priority, I’ll make every effort to answer them in timely manner.

My promised earlier Thomas the Tank Engine tutorial will be available after Christmas, since I think it’s more relevant to share some new cookie recipes and sweet holiday treats with you now.

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It was a very short-notice order. A miniature 4-inch cake was intended exclusively for a birthday boy, and two dozen cupcakes decorated with easy Pokemon ball fondant cut-outs were baked for guests. I was lucky the boy’s favorite character was a tiny Piplup and not something like Reshiram, otherwise I wouldn’t have got any sleep at all.

I wish I had taken a shot of Piplup’s rear; it had a very cute behind.

Click to see Piplup’s closeup…

Remember that half-can of pumpkin puree left over after the dinner rolls were baked? Well, I turned it into the waffles, really nice ones – light and crispy, and delicate inside. Another great thing about them is that the waffle batter is mixed in advance, and there are only eggs added right before baking (while the waffle maker is preheating) - quite convenient. The waffles can be served with maple syrup and/or maple syrup-flavoured whipped cream and toasted walnuts, or with a store-bought all natural Breyers Maple Walnut ice cream – delicious!

This is a quick and the only shot I’d taken before they were all gobbled up. And the waffles definitely should be eaten as soon as they’ve been baked.

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These are very cheesy and pumpkiny yellow. The rolls are excellent slightly warm with soup, although I like them best split and turned into turkey sandwiches.

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This perfect autumn cake is a result of my makeover of an old family recipe, the one from a huge collection of Russian recipes I’m planning to publish someday one way or another.

Feather-soft cardamom-spiced honey cake, sweet caramelized succulent pears, and crunchy walnuts sure make a memorable treat. The cake becomes out-of-this-world fantastic when served slightly warm with vanilla bean and honey ice cream.

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It would have been easier for me to shape the cake as Thomas and be done with it at once, but the parents declined the idea since they were afraid that little Alex could refuse to cut the cake (he loves Thomas that much). I went with the plan B – to make the train from the gum paste as a cake topper for the boy to keep his favorite character. Although, Thomas is 100% edible.

Inside is a chocolate cake, soaked with rum syrup, and filled with dulce de leche buttercream.

For those who is interested, I’m putting together a detailed tutorial “How to make Thomas the Tank Engine”. It should be done within a month, or right after Christmas (in case I manage to produce some holiday-themed tutorial first).

Update: The Thomas the Tank Engine figure tutorial is available now.

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