Featured last month on the Marilyn Denis Show, Sugarbuds baker Sabrina Singh presented KISS bassist Gene Simmons and fiancée Shannon Tweed with a three-tier KISS themed cake.
An array of red, orange, and grey covered the cake, which featured detailed figures of Simmons’s family and other decorations such as studs and guitars. The edible art piece was auctioned off at The Rally for Kids Gala at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel.
Sugarbuds Bakery and Cafe, situated on Old Kingston Rd, has delivered cakes to celebrities such as the family of Michael Jackson, Hugh Hefner, and the cast of The Big Bang Theory.
With a fine arts degree from Ryerson University, Singh’s creativity blossomed as a fashion and wedding photographer in Toronto. She got into the baking business as an opportunity to learn new techniques.
“I found I had a knack for it” said Singh, as she was icing sugar cookies in the Sugarbuds kitchen.
“You get to use sculpting and painting.”
With the big boom in the cake industry a few years ago, her new-found skill turned her creativity into a business.
“I’ve been doing birthday cakes and family cakes and everyone was saying I should open up a bakery … I took a chance and that’s where we are,” said Singh.
Having only taken a few formal baking classes, she learned most of her techniques on her own by reading and watching YouTube videos.
Singh’s husband, Greg Robb, grew up in Scarborough, which is why the bakery has not moved to a busier location, such as downtown Toronto.
“He took me for a drive and I saw this area and it was so amazing, so beautiful with the Rouge Valley,” said Singh.
“I just thought this is perfect, a perfect little village in the city, this is exactly what I’m looking for.”
With Halloween fast approaching, the store is preparing spooky themed pastries and cakes, including her bloody shard cupcakes.
“What they are, are sugars made to look like glass,” laughed Singh as she tried to explain the cupcake without sounding grotesque.
“They pierce the top of the cupcake with sugar blood coming out.”
She’ll also be featuring caramel apples and elaborate cakes, such as her Nightmare Before Christmas and skull cathedral-themed cakes, which she proudly displays in her store.
“The bone cathedral [cake] involves painting and sculpting and shaping – it’s a whole construction,” said Singh. “That took a few days to do.”
Everything out of the Sugarbuds kitchen is homemade. The bakery prides itself on making old-fashioned pastries few people make anymore.
For the first time at Christmas, the bakery is going to offer rum cake.
“It’s a really dense West Indian fruitcake like, ‘don’t drive if eat it’ kind of rum cake,” said Singh.
Her self-proclaimed “cool, homemade, and fun” bakery offers a variety of other foods, such as the Sugarbuds hot table, which features West Indian food, meat pies, and lasagna.