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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - On Sunday, Liliya Smbatyan was putting an edible picture onto a child's birthday cake at Co-op.

Smbatyan is a cake stylist who has been decorating cakes at the Yellowknife Direct Co-op for four years. She does about 15-25 special orders with specific designs per day, and then about 30 cakes for their showcase.

Liliya Smbatyan shows off a birthday cake she made on Sunday, complete with a Winnie the Pooh toy and an edible picture. - Tim Edwards/NNSL photo

Smbatyan wasn't as busy on Sunday as she is usually.

"I've done eight already, and I probably have about eight more to do today," said Smbatyan.

It starts with a baked cake and a thick layer of icing. Then if a picture is requested, that will go on next.

"We have a special printer that we ordered," said Smbatyan, adding it uses special edible paper and ink to print the pictures.

Then she decorates the cake with more icing, adding frills around the sides and around the picture with whatever colours were requested.

Then Smbatyan breaks out the airbrush to finish it off.

"It's my favourite part of the job, and no one else does it in Yellowknife with an airbrush," said Smbatyan. "It's always fun, especially when we're doing designs from movies or cartoons."

A cake usually takes her about 15-20 minutes to decorate, and some small cakes take only five or 10. She said she loves her job and "every day it's something different."

Smbatyan said one of her favourite parts is seeing how excited some kids get about the cake.

"We try to make whatever the customer wants - a Mickey Mouse face, a cake shaped like a body. We always try to make it fun," she said.

The customers appreciate the extra effort.

"We always get comments like 'thank you' or 'it's beautiful,'" said Smbatyan.

The only problems they ever run into is when a customer doesn't like the colours or when the cake turns out to be not exactly to their specifications. She said this is rare, though.