Poppa's 90th Birthday

We went interstate to see my family and celebrate my grandfather's 90th. I thought it would be cool to do a 3D car cake, as Poppa has always had a Mercedes, but without all of my tools, hardly any time, and 2 babies - I just settled on an icing 'picture'. Mum baked the cake, and we just bought a tub of ready made icing, then stuck the pic on. I only started it a few hours before the party, so it was a rush job.

Poppa's current Merc



The icing pic

Chocolicious 21st Cake

White chocolate mud cake - white chocolate ganache - white chocolate shavings - dark chocolate letters, roses and leaves.

I was really pleased with how it turned out - I just hope it tasted ok!

My fourth 'Customer'!

For this cake, I wasn't asked for any sort in particular, we just threw some ideas around and this is what I came up with. I had fun decorating this cake, but didn't allow myself much time and was in a panic all morning - finished *just* in time! LOL It is for a man's 70th Birthday. I like it, but worry it might be too boring, or not 'manly' enough - I hope they like it!

My third 'Customer'!

This time I was asked to make a Barbie cake - I was SO looking forward to making this cake... My first - and LAST Barbie cake LOL! I had trouble with the fondant tearing and ended up having to put another layer of icing on - so it will be icing with a little bit of cake hahahaha! But - apart from the fondant - it was fun to make - and I think it looks ok. I hope the special little girl loves her Cinderella cake! :)

Just realised how bad the quality of those photos are - combination of bad lighting, using our old dig camera, and resizing in a program I don't normally use. Sorry guys!

Craving Cupcakes! Updated!

Sooo yummy. Used a new piping tip - the icing was a bit soft, so didn't hold up very well - but I love the look IYKWIM



Updated - with frangipani:

First attempt at a person...

Well, a 1/3 of a person! Ray thinks it looks like a boy in a pink top - I have to agree hahaha. I don't have the right tool to do hair, and didn't layer it very well - maybe if the hair was longer, it would look more girly? I think the features should also be larger. I just wanted to try making a head, but had nowhere to sit it, so grabbed some scrap icing and made a bit of a torso and arms.



I have 2 cakes this weekend - looking forward to it! :)

More fun with fondant!

Not 100% happy with these - especially the dog! But still think they are cute - will know how to improve them next time.

Teddy Bear



Next to a $2 coin to show size



Duck



Bumble bee



Puppy



Piggy



Check out the tail!



All together



Using the right tools makes a huge difference with decorating - this rose is much better - I just made it up with leftover fondant, so not a good colour, and probably not enough petals!

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

Thought I would make a cake for our special day tomorrow (4/10). I was a 'make it up as I go' cake. I had originally wanted to make a bit of a copy of our Wedding cake, but wanted to do a tiered cake, so went with something totally different! My writing is terrible, but didn't bother fixing it since it was just for us LOL. I think it's pretty cute, and not too bad for my first attempt at this sort of cake.

My second 'customer'!

This time I was asked to make some sort of soccer cake! I am pretty happy with how it turned out - my first cake decorated with buttercream! I just hope the Birthday boy likes it!





That soccer ball was soooo hard to decorate! Maybe I'm crazy, but I just couldn't figure out the pattern LOL.

Fun with Fondant!

Just wanted to do something today - I can't wait until October - I have a few orders in next month! Yay! So just did a little flower, and that little yellow and black blob is supposed to be a bee! hahaha. There is a reason I have posted a blurry pic - the bee is terrible! I was going to make black fondant, but ended up just using some gel - terrible stuff to use! So here it is - just needs a cupcake to go on!

My first 'customer'!

I was asked to do a Wests Tigers NRL Jersey cake! Ok, so it isn't exactly like the real jersey LOL But I am hoping the man the cake is for, can recognise what it is LOL

I had a few problems with the fondant, but it turned out ok in the end!

Would be great Wedding cakes!

Made this today - it is about the size of a cupcake, but is a round cut from a cake. I put a bit of a design in the fondant, then a butterfly on top with some gold shimmer. Was a real quick rough job, but still looks pretty cute. I think these would be gorgeous as wedding cakes, but with a flower on top instead.

Buttercream rose & Mum Cake

I tried a new buttercream recipe today - it was wayyy too buttery for me, but it was nice and stiff - great for piping roses! I did have trouble getting the icing to sit on the flower nail though - maybe too stiff?

My first try at piping a rose - ok, but could be much better!



Then later on I made another fondant rose - only bigger. I thought, what am I going to do with this now? So I made a cake LOL. I tried another buttercream recipe, but it was too soft to pipe! So I thought I would try icing the cake with it instead of fondant. For something different, I cut 2 circles out of the cake with a scone cutter, and layered them to make a small, but tall cake. Once finished, it looked too plain, so I put a little banner at the bottom with Mum on it, as it's Mums Birthday today. Trouble is - she lives 600+kms away LOL Ahhh I'll just send her a photo and tell her how yummy it was bwahahaha.

My first fondant rose!

It could be better, but pretty happy with my first attempt at a rose!



Here it is on a mini cupcake:

A quick treat to have with a cuppa!

I felt like something sweet tonight, and we don't have any lollies in the house (trying to diet! HA!). So threw these together, and thought I would show you how quick and easy they are. They are called Palmiers - if you would like exact measurements/times, let me know! But it's basically frozen puff pastry sheet, melted butter and demerara sugar.

Get out a sheet of puff pastry and let defrost for 5-10 minutes. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle with demerara sugar.



Then fold up like this:







I then added some more butter and sugar between the last fold, and on the top - can't hurt...right? Then slice into pieces around 1cm wide:



Place them on a tray, then into a moderate oven until golden. I lift them off the tray straight away so they don't stick, and place onto cake rack. Enjoy!!



They don't store very well - they go soft, so you had better eat them all in one sitting, while they are still crispy... bwahahaha!

Look! Isn't it beautiful!

My old mixer died about a year ago, and have just been using a small hand mixer *cry*. So a week before Ray's party, I started my begging, and my cheeky "but I won't be able to whip cream without a bench mixer" (bwahahaha DH lurves cream). He replied with "well you had better get one" awwww he is too good to me! So I got one ordered in, and the lovely saleswoman did all she could, and got it for me just in time - the day before the party!

It got quite a workout on it's first day! It isn't a Kitchenaid, but very similar. I love it!

Can I bake you a cake?

I posted on Essential Baby yesterday, asking whether I could bake someone a cake - I enjoy it, and would like to see what I can make. I already have a few girls asking for cakes - so exciting! So hopefully within the next couple of weeks I will have another cake on here! Woohoo!

Was also thinking of making DH a Father's Day cake - will see how I go - have to come up with an idea first!

Close ups of the other goodies!

If you would like any recipes, just leave a comment to let me know which one you would like!

Caramel tarts - the tins I used were too big, so for the next party I used a different tin and they were perfect, but I don't have a pic!



I have never made a cheesecake before, but Ray loves them so tried out a recipe I found on the net - from the comments I got - they were 'nice'. I don't like cheesecake so can't comment myself!



Brownies - yummmmmo:



'Rocky road':



Trifles - I thought I would make single serve trifles, and they turned out really well!



Mini pavlovas - I'm afraid there were none leftover! *sigh*



Honey joys:



There were other things I didn't get photos of, including the white spider chocolates.

Oh, and I am not a photographer, so no fancy shmancy photos - just point and shoot - I wish I could take better pics!

My 3rd cake - Charlotte's 2nd Birthday

Hi-5 Hand Cake - Charlotte is obsessed with Hi-5! I used a template for the hand, but cut out the Hi-5 freehand, that's why it's a bit dodgy:



Inside:



Jup Jup cupcakes - there is a reason I only made 6! These took forever!



On a stand with other cupcakes - the green icing was mint and the purple was strawberry:



All together - minus some jup jups:



Other goodies - we have mostly adults at the party: