Sunday, 10 April 2011

LA Pool Party

A friend of mine asked me to make a cake for their LA Pool (birthday) party. Again, it didnt quite turn out as I had initially visioned. Sometimes I over estimate what I can do (in particular the amount of time I have).

So the "stars" and "red carpet" were in line with the theme of the party. I added the figurine (loosely based on the birthday girl) and the showy-ness of LA people. Quite happy with the figurine. Stars spell out "Chagi Bear" as requested by the birthday girl.


Lessons learned:
  • Realistic. Dont under-estimate what can be achieved in a set amount of time.

Thursday, 7 April 2011

Baby thoughts

For me?! No!! A colleague was having a baby and I thought it would be cute to come up with a baby themed set of cupcakes!!

This time I actually tried to plan what I wanted to do with the decorations for the cupcakes. Whilst I was happy with the results, it was not quite what I had in mind initially.





Lessons learned:
  • not plan? It didnt quite turn out as I planned.

Sunday, 3 April 2011

The World of Figurines!!

Last year I went to my second Planet cake class. Let's just say that it opened me up to what you can really do with sugar!

It started with my first taste of figurines in class.


This gave me inspiration. And ideas. And I came up with....




I was more than happy with my little baby Seseame St friends!!

Lessons leaned:
  • Get all the colouring done first before starting the figurines
  • Keep them away from hot food!

Saturday, 26 March 2011

Cupcakes! First of many!

When I discovered the world of icing, OMG. I was amazed at what it could do!! At the time I felt that I couldn't just make cupcakes and have them all decorated really nicely... just because...

I wanted to try out my cutters and my flower-foam-setting thing (I know very technical). A simple design that looked impressive - at the time anyway.  I made these to take to work for the biggest morning tea.


Lessons learnt:
  • Need to even out the tops of cupcakes for consistency

The Portuguese Tart

This time it's Portuguese tarts. I couldn't find one anywhere so, as anyone would do, (well me really) I decided to find a recipe and make them myself. This way I could eat them whenever I wanted!

To my surprise, they were much easier to make then I thought! And the taste? OMG!!


Topped with a sprinkle of nutmeg. It really hit the spot

Lessons learnt? They're really easy to make!

Saturday, 12 March 2011

O is for... Opera Cake!

Sometimes I feel like something ( to eat that is) and I get a sudden motivation to find a recipe and make it! This was one of those moments. At the time we (ok I) was obsessed with MasterChef. I decided that the Opera cake was to be my next project.




I must admit, it looks much more impressive and complicated than it really is. Regardless, this is one of my favourites - love the flavours of coffee and chocolate come together so well. One piece is never enough!




Lessons learnt:
  • Sharp, clean hot knife when cutting the edges off
  • Layer need to be as even as possible

Friday, 11 March 2011

Camera cake

With all the photos taken of all my creations in the past 3-4 years at my disposal, I have decided to start with my Hubby's birthday cake. This was an easy choice. I would say this was the beginning of a new world for me. Prior to this I would say baking was a "once in a blue moon" thing. Hubby's into photography - which as you will see, is wonderful. I'd say he's taken photos with his macro lens of my cakes more than anything else!!



What could be a more suitable "theme" for Hubby's cake than a camera itself?
It took a few weeks of planning. Ploughing through pictures and cake ideas, I decided that I wanted to make a camera figurine on top of a cake. I initially used his current camera ( at the time) to try and get the dimensions as close to the real thing a possible. From the body, lens, details of the dials. I was making good progress until a week before the party (yes a week!!) he got himself a NEW camera. Sigh. Some features were set and couldn't be changed, but the outer details, dials, screen etc I managed to "adopt" to the upgraded version.







Because I wanted the camera to be the focus, I kept the cake fairly simple. Just wished I took more photos of it before we went to dinner! The place added a purple "tinge" to all the photos!!










Very proud of my first "proper" cake. First of many to come!








Lessons learnt:
  • Colour icing black - not "paint" it on with edible powder and alcohol.
  • Don't let Hubby upgrade his camera a week out before a party!!

No more procrastinating!!

I've been putting off adding to my blog as I wanted to put everything up in chronological  order. As good intention as I had, it has not resulted in ANY entries. As you can see. So. Out with that idea and see how things go tonite!!

Saturday, 26 February 2011

Welcome!

My first post! Hopefully everyone will enjoy seeing my updates... in the mean time, I have a lot of catching up to do!