Gumpaste Roses II

Greta's Birthday Cake

My new sets of flower cutters - roses, ranunculus & peonies arrived not too long ago so I've been busy playing with my new toys.

I've tested out the ranunculus and rose set and really love the cutters! My next exercise is to try out the peony cutters with another gumpaste recipe I found. It's a really good gumpaste recipe - well, it works well for me. When I'm done using up all the gumpaste from this batch I have made I will try the next batch of gumpaste with egg white powder instead of fresh egg whites - I always have a dilemma with what I will do with the egg yolks and really hate wasting. I have tried making creme brulee with the egg yolks but it hasn't turned out well so I've decided to just pay the experts to make it for me to enjoy.

I made the cake for Greta's birthday today and used the roses I had made. The cake turned out to be almost a disaster as I had mixed vodka into the shimmer to paint onto the cake. The only problem was that the lustre was not the shade I thought it would be AND it was uneven all over the cake. I tried to save the cake in vain by using a puffer brush to dust the cake with just the lustre after the 'paint' had dried but it did not save the cake. I have another cake on 'standby' so guess what I'll be doing this weekend?!

Enjoy!

Buttercream Ruffles

I made this cake for my friend Jean since it was her birthday last weekend. I have to be honest and say that I didn't want to make a cake covered in fondant for her since she does them so beautifully herself anyway.

I got the idea of using the petal tip to create the ruffle look on the cake from Google Images. It's a really simple technique and it's so quick to do! Here is a video tutorial I found on YouTube if you would like to give it a go.

The cake is caramel mud and covered in salted caramel buttercream. It was a tiny 4" cake but by the time I had added the ruffles on . I don't know if she liked salted caramel but it was a recipe I had come across and thought it would be worth a try. The only thing I'd change would be the cake - I would make it a lighter cake rather than a mud cake.

This is getting me all hungry now.

Enjoy!

Gumpaste Roses

Jumbo Rose No. 1

Jumbo Rose No. 2

Side by side

Who would have thought! Another post on gumpaste flowers.

I'm on this little mission now to practice or have a go at making different types of gumpaste flowers. How I wish I could pack my bags and hop across the ditch to learn from Greg Cleary or fly all the way to California to learn from Jacqueline Butler. Then there's also Paddi Clark in the UK. Ok - I know, the list can go on and I know that I will not be travelling anywhere so I'll just be doing some self-teaching.

After dusting off the tools, I made 2 jumbo gumpaste roses this week. They are about 11 cm wide and fits nicely into the teacups I have at home. The first one I made should have been thrown into the bin but I thought I'd take some pictures first. The second jumbo rose looked better but I know there is still a fair way to go before it's pretty enough for me. I've got plenty of homemade gumpaste left so I'll just have another go at making another jumbo rose before I move onto my next flower.

My next flower - a magnolia or perhaps a poppy?

I'm now craving for a sweet little something...more specifically - a sticky toffee cupcake!

Enjoy!

Pink Gumpaste Peony

My first attempt at making a peony after my class at PC almost 4 months ago. Goes to show how much you can forget in the 4 months when you don't practice! I'd better get onto practising my roses soon before I really forget.

I made the flower paste from scratch - it's really not that hard or time consuming to make. The only thing I did find is that I was ripping the edges off my petals so I may have to add something else to my flower paste to give it a bit more elasticity. This will be my little research project for the next little while. There are lots of recipes out there for making flower paste (or gumpaste) so I will be on a mission to find the 'perfect' texture for me.

The usual flower paste I use would cost me about $40 for a 1kg bucket (cheap compared to the Wilton gumpaste) and I love using it but at $40 a bucket I think I should start experimenting.

Do you see any veins in the petals? I don't!!! I should really invest in a good veiner - I couldn't get any texture out of the one I have and it was pretty frustrating when I tried to create texture by using the veining tool and ended up ripping my petals! 

Now, I just have to wait until the weekend before I can bring home my 'sick' Kitchen Aid from the repair shop and bake a cake to go with the peony. My next dilemma would obviously be what cake to make - I've been thinking white chocolate with passionfruit filling and white chocolate buttercream but we'll see what takes my fancy when I have the time to bake.

Enjoy!

Jojo & Leroy's Wedding

Jojo & Leroy

Some of the cupcakes

I wrote a few sentences to this post and forgot about it until someone reminded me that I have not yet posted pictures up of what I had made for Jojo & Leroy's wedding!

The wedding was on 5th May and it has taken me this long to remember and finish the post! How slack of me.

I baked over 300 of these mini red velvet cupcakes for the church reception - I still can't believe I actually baked over 300 of these mini morsels. I was lucky my mum & sister came over to help me assemble the cupcakes and put them into boxes for delivery. The flowers were done a few nights before after a late decision to make the flowers all one design and just have 2 colours. As usual, I had other grand plans of making roses to go with the cupcakes but I had only made 30 or so by the Tuesday so I knew there was no way I would be able to make it all in time unless I took a whole week off work and just made roses all day. This only highlights that I need to work on my time management skills - hehehe. I'm sure my husband couldn't agree more with this admission!

Enjoy!!

The Last Minute Rush...

I had to work a full day yesterday and had about 1 hour to decorate mum's birthday before dinner! Talk about rushing it. With limited time, I decided to cut out blossom flowers and left them to dry while I did the basketweave on the cake. It has been almost 2 years since I last did the basketweave (if my memory is right) and was amazed I had even remembered how to do it. Not the best looking cake but it was definitely YUM!

I couldn't cover the cake in fondant because the cake was a coffee cloud cake - a nice light sponge cake the way mum likes it, the fondant would have flattened the cake. This is my second attempt making this cake and it's not as difficult as I had anticipated it to be. The first attempt was successful and I decided to give the guinea pigs at work a treat.

Enjoy!

Caramelicious

I finally decided to try out a new caramel cupcake recipe this weekend. I made most of it in the mini size and some in the regular size.

The caramel didn't quite go 'wow' with this recipe - back to the drawing board to look for another caramel cupcake recipe. Perhaps I could add a few drops of caramel extract to add more flavour to it - make mental note to get some of the extract.

I was also going through my cupboards in the kitchen and decided to use up 'leftover' cupcake liners so I ended up with these orange coloured ones - I really don't like the colour, hence why they were the 'leftovers'. Wish I had photoshop to change the colour of those cupcake liners. The colour of the flowers are new to my lil' collection, as you can see I have a thing for pastels. I was thinking perhaps a blue rose - I'll get onto that as soon as I have coloured my freshly made flower paste from a recipe given to me by Miss J.

Enjoy!

A Beach Party

I know I know! I've been slow with updating of any sort.

Truth be told that I have not baked much in the month since I have been back. When I finally had an order for some Hawaiian beach theme cupcakes my beloved Kitchen Aid decided to throw a tanty. The paddle attachment was stuck and I couldn't get it out to wash and make the cream cheese icing to go with the red velvet cupcakes. I tried with all my might for about 30 minutes, cursing my bad luck. I gave up and my Kitchen Aid is now at the local Kitchen Aid Hospital awaiting surgery. I ended up borrowing mum's trusty Kenwood - 22 years old I might add.

It's got me thinking, maybe I should get a Kenwood to replace my Kitchen Aid. 22 years and mum has never had to take it in for repairs. 3 years with my Kitchen Aid and it's packed a sad.

All this drama was a little too much for lil' old me.

Anyway, back to the original story of these cupcakes. Miss M ordered these cupcakes for a Hawaiian Beach theme party for Ms K's 29th. Her actual birthday is tomorrow but they're having the party today. I hope the weather holds up for their BBQ. I made a sunbed and added a cocktail umbrella to one of my designs, the next is a stylised hibiscus flower and you can't go without a surfboard at the beach, so that was my third design.

Enjoy!

A busy week in the world of Planet Cake

Front of cake

Back of cake

What came back with me to Auckland

I took a week off from life in Auckland and headed across the ditch to Sydney, Australia to do a week long course in cake decorating at Planet Cake with 2 brilliant teachers - Jessica and Luigi.

This course was a birthday present from my husband - I'm so spoilt! So, I bought the top tier back to share with him :)

It was 'hard work' but I enjoyed every single minute of it my time in class and have learnt so much from the 2 very talented teachers I had. I had Jessica teach me in the beginners course and was secretly hoping she'd be teaching me again in the intermediate course - luck was on my side and I did get her again :)

I designed the cake in the pictures and had a bit of help from the teacher with putting it all together. It took 3 full days from design to completion and I enjoyed every part of it - except of course for the back pain from standing most of the day. This cake is made out of 5 cakes. All the flowers are hand made with love!

This course has given me so much more confidence in designing cakes and putting it all together. I hope to be doing more cakes like this in the future. I would love to just sit in the kitchen and practice making more of those jumbo roses and peonies!

Enjoy!!

Dora - The Explorer

A work colleague came up to me late last week and asked if I could make her daughter's birthday cake for preschool. It was a chocolate cake - I omitted the coffee to make it a bit friendlier on the wee lil' toddlers. I don't think the day care is going to appreciate any cakes which gets the kiddies zooming around for the rest of the day.

I made a 2D Dora to go with the cake - as requested by my colleague. My attempt at making the 3D version of Dora failed miserably so I made a last minute decision to make a 2D Dora. If that failed, I would have been driving out to the shops to get a plastic figurine of Dora to stick onto the cake.  I think it's about time I practiced making more figurines or perhaps take a course on making figurines so I don't get myself into these dilemmas!

It took me a good 2 hours of cutting bits of fondant out to put Dora together...I'm not 110% satisfied with it but I hope Anushriya is happy with it. She is after all, THE customer.

Next project on the list? Vegan mango cupcakes! I'm going to try with gluten free flour too!! Cross my fingers this will work.

Enjoy!

Present Box Cake

Chantelle's celebrating her 40th this year - it's been and past but she's going away with some of her closest friends and family to celebrate over the long weekend.

The colour of this cake is no doubt one of her favourite colours and what more fitting than a cake as a present.

The cake is a moist chocolate mud cake covered in a rich layer of dark chocolate ganache. I'm getting hungry just thinking of the cake - yum! I know she would have loved the red velvet but the cream cheese icing will definitely not last until Saturday unrefrigerated. Notice it's a 'red' cake she was originally after!

Happy 40th Chantelle!

Happy Chinese New Year! 恭喜發財!

Happy Chinese New Year to all my family & friends! May the year of the water dragon bring you an abundance of luck, wealth and good health!

恭喜發財！ 龍年快樂。祝各位 身體建康，心想事成，萬事如意。

Less reading and more gawking. Here I present my Chinese New Year cupcakes.

I'm about to head back to my parents place for dinner tonight so I thought i'd squeeze in this little post first before I run out the door.

Enjoy!

Fire, Fire, Fire

It's little Jack's 4th birthday today and his mum had asked me to make some fire engine themed toppers.

Jack is right into his fire trucks and police cars. For his dad's birthday last year, Jack got him a police car toy to share. How cute!

My first attempt at the fire truck looked more like a caravan! I'm not brave enough to put those pictures up - I'd be mortified if it ended up on Cakewrecks.

As you can see, I got a little side tracked by this project and my Chinese New Year cupcakes have yet to make an appearance. Don't fret - I will get them done this weekend as it is Chinese New Year on Monday 23rd January.

Enjoy!

Sweet Beginnings

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Raspberry Icing on the Red Velvet Cupcake

Honey Icing on the Red Velvet Cupcake

Salted Peanut Macaron

Cream Cheese Icing with Red Velvet Cupcake

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone has had some time off to unwind & relax and spend some time with family & friends before the year kicks off. I am hoping this year will be the year of many great things to come...from my kitchen. :)

We had some friends come over this afternoon for lunch and desserts. I kept to my department of baking & decorating while my better half made all sorts of yummy pizzas to serve up - We've still got lots of ingredients leftover so guess what is for dinner tomorrow night?! YUMMMM

I baked a batch of red velvet cupcakes and made 3 different flavour of icing to go with it - Honey, raspberry and plain ol' cream cheese. I didn't end up serving the cupcakes with honey or raspberry as I had some 'unwanted guests' flying around the house and taste testing it before I could serve it to my friends. Just as well I had not yet pulled out the salted peanut macarons I made as well or there would only be red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing! Thank goodness for Miss B's fruit platter - I needed the fruits more than the sweets after all the over indulgence over Christmas.

Here are the pictures of the red velvet cupcakes I took before they went down the gurglers.

I'm in the middle of designing cupcakes for the Chinese New Year which falls on 23 January 2012 - watch this space for more news!


Enjoy!!