Pastel Rainbow and Clouds

Bird's eye view of the cake

Over the rainbow

   

It has been such a long time since I last posted. My excuse? I had a little baby girl sometime in September last year so she has been keeping me on my toes and no time for caking. Well, I lie. I do have a bit of time but that is to tidy up the house after her and whatever else that needs done. I don't know how my mum did it with us and now I know that I've got my own wee little one I really appreciate all the things my mum has done for me - not that I didn't before.

Anyway, before I fill you in on my life story for the last year I better start on the cake I made this week for Anya's 5th birthday.

Anya's mum requested a simple cake and had given me all the freedom to design something for Anya. Do you know what this does to me?! I had so many ideas going through my head I ended up with doing something 'plain' so it would be a safe design. *Sigghhhh*

I only found out this morning that Anya was having a pirate themed party at Chipmunks!! *Kicking myself in the leg* If I had known, I could have done a pirate ship cake or a treasure chest or even a treasure map cake...the list goes on.

I did know that I would like to put the tutorials from Lesley at The Royal Bakery to some use so I incorporated the clouds and '5' into the design of the cake. I hope I did her tutorials some justice!

This is my first attempt at painting on fondant, it was a little nerve wrecking as I was worried I would make a mistake and that would be the end of it for me. Can you imagine how time consuming it would be to rip the fondant off the cake and re do it all?

There is a slither of hope that I can bake a bit more after my little one starts at daycare but I will also be back at work part time so maybe not. We'll see how it goes.

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!

Lets' Celebrate Fiona's Birthday!

This second cake is for Fiona, it was her birthday earlier in the week.

I wanted to make a cake which was light and fluffy so I settled on making a red velvet cake covered with cream cheese icing.

Do you like the quilted look?! I do. I made the quilted look with the help of my new 'diamond design' tool and am so impressed by it.

A cake full of tulips

Flowers & a cake for the lucky birthday girl - Ele.

Ele is lucky to have some wonderful friends who organised for me to create this cake for her birthday today.

This is a chocolate mud cake slathered with lots of chocolate ganache for the chocolate lover who ordered this cake.

I was testing out my new tool to get straight and smooth sides when ganaching and it's an awesome tool! The cake looks great after using this tool. If you're wondering what it is, it is a try square!!

Purple Power

Anisha's Purple Flowers

Here's the last birthday cake for the week! 

This cake is for Anisha, she loves anything purple so I made some purple anemone flowers to put onto her cake. I had to get another secret squirrel to find out what cake she likes and I had to wing it as I've never made a caramel mud cake before. I hope it turns out yummy!! 

I'm already thinking about what to make next, banana & toffee cupcakes or macarons.

Christine's Birthday!

We celebrated Christine's birthday today singing songs for a good 3 hours! I pity the souls who may have heard us sing, especially since I still have a horrible voice from the flu.

I haven't baked in 2 weeks!!! Can you believe it?! 2 weeks of no baking because I was sick with the dreaded flu!!

And since we were celebrating Christine's birthday I decided I'd get off my lazy behind and take the effort to bake her a cake.

This cake is a honey & pear cake with honey cream cheese icing.

Fairy Cake

Claire in her garden

It's mid month now and I have just realised that I have not posted anything since the 1st.

Here it is, Claire in her garden of flowers and butterflies.

I was 'experimenting' with a new white chocolate mud cake recipe I found online and this is what became of the cake. I'm just not sure if I would want to cut the cake up!

My next project will be a chocolate cake with chocolate mouse filling. I'm getting hungry just thinking of it!

Happy Mama's Day

Pecan & Maple Syrup Cake

Happy Mother's Day to all the mum's out there!!

I made a pecan & maple syrup cake for my mum today. Being the disorganised daughter I am I just winged the design although I had other ideas - a basketweave with maple syrup buttercream and lots of handmade roses with butterflies in between was one but I had run out of time.

The long weekend

My first ever gumpaste shoe

The oh so divine Malteser Cupcakes

Honey & Pear Cake with Honey Cream Cheese Icing

It's Monday night - the end of what was a nice and quiet long weekend.

I was on a mission to try out some new recipes I had found. I now have malteser cupcakes and pear & honey cake with honey cream cheese icing sitting in the kitchen.

The icing - one word - DIVINE!!! I'm going to try this on some vanilla cupcakes.

I had also spent some time to try making a gumpaste shoe - it was alot easier than I thought it would be except I need to have a few more goes at making the heel.

Daisy Fruit Cake

Here it is! I finally covered a cake with fondant, even the daisies were made of fondant. It's not the prettiest looking thing but hopefully with practice I'll get better and there will be less visible flaws.

I made the fruit cakes a little too late this year and so they're a little dry...The ones made earlier this year are sitting in a fridge 8,000 miles away.

I seem to be constantly running into a problem of not knowing what to do with the finished creations. I guess we'll have to finish this cake ourselves...

The month of many birthdays

It sure is a busy month for birthdays! This can only mean that I get to bake and decorate more cakes (or cupcakes).


I made a cake for Terence's birthday but the imagination department of my brain wasn't functioning at it's optimum so all he got was his name on the cake and bits of grass at the bottom. I'm having a 'decorators block'!


I was up late making his cake last night so I didn't get a chance to make a cookie monster cupcake as I had promised someone I would. I will have to make it for him next weekend...

baby cupcakes

Here are my other little treats I made for a colleague's birthday today. They were bite sized chocolate cupcakes with a swirl of icing and a pansy on top.

Flowers overload

 

Flowers flowers flowers...they're everywhere!

A lot of work has gone into the making of this cake. I judge this by how sore my arm is - it's pretty sore right now. Maybe it's time for me to head to the gym to do some weights and strengthening work...and to work off the creations I've been scoffing down.

I was testing a new cake recipe I found - flourless orange and almond cake. It's easy to make and it's yummy. I can't wait to try the cake with the decorations tomorrow - I don't know if I can watch the cake being cut.

I've decided I'm going to give this cake to my boss at work since it is his birthday this weekend - I'd like to see his reaction when he sees the girlie cake I've made. I have another unfinished cake in the kitchen waiting to be done up - I'm going to do more flowers and butterflies but with other colours...so watch out for the next post.