Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Lily Loves....A Winter Warmer Giveaway!

I am SUPER excited to announce that Lilian from Lily Chic Events has announced a MASSIVE giveaway on her blog. ONE very lucky person will win EVERYTHING, so hop on over to Lily Chic Events for instructions on how to enter the giveaway.

All entries will be made directly through Lily Chic Events by comments made on her blog post and not via Facebook.

The winner will be notified through a post HERE on Lilian's blog.

This is what Just call me Martha will contribute to the prize pool, some gorgeous brand-spankin new Kikki K stationary items that I am sure you all will love.

1 x Landskap slim notepad value $12.95
1 x Landskap adhesive sticky note set value $10.95
7 x Landskap gift tags value $8.95
1 x Landskap journal value $24.95
8 x Dala horse calico bags value $10.95
1 x Landskap pen value $4.95


The other fantastic prizes are (in no particular order)


Mon Tresor - Win a $30.00 Gift Voucher to spend on anything in their gorgeous Shop!

Sharnel Dollar Designs - Win a $40.00 Gift Voucher to spend on anything in her Shop!

Little Sooti - Win a $25.00 Gift Voucher to spend on anything in her Shop! Special code will be given to the Winner.

My Little Jedi - Win a Prize Pack of Paper Cups, Birthday Cards and gorgeous Fruit Shaped Note Pads.

Jennifer Birkhead Design - Win Invitation Pack & matching Party Pack in your choice of Fairy, Cowboy or Safari Theme's!

Bliss Clips - Win a gorgeous Pearl Princess Grace Headband!

Tara K Designs - Win a Dolly & Me Belle Headband Set in Purple {one size fits all}!

Eternal Memories Wooden Flowers - Win a $40.00 Gift Voucher to spend on anything on their Website {valid for 6 months}!

Sprowt Graphic Design - Win a $20.00 Gift Voucher to spend on any of Sprowt's Graphic Design's!

Pinwheels and Pearls - Win a Ribbon Wand Party Favour Pack {8 Ribbon Wands in your choice of colour} to the Value of $75!

Candy Soirees - Win a Red Polka Dot Cupcake Stand from their Shop!

Paper Scissors Rock Stationery - Win 7 Gorgeous Items from their Shop! See Lily Chic Events for photo.

Sweet Little Birdy - Win EITHER ONE of the Love Henry Range's and an Owl Squeaker in your choice of sizes from 000 - 0 Valued at $75.00!

Little Big Company - Win 10 Mini Glass Milk Bottle,a pack of Red and White Straws, 10 White Favour Bags with Ribbon, AND your choice of 10 Swizzle Sticks (choices include Brown Caramel, Sweet Honey, Purple Grape, Hazelnut, Pink and Blue Cherry, Raspberry, Cotton Candy, Natural Sugar, Lime Green & Lavender) Valued at over $80.00 from their Shop!
Princess Allure Jewellery and Accessories - Win a pair of Swarovski Pearl Earrings with Sterling Silver Hooks!

Moonlight & Whimsy - Win a $25.00 Gift Voucher to spend on anything at their Store!

3 Piece Events - Win a Dinner Party Pack which includes a table runner, vase and four tea light candles as shown in the below Photo Valued at $35.00!

Luminoso Blu - Win a 'My Little Circus' Party Suite Valued at $40.00!

Sweet Style - Win a gorgeous Stamp, a Stamp Pad and a set of Mini Spoons!

The Princess and the Pirate - Win a Square Cake Stand, Baking Cups, Candy Scoop, Cookie Cutter, Cocktail Forks, Candles & Chalkboard Labels Valued at over $100.00!

Charli Jean - Win a gorgeous Blue & White 66cm Girl's Dress Valued at $40.00!

Ah - Tissue - Win a $50.00 Gift Voucher to spend on anything in their Shop!

Ruffled Ribbon - Win one Character Bunting AND one Flag Bunting.

Ham&Pea design&paperie - Win 2 sets of Designed Baby Dummy Chandeliers in 5 colours!

Trendy Tiny Tots - Win a Two Piece Mermaid Costume!

Itty Bitty - Win a Hoot Ponytail Holder Set, Orange Cake Ring & Citrus Bead Bracelet all in a Heart Gift Tin!

Piece of Cake Parties & Celebrations - Win a Paper Eskimo Party Pack which includes Plates, Cups, Baking Cups, Balloons, Candles, Bunting and Straws!!

Eye Candy Event Details - Win a $30.00 Gift Voucher to spend on anything in their Shop!

Tout Mon Amour - Win a Cute Rosanna Petite Cupcake Stands in Pink!

The Bouquets Of Ascha Jolie - Win a $50.00 Gift Voucher to go towards a stunning Flower Arrangement {Open for Melbourne Resident's Only} OR a Inspirational Book on Floristry {Open for AUS Residents}

Sweet! Cupcakes and Treats - Win a $100.00 Voucher for Custom Decorated Cookies to match your Event with a {validity of 6 months}. Cookies are available in Gingerbread, Vanilla Bean, Chocolate Sable, Lemon Zest, Brown Sugar Cinnamon or Almond Cream all with Royal Icing!!

I Will Invitations - Win a Complete Party Stationary Set {in a design of your choice} including Invitations, Labels, Cupcake Toppers, Wrappers, Badges, Bunting, Welcome Sign, Placemats, Chocolate Wrappers, Thank you Cards, Drink Bottle Labels, Goodie bags, Stickers AND MORE Valued at over $100!!

Lily Chic Events - Win a White Suitcase Set, 2 x Ear Muffs, 2 x Slippers, Nail Polish, Lip Gloss, Eye Shadow, Umbrella and a $30.00 Shoppe With Lily Gift Voucher!



So hop on over to Lily Chic Events and enter this fabulous giveaway.


Entries will be closing on June 28th at approximately 10:00pm (Melbourne time)





Sunday, June 19, 2011

Handi's cake course and camera cake

Wow, what a massive week I've just had! I was lucky enough to start my week with my very 1st official cake course, a 2 day intensive Beginners III with the legendary Handi from Handi's cakes. I had a wonderful time in class, met some lovely people and found it worth every penny I paid. It was a real privilege learning from the cake boss/Guru Handi, he is a fantastic (and patient) teacher and I learned a lot! Here is my result after 2 days of hard work, a two tier choc mudcake (not baked by me) covered in baby teal fondant, and hand stencilled (1st time I've ever stencilled) by me.


I even made the stylised Peony and leaves topping this cake, now you all know how much I HATE making flowers but I LOVED doing this! Handi made it fun, interesting and surprisingly easy and I must say I am quite proud of my end result.

Now this cake was BIG, it fed 80 people and I didn't want to waste it (can't give it away due to strict food regulations we have here in Australia) so I "recycled the cake for a 30th birthday party I was attending last night. Here is the result.........

Ta-daaaaaa, Ok, Ok, ideally I should have recovered the bottom tier in white fondant, probably should have slapped on a thin black ribbon but hey, I ran out of time. The camera (cake) was very detailed so I didn't have much time afterwards to think of a solution to hide the indent on the square cake. In the end it was quikest to just pop a cardboard (covered in fondant) platform on top of the cake and pop the camera on top of that. Probably not as pretty but I was desperate and I didn't want to waste the cake.


Here is the back of the "camera", would have loved to have popped an edible image on the view finder but alas, again, I ran out of time. So instead I pretended the camera was switched "off" lol.


The camera and lens is made from choc mudcake which I shaped into a camera body, then ganached it, hot knifed it (to get rid of sharp edges) and then covered in black Satin ice. This camera replicates my friend Clair from See be Art's actual Canon 5D Mark II camera she uses for photography. It is her 30th birthday this Wednesday and we celebrated with friends last night, this is her gift from me. Everything on the camera is edible :-)


I have to say I am most proud of the Canon lens, it is as close to the real deal as I could make.


And because I wasn't busy enough I also decided to make 55 boy cupcakes for a 14th birthday party. Very happy with how they all turned out.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Owl cake set and graduation cake

Well it has been another very busy week of baking! This week I had the pleasure to re-create one of my signature designs, the lovely owl and bird themed cake and cupcakes. For those of you who remember, I created this set for a friend's daughter early last year for a Baptism. The above set was made for Sierra's 1st birthday and although the design is the same I've changed some of the colours and designs.


The main cake was a triple layer chocolate sponge cake with chocolate fudge buttercream filling and covered in white choc fondant.




I did a mix of cupcakes, some hand painted, some embossed and some printed with edible transfer sheets. I am very happy with how they turned out.




I also got asked to make a couple of embossed sugar cookies as favours.



Another cake I created this week was this graduation cake for two sisters. Everything is edible except the two red ribbons tied around the fondant scrolls. The books are made from vanilla buttercake filled with vanilla bean buttercream and covered in brown and white chocolate fondant. The hats and calculator was made from cookies and fondant while the rest of the props were made from fondant. Overall I was extremely happy with how the cake turned out, the exception being the incorrect spelling of the word Bachelor (I spelt it Batchelor). Even though I had checked the spelling three times and written the word down correctly I still managed to spell it incorrectly on the actual cake!! By the time I realised I was not able to remove the lettering without damaging the two books so had to leave the lettering in place :-( Not happy with that!!



Close up of the cookie calculator covered in fondant. Lettering done with edible pen.


Time for a mini break and then it's my youngest daughter's 3rd birthday cake to make ;-)

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Peekaboo Melbourne magazine feature

It is with great excitement that I found out yesterday that our Dala baby shower that we styled a few weeks back was featured in the Peekaboo Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney issues. Please have a look at the Peekaboo magazine and have a look at page 27 and page 28, hard copies can also be found at various distributers listed at the Peekaboo website. To say that Lou and Mel (from Little Big Company event styling) and I had fun styling this shower as a team would have to be an understatement, we had a ball! The inspiration behind the baby shower is the Landskap range from Kikki K which features the gorgeous Dala horse and the venue was at Petit Atelier (Thank you Christina!!)
We would not have been able to do this shoot without the help from the gorgeous Lilian from Lily Chic Events, Lil swung from stylist to florist to decorator with true grace, thanks Lil.
Another HUGE thank you goes to our photographer Clair Bremner from See Be Art, without Clair this shoot would not have been possible, so thank you Clair xxxx


Look at the gorgeous invitation designed by Little Big Company, they designed this invite from scratch using the colours we chose for the shower.



We chose soft pinks, burnt orange, navy and light blue as our colour palette seeing as winter has just begun.



One of the show stoppers was this 2 tier carrot cake. The bottom tier was decorated in fondant flowers to mimic the Kikki K Landskap stickers they sell. The top tier showcased a hand cut and decorated fondant Dala horse with simple navy ribbon. This cake could easily be made for a boy baby shower by changing the pink into blue on the horse cake topper.




Some gorgeous orange horse pops made from coconut ice and white chocolate.



Each party guest took home a goody box with Kikki K products and a Sweet Tashie felt horse wrapped in a muslin hand stamped bag.



Gorgeous fleece baby jacket for the mother to be. I think Bumble Bee Boutique did a wonderful job creating this gift.



Hand cut and hand decorated Dala horse sugar cookies. Ofcourse the Dala cutter arrived the day after the baby shower, go figure lol




Tricycle borrowed from Petit Atelier, Christina had to watch me with beady eyes as I tried to sneak it to my car twice during the shoot ;-) Petit Atelier was also the venue for the shower, they have the most devine, open, HUGE, light filled space I had ever seen and are PERFECT for parties and crafting. I love them so much I've booked my next party in November with them ;-)




These gorgeous ride on horses were also a gift to the mother to be, aren't they stunning? Calamity Bolt created these beauties, I was very impressed with the attention to detail and love that went into these horses.



Strawberry Woopie pies, need I say more? ;-)



Here is a close up of Sweet Tashie's felt horses that were part of the take home gift for all guests. To be a bit different I hung some Kikki K pegs on a wooden board, hand stamped the word thank you and hung some hand stamped muslin bags (with the felt horse inside each bag) from the pegs. The bags were from Little Sootie and the Dala stamp from Kikki K



Gorgeous cupcake wrapper by The Cupcake Wrapper Co, mini felt flag bunting by Sweet Tashie, cake stand and flowers by Shoppe with Lily






Yummy white, hot chocolate with cream in Espresso glasses with wooden hand stamped spoons



1. Handmade Horses from Calamity Bolt http://www.calamitybolt.com/

2. Woolen Knitted Balls from http://www.etsy.com/shop/bugalugshandmade?ref=seller_info Scalloped edged pedestal from Lily Chic Events Shoppe online http://www.shoppe.lilychicevents.com.au/

3. Dala Felt Horses made by Sweet Tashie http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetTashie and Sweet Tashie party felt decorations will also will be Available for purchase from Little Big Company with other custom personalized designs from http://www.tlbc.com.au/-Muslin Bags from Little Sooti http://www.littlesooti.com.au/ stamped with Kikki K Landskap stamp http://www.kikki-k.com/shop/category/collection/winter-landskap/ and Kikki K Landskap range pegs from http://www.kikki-k.com/shop/category/collection/winter-landskap/

4. Handmade Jacket by The Bumble Bee Boutique on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/listing/61221079/handmade-baby-jacket-with-roses5.

5. White Rocking Horse: from The Little Big Company Styling http://www.tlbc.com.au/

6. Flower Styling with pumpkin and flowers from Lily Chic Events http://www.lilychicevents.com.au/

7. Felted Bunting from Sweet Tashie http://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetTashie Sweet Tashie Bunting also will be available to purchase in your colour choice from The Little Big Company http://www.tlbc.com.au/ Cupcake Wrapper from the Cupcake Wrapper Co http://www.thecupcakewrapperco.com.au/The_Cupcake_Wrapper_Co..html Scalloped Pedestal available from Lily Chic Events Shoppe http://www.shoppe.lilychicevents.com.au/, Flowers by Lily Chic Events

8. Bon Bon Pedestals from Little Sooti http://www.littlesooti.com.au/ - also other pedestals were sourced from http://www.tlbc.com.au/

9. Authorised use of the Dala Horse Image by Kikki K http://www.kikki-k.com/shop/category/collection/winter-landskap/enlarged and printed by Top Print Productions http://www.topprint.com.au/
10.The Dala Cake, Cookies, cheesecake, Dala Cupcakes, truffles made by Just Call Me Marthahttp://justcallmemarthaa.blogspot.com/

All Dessert Buffet Labels and Invitation printables by The Little Big Company http://www.tlbc.com.au/

All Pom Poms by Ah Tissue http://www.ah-tissue.com.au/ and two light orange ones from Peppercraft Room phone 0416559256 can be ordered via Petit Atelier http://www.petitatelier.com.au/

11. Milk Bottles from Lily Chic Events Shoppe http://www.shoppe.lilychicevents.com.au/, Orange Retro Straws from The Little Big Company http://www.tlbc.com.au/

12. Invitation Printables from The Little Big Company http://www.tlbc.com.au/

All photography by Clair Bremner - See By Art Photography http://www.clairbremner.com/

Venue held at Petit Atelier http://www.petitatelier.com.au/

Party Styling by Just Call Me Martha and The Little Big Company –

Inspiration and favours sourced from Kikki K http://www.kikki-k.com/shop/category/collection/winter-landskap/