Merry Christmas and the last cake rush before the end of the year.

 

The last few weeks before Christmas is always a very busy time for me, final school year activities, High school exams, preparations for Christmas and final year cake orders. Here is a snippet of what was created in the last couple of weeks. A super cute, yet simple glamping cake for Lil's daughter who styled a Glamping party over at Lily Chic Events (photography by Lee Bird Photography)



I also created a watering can for Imara's grade 2 teacher who's a lovely, sweet Irish lady (hence the shamrocks in the mixed bunch of flowers). The main cake was strawberry buttercake, the rest all fondant/flower paste. It took FOREVER to make all the flowers (and you all know how much I loveeee making flowers lol). Hairy moment at the eleventh hour with the water spout, my original spout was made from rice crispy treats covered in fondant, it was too heavy (which I should have known since I made a similar cake a few years back with the same problem!). So after tearing the cake, making a big hole, having a heart attack, followed by a session of bashing my head against my kitchen table (its ceasar stone, ouch!) I redid the spout in styro covered in fondant. Viola, it was nice and light , but I did swear and worry while trying to fix the hole when fitting the spout. Needless to say Ms Maher was ecstatic with her gift and loved it.

 



By far one of my favourite cakes for 2014 was this handbag cake for my youngest daughter's prep teacher. I wanted something bright, cheery, fun and happy just like the teacher's personality I've never made a handbag cake before (raspberry buttercake) and loved the whole process with details. I think I went a bit nuts lol I was inspired by my own Kate Spade bag with a mix of Coco Chanel. I love the Tiffany colour (Coco Chanel... actually made a limited edition version) and was inspired by the scrap of fabric I found in my stash which I covered the cake board in. I also made a sugar Coco Chanel bracelet with no 63 locket (the teacher turned 29 but her colleagues keep telling the preps that she's actually 63 and uses youth cream to look fair and lovely lol). The look on the teacher's face  was priceless when she saw her cake, I've never had anyone go that crazy over a cake before lol She adored it, but now wants the actual bag for her 30th ! Better start saving up :-)



Last but not least a simple one tier fruit Christmas cake inspired by the original designs from  A Little Sweetness, I love Tasha's work so much I had to create another cake featuring her super cute birdy.
Thank you to all my lovely customers and supporters, have a wonderful Christmas and safe and happy new year xxx

Annike's 10th birthday bedroom make over

 

No party for Annike this year, instead she asked for her bedroom redecorated as her birthday gift. The brief was bright, modern and fun and she asked for a giant budgie painting as focal point as that is Annike's favourite bird. She also wanted aqua in her room as that is one of her favourite colours. Above is the mood board and colour palette for Annike's room. It took 4-6 months to plan, save, buy and then do up her room.

 

We replaced the curtains with shutter blinds, the brass fan/light system was replaced with a white ceiling fan/light (Beacon lighting), the twin single beds was replaced by a double bed with under storage (from Ikea). We also purchased new linen (from Adairs), bedside table (from Target), study desk and chair from Adairs and study light from Beacon. The painting was designed and painted in acrylic by me (extra large canvas and paint from Riot Art).



The main painting: As I mentioned Annike wanted a budgie, and a BIG one please. So off I went to Riot art and purchased the biggest canvas I could find, about 1.8 x 1.8 metres (it just fits in my car!!). So after I get home I started getting scared as to how BIG this canvas really is in real life and the last time I painted anything was about 3 years ago. It took about 2 days of staring at the blank canvas and lots of calming breaths before I had the courage to start painting. I had sketched some pre-ideas about 3 weeks prior using photo's of a budgie from different angles and this is the design both Annike and I liked best. It took 1 week of continuous work (9am - 5pm) to complete this piece, we were both very happy with the result. This is acrylic on canvas.

Of course what is a birthday without cake :-) I matched the cake design and colours to Annike's Adairs bed set, the focal point being the sugar Dahlia (which took 3 days to complete, petal by petal). This was a double barrel extended tier in caramel toffee sponge.

Some lovely cakes I made in the last few weeks

This cute golfing cake was made for a father celebrating his 80th with the family celebration being held at a fancy golf club. All the items (golfing bag, clubs, ball etc) were made from either chocolate or fondant.

I was hoping to avoid Frozen-mania but one of my lovely repeat customers asked me to recreated Elsa, Anna and Olaf with the cake being the castle for her little girls birthday. I kept the figurines fairly simple because I found the faces of the actual characters quite complicated (Original clay figurine design by Mayumi Biscuit). Unless you are very, very good with figurines (which I am not!) if you try to copy the features exactly your figurines could look evil/ugly lol I am happy with how they turned out. All 100% edible (made from sugar paste)

Next up a big box of mixed sugar flowers. Funny how I hate making flowers but it is one of the most requested designs. Lucky for me they are all different so by the time I get bored with one flower it is time to make a different design.

I loved making this sports cake for a sports mad teenager. I saw the original design by Sweet and Saucy and altered the design to suit the birthday boy. I loved how the red and black "popped" in the design scheme. The bottom tier took forever to make using edible black pen, a ruler and a very steady hand.

This petite cake was made for my daughter's 14th birthday. She asked for something small and simple and said she preferred the cake not to be covered in fondant. So I covered a double stacked 4"inch round cake in pastel pink raspberry ganache and topped it with a pink rose gilded in gold.

The original design of this cake is by Miss Couture - Cakes | Cupcakes | Cake pops . This cake took FOREVER to decorate, the ruffles alone took 6 hrs and I lost track of time hand placing all those pearls. The end result was lovely though, very pretty and feminine. 

Pretty cupcakes for a kitchen tea (styled by Coco asked for these), all the toppers are edible and made from fondant. I also had to make matching cookies and pops.

 

These were also requested by Styled by Coco, this time for a 1st birthday. Again I made matching cookies and pops, hopefully I can share those photo's in a few days time.

 

 

 

Scottie dog 6th birthday party

Last Sunday I had the absolute pleasure of creating this super cute dessert table for my 6 year old's birthday party. The idea came after I received the birthday outfit from Gymboree (Cheery all the way Scottie) range and saw how adorable the colours looked together as well as the cute Scottie dog which featured on the T-shirt. I quickly sketched a design, made a mock-up on Powerpoint and sent it to Amity Invites who created the colourful backdrop and printables for the party. I loved how all the colours worked together.

Next I drew and designed the cake, my daughter asked for a BIG cake with doggie topper and there had to be pink involved. The bottom tier was foam covered in fondant and the design reflected the backdrop stripes. The rest of the cake was Mocha walnut buttercake with the middle tier being black ruffles and the top tier sporting a pink edible dog collar with "silver"no 6 heart charm. I also made some matching Scottie dog biscuits, cupcakes, pops and macarons. Needless to say my daughter LOVED the table and declared it her best birthday ever :-)