Liandra's 7th birthday party - Winter Woodland fox party

 

 

My youngest daughter recently turned 7 and asked for a Winter wonderland fox and deer woodland birthday party. Since her birthday falls on the 1st July (winter here in Ozz) I thought the theme was quite appropriate. Design based on the printables by The Pretty Paper Studio

https://www.etsy.com/listing/202726587/woodland-birthday-party-mega-pack?ref=shop_home_feat_4

The cake was a tall double barrel vanilla buttercake with edible fondant fox topper. Matching oreo fox and deer pops, and matching fox and deer chocolate cupcakes. Party was held at Little Kitchen on Lilian in Bulleen where the children decorated forest animal cookies.

 



I managed to find a fair amount of woodland fox party items (all from Woolworths) for the take home goody bag. It must be a popular trending theme :-) Needless to say my daughter loved her party.

 

Almost half way through the year already, some cakes done thus far

 

We celebrated one of my daughter's 8th birthday in the second week of February. She wanted a pool party, something to do with mermaids and her favourite colour purple to be included. After receiving the papergoods from Simply Sweet Parties and sending out the invite I started work on the cake design. A very tall double barrel caramel mudcake in seafoam green ombre ruffle waves with hand rolled pearls in white, green and copper. The mermaid took the longest to make as I hand cut all the scales individually for the tail. Lilac (salted caramel) macarons were from @Macarahrah while I made matching sugar cookies and Oreo fishy pops.

Two tier lemon buttercake Confirmation cake. Colours were teal, matt gold and hot pink open Peony. I colour matched the tissue pom pom decorations.

 

Three tier Sticky date and walnut Ballerina cake. Created for a birthday styled by the Sweet Society. I was asked to match the cake to the invites and paperie.

I loved making this cake, small children are always so much fun to create for :-) This two tier circus cake was created for a 1st birthday. I was also asked to create matching clown pops, cookies and cupcakes for the dessert table, with the paperie as inspiration.

Two tier Confirmation cake, top tier in Delphenium blue with matching stencil on the bottom tier. Created for The Sweet Society who wanted the cake to be elegant and simple.

 The most time consuming cake I've ever been asked to create!

Game of thrones 3 tier 30th birthday cake. Inspiration was the wedding crown, gown and embroidery done on all the characters clothes from the show. Bottom tier was an "embroidered"and beaded blue bird from Cersei Lannister's robed gown. Middle tier a bronzed 3D three headed dragon relief (representing Mother of all dragons Daenerys Targarye) and top tier based on Margaery Tyell’s wedding gown and ...tiara she wore at the purple wedding. The tiara took forever to make, all from modelling/flower paste. I had to create the base, let it dry, spray "paint" it gold (edible PME spray), then make the roses, let them dry before spraying them copper (PME edible copper) and lastly make the silver vines and thorns, before gently wrapping them within the crown.

Last April was my dad's 70th birthday, so to celebrate the big milestome I figured the cake had to be pretty special. My dad loves many things but most of all he loves going on holiday with my mum on a cruise. Since they were going on a 42 day cruise at the times as part of dad's birthday present I figured a Sea Princess cruise ship would be appropriate as cake. I only had about 24 hrs to carve, ganache and cover the cake (choc mud and vanilla buttercake) as we were going away as surprise for a few days with the whole family. I printed all the windows, logos and name of the ship on edible wafer paper to save time. I kept the details of the ship fairly simple as one could sit for hours and hours trying to copy each facet of the ship. Needless to say my dad was very happy with his cake and my children pretty impressed that it actually looked like a ship

Super cute two tier fox and cat cake (all edible) based on the birthday girl's two favourite soft toys Foxy and Basil. Here is also a sample of the matching cupcakes and pops, I had so much fun working on this theme

Two tier princess cake with the brief being simple/minimalistic, sophisticated, pink and sparkly like the invitation I was given as inspiration.

 

Adorable two tier teddy bear cake (Teddy design taken from the new Debbie Brown Baby cakes book). Created for a Baptism, styled by The Sweet Society, based on the invitation and paperie I was given as inspiration.

 

Chocolate mudcake farm cake. Figurines all made from fondant and barn also made from cake. (Original design by De La Rosa Cupcakes, slightly changed to suit a boy.)

Two tier frozen inspired castle cake for a 3rd birthday. My favourite part was the glitter topped spire roof and glitter snowflake door handles. All figurines made from fondant and 100% edible. Based on an earlier cake design that I made last year

 

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 :-)

 

Thomas cake and lime cake with water Lily

 

If this cake looks familiar then you are correct, a couple of months ago I did a similar one as 3 tiers with an orange water lily topper. This cake was 6 'inch round and almost 7 inch tall Key Lime and Coconut cake for Wendy's 40th birthday. It was certainly a challenge to cover, especially since we've had horribly hot and sticky weather down here in Melbourne! I've also had to use a fair amount of CMC powder to my flower paste to make sure the petals did not "wilt"and droop into a sticky mess. So glad summer is finally over!

 

I was also asked to make this super cute and paired down version of Thomas the train. Double stacked 7"inch round double chocolate cake. The topper is made from styro and sugar paste so that the topper could be kept as momento. I used one of my children's Thomas lego trains as example :-)