Paris in winter lunch

It is with great excitement that I can reveal Anya's "Paris in winter" party held last weekend.

Thank you to the wonderful Amy Atlas and her team for featuring my party today, I am beyond thrilled and happy :-)))

I love Paris in the spring time

I love Paris in the fall

I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles

I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles………………….

and so a theme was decided upon for my daughter’s 11th birthday party.

My daughter Anya ADORES & LOVES France, especially Paris and the Eiffel tower and begged me for a Paris party this year. Since this theme has already been done to death I wanted to give her party a funky and modern twist without blowing the budget sky high. Lets face it, if this is going to cost me hundreds of dollars to create I might as well save up a little more to buy a ticket and visit the actual Paris. A lot of the elements for this party was homemade and we tried to incorporate quite a few wintery touches since its very cold down here in Melbourne, Australia.



We started with gorgeous invites created by Jennifer Birkhead Design and to make it more fun for the guests Anya and I made envelopes from colour copied Paris street maps topped with Par Avion (free from the post office) and Eiffel tower stamps (free download from Google images). Jennifer also created all the cookie and dessert table tags to match.



Since our Paris theme involved the actual French colours (funny how nobody has done a Paris party in French colours before) I ordered some inexpensive French flag bunting from Ebay and various French ribbons and paper mini flags to be used on the dessert table. I also knitted a blue, white and red square flag garland to hang from the fireplace to emphasise the winter theme. I didn’t want to go out and spend extra money on vessels and platters for the table so instead I bought some styrofoam square cake dummies and wrapped them in white wool before crafting the two main cupcake and pop stands you can see on the table. I also used empty, clean chickpea cans to hold my cookies and macarons and once again wrapped the tins in white wool to dress them up. I even used chickpea cans and empty juice bottles as vases as centerpieces for my dessert table and lunch table which I covered in fake fur (the cans stuck on candleholders) and red wool (the bottles on the main table). The background is a Parisian wall decal which can be (and was) easy to remove.

Mademoiselle Anya unwrapping one of her tres chic pressies all decked out in her Parisian finery (clothes from Pumpkin Patch's Paris range)

Close up of the Eiffel tower and snow cookies all displayed in wool covered chicpea cans!

The Pièce de résistance was the Eiffel tower cake made from double chocolate sponge cake filled with chocolate buttercream and covered in fondant, yummmmm. Everything on the cake was edible (except the ribbon, flag and feathers).

Vanilla and coconut "snow" cupcakes and edible choc Eiffel pops. All displayed on my handmade cupcake & pop stand.

Some of the food we had for lunch was French pancakes, croissants with ham and mini bread rolls (Petit pain) with cheese. The dessert table had mini white hot chocolates with marshmallow moustache stirrers (the girls loved these!), a cheese (fromage) platter, raspberry macarons on sticks, Eiffel tower snow cookies, vanilla and coconut snow cupcakes and Eiffel tower pops. Guests were inspired by Edith Piaf singing French songs on the CD player in the background while playing games such as “name that Paris landmark”, “Paris bingo”, “find the moustache” and painting their nails in French coloured nail polish.

Can't have a French lunch without French raspberry and vanilla macarons! These macaron pops were for the children.

I loved how the living and diningroom looked after it was decorated, it looked like a French cafe overlooking a window with the Eiffel tower in the distance. Tres Bien!

For the main lunch the girls had these mini French pancakes.

Vanilla & coconut "snow" cupcakes were a hit at the dessert table.

I scored some lovely striped plates from Bed, Bath & table for only a mere $3 each, Le BARGAIN!

What is a Parisian lunch without flowers I say........ bought these lovely red carnations and silver leaf filler from Camberwell flower market and just added some feathers. I added these blooms to my fake fur covered can vases and stuck them to my candle holders for "drama".

I love Paris in the winter when it drizzles.........found this gorgeous ruffle umbrella at my friend Lil's shop from Lily Chic Events and had to have it!! Isn't it just devine? Oo-la-la!!

Mini hot white chocolate drinks in mini cafe cups (I embelished each cup with a French phrase) with marshmallow & moustache stirrers/swizzle sticks. The guests loved these the most!

For the guests to take home they each received a mini wool felted postman’s satchel with poppy brooch containing an Eiffel tower cookie, a notebook bought from the dollar shop then covered in Paris street map paper, a stripy pen, Eiffel tower necklace and vintage airmail letter paper and envelopes (downloaded and printed for free) from Linda at Tortagialla.

My daughter loves to write letters so the free printable letter set was especially appreciated by her.

Eiffel tower snow sugar cookie with edible Eiffel tower image.

One of the favourite items on the dessert table was the cheese platter!

Forget napkin rings, just wrap some wool around your wooden cutlery, add a cute wool felted brooch with ribbon and viola, you've gone from cheap to chic!

Close up of the raspberry & vanilla macarons I made, these were for the parents that stayed for coffee.

It was only a small lunch of 6 guests who sat at the main table, this kept the lunch intimate and manageable.

Even my youngest daughter Liandra got into the swing of things.

See the red bottle? I used two empty juice bottles, wrapped them in red wool to jazz them up a bit and used them both as vasses on my main table. How easy and cheap is that!!

Don't forget to join me on FACEBOOK and tell me what you think :-)) or you are welcome to leave a comment here if you wish.

xxxx

Leoni

Lala bird cake, cookies and pops

This weekend I was busy completing this cute cake, cookie and pop set inspired by Alannah Rose's lala bird stationary. The cake was made from 3 x stacked chocolate mudcakes and filled with chocolate buttercream, then covered in white choc fondant. The bird topper is also made from cake which has been covered in milk chocolate before being covered in red vanilla Satin ice.

With the leftover mudcake I made these matching bird pops, aren't they cute? I love birds!

Here are the matching bird sugar cookies.....

Now for some exciting news, dessert Queen and styling Guru Amy Atlas is considering coming to Australia!!!! You all know how much I LOVE Amy Atlas and how much she has inspired my dessert tables. In fact, it is almost a year ago to the day that I created my very first dessert table that was heavily inspired by Amy!! I would LOVE to meet Amy, so if she's also your hero and you would love for her to visit us, please click HERE to register for Amy's mailing list. Don't forget to fill out the "How Did You Hear About Us” section and selecting the country “Australia". Lets make Amy's inbox go into meltdown ;-))

Ice cream shaped cake

A few days ago I was asked to create a cake to exactly match a stationary design for a 40th birthday, this is what I created. Although a fairly simple cake to make it still was tricky to try and make the cake look like the sketched ice cream. This particular cake was a double chocolate sponge (not a cake I recommend for carving!) filled with Choc fudge frosting. The cake consisted of 4 x 8' inch square cakes, stacked then carved using a cardboard template I created.

It was quite large in the end, as you can see it sitting on a 14" square cakeboard covered in fondant.

Rapunzel-Tangled and flower fairy cake

First of all a big congratulations to Michelle Harding who won the Lily Chic Events Winter warmer giveaway. Enjoy your prizes Michelle :-)

Well another busy two weeks have passed as you can see from the photo's. July is a very busy month for our family as we have no less than 6 family birthdays to celebrate, 2 of those birthday belong to my youngest and eldest children. So lots of baking for me lol

The lovely cake above however went to a good friend of mine today, her daughter Lili is 5 today and since her own oven was out of action I volenteered to make the birthday cake as pressie. The design came from Debbie Brown's new book called Gorgeous & Gruesome, I love this book and have been itching to make a cake from it. This cake was called the flower fairy princess, I loved her flowing hair and all the gorgeous flowers sprinckled over the entire cake. It's not a massive cake, only 1 x 6' inch round on the bottom and 2 x 4' inch round cakes to make the tower. The majority of work went into the figurine and flowers and I loved how they turned out.

Here is a close up of the fairy, I am happy with how her face turned out.

This cake was made for my youngest daughter Liandra, she turned 3 on the 1st July and desperately wanted a Tangled/Rapunzel cake. I am not usually a fan of character cakes so opted to make the tower more like the fairytale rather than the movie.

Close up of Rapunzel..... yes, I even made Pascal ;-)

Liandra wanted Flynn Rider on the cake and since I was not keen to make the figurine I stuck an edible poster on the tree instead. Overall she was very happy with cake but she did ask me where Max was (I made his head with the intention of making a bush with his angry head sticking out, alas there was no room on the cake so his head became a cupcake topper instead lol)

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)

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.

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 ;-)