warren's- pretty vintage cupcakes

hello everyone, hope all is well. So much is happening today- first mat and i are going to yum cha (zilver in chinatown) this is one of my favourite yum cha resturants. Then i have my hoc mai interview! Hoc mai is a foundation that works between vietnam and australia to provide medical learning between the two countries. They offer scholarships for students, allied health and doctors to travel between these two countries for medical training. I really hope i get a scholarship to do my elective in vietnam, so anyways thats what the hoc mai schorlarship interview is today! Finally my day will end with a drive back to lithgow for more GP learning. But in more interesting news- i made cupcakes last night with gen for her boyfriend warren!
We hope the ladies at ING direct like them! let me know what you think...
I always love making pretty cupcake and i think the gold really saved these cupcakes because before we made them gold they didnt pop. Furthermore the lace piping was a nightmare! it was so time consuming and they didnt look nice until we painted it gold. anyways until next time, i wonder what i can make next?

wine bottle cake

hello everyone, well there was sucess, we made a 3D wine bottle cake! before anything more is said, i must thank my trusty cousin and excellent helper genevieve, and my new found cake buddy sharon wee (from sharon wee creations http://www.sharonwee.com.au/) who is an amazing commercial cake decorator.

Here's the story of how the wine bottle cake almost gave me a heart attack...

The first difficult decision was how big the cake was going to be, in the end the cake stood 20 inches high and 5 inches wide. this was very difficult for transportation from earlwood to helensburgh!
I ended using 2x choc mud and 2x orange blossom cake to make the bulk of the bottle, the top was carved out of styro. Each cake was ganached individually then stacked with a centre pole and dowels then reganached to smooth any rough edges. Black fondant was used (which i officially hate, no more cakes in black or red, i know how many times have i said that?) which was then airbrushed black and glazed with tart glaze. Then the label was printed on edible paper with edible ink and the cap was made from red fondant also.

The cake was for my boyfriend mat's brother michael and dad- fred's birthdays. It was a hit, everyone loved the cake and i was pretty pleased with all the hard work gen and i had put in (9 hours in total from bake to finish).

Let me know what you think...



until next time... i'm making some cupcake this weekend, so lets see how they turn out!

xoxo

My dream come true and a toolbox cake

Hello everyone! well so much cake and so little time, really there is not enough hours in the day to make cakes and study, so i always chose make cakes! Over the last 2 weeks i've made 2 cakes- a toolbox and toolbelt for a carpenter and a twilight cake for mat's nieces (twins).

The toolbox cake was designed for my friend kylee who i haven't spoken or seen since high school, but thanks to facebook she was able to track me down and look at previous cakes i'd made. Her brother's 30th was the occasion for the toolbox cake. All the tools were made out of chocolate then painted silver and red fondant was used to create handles.

I actually really wish i could make kylee's wedding cake but she's getting married in bali, which will be beautiful!

The biggest challenge with this cake was creating a wood look with the fondant. It's very effective and i found if you marble the fondant first then brush it over with brown, it really looks like wood.

The other challenge with this cake was the red colour, i promised after this cake i would only ever make white or ivory cakes since i think i hurt my shoulder kneading all that icing. Furthermore the icing was then very soft and hard to manage. To make red or black i actually make it a few days before i need to use it, this gives it some time to harden and even after i did this, the icing was still very soft and difficult to manage. I used 50% bakels RTR fondant mixed with 50% cake art colour sausages plus wilton colour paste and icing sugar to get the bright red and black colours. There is a lot of kneading. But i must admit, red does look amazing. So after swearing to never colour icing again, my next challenge was a twilight cake which was black!

The day mat's sister asked me to make the twins birthday cake was the day my dreams came true. I am a twi hard looking for an occasion to make a twilight cake! what better occasion than a 14th birthday party for twins!

I love this cake, the inspiration came from the twilight book covers, the apple from twilight, the parrot tulip from new moon, broken ribbon from eclipse and the board and chess pieces from breaking dawn. I really enjoyed making this cake and i really wish i could make it for my birthday but i think it's more age appropriate for a 14th birthday rather than a 25th birthday!

Once again colouring icing hurt my shoulder- this time i had to take nurofen. I really hate dark colours! At least i always have help- my trusty helper genevieve. I really couldn't have made these cakes without her. I've decided decorating is much more fun with a friend, even if it's just for moral support.

I also got to use my airbrusher for this cake (on the parrot tulips) and i just love airbrushing!

So apart from making cakes, i also talk about cakes. Today i went to a planet cake focus group to provide feedback on their courses. All i could say was how much i loved their courses and they are the best decorating school i've been to. I always love going to PC even if i'm not in a course. I am looking forward to my next course, i want to do the novelty castle. I'm also waiting to do springtime- i love this cake. Check out the PC website for course details, you wont regret it!

So apart from making and talking about cakes, i've been feeling very guilty about study. So i better go and try and do some before bed... oh what a lie i'm going to bed, i'll do some study tomorrow!

Next cake challenge is next week, i wonder if i can make a 3D wine bottle... stay tuned (and wish me luck)

xoxo