Cuteness just runs in the family...

The weekend just gone marked the Christening of my cousin's daughter...she is just so delicious!

The first great grand daughter of the family looked absolutely beautiful in her hand made Christening gown and flower headband, she didn't make one peep throughout the ceremony, much to the delight of her parents (I think she just enjoyed being up on stage hehe).

I had spent all day Saturday preparing for the event...making 2 dozen beetroot chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese icing and 3 dozen vanilla bean cupcakes with vanilla buttercream icing. I leisurely took my time, but was still adding final touches at 9pm that night.

The cake itself is the top tier from my cousin and his wife's wedding cake...it is 4 years old! They had decided to incorporate it into the Christening which I thought was a sweet touch so I simply added the name, some butterflies and pink ribbon.

Luckily I had made most of the decorations in the week leading up to the event, double lucky because my air brush decided to have a minor melt down and I ended up having to paint the bigger butterflies by hand.

I arrived at the church hall early to set up...OMG talk about humid! I could see my decorations wilting before my eyes but they held up a lot better than I thought they would have and I received great feedback from everyone.

It was wonderful to catch up with all my family...which is growing bigger every day and as Grandma said on the way home "I think we will have the most family members in all of WA"...

Em xx

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50 Cupcakes for 50 Years

When my partners mum got married...I made her a red velvet cutting cake for her wedding. As we left the venue at the end of the day one of the waitresses flagged me down and asked if I could make cakes for her mum's 50th birthday. Of course I could!

So here they are...half ref velvet and half vanilla bean cupcakes decorated in all things white and sparkly to suit the party theme.

I received some wonderful feedback from the client:

"Emma, oh my Lordy I got so many compliments on the cakes!!! They were absolutely beautiful!!!!!!!! They were all gone at the end of the night!!! Everyone ate one :)

Thank you so so much"

Well...you're very welcome Sophie...and thanks for the photo!

 

Octowhats?!?!

I’m well and truly behind the times when it comes to kids shows these days! I use to think I knew them all, could name all the character…even knew some dances…not anymore, have I got some research to do!

A colleague of mine asked if I could make a cake and cupcakes for her sons 2^nd birthday, in an Octonaut theme. I hear you…Octowhat?!?! These little dudes are pretty cool, there is even a real life Turnip name Tunip…I think he’s my favourite even though he didn’t make an appearance on the cake.

I gradually put this cake together, making the characters one day and then slowly added all the other decorations to the collection. I was due to deliver the end result on a Saturday afternoon, however this particular Saturday was ridiculously hot and sticky and I dreaded the thought of handing over a cake with half the decorations melting off. Luckily the party was on a Sunday morning so I offered to drop it off knowing that everything would dry overnight.

It took me most of the Saturday to put together, soooo happy with it though and when Mr 2 saw it he pointed at it yelling “Nauts! Nauts!” and then went to show me his ‘Nauts’ daycare backpack…super cute!

 

 

A Wedding of Red and Pink

My boyfriend and I had just returned from Thailand when his mum informed us she was going to marry her long term partner :) and she asked if I would make their cake for the occasion.

The small and intimate wedding was held at Blue Water Grill in Applecross...such a gorgeous location and we had matching wonderful weather. We had agreed on cupcakes and a small top cake for the bride and groom to cut into for photos, the cupcakes were vanilla bean with buttercream frosting and the cake was red velvet with white chocolate ganache.

I'd never made a red velvet cake before, but was pretty happy with my efforts...and then I tried crumb coating it in the ganache...near disaster! The cake was so soft and crumbly and the ganache slightly soft, the top layer of the cake kept sliding to one side so I had to keep repositioning it as the chocolate set. Lesson #1 - need more practise coating with chocolate ganache = watch more YouTube videos.

The night before the wedding...or should I say the morning of...I finished up at 2am. The pearls on the cupcakes had to be airbrushed with a pearl shimmer as did the cake.

The cakes were a hit at the wedding, the Persian Fairy Floss wilted after 20 minutes but I knew this would happen so took backup floss. One of the waitresses was that impressed with the red velvet cake that she placed an order for her mums 50th birthday in March...woo! I think I shall attempt cream cheese buttercream frosting next.

Took a Bash at a Wedding Cake

Best Bunnings tool ever!

One of my very best friends married her love on the 10/11/2012...and I was lucky enough to play the role of bridesmaid AND wedding cake creator!

We had been to a wedding expo earlier in the year she spotted a cake she loved the look of...and one that I figured wouldn't be completely out of my experience range...I was excited to be making my very first 'grown up' wedding cake!

The wedding was held in Busselton, as we are all originally from the area and I headed down on the Thursday morning to pick up the cakes for the bottom 2 tiers. I decided to have them made by Rachel @ Icing Indulgence for a number of reasons...1) I was staying at my dads place and had never used his oven. 2) I didn't exactly have hours and hours of spare time to bake and 3) I dreaded the thought of the cakes turning out terrible and the wedding cake being a disaster.



I have a wonderful selection of aprons from Europe...you'd
think by now I'd remember to wear one



Rachel did such an amazing job, the bottom tier was 4 layers of chocolate mud cake with chocolate ganache filling and the middle tier was 4 layers of vanilla butter cake with white chocolate ganache filling...then the top layer was good old Coles Light Fruit Cake with white chocolate ganache also. These cakes were HUGE! There were only around 40 people at the wedding and this cake would have fed 3 times that many people.

Once I was set up at my dads place, the decorating began. I've never rolled out so much fondant...let alone covered such big cakes in the stuff. My dad, step mum and step sister had a great time supervising my work...and before I knew it 6 hours had passed and I had something that resembled the wedding cake we had seen at the expo all those months ago. I also got to give my new airbrush a good workout and I am in LOVE with it!

Soooo much fondant 

So here are a few snaps of the creating and the creation. Tips for my next wedding cake...take a tool box so I can glue down that diamante strip that has come slightly loose and scissors to cut down that bit of dowel sticking up from the second tier. All in all I was extremely happy with this cake and I think it went down a treat on the day :-)

To my best friend Kristy and her new husband Mike...I wish you both a lifetime of blissful happiness and never ending love. Thank you for letting me play such a big part in your wedding...the memories I have from the day I will never forget and I only hope that I look that in love on my own wedding day xxx

Please excuse all the white space...I cannot for the life of my arrange my photos how I want them.

The creation! 

A Whole Lot of Sweet

I won my boyfriend over with these cupcakes ;)

We were set up by friends and he knew I loved baking so I took along some Ferrero Rocher cupcakes to our first date...one year later and I'm teaching him how to decorate!

Wedding Party

A work colleague eloped and got married in Italy...she asked me to make her some cakes for the big wedding party they threw when they returned.

I decided to try my hand at white chocolate ganache and it came out pretty well!

I loved making the accompanying cupcakes...I'm pretty sure I made close to 100...my first big order.