Handbag cake

I've always been a little afraid to attempt 3D cakes, what with the carving and balancing, but after finding this tutorial on the incredibly talented Jessicakes' blog, I thought I'd give it a go for my friend's daughter's 8th birthday!

Made the cake with red trim because it's her favourite colour (at the moment!) 

The "J" is for Jodee, the birthday girl (looks a little like half of the Chanel logo, maybe? No? lol)

 

The "fold" of the bag...I carved an indentation into the cake 

and smoothed with ganache before covering in fondant

Cross-section of the cake!

It's actually not as dense as it looks, really yummy and moist

I have some happy snaps of the girls having the cake (which I'll put up when my SD card-reader eventually starts to work again - sigh! Technology!)

The girls were SO adorable though, some of them covered their eyes just as the birthday girl was about to cut the cake! "Don't cut it!", "I can't watch!", "No! Don't!" a couple of them yelled out; they were SO CUTE! But Jodee eventually sliced into it, and the girls dug in. YUM!

Peppa and Ellie

More cakery from the last few weeks...

Drippy chocolate ganache over a vanilla-bean frosted cake

Another elephant & spots-themed baby shower!

I matched the ellie's ears and the tiny spots to Rachael's baby shower invitation.

A rich, dense and moist carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Peppa Pig themed, for a little girl's 2nd birthday!

Girly baby shower

Here's a little something I did recently for a girly baby shower :)

Girly pram cookies

Birdie cookies - these have got to be my most popular requests, they come in all sorts of colours!

Ruffle cake with hand-stamped & hand-written placard in edible ink.

 

These are actually buttercups (regular-sized cupcakes), 

for which I've tried a slight variation for the petal blooms

Don't forget, I'll be teaching BUTTERCREAM TECHNIQUES at Thread Den next Tuesday (9th October - click here for details) and MAKE YOUR OWN FONDANT OWL the following Tuesday (16th October). Classes include tips, handouts and a Kit of your own to take home with you!! What are you waiting for? ;)

Cookie monster cupcake tutorial

Here's a quick tutorial for the Cookie Monster cupcakes I did for my son's 5th birthday party - they're super easy, and all you need is this Grass/Hair piping tip.

I started with my super-moist choc fudge cupcake...

Since the cupcake's top was flat, I made a "mound" using a crank-handle palette knife 

to get a rounder shape for Cookie's head.

Start at the base and pull-up and out towards you. You'll get the hang of it pretty quick!

Furry cupcake!

These are white choc buttons you can get at any supermarket

Pipe some black buttercream using a No. 2 piping tip for the eyes

 

Pop the eyes in at an angle to make the all "googly"!!

Break a cookie in half and stuff it in!

Voila! Cookie monster!