It's been awhile!

It's been a year since my last post! OMG!!

Not that I've been slack in the baking department it's just that I've been uploading the pics mostly on the Facebook site as well as Instagram... and I've also been busy baking a different sort of bun in the oven as well ;)

My new little mister - Adam - who's turning 8 weeks old tomorrow!

But here are some piccies of cakes.

The ombre theme was a hit this year...

I love making sugar models!

Frozen-themed gold cookies with edible gems

A black-and-white version of pupcakes! 

A rustic-themed wedding

And for my darling firstborn, who turned 7 recently, a Minecraft cake:

 Hehe I thought I was being pretty witty.

For more of my baking adventures you can follow my Facebook page, where I post all the stuff I bake, cake or not!

Novelties for Grown-ups...and more

Kicking off with a 30th birthday cake I made awhile ago for a good mate of mine. He's a proper Aussie bloke, so I thought this BBQ cake might suit him!

The BBQ "meat" were all made out of fondant. 

I'm pretty pleased with how the colour turned out!

The silver "grill" is edible too! 

After I took this picture I painted some syrup on the "meat" to make them shiny and glossy, 

like they've been oiled for grilling!

Here's a pic of the inside of the cake.

Chocolate mud with Oreo buttercream

 And this one's for a client's 30th - hot pink leopard prints were painted on

 And I popped a big bow on the cake as well ;)

Moving away from fondant work (which I do love, but takes quite a bit of effort!)...here're some pretty buttercream cakes. I like how buttercream gives a lovely vintage feel to the design of the cake.

This design was supplied by the client for her own 30th birthday cake.

Silver cachous and a lovely sugar peony completed the picture :)

Rosettes and Ribbons for a classic choc-fudge and vanilla cake to celebrate

Candlelight Productions' 10-year anniversary.

(They're an AMAZING not-for-profit company that aims to strengthen community through creativity.)

 And lastly, something a little more modern - ombre chocolate work.

This was done with a new recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream kindly shared by

my idol and baking goddess, Nat Paull from Beatrix in North Melbourne.

Speaking of whom, I can't wait to try her recipe for Elvis cupcakes next! Or maybe I should just mosey on down to the joint...

Rosettes and Ruffles

OK I admit it.

I'm a terribly inconsistent blogger. So much has happened in the past few months - in caking and in my personal life - that I haven't had time to post pictures of cakes! But they're all up on the Buttercup Bakeshoppe facebook page, and that's probably where I'm most consistent in updating information and pictures.

Here're an edit of Buttercream cakes I've had the pleasure to create since the last time I blogged:

 

 

This last ruffle cake's one of my favourites, not least for the fact it's for a gorgeous girl whom I've watched grow up - I still remember bobbing for apples on her 5th birthday and now she's turned sweet 16! (The little birdie's a 3D rendition of the cookies I've made before here and here.)

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? ;)

Elephants, ruffles and polka dots

Some caking I've been up to over the last couple of weeks:

A gorgeous vanilla bean vintage ruffle cake for a client's 30th birthday...

 

  

The larger one's Red Velvet with Cream Cheese, 

while the smaller one's Choc-fudge and Raspberry with Vanilla Bean frosting.

Elephant and polka-dot cupcakes for a baby shower!

 

The client sent me some photos to work with, which I later found out came

from one of my favourite baking blogs, The Cake Blog.

Such adorableness!!

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of meeting the lovely Elli from Elle's Kitchen (elliluca.com) at a super secret product "ideation day".

I can't reveal much about it, save to say that it involved a certain food product that's made of pastry, savoury and often conjures up images of grown men screaming at other grown men chucking an oval ball around a large field.

But enough about my weird dreams. ;) The "ideation day" was truly fun! The 20-something people there were made up of people who worked for different arms of the company, plus people they called "bright sparks" -
foodies, bloggers, web designers, function managers, even an architect. All to bring a different perspective from outside the industry. And I reckon the day was quite fulfilling, it really challenged me to think outside the box, and to re-evaluate flavours and methods and recipes I've come across. Even think about new packaging ideas etc.

And it was interesting to see and hear what it took to take a new product range from idea to fruition. Months of research into understanding current consumer tastes and impressions, ideation, product development, getting the final product onto the shelves, and you STILL don't know if it'll take off or not, it the public will embrace it. Quite the long journey from paddock to plate eh?

Anyhoo, I'm pretty excited to see if anything we came up with actually reaches the supermarket shelves. I'll probably be reacting pretty much the same way my son does when he gets a new toy - jumping up and down, pointing and screaming in excitement, while curious onlookers wonder what this nutjob's doing at their local supermarket and if it's safe to look away and ah, THERE are the eggs I'm looking for...

Aside from all this behind-the-scenes look into the food industry, the last couple of weeks since returning involved heaps of baking!

 I had some left over Red Velvet cake after making the Wine Bottle cake (see below), 

so I made a mini stacked version for a mum at my son's kinder.

First up, a ruffle fondant cake for a child's Christening.

(The final version had bunting on it, waiting for the client to send the pic it to me!)

The layers of ruffles took longer than I thought!

I reckon it took me about 2 hours to get them ruffled and stuck on.

Last minute heart attack: the ruffles, having dried overnight, broke off as 

I was putting the cake into the box! Had to quickly roll out more ruffles to replace!

My Wine Bottle cake for a friend's 30th.

Since I couldn't afford a Grange, may as well make him one. Out of cake!

It was a terrifically HOT day to use cream cheese frosting as an underlay for the fondant instead of ganache.

The "bottom" of the bottle kept bulging out...

I was pretty glad the cake board I made to look like an oak barrel turned out well.

(Marbled the fondant, then scored it to look like wood.)

 And made the "label" with edible ink (sigh, my hand just couldn't mimic the Grange font properly...)

Hand-stamped words below though!

I reckon I should have coloured the "label" so it truly looked vintage, with the cracks in it.

 And finally, a beautiful rustic buttercream cake for a friend's wedding!

 

Chocolate fudge cake with raspberries and Vanilla Bean buttercream

It was a GORGEOUS grazing lunch reception at the groom's family farm.

Fresh flowers provided by the bride's mum! Beautifully simple...

See you THIS SUNDAY, March 11 at the North Melbourne Market!!

Tips for getting the BEST FLAVOUR out of your cake!

1. Ingredients:

Needless to say, a quality cake calls for quality ingredients.

Rich, fat, butter (sorry to the health-conscious!), great dark chocolate, eggs from happy chickens, Madagascan vanilla beans plucked from the ta...(ok, going a bit overboard there, but you get my drift!) all contribute to the flavour of your cake. You can really taste the difference!


2. Baking:

FOLLOW THE RECIPE. Baking, I've found, is more of a science than it is an art. Humidity, oven temperature, a teaspoon vs. a tablespoon, even how high you fill the cake tin, all contribute to how your cake turns out! It could mean the difference between a light, moist, angel-food cake, or something largely resembling Jabba the Hut...(trust me, I've made the latter many times!)

Once, I was baking with a friend who came from the Jamie Oliver school of culinary thought (ie. "a bit o' this an' a splash o' that and Bob's your uncle!")

So when it came to adding a pinch of salt (salt actually inhibits bitterness, and also balances the sweetness of the sugar in your cake), he scooped, oh, about a HANDFUL of it and tossed it into the batter before I could stop him! "It doesn't really matter, does it?" he said.

Result? Really REALLY salty chocolate chip cookies!

FOLLOW THE RECIPE!


3. Storage:

One of the most common questions I get when it comes to baking is, "Do I need to fridge my cake?"

The answer I'd plainly say is, No.

Cakes are always best enjoyed at room temperature - they're moist and melt in your mouth. You get to taste the full spectrum of its flavour in your palate. Suddenly your food has...dimension. Kinda like watching a movie in 3D!

This is especially so for fondant-covered cakes - popping it into the fridge, then taking it out after would cause the fondant to "sweat" and sometimes peel off from the cake itself. Not a pretty sight!

Of course there are exceptions to the rule, especially during hot summer days! With buttercream being prone to melting in the heat, I'd say it's fine to store a buttercream-covered cake or cupcake in the fridge, then allow it to come up to room temperature before eating.

Pop it in an airtight container, put it in the fridge till you need it, then give it an hour or two (depending on your ambient temperature) before devouring it.


Happy Baking!