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!

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.)

Bunting tutorial

This is a short mini-tutorial on how I made the cute bunting you saw here.

First you'll need the following materials. I basically used whatever scrap material had in my craft drawer.

 

I had a pretty printed cardboard box, twine, and some lacey doiley wrapping paper.

Also a 5-cent piece, cardstock, a pencil, double-sided tape, bamboo skewers

and craft scissors with a scalloped edge.

  

Here's what I did:

1.  Cut triangles out of the cardboard.

2.  Cut rectangles out of the lace wrapping paper with the craft scissors to get that frilled edge.

3.  Stick the triangle onto the lace with the double-sided tape.

 

4.  Next, trace the 5-cent piece onto the card stock, and cut tiny circles out.
5.  Use a pen to draw a pattern on the edge of each circle. Spell out the person's name, 1 letter per circle.
6.  Stick the circle onto the triangle piece.

 

7.  Measure out a long piece of twine, around the length of the diameter of your cake, and tie to the two 

     bamboo skewers.

8.  Lay each circle-triangle-rectangle piece in the correct order (front facing down), and stick the twine onto

     their backs.

9.  Flip up, and voila! You've got your bunting, now stick it into your cake!

In this variation, I had a long strip of the lace paper and stuck the triangles onto it, 

then cut in-between to create the gaps.

Crafty, eh?

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!!