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...

Boozy Baileys & Dulce de Leche

Here's a little bit of what I've been up to in the last month or so.

Made some new flavours:

 Boozy Baileys cupcake:

Rich moist espresso-infused cake, topped with Baileys buttercream. 

*WARNING* It's an Adults-only cupcake!!

 And this is my Dulce de Leche cupcake:

Chocolate-fudge cupcake, with Dulce de Leche (an Argentinian caramel) on the inside,

topped with whipped mascarpone, a slice of banana and more Dulce de Leche drizzled on the top!

This went gangbusters at the Southside market where we debuted it.

Speaking of which:

 

Happy 1st Birthday Southside Market!

This was the Boozy Baileys ribbon cake I made for them to celebrate their 1st anniversary.

Surprise!!

(PS. I made the bunting too, real easy, will post a tute on it soon.)

 Our little cupcake stand.

And the setup with Peek! Sweets.

And finally, did a lovely vintage-themed rustic cake for Ben and Jerica. It was held up at Mount Dandenong, so you can imagine my nervousness driving up the windy mountain roads to deliver the cake! But the layers made it all there in one piece, did a quick touch-up, added the flowers from the bride and her cake toppers and voila! Gorgeous cake!

Don't you just LOVE the wood-cut figurines??

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!!

Singapore Sweet Safari

Coming to the end of my trip here in Singapore, I've had the lovely opportunity to try the many varied and interesting sweet treats this island-nation has to offer.

My tastebuds have been tingling from the the many delicious desserts I've been tasting. And my girth has expanded in tandem. But oooh...how can one say no to all of these?

Display at Wimbly Lu, a darling little place near my parent's home

Eclairs and Rocky Road

 Their chocolate molten lava cake

Cupcakes! From Plain Vanilla bakery

A whoopie pie from Pique Nique...'twas delicious!

 

A cake pop made by my husban's cousin for her own 21st birthday.

How talented is she?! 

Now...to bribe her for creative license...

And now, on to ASIAN DESSERTS!!

 My ALL-TIME fav (especially because we can't get it in Australia),

the DURIAN

 

 At a little Asian eatery on Leong Siak St.

Clockwise from top left: 

Mango Sago Pomelo dessert with mango ice-cream,

Boiled black glutinous rice (pulut hitam) with almond slices and ice-cream,

Mango Sago Pomelo dessert with DURIAN,

Warm almond pudding.

 At the Old Airport Road hawker centre

A custard egg tart with a biscuit instead of pastry base

and Taiwan-style sweetened silky soya beancurd (Lao Ban)

Just yesterday we celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday at House @ Dempsey with a Vintage Tea Party buffet they put on every Thursday and Friday.

 Vintage table settings, complete with bunting!

And mismatched plates!

Sweet treats of different sorts. I die!!

Miniature cupcakes, similar to the Vintage Rose ones I've made

 

Mini skinny pizzas. The truffled mushrooms...OHHH the truffled mushrooms. 

Mushgasm in yer mouth!

 Piping hot tea in an old school thermos flask.

Serving tea that smelt of cocoa, and sweet ginger tea!

WELL! My little getaway abroad has finally come to an end...time to head home, for some new and exciting baking thingamajiggys! Next up will be the North Melbourne Market's special event as part of the L'Oreal Fashion Festival, and my lil' ol' cake pop class at Thread Den!

Hope to see you there!

 

xoxo,

Sarah