Owl buttercups and Gymnastics cake

Finally! I have time to post these pics from a recent party I did for a little girl's 6th birthday. Thanks to the recent teeny mention in The Age recently, I got a call from Erica, who asked if I could make some goodies for her daughter's birthday.

She decided on a cupcakes for her daughter's class on Friday, and a gymnastics cake for Saturday's group of friends. And as an afterthought, she asked if I could make owl cupcake toppers for the cupcakes too.

"Sure!" I said, and off I went to research. I googled some images, drew up my design, cut out a template and after painstaking effort made 40 of these babies:

 

I'll do a tutorial on how these were made soon.

And here's the Gym cake - which matched the birthday girl's leotard!

The headless gymnast strikes again...

 There! Much better...

 

Rhythm gymnast with her balance beam.

Erica was sweet enough to write this:

 Thank you so much...husband is super impressed, as am I, I know my girls are going to be so excited when they see the cakes tomorrow! Even the gymnast matches my daughter's special party leotard. She is going to feel very special.

And after the party:

Thanks again Sarah. Party was a huge success and the cake looked fabulous but also tasted fantastic!

Wow. Nothing like two messages to make you feel extra special! Heh!

Joy

Before I go ahead with the latest post, thanks to the lovely Kate & Rose, I just found out we had a teeny tiny mention in yesterday's Sunday Age!

You can read the full article here: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/about-town/ware-to-go-20120602-1zof3.html (scroll down to the "Arts and Crafts" section). Our friends from the Southside Vintage market and North Melbourne Market got a lovely mention too!

Now back to cakery!

I got a lovely "thank you" recently from a lovely client, Shikha, for whom I made cupcakes for her mentor as a goodbye present.

"Your cupcakes were amazing, they were a HIT and all the teachers were so impressed that they've taken your phone  number...I've passed out your number and your website as well to them. Thank you so much!"

It's ALWAYS SO GREAT to get positive feedback, and NOTHING makes me happier than to make something I love for people who appreciate them as well! 

 These cupcakes were Red Velvet with cream cheese, and topped with black & white fondant birdies.

Nothing says Thank You better than a baked treat don't you agree?!


Ooh and in case you're wondering, these are the cookies-and-cream babycups the article was talking about!

 

Cookies and cream soldiers! Tennnnn HUT!

White wedding

Last December, I was contacted by N, who was getting married to J in May this year.

It's such a lovely story really, she's the sister of an old friend of mine, and we spent months shooting emails back and forth discussing cake designs, flavours etc., generally reconnecting after all these years.

When we finally met up for the cake tasting we discovered that J had actually proposed to her with my cupcakes (which sell at a cafe in Southbank), so it seemed terribly fitting that she had contacted me separately to make her wedding cake...I love serendipity, don't you?

Anyways, back to the cake!

She wanted an all-white one, with stenciling and a white peony rose on top.

Gah!! My heart skipped a beat...all-white cakes are notoriously hard to achieve because there's very little room for error. In fact, the simpler the cake, the harder to perfect because there aren't any bells and whistles you can use to cover any mistakes.

I accepted with trepidation, and also agreed to make her bonbonierre - white and green birdie cookies in Super Choc and Vanilla Bean - for her guests to take home. All 120 of them!

 

Top tier of the cake

 

All-white peony rose

 White-on-ivory cake. It weighed a tonne - 3 layers in each tier with chocolate ganache.

Royal icing stenciling.

I reckon the bottom tier weighed about 5 kgs...and there another one for the kitchen to cut up too!

Green birdie cookies in Vanilla Bean, to match the bridesmaid's dresses

White birdie cookies in Super Choc - theme colours for the wedding were ivory and green

Spots and what-nots

I got a call a couple of weeks ago from a friend of a friend who wanted a cake for her daughter's first birthday.

Just as a little glimpse into my process, this is how ordering a bespoke cake with me usually works:

1. I get a call/email from a client.

2. We discuss themes, colours, budgets.

3. She sends me some pictures and ideas that she likes.

4. I do some preliminary sketches.

5. We go back and forth until we finalise a design, flavours and size/quantity.

6. I give a quote, and if she's happy we go ahead!

It does take a small amount of effort, but I love seeing how it comes together in the finished product.

So with this cake P liked the colours pale pink, black and white, and bows and spots. After a little discussion, I drew a sketch and sent it to her, and she liked it :-)

Here's the final outcome:

 

The cake was carrot cake (I make mine with walnuts, sunflower seeds and sultanas, all the yummy goodness!) 

with cream cheese between the layers, and surrounded by white chocolate ganache.

The cake weighed a tonne!

Decorated with spots and balls for the trim

 And an oversized bow. Cute!

She also ordered an assortment of babycups along with the main cake, and I just thought these red velvet ones were just too adorable!

These would be perfect for Mother's Day (in 2 weeks time!) ;-)

On a side note, Celine from Peek! Sweets and I will once again be selling our wares at the North Melbourne Market this Sunday April 29! It's 10am - 3pm at the Lithuanian Club on Errol St. - indoors, so we're sheltered from the freezing cold!

xoxo

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!!

Of Princesses and Planes

It's been a month since my last post! Geez!

If you've been following the bakeshoppe's Facebook page you'll know what I've been up to lately... if not here's a quick pictorial rundown:

Jeremy the Jet Plane cake for a little boy.

I marbled the fondant for a "sky" effect (it's clearer in the first pic)

My Cake Pop class with family and friends!

Uber Oozy Chocolate mini cake.

With hand-stamped edible ink text.

 Princess cupcake for my 4 y.o. niece, thanks to a tutorial from The Cupcake Gallery.

A friend of mine said she kinda looks like a Kardashian!

(The cupcake, not my niece...although Anna can be a diva sometimes!)

Who's ready to go a-huntin for some Easter eggs?

And Cartoon Easter Bunnies!

I was experimenting with Sweet Sugar Belle's 20-second icing method.

So! That's what I've been up to the last couple of weeks, in between ferrying my visiting in-laws around town. And this week's a busy one as well, can't wait to get started!