Week ending 29 November 2009

It's giveaway time!

This week, we are launching our second giveaway, and this one, even if I do say so myself, is a pretty special one!

The prize in this giveaway is a copy of the brand new, only-just-printed, hardback edition of Cakes for Romantic Occasions by May Clee-Cadman, owner of British uber-cakery Maisie Fantasie.

To enter, simply visit the Maisie Fantasie website (link below) and tell me via the comments section or by email, which of Maisies' fabulous wedding creations is your favourite, and why. Entries close 5pm EDST Sunday December 6th, and the winner will be selected by me, and Random.org (Australian residents only for this comp, please)

Good luck!

Maisie Fantasie wedding cakes:

Now, onto our weeks work:

Two and a half weddings this week - and the half of which we shall save 'til last!

We'll start with Paige and Tony's very stylish event held at Eyensbury Estate... if you think that name sounds familiar, well, that's because we were there only 3 or so weeks ago for Allie and Peter.

This time around, we went for an elegant black, white and silver theme. All cupcakes and the co-ordinating cutting cake were Vanilla Bean. The cupcakes were decorated with a combination of white royal icing trellis work with silver cachou highlights, and black sugarpaste stringwork bows.

The overall effect looked stunning in the marquee with the black and white decor.

Next in the line is Chelsea's wedding... grape violet, silver and balck were the colours of the day, and the overall effect was incredibly striking and very grown-up.

Choosing a combination of royal icing trellis work (now, what are the chances of two brides on different sides of the city choosing the same base design for their weddings, to be held on the same weekend?) and stylized sugarpaste flowers with cachou 'stems', the flavours were a combination of caramel mud and chocolate fudge. The cutting cake was a traditional southern fruit cake, fortified with lots of bourbon!

And last, but by no means least, is our 'half' wedding! Wendy contacted me a little while back to see if I would be able to supply just a cutting cake for her wedding, as a good friend was going to make her the cupcakes, but did not feel up to the challenge of the cutting cake as well. Now, knowing exactly how much this friend had bitten off in offering to make cupckes for a wedding, how could I decline such a request?

The reception was held at Elmswood Estate (we were there in April for Mandy and Rob's wedding too), and the room looked beautiful, decorated in pink and ivory, with paper flowers and lanterns a la Matha Stewart...

The cutting cake is a White Truffle Raspberry, torted with white ganache for complete indulgence in a cake! Ivory fondant over ganache, and decorated with a pair of pink paste dogwood blossoms with white centres.

Well, congratulations to all our brides and grooms for this weekend, and don't forget to get your entries in to win!

Winners will be posted in next week's blog, so don't dawdle!

Happy caking everyone!

Week ending 22 November 2009

This week we lived through the hottest days in Melbourne since the Black Sturday bushfires, and it was a shocking and sudden reminder of how unprepared we all are for this summer to arrive on our doorsteps. I realised that we haven't cleaned our gutters since winter, and even though we are in a well populated area, we were only 4kms from the Bunyip State Park fires of last season... and embers can travel far beyond that distance and still wreak havoc... so please, for those of you potentially in harms way, get cracking!

Now, onto cake business!

Two celebrations were completed this week, a wedding, and a 1st birthday. I don't have any photos of the 1st birthday to share with you... yet! I had a photographer come along and shoot the whole shebang, as we supplied not just a cake, but also cupcakes, and yo-yo's, coconut ice, sugar cookies, and petite gingerbread girls... so watch this space for a special post as soon as those photos arrive!

But we still have pictures to share, first up of the wedding of Melissa and Mick. This wedding was held at the beautiful Wellers Restaurant in Kangaroo Ground, with the reception room looking out over a lush pature and valley beyond.

Melissa and Mick chose all chocolate fudge cupcakes and matching cupcakes for their celebration, with white and silver being the predominant theme. After falling in love with my Tiffany butterflies, we switched up the styling to include edible silver hightlights on the white butterflies, and selected white fondant and silver cases to complete the effect.

Flowers to match Melissa's boquet were also added to the display, which were supplied by Rainforist Flowers... beautiful purple Lisianthus.

We have also been working on some new cookie designs. First up are some retro, 50's inspired pink poodles. This cutter is a vintage copper cutter that I sourced from the US. The detailing in the cutter is superb, and these girls are ready to party! Each cookie is 4" w x 3-1/2" h, and colours are customisable to your choice.

Second new cookie is our Skull and Crossbones, presented here in Pirate Girl form! Touches of pink, and a heart for an eye make these a quirky way for your own Pirate Lass to celebrate! Cookies are gingerbread, 3-1/2" w x 4" h.

Next week, we are full to bursting with two and a half weddings to celebrate! (stay tuned next week for the detail on the "half"!)

We will also be launching our next giveaway - and it's a doozy!

See you all next week!

Week Ending 15 November 2009

Remember when I said 2 weeks ago that I wanted to take a weekend off to recharge and reconnect with my husband? Hmm, well, it didn't wuite turn out.

Oskar had to be Christened, and his parents became engaged, all in the one party. These are what we created to help the celebrations along:

The engagment cake is a 6" square, tiffany blue fondant cake with chocolate brown ribbon accents and some ivory butterflies.

The christening cupcakes were in two sizes, mini and full size. The minis had a buttercream swirl in tiffany blue with white non-pareils, and the full size had white fondant over buttercream with tiffany blue piping accents.

The comes this week's orders - my busiest weekend yet of this years pre-Christmas wedding season.

First up is a two tier pink and ivory confection.

The base tier is an 8" square, ivory fondant cake with quilting detail and pink cachou highlights. The top tier is a 6" round cristal pink with ivory satin ribbon and ivory sugarpaste plaque, with the bride and grooms first initials highlighted with pink lustre.

Next up is a stunning art deco cake and cupcakes, designed to mimic the couple's invitation. This wedding was held at the stunning Arthur's Seat Hotel Grand Ballroom (pictures below)... the view from the main windows over Westernport Bay is rather spectacular, to say the least.

The cake was baked by the groom's father, and is a traditional fruit cake. The cupcakes were all in black cases, with white fondant and royal icing piping in 3 designs with colour block accents.

The Grand Ballroom:

The view from the main windows:

Remember all those butterflies I told you about making? Well, here they are:

This cake is a three tier, 4 layer cake of blush pink fondant with chocolate brown ribbon accents. The entire cake was then wrapped in a kaleidoscope of butterflies, and topped with a pair of ivory sugarpaste butterflies highlighted with ivory lustre.

Top cake detail:

Christmas Gingerbread are here!

This is the first release of our Christmas 2009 gingerbread cookie range. Reindeer in two designs, with royal icing, sugarpaste and crystal sugar accents.

Well, that's this week wrapped up!

Next week, we have a 1st birthday for the gorgeous Sarah-Jane, whose Christening we did earlier this year... this party will be a doozy; there's a cake, and cupcakes, and cookies galore too... and yet another wedding with more butterflies!

See you next week, have a good one!

Week ending 3 November 2009


Whew, here it is November already... the Melbourne Cup has been run and won for another year, and we've now begun the countdown to Christmas!

This week saw a couple of special events come through our calendar...

First up is a Halloween party order for the lovely Bron and her family. Half of the order was for "naked cupcakes" (the client had ordered special deco's especially from the USA for the occasion) in Halloween colours of orange, purple and black. The black was in the foil cases, and the purple and orange came through in the vanilla bean buttercream frosting.

The second half of the order was for gingerbread cookies, deocrated in colours to match. We had three designs of pumpkins, ghosts and bats (not pictured), all decorated with royal icing in purple, orange and white, bagged and tied.

Our other very special order this week was for a Cup Day Cake. The order specified "Elegant Frivolity" with white and silver being the only colour specifics. I think this cake fills the design brief to a "T"!

It turns out that this was a surprise wedding (which I already suspected; how many folks order this sort of cake for Melbourne Cup Day at home?) immediately after the horses crossed the finish line...

We are also busy making hundreds of butterflies for a wedding cake coming up shortly, and finalising our Christmas cookie and cupcake designs... stay tuned for their release on November 15th!

Coming up next week - not much I hope! I have tentatively pencilled in a weekend off to remember that I have a husband and family who like to see me once in a while! But watch this space, as I am sure somthing will interrupt my well laid plans!

Have a great week everyone!