Saturday, April 17, 2010

Birthday Cake | Baby Shower Cake | Melbourne

Wow, it's now just over halfway through April - where has the year gone?  Is everyone else's year flying past as fast as mine?  The hot-cross buns are now {finally!} gone fromthe bakery shelves, but before we can say Jiminy Cricket, the Chrissie Deco's will be on sale...!!

I hope everyone had a great Easter?  I had a fabulous break, but not so much my husband, who spent every waking moment ripping up our concrete driveway and replacing it with a herringbone pattern brick pave... and is still at it as I type, finishing it off.  It should look fabulous when it's complete.

So, you do't come here to read about my driveway, you come to read (and look at) cakes, so here we go:

Two birthdays and a baby shower this week:

First up, a birthday cake directly inspired by the great Peggy Porschen.  I had fallen in love with her design when I first opened the book it features in - Cake Chic.  Parisian in style, and very pretty in execution... I do hope that the Birthday Girl enjoyed it!

The cake is two tiers of Caramel Dream, and torted {base} with mocha buttercreme and {top} caramel buttercreme.  Fondant over ganache, with sugarpaste accents and royal icing piping.



Next up is another birthday cake, this time for Bob, who is also a builder!  It always gets a laugh when Bob pops in to see clients who have young children... when he is introduced as "the real Bob the Builder" their mouths round... and he also takes quite a bit of slack for it too... and what better way to celebrate than with a Bob the Builder cake?

The cake is a 5/4 single tier in Traditional Sponge, torted with Strawberry Mouselline and preserves, with fondant over ganache.  The decorations are edible images mounted on fondant bumpers to give a slight 3D effect.





Last cake for this week is a baby shower cake for Mel. 

A two tier cake, with a 5/4 base tier and a 3/4 top tier.  Both in Chocolate Fudge.  The base is torted with mocha, caramel and two layers of vanilla buttercremes, and the top is torted with mocha and caramel buttercremes.  White fondant over ganache.

The base is decorated with a layer of crystal cake sparkles, and the top tier is decorated with a melange of nursery icons (bunnies, duckies, bears and rocking horses) in white for subtlety, and finsihed with a due of sugarpaste ruffled flowers in pink and blue, as Mel wanted to keep guests guessing as to the sex of the baby.



Now, I've also promised you a look at some sneak shots for a themed party spread I will be creating in a little while... I'm not going to give too much away today, BUT, the theme is Marie Antoinette, and here are some sneakies from the cake:





I'll post up more details (a theme board perhaps, what do you think?) in the next post.  Think pastel colours, metallics, and pretty china.  You get the idea, right?  And of course, I'll post the entire shoot right here for you all to see once it's in the can.

Next orders are for an Anzac memorial cake, and a wedding... an interesting mix!

Happy baking!