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!

Week ending 25 October 2009

Two birthdays and a wedding... that's what we've been up to this past week, and it was a lot of work!

First up we had the wedding of Allie and Pete, at the amazingly beautiful Eynesbury Estate. The theme for the wedding was bright and colourful, and I think the end result certainly met that design brief!

The cupcakes were a mix of vanilla bean and white truffle raspberry, and all decorated with white fondant over buttercream, and decorated with a hand piped, pair of wedding rings painted with edible gold lustre.

The co-ordinating cutting cake was to celebrate the heritage of the bride and groom - the Union Jack for Allie, and the Sri Lankan flag for Peter. The cake itself is flourless orange and poppyseed, torted with ganache. I'm really pleased with how this cake turned out, given how much is going on with the design!

On top of all the cupcakes on the stand (which was half the order), the balance were boxed in acrylic cubes supplied bu the couple, tied with a bow, and stacked ready and waiting for collection:

Next in the order book was a birthday cake for Mia (we have now done Mia's christening cupcakes, her parents wedding cake and cupcakes, and now her 1st birthday cake!)... Mia's Mum loved the ballet- inspired mini cakes we did for a ballet troupe some time ago, and wanted to incorporate that design into Mia's cake... a 1.

The cake is vanilla bean, torted with vanilla bean buttercream, and is covered in white fondant over ganache.

Here is a detail shot of the ballet skirts:

Last order on the books for the week is another 1st birthday, this time for Summer. Bright and cheerful is the order brief, in orange and pinks, and our signature "Daisies and Dots" decorating style.

A cutting cake is also part of the order, which we think looks amazing:

Vanilla bean cake, torted with vanilla bean buttercream, with white fondant over ganache. The matching cupcakes are vanilla bean buttercream, and chocolate fudge, in orange and pink foil cases, with our "Daisies and Dots" in orange and pink. All together, they look fantastic!

Next week, it's Halloween central!

Week ending 18 October 2009

OK, I know... it's been a while - quite a while! Busy, busy, busy is all I can offer as reason behind my absence. Sorry!

Here is a small sampling of what we have been up to while away from the blog:

First up, we had another red and white wedding. Java Jolt cupcakes were the flavour of the day, with white fondant over vanilla bean buttercream, and topped with my camelia-roses, this time in red/red... I think they look stunning, and the bride was thrilled.

Then, our first of two Target catalogues came out, with a really funky cupcake stand supported by our cupcakes:

Then there was Gace's wedding, and our first official departure from "Just Cupcakes", as Grace's order was for a full size cake only. The design brief was white, romantic, girly, and to take direct inspiration from the haute couture catwalks of the current season...

This is the result of that design brief:

Swiss dots (to match the swiss dot tulle in Grace's veil), and a petal skirt (a current design trend from the US), with a pink camelia-rose (a la Coco Chanel).

The cake itself is built of three flavours - bottom tier of chocolate fudge, middle tier caramel mud, and top tier vanilla bean. All torted with vanilla bean buttercream, with fondant over ganache.

These cookies were placed on platters at each table for the reception:

Our next project is Sweet Charity. These cupcakes were provided to the VCA-ATOD for a fundraising event held at their new Melbourne campus dance studios on Saturday and Sunday last (10th and 11th).

We have since heard that not only were the cupcakes a highlight of the event, but that they reached their fundraising target to boot - congratulations!

In the middle of all that, we received a call from Tonya for some "alternative" gingerbread men for her "Girls Night In" event.

These hot pink, lustred, fleur de lis gingerbread cookies are what we came up with. Almost 6" in length, they were bagged and beribboned for the client, and they went over a treat!

Last but not least on our action-packed calendar of late is the wedding of Jennifer and Gil. The reception was held at the lovely Le Gourmet restaurant in East Melbourne. The weather was Melbourne's typical "pouring rain one minute, sunny the next", and I THINK that the sun held out just long enough for the lovebirds to tie the knot in our stunning Fitzroy Gardens.

White truffle raspberry, decorated in our signature whimsical style in shades of blue, and chocolate fudge cupcakes with a buttercream swirl in Wedgewood blue and a large whimsical butterfly were the cupcakes du jour. The matching cutting cake was Jaffa, torted with ganache, and pale Wedgewood blue fondant over ganache.

The personalised cake topper was provided by the client - aren't they the cutest couple?

Oops, almost forgot... our latest Target catalogue was also released last week, and this is the first time our cupcakes have been used for a non-homewares feature - this time, they were the supporting role for the girlswear, Spring Racing Carnival fashion story...

Coming up this week, we have a wedding and two 1st birthday celebrations - stay tuned!

Week ending 27 September 2009

This week was a busy one...

First up on the Tuesday we had our photoshoot (which we talked about in our last post here), and that was an experience - especially when the studio rang to say that the photos were corrupted and it would all have to be reshot! (Glad I'm not the photographer!)

We had some floral weork in the middle of the week and runniong around with appointments, then onto the sweet stuff at the end of the week.

First up was a Friday wedding for Jackie and Peter, held at Potters in Warrandyte.

The spec was for Asiatic lillies with hot pink, with silver, white and hot pink accents.

This is the result of that design brief:

A cutting cake of vanilla bean, torted with vanilla bean buttercream, with white fondant over ganache. A single Asiatic lilly sits on top of the cake, and the base of the cake is banded by a hot pink satin ribbon.

The co-ordinating cupcakes were a mixture of vanilla bean and chocolate fudge, all in silver cases, with white fondant over vanilla bean buttercream, and decorated with a swirly monogram of the couples' initials in hot pink royal icing.

Next order on the calendar was for a 50th birthday high tea, where the overall theme was the colour lavendar. So we went a bit to town with this one, as what else can you do for a high tea but be grand?!

So, vanilla bean cupcakes in silver cases were the order of the day, with lilac fondant over vanilla bean buttercream. Three decorative styles made up the order; 1 - purple hydrangea blossoms with pink royal icing centres and some baby lilac edible glitter; 2 - lilac sugarpaste butterfly with an edible silver glitter body and a pink "...50..." piping detail; 3 - dark purple rosebuds with lavendar royal icing polka dot details and baby lilac edible glitter (not pictured)

Las order on the books for the weekend was a mini-cupcake order for a 2nd birthday celebration with a Dora the Explorer theme. Plain and simple was the request (2 year olds are not big on fussy details!), in the Dora colours of pink, purple and orange.

Vanilla bean mini-cupcakes in white foil cases, with vanilla bean buttercream snail-shell swirls, topped by sugarpaste hearts with a royal icing "2" motif, and royal icing 5-petal flowers again in Dora's colours of purple, pink and orange.

This week we haveappointments up the rahzoo, and our last Expo for the year is this coming Sunday, at Amberlee Estate in Cranbourne. We will also be putting the finishing touches to a cupcake fundraiser where we hope to be the sole cupcake sponsor, so when details for that are locked away, I shall spill all.

Here is the link for the Amberlee Expo... looking forward to seeing you there!

Week ending 20 September 2009

Sorry folks, life has been so busy these past couple of weeks that I completely missed posting for the 13th of September, and here it is the 22nd already, and I am only just posting for the 20th!

Well, as of 12:15pm today, the photoshoot for Melbourne Wedding and Bride is done.

Here is a teaser shot of what will be on newstands from December 2009:

So, what else have we been working on for the past couple of weeks you ask?

Well, answering the phone a lot, that's for sure! The level of enquiry that I am receiving at the moment is huge, thank you! Enquiries are ranging from short-term (as in, this Sunday!) to long term (November 2010!)... but they are all equally welcome, and they keep the days interesting - I love hearing about people's ideas, and how they want to incorporate cupcakes (and cookies too) and cakes into their big day.

Let's see, I took the Father's Day weekend off, and spent some quality time with my husband. Amazing, I know, and we even squeezed in another roast dinner for good measure!

Then we hit the kitchen pretty hard, with flower orders, and cupcake weddings, and a birthday, and a shower tea as well, which incorporated both cupcakes and cookies with messages of love on them. They were a huge hit, which is always great to hear.

So, onto the photos, which I know you want to see:

First up, the wedding of Trish and Pete. Pete is a muso, so music had to feature strongly throughout the wedding and celebration afterwards. What better way than to incorporate two musical symbols into the cake?

So, a mixture of white truffle and carrot cake cupcakes were the order of the day, with a matching caramel mud cutting cake. The decoration speaks for itself really - treble and base cleffs piped in royal icing and overpainted with edible silver lustre.

Then we had a Bridal Shower / Kitchen Tea for Sarah. The order of the day was pink and white, very girly, very "lovely". This is the result of that wish list:

Then we celebrated a 15th birthday with giant daisies on vanilla bean cupcakes. An army of daisy cupcakes in fact! For some reason, I couldn't get "Wee-ee-eed" (from 'Bill and Ben, the Flower Pot Men') out of my head when I was assembling these lovelies... (wee-ee-eed was their favourite word) - you be the judge:

Last up are some cupcakes I sort of threw together at the last minute for a meeting with one of my suppliers who did me a favour for some material for the cake stand for the Melbourne Wedding and Bride shoot...

Phew, so that's the thge last couple of week's photos out of the way... big wedding coming up next weekend, pink and white and silver, should look splendid, plus a High Tea for a 50th birthday... and designs for a fabulous Art Deco wedding to do, plus the next Target catalogue should be out next week too... here is a big look at the shot ('cause you can bet the shot in the catalogue will be teenie-tiny):

Plus a big cake design to work on, then after that, our last wedding expo for the year at Amberlee Estate in Cranbourne. More details on that next week!

Have a good week everyone!

Week ending 6th September 2009

Another busy week ahs passed us by, and it is now officially Spring, and there are only15 weeks until Christmas. How scary is that? Where has the year gone??

As usual, the best laid plans for some "me" time seemed to vanish into the ether, and we had four orders and another photoshoot demanding attention for the week!

First up was a 21st birthday for the lovely Paris.

These were a mixture of two designs and flavours. The first (pictured) were chocolate fudge cupcakes, with pink fondant over buttercream, and decorated with a royal icing "21" highighted with edible silver lustre.

The second (not pictured) were white truffle cupcakes with a pink buttercream swirl and decorated with a white paste star, overpiped with a royal icing "21" highlighted with pink lustre.

Our next order came in two parts. The first part were these gorgeous Birthday Gingerbread Men, for the birthday boy to take to school for all his classmates (and Teacher!) to enjoy. His Mum reported that they were a huge success! The theme was blue and green, so all the G-Men were trimmed with a lovely woven blue and green ribbon.

Second part of this order was for the following day for a family celebration - vanilla bean cupcakes again in shades of blue and green; this time decorated with blue sugar handmade Leggo pieces (propped on a royal icing swirl) with fondant over buttercream. The blue cupcakes were topped with a green paste "9".

Our final order was for a remote wedding at The Lakehouse in Daylesford. These were being collected by a relative, so unfortunately I don't have a photo of everything set up ready to go, but you can get the general idea below.

This order was comprised of lemon delicious cupcakes, decorated in two styles: First was a buttercream swirl topped with a red, double Dogwood blossom with white centre. Second was white fondant over buttercream, trimmed in a quilted pattern with small silver cachous and red mini-blossoms.

The matching cutting cake was dulce de leche, with caramel ganache under buttercream, and trimmed with a red chiffon ribbon and two red, double Dogwood blossoms.



Last on the board for this week was another photoshoot order, which we don't have pictures for yet - in fact, I don't know yet which catalogue it's goinmg into, or even if it was for Target! I do know it was for a girl's tea party shoot, and the colours were peachy pink and dirty blue, with little white flowers to feature... but that's it! Hopefully this week I'll see the picture and find out where it's destined to show up, so I can let you all know when to look out for it!

Next Week - well, next week is so far shaping up as it's booked... quiet (only a couple of orders) and lots of time to get my flowers done for the photoshoot on the 22nd for the Bridal mag. After that, well, that's prime Wedding Season right up until New Years. But that date is likely to book out soon too! Oh, well, no rest for the wicked!

Have a great week, and see you back here next Sunday!

Important News!!

We have a new contact phone number - 0411 162 132

Thanks to the "super smart" telephone salesperson who hit "disconnect" instead of "transfer carrier", we have had to get a new number issued... thanks to all my customers who alerted me to my disconnected status today!

Have a great weekend everyone, and see you SUnday with our weekly wrap-up!