Father's Day

   Father's day came and went, amidst the mayhem that was September I even made time for dad cakes. Both were coffee cake with plain butter cream frosting and fondant. I shamelessly used these two cakes to try and figure out how to cover a cake with a single sheet of fondant. I think I did alright, what creases were left I disguised with decorations and no one even noticed.

   First I decorated my future father in law's cake, which is why its a little more thick looking and less delicate. I also went with a more cartoony decoration because he is the father to five kids and I thought it would look fun.

    The second cake was for my own father and I rolled the fondant a bit thinner which is why it has crisper edges. I wanted to have a little fun playing with a more mature design and also practice my piping, so I took inspiration from the classic Wedgwood collection. And yet again I couldn't help putting bling on a cake!

There will be cake...

   What do you make for a guy that loves computer games? A PORTAL cake!

   More specifically an Aperture Corp. Weighted Companion Cube. This particular cake was made from lemon sponge with plain butter cream frosting and fondant in greys and pink.

   As it was my first time trying to carve a cake into shape and cover one with fondant, I think it turned out well indeed. To try to limit travel destruction I made the corners with a foam core covered in fondant, otherwise they would have been to heavy and ripped off the cake at the worst possible moment. In the end I simply had to pull them off to serve the cake, and it was minor damage for the point two of a second it took people to eat it.

Uncle Jeff's B'Day

   Hello again! Been awhile... 

   These are some pictures of the cupcakes I made for my uncle's birthday/house renovation get together. My grandmother (his mother) is gluten intolerant so I made these gluten free chocolate cuppies with ganache frosting and white fondant flowers I made. 

   They're a non-realistic flower obviously, I was going for the look of some of the block print patterns you see on modern fabrics and then I put dragees on 'cause I likes a bit of bling.

Kiri's 21st

   No one can accuse me of not taking enough photos this time! All the effort of learning how to make sugar roses for my own birthday was just the tip of the ice burg. Kiri and her cakes were the real reason I went many a late night in July, but I think the results speak for them selves. And so, I give you the birthday girl!

 

    I was actually afraid that I may have made her cake to girly, but when I got the photo of her with her cake, I thought it was just girly enough. I was told by the birthday girl and her sister (who was the person who initially contacted me) that she likes pink and is a very girly girl. Except for the yellow (I didn't have any whitener for the butter cream so I had to embrace the yellow...) and the peachy tones to some of the roses which gives the top a grandma vibe, I think it turned out really well! Oh! And the cake was Devil's Food Cake with butterscotch schnapps cream filling and vanilla bean butter cream icing.

   The cake was made for a more family orientated crowd of about 15, but she also wanted cupcakes made for a party of 25 for her friends at Cloudland. Boy was I intimidated by the idea that my cuppies were going to as fancy a place as Cloudland! So I knew they needed to be pretty spiffy to not fade into the background. I think I did quite well actually.

 

   I continued the  pink garden theme with a main cuppie that I topped with the most intricate rose I have made to date but gave it black leaves and silver sparkle to give it a little more modern look. I surrounded that with mini cuppies I covered with small plain flowers in varying shades of pink making a hydrangea feel. After that i went a with a less realistic look but totally awesome, fabulous almost tropical space-flower.

 

 

    Do I need to keep going, or do you understand just how much I love these cuppies? They were all the same Devil's Food Cake but with vanilla bean and/or raspberry butter cream frosting. The petals were white chocolate I painstakingly melted, smeared and set in a curl. I'm sure there are easier ways to do it, but I don't know how, so I just made it up as I went along... I love them!

    Still love them...

    There aren't too many pictures, are there? When I was frosting and putting the chocolate petal flowers together I had to keep stopping for dancing fits because I was so proud of how they were turning out, I felt like a cupcake god! They were AWESOME!

P.S.

   Just thought I would share some shots I took of the mayhem created by making this many fancy cuppies...

My birthday... finally

   I know that in the last post I said I would try to do this more often, but the June/July period was such an emotional and physical drain that I kept putting it off- and then my keyboard broke! So, I have plugged a keyboard into my laptop and am getting back on the blogging horse.

    It was my 27th birthday on the24th of June, and I already knew I was going to need to make sugar flowers for another cake project, so I used my own birthday to learn/practice making roses. MANY roses later and I had my beautiful purple/grey buttercream covered devil's food cake with raspberry filling and topped with a small posey of red roses.

    To go with it I also made a dozen cupcakes with mini rose buds.

    I went out to party, ate well, drank lots and all in the company of friends!

So, I've been away awhile...

   So, I've been away awhile... New job takes up most of my time and energy. Between that and barely staying on top of my laundry I have to scrape time together to work on cake planning for someone else's birthday and planning my own birthday this Friday. Throw in a traumatic pet death and you have one hell of a fortnight! Slowly getting there, getting into a rhythm with work and building stamina back up for long days... Anyway, I just put my finished invite up for my birthday and this is what it looks like:

   Not too bad for half an hour at midnight after a full day at work. On a Sunday. Not the best either, but its good enough for me! I'll come back with progress pics of my rose making...

The cake idea...

   The girl who I was putting the "Let Them Eat Cake" idea together for is now having her party at an awesome club that would drawn out any attempt a guest could make to have a theme, so I have embraced the decor of the club as a theme and the birthday girl's love of girly and pink as a guideline to follow.

{the venue, isn't it beautiful?}

   I have spent awhile thinking about what I am personally capable of and what cake I would like to make her and how big a cake 30 people can eat... In the end I decided on two tiers done mad hatter style wonky and it had to have some sort of flowers or plant life with parallel lines and dots and swirls. All in pinks. And gems. And silver...

   To much? I think not! Probably going to have to go with faux flowers though as I don't personally have the time to make a hand full of sugar ones...

P.S.

   Sorry I haven't been posting as of late, I got a job that's leaving me drained most days and I just had a traumatic pet death. Still have to plan my own b'day celebrations, yay me!