Jack's 1st Birthday - Jungle animals

MARCH 2011

Kelly did all the baking for these cakes which made my life much easier.

CUPCAKES
When I found the jungle cupcake toppers it was perfect for Jack's birthday.

Kelly and I took about 4-5 hours creating the fondant cupcake toppers a week in advance.

We used templates found on the net and coloured the fondant to suit each element of each animal. www.chicaandjo.com/2009/04/07/zoo-animal-cupcakes

For the lion mane I used a textured roller and for the fine detail work in black I used an edible marker.

I used a craft knife to cut out the shapes and a scone cutter for the lion.

The eyes and small details were quite difficult to get right.






To personalise the cupcakes I created a zebra pattern with white and black fondant. I cut strips of black and rolled it into the white, then cut out letters to make 'Jack'.


'1' CAKE
The idea behind the '1' was to match the invitation.

I cut the two log cakes in half and created a double layer '1'. These were placed onto a silver cardboard and I cut around the shape for stability.

The fondant was chocolate fondant pre made and ready to roll.

The cakes were filled with butter cream using shortening (cocoa added for some flavour). The cakes were covered in buttercream and the chocolate fondant rolled on top.

This was my first time moulding fondant over an odd shape and it wasn't all together bad. I found the chocolate fondant harder to work with than white fondant. It was much stiffer.

The covered cake was placed onto another cardboard for presentation and buttercream used to pipe star shapes all around the base.

The spots were white fondant coloured to match the yellow, green, pink and blue. These were cut in varying sizes using circle shaper cutters.




CREATING THE THEME
To bring the cupcakes alive we used a cake board, covered it in green tissue paper with clear plastic over the top and then added green and yellow cardboard cut to look like long grass.

Sarah's 30th Birthday - Artists palette

JANUARY 2011

Sarah's party theme was 'come with your face painted'so it was only fitting she have a cake that represented that same theme.

I made a single tier pound cake with chocolate fudge filling.

For the butter cream I used Sno Creme which provides a much whiter base rather than using butter and it being yellow in colour. Love this and will use it every time now.

I started a couple of weeks in advance making all the accessories. I used pre-made modelling paste to form the brush, bristles, paint circles, the stars and also formed some bottles.

I then found a font I liked and cut out the numbers with wire through them so they would stand up on the cake. Turns out they were a bit too heavy so I needed to put some reinforcement behind them on the day.

I used wire for the stars which probably wasn't thick enough as the stars were a bit too heavy when on the cake.

I searched for edible glitter and all that is around is gelatin so it wasn't the sparkle I wanted. Cake shops also sell glitter that is non toxic but not technically edible. I used this on parts that didn't have to be eaten.

To complete the paint palette I used black fondant and pressed the modelling paste circles into it. I then used gel to make it look like wet paint.

For the bottles, I painted them in edible silver paint and made fondant labels.

For the paint brush, I used non toxix crayon and mixed a brown colour. I painted a small amount in silver and finished with some narrow black strips of fondant.

The entire cake was covered in ivory fondant. I considered zebra print but was concerned it might look too 'busy.

To finish the cake's face paint theme I added freehand splashes of fondant with lustre dust.

Darryl's 60th Birthday

DECEMBER 2010

This was quite a big piece of work.

I ended up using styrofoam for the top layer so I could prepare it ahead of time.

I created fondant balls to look like golf balls and baseballs and set them to the side. I also prepared '60' numbers to paint later on.

The top layer was covered with red fondant and black fondant to resemble a stage (both pre coloured from Caroline's Sugar Art). I then added edible silver balls one by one and fixed the toy drum set with wire. I painted the numbers with edible silver paint.

I tried making gum paste balls but didn't find that I could keep the shape as well. They set completely hard so would have been better in the long run as the fondant balls were a bit sticky after being in a container. Should have left them out in the air.





The bottom cake is rick chocolate cake (Green's packet mix). It took 3 mixes to fill the 30cm pan.

I put wet tea-towels around the cake tin which helps the cake to rise evenly.

I did a test run to find out how long the large cake needed to cook for so the actual cake worked well.

I cut the top off to level and then cut it in half. I think I filled it with buttercream and covered it in ivory fondant. I placed black fondant over the top.






I personalised the cake with all the hobbies Dad has or has had and information about his accomplishments and life. The balls were placed into the cake with toothpicks.

The cake was displayed on a silver painted lazy susan.

Deb's Birthday (2)

APRIL 2010

This is the 'failed' birthday cake that I simply ran out of time to do properly.

The cake is a chocolate cake (or could be red velvet) with cocoa butter cream filling and covering.

The paws and bone are made from chocolate modelling chocolate.

Deb's Birthday - Present

APRIL 2010

I set out with great plans of doing a birthday cake for work, for friends and for family. In the end it was a bit too much and I only ended up with one decorated cake. I took this into work.

I think this one was a basic butter cake (aka pound cake). I can't remember if I filled the cake - maybe with chocolate fudge.

I made the mistake of making everything from scratch - the fondant and the modelling chocolate. One or the other probably would have been fine. I can't bring myself to make fondant again because you see how much icing sugar goes into it which kind of ruins the beautiful flavour :-)

I made white modelling chocolate which is notoriously hard to do and also did milk chocolate modelling chocolate. This was really hard to work with and get warm enough to be pliable. Probably need to try a few more techniques like the microwave and leaving out longer. I coloured the white chocolate to be pink and purple using chocolate colouring powder.

I cut strips of the modelling chocolate and formed them to make bow parts and put it all together on the cake. I finished the ribbon with strips of modelling chocolate.

The cake was covered with butter cream and ivory fondant. I then cut out modellign chocolate stars and had Guy roll modelling chocolate balls.

Guy's 30th Birthday - Disco

FEBRUARY 2010

Guy's party was an ode to his TimeWarp clubbing days at Heaven.

His cake needed to match the theme and I had the idea of a disco ball but didn't think I could make a ball on my first cake attempt.

I settled for a tiered cake with a disco ball I happened to have at home placed on top.

The top tier was actually just fondant over a square cake tin.

The bottom tier was a Mississippi Mud Cake. It was a packet cake bought from Caroline's Sugar Art. Needed 2 packets for the large cake.

I don't think I sliced the cake in half and filled it.

The covering is butter cream then ivory fondant. I brushed it with lustre dust and placed the edible silver balls on one-by-one.

I was happy with this for a first attempt.