02 August 2010

Still Alive and Kicking

   My clients certainly bring out the best in me. This cake was made for a lady who loooves the Tasmanian Devil. She has everything from license plates and kitchen ware to collectibles so when it came time to decide what she wanted for a cake - there could be nothing else. Sure, I vamped him up a little and personified him to be more like her eg. the jewellery, the long nails and the wine glass but who doesn't want to see their favourite character made like them? It's the best time to make a cake when you're pretty much allowed to do whatever you want along the theme.
  I love it when I can still bring a tear to the eye - a happy one that is!!


This following car cake was a child's favourite toy brought to life. I was hoping he wouldn't notice that it was gone from his collection in the week after the order was confirmed and I needed the toy to give me the three dimensionality to make the cake correct. Because of this cake I have another lady who has brought me her childs' favourite toy to copy. So life goes on!



With Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton hitting DVD's, a lot of fans have commented on creating theme birthday cakes around the dark movie concept. Of course Johnny Depp was involved with Burton's wife - Helena Bonham Carter and with both of them being favourites of myself who could possibly turn down this project? 
  I had to include the Mad Hatters' hat with the cheshire cat, one of the cakes from the tea party, the teapot Alice hides in - with Alice climbing up in her curtain frock, and the mushroom with Absolom smoking his pipe. For the evil character I used one of the red queens' playing cards hiding around the back of the cake. I wanted to make the Rabbit too but time was against me so I placed his fob watch on the board instead. Sometimes I need to know when to stop!

 
  Funnily enough my neighbour across the road was given my number by a friend of hers. She was having a arty for her partner and wanted to incorporate the football team he loves - so Brisbane Bronco's also get a mention in this post with this football cake. His name was signed on the top as if he was the star of the day.
My uncle and his grandson also had their birthday party together this last month. So I tried to incorporate the two ideas together. My Uncle Giuseppe is a formworker by trade and so I used some images of a layout as the base on a wooden floor with two stacked bricks as the actual cake - made of 'Brick cake" too. Then scribbled Isaac's name across them as if he'd been playing near his Uncle causing mischief. I also used cake to create the beer as it was time to relax and not work!


Another customer asked me to create a pirates treasure chest for her little boy. Having only ever made a simple one before I thought that it was time to go to town on the decorations. I added the pirates map, his birthday note as well as lolly jewels and iced jewels to create an over the top effect. She was very happy.
With Debbie Brown in town giving lessons, I had to book myself in. I have all her books and fell in love with her work from many years ago. She's so fast and such a great teacher, the smile on my face says it all. I chose her Ganesh figurine class for two reasons: the first being that it was the most difficult and I love a challenge. The second, for time - it was on a Monday which is my quietest day. Also, I'm glad to see many more cakes made with a distinctly Indian flavour in the design. 
  Many years ago, I had created a dummy cake for the shop I decorated for which i absolutely loved. Unfortunately, orange was definitely not a colour most brides would choose and the design disappeared. I must have been ahead of my time!
  The Ganesh figurine has inspired me to make more cakes with interesting themes.


Well that's all I have time for - but I'll be intouch as soon as I can. A.


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