Failure Notification

What with this fantastic weather we have been having of late - and yes, most of you think it's too cold but for cakes..............puuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrfect! It's been a fabulous and busy couple of months and I've only just had the chance to sit back on a Saturday afternoon whilst waiting on clients to pop in.
  The sun is shining and warming through the venetian slats in my office. I could almost have an afternoon siesta but no time like the present to organise myself and at least let everyone know that yes, beneath all the cakes, orders and icing - i am still alive and not a complete failure to the human population who manage to write their blogs weekly or god-forbid even daily.

  Where to start? May as well throw myself into the deep end and just keep going.
  This lovely creation on the left was an addition to a family and having made his older sister's first birthday cake, Mum thought it only fitting Jack's was made in a similar style but for a boy instead.
  I was extremely happy with the outcome of the teddy bears and thought they added character to a simple design.
  The stripes on the board were an addition from Jack's pin-strip outfit for the special day.



  Above was Mum & Dad's Anniversary cake...no - not mine but a customers'. The lady requested a campervan as they love to take off and have some 'alone' time now that the kids are old enough. Puppy can't miss out so he was made to be included too. Good to see the romance is still alive.

This cake has been extremely popular of late with cocktail style weddings. The guests can help themselves and there's something for everyone - from chocolate dipped strawberries and custard filled profiteroles through to jam bulls' eye biscuits and vanilla butter cream patty cakes. MMMMMmmmmmm.

Sometimes a gesture of a wedding cake is enough to tantalise the taste buds. Below, was a small wedding cake for a couple who had already married overseas and their parents were holding a small celebration in honour of the union.

With most animal novelty cakes, happy and fun is usually the way to go. However this is not always the case. A happy crocodile still looks mean and although you should never smile at one, I just can't seem to help myself.  This was originally a "Cake Star" design which the client emailed me and I reproduced it to the best of my extent.

My next door neighbour's little girl has a complete fascination with ducks. In the late afternoon, you can hear her calling out to them for feeding time. I thought this an apt design as she even has one called "Elvis". Being a huge Elvis fan - I almost included his coif but then thought he may look too masculine. So Rayban's eat your heart out!

Elegant and sophisticated - sometimes a small touch of bling is enough to sparkle up a cake.   The best thing is the topper is a keepsake for the birthday girl.

Who isn't a fan of the Fender base guitar when they look awesome in red?  Mind you, the bigger the cake needs to be - the bigger the board - and that's the biggest board I can get commercially.  Maybe I'll need to start cutting up my own Masonite? But where does it end? The boxes will then need to be made bigger and the customers will need to show up in small trucks - just to take their cakes home!! Lol.

Classically traditional bible cakes have been made since I started into this industry. But at least they can have a  modern twist with brighter colours.

I thought this cake was a bit of a catch-22 when I was first given the order. For a kid who loves to eat his fruit, this cake had a lot of sugar! Maybe a way around it would have been to use real fruit with faces appliqued onto the front?

The concept was novel though and it was fun to try to recreate the fruits with their texture to imitate real life.

 I love hearing the back stories on some of these cakes. You have everything from clients who call and want traditional standard cake designs to parents in another State who want to remind their children that they are still special.

Grant was one lucky guy who's mum rang from Melbourne to organise his chocoholic surprise at his work! I delivered during a meeting no less so now the whole company knows it was his birthday!

 Hawaiian luau. Apart from the palm trees which were so hard to find at the last minute - this cake has all sugar items. The small intricate Hawaiian dancers were all made of sugar and placed into position around the cake to create a full effect.

 For some special children, parents go all out. Daddy proudly did right by his daughter with this fantastic work of art. With a 70's hippy theme there was one very happy little girl! The marble effect on the kombi van with the "Peace & Love" signs and extras made this cake a visual stunner from all sides.

 Tiger Island - Dreamworld. It's been ages since I've been there and I used to be a complete adrenalin ride junkie. Even down to the Wonderland pass when I lived in Sydney during late high school days. When i delivered this cake it was great to have a behind the scene's look at the park after closing.
  The couple had chosen Tiger Island and I was sooo jealous. I love cat's of any size and could just imagine having them with me on my special day.
 had a ball.
 

Medieval Dragons have always been a huge part of me. When this gorgeous couple came and told me of their idea to incorporate them into their wedding cake, I was stoked at trying my hand at making them. It was the first time I have ever used edible casting gel and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, at all.

Making the first two took a bit of time but then it was smooth sailing. The concept of the border was taken from one of their favourite illustrated books. Using a Celtic style border painted gold and the green ivy to represent growth and union.

On my Facebook page they posted a photo of the finished cake. One of their close friends and gusts at the wedding uses "World of Warcraft"  style figurines and personalises them. She created the Bride & Groom with their own Dragon as a small token on top of the cake. What a lovely idea and you can't top that for a memory of a lifetime.

 For most women, dancing stops when you get older - for some it just keeps on going! What with the Dance flick craze that mostly everyone seems to be following today - who wants to be a star/dancer/model etc...it's harder to escape than ever before.
  Parody shows take the mickey out of the dance movies and yet we can't keep falling back onto old classics. Some which are currently being remade (like "Footloose") should be left as reminders that cheesy is great once - not twice!

 "My Little Pony". Never a big toy for me personally but cute never-the-less.  They appear so easy to make yet the shape is hard to re-create in icing. You live and learn, I guess.
  The final cake design was pretty and likable for a little girl.

 Yum - who else eats Nutella by the spoonful straight out of the jar????

  One of my worst habits that my Mother is still disappointed about. My niece's and nephews seem to take after me though as they do it too.

  So who better to reproduce the jar they love soo much than me? I loved making this cake and the birthday girl is also having her wedding cake made by me.

  How sweet!

 

That's the end for today my deviant fiends. Hope you like the onslaught of photos and stories and I will(fingers crossed - hope to die) try to not fail in posting again tomorrow.

That way we can all catch up on some well earned rest!

Sleep well.





It's a Piece of Cake!

  No seriously, I mean it - making cakes just seems to come naturally to me. Mum says I have more patience with my cake detailing than I have had in my whole life! I think it just comes from loving what you do. I can sit and make cakes, watch other people making cakes and search the internet for cake inspirations to the 'enth degree. I eat, sleep and dream cakes...how sad is my life?

  The following was an inspiration from the Japan earthquake/tsunami disaster. My sister and her family live in Tokyo and talking to her on the phone during the whole event had me constantly worrying and feeling for the Japanese people. Their culture is one of peace and haapiness. Everything they do is done to perfection...even their faulty crockery is made specifically to be faulty! I loved my brief stay in Japan last year and if I had the chance I would fly back in a second.

  I get to the point where sometimes it feels like everything I do is cake and my friends complain they never see me or I don't socialise enough. Funny thing is, that when I do it's usually because of cake! A friend orders a cake and I'm there... at the party...why? because of the cake.

  Funny enough - I swear I do think of my friends and catch up on reading what they're up to in their lives (admittedly it's usually on Facebook) and interject with funny/witty comments when I can - funny and witty to me that is. I live vicariously through their holidays and happy moments and wish them all the best in their lives and hope that we can find the time to sit down and have a laugh. But ultimately I'm back to my cakes.

  Another pastry chef told me the other day that my talent was wasted on cakes. I have to say I disagree. I love the fact that my cakes are made and destroyed. They are loved by my clients and hopefully I play a small but significant part in their memories of happy times with friends and family. Then in the years to come if I did my job right, they will be sitting at a table looking over photographs or reminiscing and remembering the time when they had that amazing cake...'you remember the one with the great sculpture' or 'never had another that tasted so moist and beautiful'. That's what makes cake decorating a fantastic job.

  Watching what people are doing in cake decorating around the world lends great inspiration to future cake designs. The "Great Cake-Off" showed on Foxtel recently made me think of making cakes that move/rotate, light up and explode. It's such a pity that in Australia we have laws to prevent us from using fireworks and explosives. But hey, there are many other ways to achieve similar results. Start small and move to the bigger and better eventually!

  Sorry the below clip is side on- I have yet to discover particular aspects of my camera or how to turn the clip once made...I will get there though!

 

With a kiss & a hug on St.Valentines' Day

Having made deliveries all around Brisbane of late: sometimes all in the one day - it's good to see the city getting back to normal and underway again. With the floods making such an impact on business' everywhere and the price of flour and sugar rising with the waters, we're finally starting to see things level out.

Between cakes for functions on the north side and then dropping and setting cakes up down the coast, I've felt like a veritable yo-yo.

Found the above photo on the Internet whilst perousing through photos of flood affected areas... says it all really.



 Parties did still take place. I think a lot of Brisbane saw the chance to lift their spirits with family get-togethers and festive occasions. Just a way to forget their circumstances I suppose.
  There were a couple of cancellations and I hope that those families were able to get back on their feet as quickly as possible.
  It was great to see the way Brisbane supported it's fellow countrymen in this time of need.
  I made a trip down to West End to see if they could use a hand down there and took 2 cakes with me which were devoured within moments.
  But the thing that struck me the most was that whilst working and cleaning, people talked with each other and smiled and swapped stories.
  It's moments like these that I'm glad we moved to Brisbane.

  The Barbie convertible on the right was a surprise birthday cake for a lady from a friend who wanted to remain incognito... I delivered the cake to the lady's office in town where it received many a grin from colleagues. 

 These two little girl cakes were a pleasure to make with Strawberry Shortcake making a comeback and Tinkerbell being the belle of the ball.

 This was definitely a first - I've done divorce cakes in the past but never something so risque!

  There's always a new theme for a cake. I even dream about them!

 

   All the details on this cake were hand-painted to recognise the voyage of a lifetime the clients' father had taken to start his new life here in Australia so long ago. The client found passport and birthda certificate photos alonmg with newspaper clippings of the boat he travelled on for me to use as reference for this cake.

 Childrens' cakes always keep me going - what with new themes and old ones which have both parents and children in awe of the cake.

  Then there's moments like this 'bread tag' cake...WTF? I say in jest!

  I was completely thrown with this concept. A lovely girl turning 21 with a collectible hobby for bread tags...yes, I repeat again bread tags.

  She collected them from bread bought for home originally but has since expanded her reportoire to now include bread tags from elsewhere.

 Keeping it simple is always a plus. Repeat customers of mine Carly and Michael were celebrating their daughters Christening. Using wire swirls with iced baubles on the end modernised the theme for this cake and made it stand out more than usual while still incorporating the invitations filigree work.

  Last of all I would love to say a HUUUGGEEE thank-you to all my clients who find the time after their big event to write back to me regarding their cake.

  Whether it's a quick line to say 'thank-you' or a lovely sentiment with photo included, it is always appreciated. It means that I'm doing something right and that I'm making their day that extra-little bit special.