Sugar Flowers

Who knew making sugar flowers could be so difficult?! These are the products of a four-week short course in sugar flowers. Let me know what you think. I hope to put up a tutorial soon. Stay tuned...

Birthday Boy

As I promised, here is a picture of the birthday boy. Although he is dressed up as the Grim Reaper it is hard to think of him as being the messenger of death with a great smile like that. 

Watch out Matthew! There's a spider on your cake.

Spooky Spider

One of the coolest 11 year olds that I know, Matthew, had a spooky-themed birthday party. He didn't give me too many instructions for the cake. Only that he wanted it to be scary and it somehow had to involve a spider. Here is the finished product. I hope he likes it, or rather, he is spooked by it. Hopefully, pictures of the birthday boy will be posted soon.

I made the base of the cake from two 8-cm butter cakes, grey buttercream icing and I piped the spider web with black buttercream icing, using a no.3 nozzle. Originally I considered using fondant, but I really dislike making black fondant because it takes forever to make it a true black. Buttercream icing takes much less colouring to make it a nice dark black colour. I also made a 3-cm butter cake for the body of the spider. His body is black buttercream icing using a small leaf piping nozzle. I thought it gave it a hairy look. The legs are pipe cleaners. The head is a "cake ball," which is basically cake crumbs and icing. I made the eyes and fangs with fondant.

Happy Birthday Charlise

The beautiful 3-year-old Charlise had a fantastical fairy party. Mum (Anna) asked me to ice these gluten-free cupcakes. At first I was a little sceptical about combining the fairy and pirate themes but upon Anna's persistence I was won over. Here is the birthday girl examining her cupcakes. She's a tough critic.

 

Baking with Kyra

I had one of the best Spring breaks ever! Baking with Kyra was just what the doctor ordered. You may not be able to tell from the pictures, because she is almost taller than me, but Kyra is one of the coolest 5th graders I know. We spent an awesome Tuesday in the kitchen with rice krispies, banana and chocolate. The results...well, I'll let you be the judge. 

Rice Krispy Bites. Side note: In Australia you cannot buy just white marshmallows, you have to buy them in a pack of pink and white marshmallows. I think I just found a new market for marshmallows.

 

Chocolate chip Banana Muffins (recipe from: www.taste.com.au)

Before

After

Wedding Cake

I couldn't believe it when a colleague at work asked me to make her sister-in-law's wedding cake. The bride wanted a beige cake, with brown ribbon around the edges. She was also very specific about the floral design and the print on the top layer. Taking into consideration her vision, I added a third layer to give the cake some height and drama. It took me forever to get the royal icing to the right consistency. But in the end I was really pleased with the way it looked. 

Becky's Baby Shower

This baby shower cake was for my dear friend Becky. I'm a little behind in posting these pictures. Her baby is now 9 months old! Better late than never. The bear is made from fondant. I love the clean look of fondant. In the past, I have been using buttercream under the fondant, however this time I put a layer of chocolate ganache under the fondant and I was much happier with the smoothness of the fondant. Tip of the day: I highly recommend using ganache over buttercream for the "under" layer. 

Me, Becky and Bianca

Happy birthday USA!

Even though I'm currently living in Melbourne, I still love and celebrate being American. I definitely miss 4th of July - the fireworks, bbq's and family. To feed my homesickness I made some cupcakes (of course). 

Cake Boss Audition

Thanks to one of my favourite bloggers Bakerella, I found out about the Cake Boss competition. For all those who are not familiar with the show, check it out here. Buddy (the boss) was looking for some novice cakers to compete on the show. I made it to the second stage and had to submit a video explaining why I should be on the show and demonstrate some skills. Click on Buddy's pictures to check out my video (many thanks to Trin and Dave for their video and editing talents extraordinaire).

Cake Boss Audition Video

Unfortunately, the Cake Boss competition show has not been picked up by TLC. But it was definitely worth the work and the cake was a hit!

The 70th Birthday Party of the Year

My father-in-law, Geoff, knows all there is to know about John Deere tractors. He couldn't have anything less than a John Deere cake for the big 7-0! This was a large cake (8"x16"). I also had to pull out all my piping tools. I smelled like icing sugar for the next week. Many thanks to my husband Russell for designing the cake and making sure we had just the right tractor.

  

Happy Birthday Ned

This was my first attempt to make a tiered cake. I was just happy that it didn't collapse. The first layer was butter cake and the second layer, carrot cake. Trying to make the twisted yellow rope between the two tiers was very difficult. It kept breaking. My tip to prevent breaking is to wet the fondant, making it softer and less brittle. I was very pleased with the way the bears turned out. They were way too cute to eat! 

Donuts, data and dolls

Last year the other teachers at work learnt of my baking bug and I was asked to make several birthday cakes. This has been a great opportunity to experiment.

Donuts
My first task was to make a donut cake. My inspiration was Homer Simpson. I used a donut-shaped cake  pan (I had to go to a speciality cake store to find one). I made two butter cakes using the pan and sandwiched them together using strawberry jam. For the icing I used a glace icing recipe, which was quite simply:

• icing sugar
• hot water (not boiling)
• food colouring

For the sprinkles, I cut Licorice Allsorts into little strips and placed them on the cake while the icing was still wet. Here is the result!

Data
The principal at school loves data and the Richmond Tigers whose colours are black, white and yellow. I tried to bring the two things together for his birthday cake. This was my first time using fondant. After numerous attempts to cover the cake I finally got it covered, with some minor imperfections in the corners. The graphs were also made using fondant and licorice.

Dolls
The doll cake was a real challenge. It took a lot of time to get a good shape for the skirt. I made a chocolate mud cake, but it was so heavy that it collapsed in itself. I made another cake to fill out the original cake. It took a lot of time but the result was well worth it. In the end, I loved the colour and the shimmer. Happy birthday Sharon, you're a doll!

Bon Voyage

My husband Russell is a musician with the Royal Australian Navy Band. Last year he was on a ship (to be more exact a frigate) for 6 months. The thought of him being away at sea for 6 months was really difficult. But planning a Bon Voyage party and making a cake into the shape of a lifesaver were great distractions. If you keep scrolling down you can see some pictures of some other sweet treats (thanks to my lil' sis Cathy for bringing the Hershey Kisses all the way from LA to Melbourne) and Russell in his uniform :o).

Two 8-cm butter cakes, with buttercream icing

Lemon Meringue Tarts

Peanut Butter Blossoms 

Too cute to resist.

Russell's Journey

Gotta love a man in uniform.

More Buttercream

Dave and Trin, being very trusting friends, let me make their son Ayden's 1st birthday cake. After taking the cake class this was the perfect opportunity to practise my piping skills.

Ayden's 1st Birthday - Quilt cake

(9"x18")

Novelty Cakes 101

The next part of my journey was signing up for a cake class. I love learning just as much as I enjoy teaching. My first task was to make a butterfly-shaped cake and decorate it. I started with a round, 8cm butter cake. After some cutting and re-shaping this was the outcome. I was pretty pleased with the shape and the icing. I have a new-found respect for those who work with buttercream. Tip of the day: Half fill your icing bag. The heat from your hand overheats the icing causing it to melt, particularly if you're working with it for awhile like I was because I kept making mistakes.

Hi!

Hello bloggers and friends. I'm entering the world of food blogging after being inspired by the likes of Bakerella and so many others before me. Let me introduce myself, my name is Christina. I grew up in El Segundo, California but now live in Melbourne, Australia with my husband Russell who grew up in Oz. I am a primary (elementary) school teacher. While I thoroughly enjoy teaching my other passion is for all things cake. I caught the cake bug after offering to make a friend's wedding cake. Little did I know that I would be hooked.

This is Dave and Trin's wedding cake. It was a two-layer chocolate mud cake, iced with dark chocolate ganache and topped with fresh white roses.