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!