Now for the real mccoy!

Well;

I haven't been THAT busy the past two weeks (oh thank goodness) - I needed the rest!!!

But I've managed to do a few.....

At the end of THIS week I'll post again.....it's gonna be hectic!!!!


Matthew's birthday called for a Rock Roar Dinosaur cake - this was my attempt:

Rock Roar Dinosaur Cake



Rock Roar Dinosaur Party



I also did the party decor.......it was for one year olds, so we decided on lowered tables and cushions for them to sit on - so much less to worry about!! No falling of chairs!!



The next party was also a first birthday party - this time BARNEY!!!!

The cakes was a mix and match affair of ideas from our best friend - GOOGLE.

Barney and Friends Cake

Barney Cake

Hmmm - I don't know!!



Baby Bob Cake



Wellll......dinos was the theme of the month....so from Barney to the real thing....

Dinosaur Cake

Ahhh - a change of pace with SpongeBob Squarepants. These crabby patty cookie recipe I got from the Internet. OMW - yum yum yum yum. I'll post the link later (when I find it again).

 

And.....you guessed it....back to the dinos again!!!! The cupcake toppers are copied from a pic on makicakes.com (OMW - that lady is positively talented!!). Ja ja - I know the cake looks more like a dragon than a dinosaur....but hey...next time I'll do the one with the spikes around the neck. I think that will help with the "dino" look.

 


Oooo - yummy. Original sugar cookies (shape sort of like dinos!). Nothing beats "ouma's" sugar cookies!!!


Dinosaur Cookies

 OK OK. The dinosaur/dragon cake:

Dinosaur Cake or Dragon Cake - You choose!!

Last but not least........a Cowboy Cake. It will be delivered tomorrow morning. I really hope they like it!!!

Nou ja toe - time for bed!!

Hmmmm - when mommy is not so alert!!!

Howdy everyone.....

My latest cake creation:

Hehe - or rather my daughter's cake creation. While my back was turned my 16 month old daughter carefully took the cake (that was JUST within her reach), placed it neatly on the ground and proceeded to have dinner.

I'm afraid that I'm raising a cake-o-holic. OH DEAR!!!

Bad Bad Bad

Oeegg

I've been soooo bad at posting - can you believe it???
I'm very very very embarrassed!!

What have I done so far you may ask - well, let me show you....

I did a FarmYard cake - and would you believe it - I didn't take a picture of the completed cake. OMW!!! What I can show you is the tractor I made for the cake as well as the animals:

Tractor for Farmyard cake

Animals for Farmyard cake

I also did some cupcake toppers for the Farmyard theme:

Next I did a Disney Cars themed cake. Lightning McQueen and Mater was to be 3D. I started off with some green fondant (no it's not soap - although it looks like it) left over from the day before (from the farmyard cake). I shaped it in the form of McQueen and Mater:

The start of Lightning McQueen and Mater

In process!!

After I've done the fondant 'base' I covered it with sugar paste. I like using sugar paste - it works easier for me than fondant mixed with CMC or tylose. I make my own sugar paste using Wiltons Gum-Tex and the recipe on the tin!

Finished sugar paste Lightning McQueen

The finished Mater

All that was left was to complete the cake:

Disney Cars cake

My next assignment was a motorcycle cake - LOL. I can ride a motorcycle, but to make it into a cake???
To be honest - I was a bit, hmmm, apprehensive...:
What do you think?

Motorcycle cake

My friend from work (ok - the old work), usually brings me second hand clothing for my daughter to wear to daycare. They get soo dirty that it's a total waste dressing them in new clothes!! So I offered to bake her a cake for her daughters birthday as 'payment':

Cow cake

My first really tiered cake was copied from a Google search pic (blush) - but, I had to get inspiration somewhere!!

Fire engine cake

Well - that's all for now...
I have some more pic, but I'll post later....too tired now. I got a 'lekker' cold from my daughter, so off to bed with me!!!
See ya!

It's DONE!!

Well - September 30th was the last day at my corporate job. So now it's me, the party planning and the cakes!! Wish me luck!!

Well - although I haven't posted in a while it doesn't mean that I've not done anything - to the contrary!!

BEN 10 CAKES

BEN 10 was 'IN' for September.

I discovered the wonders of pearl, silver and gold petal dust!!
It gives such a nice shimmer to the fondant - great for 'alienising' the cake :).

The pic on the right has a Ben 10 watch on made with fondant mixed with CMC powder (I normally use sugar paste - but this time it came out a complete FLOP!! Still don't know why??).

I don't like working with the CMC - Fondant mixture - it becomes very hard very quick. So it's difficult to sculpt with.











One of my colleages saw the STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE Cake picture - and her daughter just had to have one - hiehie - it was not even her birthday! So proud of myself!. I changed the cake slightly - it's not nice to have a cake that's the same as someone elses?!

MINNIE MOUSE CAKE
I had a request for a Minnie Mouse cake. The bow on the original picture wasn't nice - so I changed it to a 'softer' more girly one. Personally I think it came out great!!

Then I did a sample for wedding cupcakes.......
Yummy chocolate cupcakes with a mocha buttercream icing and a chocolate covered chocolate brownie. This is the real 'death by chocolate'.

Well - tomorrow is Monday - the start of my 'new life'!!!
I'll post soon!!!

A lot of cakes!!

Soooo, on Monday this week I was looking forward to a relaxed weekend (after the crazy one with the jungle and Peter Rabbit cake and Peter Rabbit party).

After a while though I had three orders.....one for 5 cakes on Thursday and 2 on Saturday (+ cupcakes for the ones on Saturday).

This week I'm doing:

• Eid Mubarak (end of Ramadan celebration)
• Baby shower and
• A Strawberry Shortcake birthday cake.

     The Eid Mubarak order had a very tight budget and requested flowers on the cakes (the order was also confirmed 1 day before the delivery date). I feel that this was a bit of a rush job unfortunately, but I think it turned out OK.....and I made the flowers myself!!!

 

      For Saturday I had a baby shower order - luckily not toooo intricate. Bur yes - it had to serve 30 people, so my poor husband quickly had to make a plan how to transfer the fondant to the cake as my rolling pin is way to short for such a huge piece of fondant!

Luckily we had some pvc pipe in the garage, so after cutting and washing it - voila - works wonderful!!

 

     The other cake for Saturday was a Strawberry Shortcake one. The pic the parents of the birthday girl send me had a plastic Strawberry Shortcake doll on top - so I was quite relaxed........until I found that Strawberry Shortcake is UNATTAINABLE in South Africa at the moment. I called about 15 stores - without success.

So I had to model ms. Strawberry Shortcake (ieeee - I've only modelled animals before).

I made two dolls - the first one fell apart (jay - it looked awful!!!).

The second one was better - so it landed on the cake...

 

You can actually remove the hat!!!
No 'hat-hair' underneath!

No exact replica of Strawberry Shortcake - but I think it looks very nice.
I'll need to practise my sculpting skills if I want my sugar paste people to look exactly like the person they are representing!!











Well - we'll see what this weekend holds!!

Peter Rabbit

I had to do a Peter Rabbit cake for this weekend.....
The client called at the last minute to change what the cake was supposed to look like.

In the end I did a very simple cake...

My First 'Jungle' Cake

Soooooo....
I've been asked to do a jungle cake. Not an edible image one like the previous two, but one with sugarpaste 3D toppers!!!
Jay - I can start on something more challenging (on the other hand ... I'm scared to let my client down!!!).

I've started on Monday with the suager toppers (cake to be delivered on Saturday) to be able to 'do over' should I need to.
My first  attempt was some easy ladybugs...still without their dots yes!!!

After the ladybuds I did a tiger - which took me 1 and a half hours, but I think it came out great!!!

The end product wasn't as nice as I would have liked it - but at least the client was very happy......sjoe!!!!

I already have an order for exactly the same cake ..... jay ......thing are looking OK!!

Holds thumbs for me!!!

I'm on a roll!

And with Winnie the Pooh!!! (very popular it seems!).

This one I must say, is very decadent..
Chocolate sponge with more than 1kg of lovely dark chocolate ganache (yum-yum). Fondant icing as well as buttercream!

It looks deceivingly simple - but it took me more than 4 hours to make! Excluding baking time!

My First.....

........cake sold for money!!!

So .... I've planned my cake baking step-by-step. First make some ganache, as it needs to set overnight. Then bake the cake, let it cool, apply syrup, and then apply the ganache. Let set again and then decorate. All down to the minute. Planning 101. TYPICAL engineer like my sis will say!

Helps a whole lot when someone orders a cake at the last minute!
I couldn't say no to my first order.....so after a very late night and some hysterics, I produced this:
A vanilla sponge cake with white chocolate ganache and fondant as well as buttercream icing - sjoe!

I want ooohhs and aahhs hey!

My First "Practice"

Well, I've never worked with fondant icing before - oooops.

What to do?? What to do??
Luckily my stepdaughter celebrated her birthday in August - so I decided to do my first parctise run with fondant.
NOBODY told me however that putting fondant on a small cake is MUCH more difficult that putting fondant on a large one (or that is my finding.....maybe my fingers are to fat??)

Luckily my stepdaughter thought it VERY pretty - although I could see all the mistakes!

Here's some pics...

Oh well - some more practise is needed!

So........what have I done???

Oh golly gosh!!!

I've started a cake baking business. Me.....an engineer........cake baking???!!!

Well, I've had my baby a bit more than a year ago - and she changed my life!! So much so that I quit my corporate career to be able to spend afternoons with her.
And now - I'm baking cakes!! Wish me luck!!