Sydney International Boat Show

This week has been absolutely crazy and the next 2 weeks are about to get crazier... I'll write more about it when I have time but it's basically been baking, modeling, cakes and cupcakes :) It's been good but I've been a bit stressed :/



Last month, the lovely Lee from Premier Marine asked me to do a boat cake and some cupcakes for the Sydney Boat Show that is on this weekend. The cake was modeled off the Silver Bullet boat from Chris Craft.



The boat show is on from 30th July to 3rd August. The weather is looking good for this weekend, so if you are planning to head over to the boat show, make sure you stop by the Premier Marine stand and check out my cake :)

Time for Teddy Bears to have their Picnic

Sometimes when I daydream, I like to reflect on what I have done.

9 years ago, I arrived in Sydney afraid but also excited about starting my uni lifestyle. During my 5 years at uni, I baked most of the birthday cakes for my friends. Some were nice and some were sloppy, but they were always well received and made the birthday boy/girl happy.

Then, about 3 years ago, I decided I needed something interesting to do with my life, so I took a beginners cake decorating course. I learned all bout rolled icing/fondant and I was hooked! It was so much fun. And so I started making little models and discovered that there is a vast amount of information and pictures online, Cake Central was my daily bible!

After some time, my friends kept telling me that I should sell my cakes. At first I wasn't sure... who would want to buy a cake from me? Nonetheless, my friends were all very encouraging, and when I finally decided to do it for 'real' they were quick to tell everyone and also place orders of their own.

Why am I blabbering on? Well, my Creations are going to be in a magazine next month! I'm so excited and so grateful because I've never had this kind of opportunity before. If you had told me 3 years ago when I was first discovering this new passion that I would one day have an opportunity to have some of my work appear in a magazine I would have not believed a word of it! I consider this to be a major milestone for my creations... So whenever I get one of those, I like to take the time to reflect on how far I've come and consider how much further I have to go...

The theme was Teddy Bears Picnic and it will be appearing in the Aug issue of Shop for Kids magazine. I made a bunch of stuff, but for now I'm not sure exactly what will be appearing in there...

Cookies...

Cupcakes for a teddy bears picnic

Little buzzy bee...

Cake and cupcakes...

Hedgehog and Hegehogette Cupcakes Tutorial

I've had this idea in my head for a while now and I finally tested this out a couple of months ago but have just got around to posting it :P

I'd thought I'd also share how to make them :)

I think some 'how to' tutorials will compliment some of the recipes I have on this blog quite well. I know when I was first getting into cake decorating I would search for 'how to' tutorials and always be so grateful for those that would take the time to put one together. Hopefully my little tutorial will help some one out there :)

I will aim to do one tutorial a month so please feel free to let me know if you'd like to see a particular 'how to' tutorial.

Mini introduction:

• These cupcakes are covered with rolled icing (some people call it fondant). I'm not sure about other countries but in Australia you can buy rolled icing in a 500g box (Orchards Icing).

• Food colouring is then used to colour the icing. When colouring the icing, add a little at a time.

• When using icing, if you find it's too sticky, dust some corn flour over the surface, on your hands and on the rolling pin.

What you'll need:

Rolled icing

Rolling pin

Cornflour/ icing sugar for dusting

Brown food colouring (or chocolate rolled icing)

Red food colouring

Black food colouring

Small sharp scissors

Circle cutters

Small paintbrush

How To:

You should wait for your cupcakes to cool for at least 24 hours before decorating them. Mix the brown food colour into the rolled icing. You'll need to have 2 shades of brown. For the pink bow, just mix a tiny amount of red food colouring into the icing.

Dust some cornflour onto a clean surface and onto your rolling pin. Roll out the lighter shade of brown icing and cut out circles to fit the top of your cupcakes. To cover your cupcakes, brush a tiny amount of water onto the back of the icing circles and place on top of the cupcake, gently rub and mold it into place.

Roll out the darker brown icing and cut out the same size circle. Then using the same cutter, cut out an area for the 'face'. Bush some water onto the back of the icing and place it on top of the light brown icing mold into place.

Roll out a small ball of dark brown icing for the nose and stick it to place with a little bit of water.

With the scissors, cut the spikes at a 45 degree angle. Cut a few to complete the hedgehog.

To make a hedgehogette, simple roll out 3 small pieces of pink icing. Make a cone shape with 2 of the pieces and join all 3 pieces together. Use water to attach it to the cupcake.

With the paint brush, dip it into the black food colouring and paint on the eyes.

Good luck, if you try it out, don't forget to send through your pics, I'd love to include them on the blog :)

Cherry Chocolate Linzer Tarts

YAY! My Dessert Fourplay book finally arrived last week :)

My first attempt at one of the recipes... the cherry chocolate linzer tarts....

I've never made a chocolate tart base before so it was exciting, this one had Cinnamon, lemon zest, orange zest and hazelnut meal in it, so it was full of flavour! Yum! The recipe also had a Thai basil ice cream to go with it but I could not find any Thai basil last week so I had to skip it :(

It would have been yummy with ice cream, but oh well :)

The inside was filled with a rich dark chocolate ganache and then it was topped off with cherry jam.

Close up... I made everything from scratch :) It was easier than it looks.