Happy Birthday to Meeee :D

It was my birthday last Friday and it was a little sad because it didn't feel so 'magical' anymore. I had a fantastic day (as much as you can have at work!) and the celebrations continued into the weekend with some wonderful presents and people.

The boyfriend took me to Becasse and it was absolutely amazing! I had the Royale of Spanner Crab entree. It was so light and the creamy bisque looked like foam... it was all bubbly and delicate - the whole thing just basically melted in my mouth. But the absolute highlight for me was the banana creme brulee. It sounds simple and basic but this was one of the most amazing and creative desserts I've ever had. It was presented beautifully in a cone shaped glass, had fresh pieces of banana between the layers of rich, creamy custard and hidden inside all of that were crunchy sweet clumps of salted peanut brittle... and to top it off, all this was covered by a thin layer of crispy sugar crust - YUM.

But the magic I used to feel as a kid - when it would feel as if ANYTHING could happen and that it was the most special day in the year had disappeared for me. Maybe because I am finally a real grown up and reality has hit? It just felt like any other day really! Minus all the birthday wishes of course :)

 Yes, I made my own cake!

A week earlier I also attended my first Planet Cake class (one where we decorated real cake). So with a cake weighing about 17kgs and big enough to feed 220 people, I invited my closest friends over on the weekend to celebrate and most importantly help me eat some cake! 

The class was amazing and i just loved spending the 3 days at the Planet Cake studio just taking in the surroundings and getting access to all their cool decorating toys ;) I can't wait for the rest of my classes and all the awesome cakes I'll get to make!

I must admit it was really hard for me to make that first cut into my cake. In total there was over 20 hours of work that went into this cake. The little birdies carefully carved from styrofoam and each individual petal on the flowers were made on separate wires and bundled together. 

Yum... six layers of rich chocolate mud cake.

Remember little Isla? Look how much she has grown now! Unfortunately she wasn't allowed to have any cake :)

Thank you to all my wonderful friends who came and for the presents!

My friend Steff reckons you could use the sugar flowers in your hair.

Some of my favourite things...

I've been pretty busy lately and I know my little blog has been feeling neglected. So, I've decided to compile a bunch of my favourite photos taken recently... enjoy the eye candy for now and I'll be back next week with some more exciting stuff :)

I love cakes like these because they are truly unique and no one else will ever have a design like this. The little birthday girl loves cherries and strawberries and the Birds Eye commercial. Hence the little birds and fruit :)

I'm not usually a fan of orange but I am loving how it looks with the pinks :)

 

Made by my cousin... I've been training her up lately ;) How cute do they look?

Natalie with her finished present box creation

Sharon with her little present box. These girls did a fantastic job at the workshop!

Angela and Christine's finished Tiffany inspired cupcakes from the designer cupcake workshop. Read about their day here.

And just a little sneak peak of things to come this week ;)

A Super Foxtel Remote Cake

Remember how I was just blogging about wanting to make awesome show stopping cakes? Well someone must have been listening because this week I got to do just that. Ok, it didn't stop any shows but it was pretty awesome :)

Although he might not be everyone's cup of tea, this week I got the honour of creating Kyle Sandiland's 39th birthday cake. 

The actual remote is on the left. Please excuse the bad lighting!

This is my biggest cake to date, the Foxtel remote itself was approx 30in long and 10.5in wide. The board just made it out my front door and with approx 6 kg of cake, 3kg of ganache and 2kg of rolled icing, this creation was not only big but super heavy. And then add a 5am delivery on top of all that :) *yawn*

For more pictures head to Today FM.

Update: due to only having 4 hours on sleep last night I've realised in my sleep deprived state, I forgot to thank the wonderful Michael from Today FM for the opportunity. This project was particularly exciting for me not only because it was huge, but because I am a fan of the show and it has been my driving buddy to work every morning! On a side note, in case you are wondering, all details were hand painted on :)

Learning from the Best

The key to being good at something is to never, ever stop learning. I hope I never get to a point where I know everything and anything about sugar art (or anything in general!), because that would be really boring. What makes each new project so exciting for me is the whole planning process, anticipation and the learning experiences that come with it.

I consider myself really luckily to be living in Sydney. When I made the decision earlier this year to really invest in myself and my business, I'm really grateful that part of the investment costs didn't include travel or accommodation. 

On a side note, I did consider a learning holiday to the United States (home of the crazy and unbelievable cakes), but it was way to expensive and too hard to organise the dates.

So, if I was going to spend the big bucks I decided I was only going to learn from the best and most talented. With Planet Cake just a 20 minute drive from where I live, I booked myself in for their advanced courses. People and professionals travel from interstate (and in some cases overseas!) to attend their courses so like I said, it's a luxury that I am so close by.

A few of my friends have questioned why I am going to courses when I could already 'decorate really good cakes'? Well, that's because I want to do more than just 'really good cakes'. I want to do show stopping, crazy and insane cakes! To learn from the best in the industry is just a privilege. So watch this blog space because in the next few months I'm off to sharpen my skills and polish my creativity :) I promise to bring you some crazy, awesome cakes :D 

A sneak peek of things to come...

On another side note - Thank you to all the people who showed up to the cake tasting day last weekend. It was great to hear your feedback and so fantastic to meet/catch up with fellow bloggers (Anna, Simon and Phuoc) and blog readers. Special thanks to Phouc for posting a review on her blog and introducing me to an awesome scone place at the Rocks :)