I'll bet not many of you were expecting a post whilst I am away!

Well you thought wrong! Super duper teamwork and time management has created yet another collaboration with Chau Ly. This is our two tiered beach themed wedding cake for a colleague.

It just reeks sophistication and I cannot believe this lady can do such an amazing job from well just a dirty iced cake. The thought, time and effort into this is not small and it isn't always appreciated by all. I appreciate it and I am sure the bride and groom will too.

I just love working with this talented lady and can't wait to do more cakes with her next year! 

Minion for "Happy Birthday". Can I now say that I have speaking fluency in another language? 

Repeat customers. Love them. Thank you.

This little boy is my absolute favourite. He is just so cute and so humble and so excited to see his cakes every year. And offers to hold the cake (probably half the size of him!) all by his tiny little 4 year old self. He and his dad brought another friend this year and they were both just so adorable.

Oscar requested this - Kevin the Minion. And I'm so happy with it. He's bright and happy and is almost the same size as the kids!

Fid Oflit Oscar! I hope you have a happy birthday and an amazing party! If I was a guest at your party, I'd be super jealous of the cake you have too!

I'm full of self-doubt sometimes and always compare myself to the best. What if I am not good enough? What if it's not clean cut? What if it collapses? I don't thrive on people singing me praises. I'm just someone who always strives to the best of my abilities.

I"m always so excited to get queries and orders as it kind of lets my (limited) imagination run along with the ideas that my customers bring to me.

I've known this couple of a few years now - first meeting when I was at my last job and well, we kind of just understood each other and the difficulties of work we went through. I was so happy to hear Mr Irish finally became an Australian citizen last year and 12 months on... they were getting married!

The beautiful flowers are provided by the Bride's florist - very Australian. Native, simple and summery colours. So the cake flavours were summery to match (at least one of them was). Passionfruit & Vanilla and Black forest Kirsch. 

I'm so happy to have been a part of it... even if the weather was hot in the mid-30s!

If you like Piña Coladas, getting caught in the rain...

She got a Wynnie cake! (It just took 2 years...)

Huge hugs and more hugs to one of the most resilient lawyers I have ever met. She is literally a rock star and I am going to miss her so so much. Not only her knowledge but her cocktail nights and her humour and her personality. She's classy and fun and smart and super cool.

And to honour her Canadian background, this was a Maple & Pecan cake (6 layers!) with Maple buttercream in the shape of a pineapple. I tried to make melting moments earlier in the week and they failed (Everyone, take note, there is such a thing called too much sugar). So needless to say that didn't turn out so well - so I made sand with the overly sweet crisps. Turned out well actually!

The scoring of the cake was so meditative and I brushing on the colours was heaps of fun too - its pretty much ad lib... add more, add less until is sort of resembles a pineapple!

Inspired by this amazingly expensive pineapple cocktail we had in Hawaii earlier this year (and feeling nostalgic and wishing I was there again... it has been a long September!).

I never thought I'd work in the IT industry - just didn't think about it.

So it's kind of funny and highly coincidental that my 9-5 consists of working very closely in the IT industry and lots of my orders are from clients with close relations to that. 

And for this particular weeknight, the brief was to create 168 beautiful and delicious vanilla and chocolate cupcakes for a launch party.

They look good and smelt so yummy. I think cupcakes are a great idea, especially if a company like this one is going to personalise it with their Company Logo. Stays in the minds of their guests.

And we made matching macarons as favours for all the guests noting for kids' allergies that macarons do contain almonds. Funnily enough, I have had several clients tell me that their kids have tried these and they don't have a reaction to them. Makes you wonder if it is a nut allergy or something else?

I really do like making macarons but the failure rate is disheartening sometimes. 

Red = Trouble!

Another boy's birthday cake and having a bit of trouble with red this week!

Red fondant, red colour. Red Red Red just did not want to co-operate. I think it's the way the colour is mixed up.

And the creation? A triple layered vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream to create a two tone cake. It was delicious. 

Boom - Bang - Pow!

What a cute idea! Making baby photo of the cookies for a 30th birthday.

Those lips!

Crowd pleaser. I can't describe it any other way... I haven't had so much foot traffic on my facebook page for a while and the culprit? This little (I mean gigantic) beauty.

A Gaytime in cakeform.

Vanilla sponge, honeycomb-caramel filling, chocolate buttercream and malt cookies. And for more decadency (and if you can find it in the supermarkets), pair with Gaytime Ice Cream in a tub! I have been to several supermarkets to find that it is sold out. Can't wait to get my hands on a tub!

There's just something about this cake that screams delish-shous-ness. I will be making this again for sure.

Cheesecake. I'm sure it is unrequited too because it certainly does not help the waistline. It will probably take two taps of the Bay Run to work off...

Probably one of the most decadent desserts in cake form and most versatile. Baked, unbaked, philly or ricotta. Cookie crumbs, brownie base, pastry base... whatever the form, it is so delicious.

This one?

Super tall (did I mention I LOVE tall cakes?) Bailey's Irish Cream Double Baked Cheesecake with Bailey's Whipped cream, a sprinkle of cocoa and fresh strawberries. Is your mouth watering yet? A couple of the guys at work did TWO slices. Wow. Needless to say, invites to this morning tea were quite exclusive.

Deceptively easy and a super cute cake! Can't decide between white and dark chocolate? This cake has both as well as 6 amazing layers of crowd favourite Red Velvet Cake.

And you can do it for Easter or Birthdays or... a farewell.

So the office (my level in the very least) now knows what it means when there is a 'Wynnie' cake around. And eventhough this was an exclusive invite only event, we seemed to have so many additional mouths to feed. 

Coming up next... an Aussie favourite dessert in CAKE form!

And finding Dora was almost as hard as looking for Where's Wally!

My favourite part of this cake? The sign just brings it all together! Then my second favourite bit is the forage around the base of the cake. So pretty. I actually love this whole cake and it's been a while where I've been able to a little artistically wild. 

Very happy with the result.

And what do I mean when I am referring to the title? Just that almost every toy store in Sydney no longer sells Dora?!?!?! And my package didn't arrive in time (so upsetting!). Thank goodness for the lovely girl from ToysRus who totes saved me 12 hours before the cake was due!

Simple. Elegant. Effective: Groom's cake. I'd like to think just like the groom!?

So in love with how easy (shhh) this cake was and the outcome. Personalize-able too... to match the buttons on the tux, the bow tie, collar, lapel, etc etc. Ahhh I how I love pretty and handsome things. :P

A special one from me this week: a triple layered oriental cake for my grandmother's 97th birthday!

Without being told, I could guess the age of this birthday boy! 10.

Patience is a virtue with little squares. And they take so much longer than you can expect.

I don't really know what all the pixelated items are but the axe is cute?

And what a wonderful Sunday it was! This year, I signed up for a class - how to make wafer paper flowers and watercolour cake. And even better, I did this with 4 other friends (so we took up just under half the class!).

Who would have thought that wafer paper and piping gel could be the bane of your existence? ;) A lot of patience is required.

Watercolours should probably be called vodka (or other spirit) colours - it is simply mixing gel colour with vodka to water it down and using a broad brush gently swiping the edges of the cake until you have the colour and effect you are trying to achieve. As you can see from the class, no cake is the same so it's easy to put your own signature on it!

And this was my creation after 4 hours... sunset colours!

And a delivery to the wild wild west!

Baby booties, building blocks and a little cute bear.

Last one for the quarter I'm afraid. Miss 9-5 is turning into 9-midnight... Until July!

I think of it as the Mexican version of Halloween or All Hallow's Eve. Or some people think of the cartoon or some similar children's show. No matter, it is the day that Mexican's celebrate those who have passed away.

Amazingly, it is not at all "scary" but more about colours, flowers and things to celebrate their loved ones.

A very important customer of mine recently asked for a cake for his daughter's 18th birthday in the theme of the day of the dead. It was an interesting challenge and I couldn't be happier with the way the cake (with one whole tier being VEGAN) turned out!

I've never done a black tier before so I was really happy that it wasn't anything majorly different to a white or ivory tier (well duh, it is just coloured fondant right?). And the skull.. it's pretty much freestyle. 

The brief was almond sponge. Some days I am good at following instructions. Other days, I like to do things my own way (which is a skewed way of following said instruction). This is a cake where we sort of met halfway.

I took the basic Japonaise cake - layers of almond meringue sandwiches between rich coffee buttercream and added two super moist layers of almond sponge cake. The result?

This amazingly tall, straight, delicious looking simplistic cake that was SO good. More than one person had a second slice.

I'm going to have to make this one again. Yeah, it's a bit time consuming (it would be a lot quicker if I had 6 racks in my oven!) but the result is just so worth it. 

And the symmetry on the inside... perfection. *cries*

I have to give a 10/10 to the cake cutter. The precision, effort and patience truly deserves an award. 

Beware: this is a rich cake. A cup of black tea or coffee would be perfect with a small slice of cake for tea.

I can count the number of times I've been invited to a baby showers with the fingers on my right (or left) hand!

I made some mini cupcakes with baby themed marshmallow fondant and a super cute (almost Disney's Belle-esque) tummy cake for mummy! I personally find it a little weird to 'cut' a tummy cake but at the same time it is so delightfully cute. I mean, it is the mother who bears the child from almost 10 months isn't it? So why can't we also honour her as well as bubba!

A tummy cake is amazingly easy - so long as you have the right pans. Two smaller semi circle spheres and a larger one. I used two silicon chocolate moulds and one of the semi-spheres of the Wilton Sports Ball Cake Pan. Perfect sizing. And here's a tip, if it's not, just use more ganache to reshape so the proportions look okay. The great thing is that there is no right or wrong!

And you can pretty much design the "dress" however you please. I just did some really easy pleats with ribbon of fondant, finished with a little flower.

I've seen buttercream roses, elaborate lace designs, sequins, pearls, etc. I guess this is where it's easy to design the cake to suit the mum-to-be.

Robots... they can be friendly or not so much. 

To make a robot friend you... use lots of colours, give it a goofy smile, have tool like arms and legs and give it friendly eyes. Mr Robot can almost be part of a cartoon or TV show!

Another caramel mud cake (my customers like to order the same flavours in waves!) with milk chocolate ganache and a vanilla bean cupcake to finish. Yum yum yum and lots of fun.

OMG I have some amazingly talented friends. This was my first but I can guarantee you that it will not be my last collaboration with the amazing Chau Ly. Isn't this cake just beautiful? 

I'd love to lie to myself and to you all and say that the reason why I asked her for her help was because I am time poor and was already juggling too many things for this wedding. Yes, there is some truth there but in all honestly, it is because I cannot create the beautiful, life-like flowers the way she can (and I didn't want the stress of making a dud cake for my cousins's wedding if that were the case!).

So I baked and ganached the three tiers: 2 of caramel and 1 of earl grey and pretty much dropped it off the Chau and said it's your problem now - I'll pick it up on Saturday! And yes, it was a stressful (and slow, bumpy drive - thanks Sydney councils, you sure know how to take care of your roads) to the reception place [anyone who wants to have their wedding at the Deckhouse in Woolwoch/ Hunter's Hill - Don't bother wasting your money. But that's another story).

Thankfully, there were a few young lads ready to help carry the cake to the cake table (and thanks again useless waiters who hovered and made everything 10 times more difficult, you were of absolutely no help to direct us). Only broke off one of the tiny flowers in the back on the way so no dramas!

And look how gorgeous it looked (and tasted!!!). Even if the cake was cut the way a butcher cuts up bones (yes, I really did have issues with the reception place that night, can you tell?!). 

Another rainy day (did you know Sydney got hit by a freak hail storm late yesterday afternoon?!). Thank goodness it was a beautiful day up to that point for all the ANZAC day celebrations (of course, I made some ANZAC biccies too) and march. And so, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees today and it was definitely a day to stay indoors for the most part. It was fantastic baking weather! We did take the my two dogs out later on in the evening to the local wharf for a bit of fishing - no luck, no fish were biting today...

I had another challenge recently. What to make for a lady who LOVES shoes?? Why, a cake with a pair of stunning shoes on top and rightfully named "The Gina M"... just like Christian Louboutins. You can't see if but I promise that the soles are red too! And then I sort of just had a lot of space to play with. And I haven't nearly experimented enough to gumpaste flowers so this was a great time to try. And I've always wanted to play with mini flowers and having some falling off the sides of the cake so again, got to try that too! I think it has come well together!

Happy Birthday Gina!

nom nom nom. Italian Meringue and just a little torched. Urgh.... it's probably like liquid gold through the Sydney Storm. But I wouldn't know... I gave it away :(

Have you ever heard of the saying that red cars drive faster? It's become a bit of a little joke between my circle of friends ;) For the record, no, there is no scientific proof of red being faster at all!

I had a request from a parent (from the sounds of it, a very organised mum!) many weeks in advance for her son's 2nd birthday. It sounds like a very well planned and fun birthday party. And today's weather in Sydney is absolutely perfect - slight breeze, some sun and cool temperatures. Make me want to join in the fun!

Said parent had planned the whole cake from top to bottom which makes me job a lot easier (sometimes harder depending on what they are asking for!) but it certainly is a lovely change to customer's having not so many ideas of what they want on their cake.

I think this is simple yet so creative at the same time - especially the detail on the top tier. The 'mini cooper' logo and the writing on black and red to resemble a car number plate (the European ones in NSW). Very clever!

Cake designed by the beautiful bride-to-be. A mix of Australian colours and French done with flowers and ribbon. I'm yet to try gigantic gumpaste flowers but I think I want to try this soon!

Another licensed cake for a little boy who is obsessed with Thomas. I get so many of these requests that I've actually stocked up on little Thomas figurines so I don't have to stress out and look for one every time a Thomas cake is requested. And I thank my friend in retail for helping me out!

Repeat customers make me so happy. I'd actually made baby Seth's Christening cake a couple of years ago and I can't believe he has just turned 2. His mum chose a simple yet pretty two tiered cake and it was a huge celebration at one of the many parks around Sydney. It would have been a fabulous day!

Ah... such a shame about the wet weather over Easter this year. It's been really unfortunate that the last 8 or 9 Easters in the last 10 years have been wet. I'm sure many events are a washout but cake always brightens the day.

This was a special order Extra Large White Chocolate, Coconut and Raspberry Cake. Delivered in the pouring rain but hopefully there will be enough respite sometime this weekend to enjoy it with special people.

Sometimes when you're at your limits, you perform at your best. This has been one of the longest short weeks to date. At the office till 1:30 AM certainly doesn't help and it really really takes it out of you. I'm pretty sure the next day passed in a long daze.

Octonauts. Can't say it's the most popular kid's program around and as such, these figurines are a little difficult to find. Sometimes though, a bit of luck and good timing is all it takes. Thank you random Thursday night shopping and wondering into Woolies for mascapone and cream. It united me with Captain Barnacles!

I loved putting this cake together. Making the shells, starfish, bubbles, seaweed and coral was very time consuming but I just knew this was going to be an epic cake. The colours and all the elements just complement each other. And the symmetry... LOVE!

It's hopefully going to be a beautiful 4 day weekend. And I am sure two little boys will be super excited to start off their birthday celebrations with almost 100 of their closest friends! Happy Birthday Elliot and Jethro!

Do you all remember the nursery rhyme?

Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
one a penny, two a penny,
Hot cross buns!

If you have no daughters, 
give them to your sons.
One a penny two a penny, 
Hot cross buns!

It's an early Easter this year! And although completely not religious, sometimes (time permitting), it's fun to create some easter treats. We're pretty full with cake orders next week and due to other commitments, we're having some fun in the kitchen this afternoon instead.

Trying out our new flavour White Chocolate Earl Grey with these midi sized cupcakes (they're good, really good). Dark chocolate whipped ganache and speckled Cadbury eggs. I think I'm going to be a popular person at work on Monday!

I had every intention of using my shiny new little canon camera with wifi capabilities. But by the time I'd run out to the shops to buy a candle and have a coffee, we were running late! So phone camera it was.

Our little Ethan (my grandmother's youngest great grandchild to date!) is one today!!! So his parent's and big brother Justin had a big party today at their house to celebrate. My goodness, a whole bunch of kids under the age of 10 is crazy! Especially when you've been charged with entertaining them for the afternoon! Thank goodness they had an awesome trampoline! But we did have games like 'pass the parcel' (completely not rigged...), 'what's the time Mr Wolf?', 'Egg and Spoon' Race and an Easter Egg hunt.

The food was amazing compliments to Ethan's grandfather who use to be the Head Dim Sum Chef at one of the main chinese restaurants in Chinatown.

And of course, I was charged with the cake! Yay!!! It makes me so happy to make it. No Thomas this year (although Justin did get a very special present). Just a little two tier, blue, green, stars, stripes and sporty cake. With a cuddly bear on the top. A fun but tiring afternoon. So glad to be part of it!

We're on the cusp of the end of berry season but there were these delicious strawberries at the grocer's the other day that complimented this huge marble mud cake sooo well. It smelt delicious.

It's hard to think of things to do for a guy's birthday. Especially when it's not a themed party and they don't have any particular interests that they want shared on a cake. I thought this was nice and safe and very appropriate for a 3 course restaurant setting.

The cake was served with ice cream, berries, coulis and cream so it would have been just perfect.

Here's a lovely little snap from a few Friday nights ago when I had a few friends over for Pizza (all homemade) and Pimms. It was devine.

Sourdough. I have been converted and now only resort to the jar of microorganisms commonly known as "yeast" when I'm out of time... 

Sourdough is so delicious, so good for you, so easy to look after and gives it more taste. You really do have to try it!!! I have a couple of pizza stones and a pizza oven but I assure you that this is not necessary...

Do you notice something missing on these pizzas though...?

I was a bit out of sorts with this one and was so excited to package the finished cake that I didn't get a happy snap. It was a Square cake too! :(

I don't do very many Baptism cakes either so this was the best I could do. 

Silly ol' me use to think a stick of butter was 250 grams. For clarity, it is not, 1 stick = 125 grams. Needless to say, some things didn't turn out so well. I made a simple vanilla buttercream once (way back at the beginning of my culinary adventures) with what I thought were the right ratios. Essentially it was 250 grams of butter to about 250 grams of icing sugar. I even put it on my cupcakes and gave it to my friends who then proceeded to eat the cupcakes. I'm not sure if anyone realised what I'd done and why the icing was well so.. buttery. Anyway, they probably gained a pound of two because of me that day. hehehe... ^-^

I now have in my head that it is 1 cup of icing sugar to roughly 60 grams of butter for buttercream plus vanilla, a dash of milk, etc.

Sometimes, you just need a recipe to guide you and this is one of the best Chocolate Buttercream recipes I have come across. Light, fluffy, buttery, chocolately and absolutely not sickening sweet. I used it to pipe words, I used it to pipe borders and to fill my cake.

Chocolate Buttercream (adapted from addapinch.com)
Makes about 8 Cups

Ingredients:
375 g butter, softened
5 C (650 g) icing sugar mixture
1 C cocoa (I used Hershey's)
1/3 C milk (or less, depending on consistency required)
1 t vanilla essence (mine was organic)
pinch salt

Method:
1. Beat all ingredients together until well combined, fluffy and pale in colour. You may choose to add milk last and as required until the right consistency is achieved.

I use to get away with not having to temper chocolate before melting and making cool shapes. But in the current humid and warmer weather, it's not a great idea.

It melts and it doesn't re-set. I think its my cue to learn how to actually temper chocolate.

In the meantime though, I can make loads of chocolate ganache, chocolate dipped goodies, shaved chocolate, piped chocolate, chocolate borders, etc etc. And yes, it is a pretty messy job. If it's too warm, it's too runny and if it's too cold, it sets before you can pipe and shape it. Many nights, chocolate is not my friend.

But its everywhere. And if it's not, then cocoa is.

It is just that popular in cake form! Almost as popular as my Chocolate Caramel Ombre Cake. Another variation below.

It's always exciting to remake a cake. From a purely 'numbers and time' point of view, it is very economical because you already know mentally what needs more time, where you can save time and how you can achieve everything in less time.

So I was very fortunate to be asked to make a cake that I did last year for another little boy's first birthday. It is just so colourful and simple and so innocent and everything a first birthday should be about: blue skies, a few giant cumulus clouds and little cars.

It also gave me more experience in portioning. Because a taller tier cake means you don't need the cake to be as large is diameter as the additional height makes up for it. This is still something relatively new to me (yet it is so logical). I guess coming from a hostess' point of view, I always want to ensure that there is slightly more than enough rather than "just enough". This translates to cake sizes. And I also want to be fair from a pricing perspective. So these days, when I have customers asking for a quote, I always ask how many serves required. If they ask for 30, then I try to cater for 35. If they are for 35, then I try to cater for 40. Of course, sometimes it is not so simple with the tiered and larger cakes.

It's always very interesting to do your own research on this. It depends on the person cutting the cake, the sharpness of the knife. The general consensus is that a coffee (finger) slice is 1" x 1" x 4" and a dessert (party) slice is 1" x 2" x 4". Great to keep in mind for your next occasion.

And if you're a bit like me and aspire to be something along the lines of Hostess with the Mostess (Yes, I think she actually exists), then Pintrest is a great place and guide to how many portions of different types of foods and drinks you should have. I've learnt over the years that... Less really is more. Unless you want to try making all these things because otherwise you won't have the chance to or time to or just want to show off your amazing kitchen skills. Then it's a good idea to ask your guests to bring tupperware ;)

Hi Everyone!

We had a bit of a "shut down" period between Australia Day and Valentine's day but don't worry, we're back refreshed and excited to cater for all your baking requirements for the rest of the year. We've got some pretty amazing cakes lined up so come back soon!

Oozing from the inside... Happy Straya Day (for yesterday!)

A geeky emoticon smile!

I was quite the amused one when I was asked to make this but how appropriate I think if it describes the fellow accurately? It's actually very clever.

Chocolate cake and chocolate buttercream. Great for a hot day and an outdoor party.

Here's to more years of AWESOME!