Every year, I move into December with this feeling of trepidation. There is this tangible knowledge that the days until Christmas are numbered (not that they weren't before but there is now this sense of urgency) and with everything else happening around, time is so precious and short.

Fruit cake, gingerbread and christmas hampers!!! I look forward to planning, packaging, building and gifting these edible gifts every year but not so much the work that goes on in between... heheh! ;) Have I ever mentioned I'm a lazy baker? And as usual, I overestimate the amount of time I have and the number of hours that I (don't) need to sleep!

So this year, with my calendar completely overrun, working until midnight several nights per week doing my "real" job, a few social catch ups since coming home, normal orders and everything else that goes on in life, I managed to come up with most of the things I'd planned...There's always next year to do all the things you didn't right (new year's resolution?)?

So I came up with about 8 gingerbread houses, 12 hampers, a few hundred cookies, biscotti, gingerbread people / reindeer (or tribemen) and santas, shortbread, blueberry jam and salted caramel jars. 

However, my absolute favourite this year was my pavlova tree!!! It was sooo pretty and delicious and quintessentially Australian... everyone loved it! Who knew egg whites and sugar could be so much fun...

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

Those lips!

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!

I still remember all those years ago when it was 21st after 21st every weekend. And the years may go by but people will always celebrate this rite of passage.

This weekend was no different and we made mini cupcakes (red velvet and dark chocolate peppermint) cupcakes and an awesome two-tier dark chocolate peppermint cake for a Christmas in July themed 21st.

It was a huge hit! Very pleased with our little fondant figurines: the christmas tree with the gold star, jolly santa claus, rudolph and of course a snowman! Lots of fun to make and am sure they attracted lots of attention on the night!

The matching mini tree cupcakes and snowflakes helped feed the crowds too :)

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You're going to need to use a little of your imagination for this one! As I'm not going to risk stabbing the cake just yet to wires... it will probably flop by the time the wedding comes around!

But the heart (or hearts) are supposed to be balloons floating out of the cake.

Going to have to wait for the professional photographer's with this one!

Ombre Cake-in-progress!

I always knew that the week before holidays will always always be busy! But I am still underestimating just how busy... 10+ hour work days followed by a second shift in the kitchen!

Recruited an apprentice this weekend to help me out with our friend's wedding baking. I was asked to do some cookies and the... CAKE. Would be a good time now to mention that because of said holiday, I will be missing the wedding itself :-(

Anyways, we made 150 of these cute cookies. Very valentine themed - appropriate considering that the wedding is 2 days after one of the most overrated dates of the year!

The little hearts were sorted by colour (came in a mixed jar) and then each heart was delicately placed on the cookies. Not so randomly... although we did end up having some of the hearts on some cookies rather aligned. Which was totally not what we were after. And randomly scattering them on the fondant didn't work either. So yes, the TLC that went into these was massive. Colossus  Ginormous.... because that's how much we love her.