These Easter Macarons were inspired by the colourful packs of speckled eggs that hop onto our sweet shelves every Easter. I made them as an Easter gift in clear display boxes so they needed a decoration to match the occasion. Thanks to Fondant Solutions and their unique designs to match every occasion, I had this cute bunny face mould & miniature roses to create tiny sugar paste toppers for each macaron.
I made these bunnylicious macarons in perky pink, lime green and sunny yellow, filled them with Flavour Nation Cotton Candy, Apple & Passion Fruit buttercream & lightly speckled with edible gold paint. Each macaron hopped into the gift boxes with a few friends and then went out beautifully wrapped as an extra sweet gift for Easter.
Staying with sunny beach days, a perfect time to blog this beautiful Beach Themed Bridal Shower organized by Wendy for her daughter, Ashleigh. This was a pretty and perfect celebration for the women in Ashleigh’s life just before she began her married adventure. A great way to start in a gorgeous setting with bachelorette fun and games, delicious food and a fancy carefree array of turquoise and white sweet treats.
The cake was layers of rich vanilla sponge and passion fruit buttercream that I covered in an elegant Geldhof white chocolate ganache. Driftwood, larger shells and rope detail I made by moulding sugar paste into Karen Davies Driftwood and Shell Mould. The smaller shells were moulded using Fondant Solutions Mould. I had an idea to use thin strips of turquoise and white sugar paste as waves kissing the side of the cake with crushed biscuit ‘sand’ & tiny cream pearls for water bubbles. My favourite part are the 2 hand-moulded embossed hearts representing the young lovers who celebrated their engagement on the beach.
Pastel turquoise macaron shells filled with a wave of Flavour Nation naartjie white chocolate ganache and Callebaut white Crispearls and decorated with a royal icing wave, sprinkles of golden sugar ‘sand’, white ‘water droplet’ beads and a sugar paste shells were such a pretty addition to the cake order.
Swirls of white and turquoise meringue kisses in Mixed Berry Flavour with turquoise and white beads and sea themed sprinkles were another tasty addition to the dessert table.
Beach Themed Meringue Kisses
Ice-cream flavoured, star fish adorned cake pops and sea jellies I made using grapetizer, crushed biscuits again for ‘sand’, crispearls and chocolate ganache filled shells, sat sweetly (excuse the pun) amidst other turquoise and white sweet delights to complete a stunning Beach Themed Bridal Dessert Table.
Thank you Wendy for all the hours and effort you put into the planning for this beautiful celebration for Ashleigh and her friends. Thank you for being such a loyal and enthusiastic friends and client.
Wendy – Ashleigh’s Bridal Shower, February 2019
“The very best tasting and most stunning bridal shower cake ever. You depicted the beach theme so well Lisa Cunningham. Not just the cake but macarons, meringues and cake pops all absolutely incredible. You are soo talented.”
As the year starts, thinking back to summer days on the beach with the sound of gentle waves and the feel of sand between my toes.
When your beautiful friend wins a Mauritian holiday . . . a great excuse for Beach Themed Macarons. I added splashes of white royal icing with a paint brush on to periwinkle blue macaron shells filled with berry buttercream swirls. Sprinkles of gold sugar crystals, tiny gold and white sprinkles & a delicious chocolate shell completed a tasty and delicious day on the beach macaron. I hope these bring back memories of a wonderful holiday Michelle!
These macarons captured the sweet spirit of Christmas 2019 in a whimsical way. I made Christmas Pudding macarons by adding chocolate chips into a warm brown macaron mixture. The filling is a smooth buttercream flavoured with @flavournation mixed berry. No Christmas pudding is complete without a sprig of holly so I added a sugar paste holly from @kadies_bakery_supplies to a tiny piece of white sugar paste ‘ icing ‘.
Tiny reindeer faces from @kadies_bakery_supplies and miniature white beads completed the Christmas red macarons for my Christmas gift boxes.
The boxes wrapped with a sugar cane and Christmas ribbon made the perfect …. naughty …. but oh so nice Christmas present!
This petite Rose Fairy was a figurine I made for a specially requested figurine class.
I thought I would share the tutorial with you here in this blog post.
She is a character figurine, so not anatomically perfect but totally sweet in her rose petal dress and rose leaf bodice & boots.
I hope you have fun trying out this sweet character & let me know how you get on or if you have suggestions for any other tutorials
Rose Fairy -Cupcakes2Delite Tutorial 1
1. Colour 100g fondant (Premium or Bakels) ivory (no cmc added)
2. Roll out your ivory fondant and cover a 7 inch thick cake board, emboss with stone embossing mat
3. Select stone colour dusting powders
4. I used Rolkem Cappucino and Terracotta
5. Lightly dust first with the lighter colour (Cappuccino)
6. Dust into the grooves & edges of your board with the darker colour (Terracotta)
7. Colour 130g fondant coral or any colour to suit your fairy (add 1.5ml cmc)
8. Push the coral fondant into your rose mould (siliko rose mould). I pushed a 3cm polystyrene ball into the paste in the mould to make the rose a bit lighter in weight. You can also create a tree trunk or rock for your fairy to sit on.
9. I used Rolkem Watermelon dust to dust the rose
10. Stick your rose onto your cake board using edible cmc glue or royal icing and have your tools ready to create your fairy.
Colour 140g Zeelandia paste a flesh colour. Add 3 ml cmc and work in well.
The paste is easier to use if allowed to settle a few hours or overnight.
You will have left over paste but I always mix up more flesh than I need in case I need to re-roll a limb or redo the head.
11. Legs (12g each) roll into 2 x 12g balls
12. Roll each ball into an approx. 8cm tapered sausage
13. Cut off at an angle a small amount of paste from the thin tapered end using a sharp knife
14/16 Roll this tapered end to form the foot and then gently pull up heel. Using your figure gentle roll the back of the knee
15/17 Fold the leg into a right angle for a sitting figurine and pull out paste to form the knee.
18. Glue the 2 legs in position on your rose
19. Roll 24 g of paste into a ball, then into an elongated teardrop. From the large rounded ended ease paste to form a kneck
20. Using shaping tools form the bust line (if this fairy is for a child this does not need to be done)
21. Twist a support skewer through the fairy torso from the kneck down and insert the skewer into the rose so that the torso fits onto the fairy’s legs.
22. Dress your fairy using rose petal leaves that have been embossed and edges softened and curled. Add rose leaf boots
23/24/25. Create the bodice using rose leaves. Let smaller rose leaves fall over the skirt
26. Roll 2 x 5g flesh coloured balls into tapered sausages
27. Roll thinner end of tapered sausage to form wrist and hand
28. Cut out thumb and then divide remaining pad into 4 using a sharp knife, roll to round thumb and fingers. Roll out to thin paste at the elbow and gently fold to form the elbow
29/30. Glue arms using edible cmc glue to the fairy torso & dress the shoulders with leaves/straps. Dust the petals and leaves to highlight the edges
I have added the head in this sequence but would recommend making the head first in order for it to dry before adding the eyes and dusting detail.
31. Roll 20g flesh coloured paste into a ball and then gently roll to indent the centre of your ball. You can also shape the chin at this stage.
32. Indent eyes, nose and cut for the mouth
33. Shape eyeshadow recess and slightly open the mouth
34. Using a balling tool make an indentation either side of the mouth line
35. Using fingers, shapers and small balling tools, shape the lips
36. Using shapers and balling tools, shape the nose and make nostrils
37. Insert small balls of white fondant for the eyeballs. Cut out 2 irises from fondant using icing nozzles and glue to the white. Do the same but smaller in black for the pupils. Carefully dust around the irises in black. Dust apricot into the recesses and shape of the nose and lips and eyes. Complete the eye using brown to dust eyeliner and black for a deeper eye line
38. Trim the skewer to size to attach the head and add cmc edible glue to the skewer. Gently add the head onto the stick making sure not to squash the face.
39. Now the hair and final details can be added to your figurine.
40. Take a step back and admire your beautiful fairy and at this step you are fully entitled to do a little happy dance!
Soft pastel blue and pink sugar paste moulded into adorable baby-gros, baby feet, framed baby portraits, tiny cute teddies and rabbits and more were what my students added to their Baby Themed Cupcakes in this fun class at Kelly Jayne’s. They all took home 6 beautifully decorated cupcakes and knowledge gained in this class, working with fondant and moulds.
It was a pleasure working with such a fun and enthusiastic group of students and great to teach again in the Kelly Jayne environment.
cupcakes2delite 