Archive | October 2011

Sewing Box Cake

Oct17

Once again it was time to celebrate the birthday of another scrapper at The Memory Shed at 2nd Cup.  We celebrated Hayley’s birthday on Wednesday with a cake and the usual array of presents.  Hayley loves colour and drawing and basically doing anything crafty.  She has a great knack of matching bright and wonderful colours in any project she does and is brilliant at whatever craft she tries from mosaicing to scrapping, drawing and painting.  We brainstormed and came up with the idea of a sewing  box cake for Hayley to celebrate her birthday.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

 

I made a round cake and a small rectangular cake for the sewing box.  I used a chocolate transfer sheet to finish off the top and sides of the box which was not easy but the end result was edible and effective (note to self I need to practise this technique!)  I made a little sewing spool and needle from sugarpaste and then added a number of pink and green sugarpaste rosettes with different centres.  Hayley is brilliant at sewing her own unique rosettes so these were a tribute to the one she makes.  We had great fun celebrating with you Hayley and hope you did too.                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Sewing Box Cake

Sew Hayley!

Cupcakes2Go For Ceire

Oct11

On Monday our beautiful daughter turned 13.  Teigh, her brother, insists that she has been 13 for a while  as she is already so grown up in so many ways.  She was leaving on a school camp on Monday morning so she wasn’t with us for the day to celebrate her birthday.  It didn’t seem to phase her too much on Monday morning as she met her very excited friends on the field before they got on the bus.  Ceire thought it would be a great idea to have cupcakes for her to take on the bus to celebrate her birthday so I made these smaller but really cute cupcakes with jelly beans on for her to celebrate on the bus.

Cupcakes with Jelly Beans

Cute Birthday Cupcakes2Go

I packed 75 dinky little cupcakes2go in boxes and I hope that the girls and teachers on the bus enjoyed them!  

Cupcakes with Jelly Beans

Cute Birthday Cupcakes2Go

Home Sweet Home for Michelle’s Birthday

Oct6

Michelle is a very good friend of mine (not only because she loves my cupcakes) but also because she is such a generous and genuine person.  She has all the character traits of a fantastic friend as she is kind, helpful, a great listener, loads of fun and a great wife and mother too.  When I was going through ideas for a surprise birthday cake for her there were so many different ideas I came up with as Michelle loves nature and beautiful and creative things.  I decided on this Little House and Flower Garden cake as I found a delightful pan to bake the cake in and it was appropriate for her with her doing renovations to her home at the moment.  Maybe we can do another one for the house-warming Michelle!

Little House & Flower Garden Cake

Little House & Flower Garden Cake

I baked a square cake and iced it with Michelle’s favourite coffee icing.  I iced the 2 house cakes together with the same icing and then placed them on the cake with lolly stickers in for extra support.  The roof I iced with the same coffee icing and then used green icing for the grass and caramel sweets for stepping stones.  I added a sugarpaste door and shutters for the windows and then added sugarpaste window boxes with red flowers and ‘planted’ pink and white roses and flowers in the garden.

Little House & Flower Garden Cake

Little House & Flower Garden Cake

We celebrated Michelle’s birthday at the Memory Shed and once again it was the perfect setting and perfect group of scrapbookers for Michelle to celebrate another year being wiser.

Little House & Flower Garden Cake (Michelle & Lisa)

Little House & Flower Garden Cake (Michelle & Lisa)

 

 

 

Moonlight Market – 30th Sep 2011

Oct2

It was a very windy evening on Friday so it was brilliant that there were so many visitors to the Moonlight Market at Weltevreden Farm.  Once again I was invited to have my cupcakes on display and for sale and I decided on different flavour combinations to delight my customers this time.

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

With strawberries being in season and so sweet now I was inspired to make a vanilla cupcake with a cream and strawberry swirl icing. With a fresh strawberry for decoration these cupcakes not only looked delicious but tasted delicious with their gorgeous strawberry aroma.  A perfect summer cupcake.

Nutella Cupcakes

Nutella Cupcakes

I have  a passion for anything with a hazelnut flavour whether it is chocolate, ice-cream or cake.  I added the Nutella spread to my icing for these chocolate cupcakes and then decorated them with an Italian hazelnut wafer biscuit.  How could these not be delectable and yes they were fighting for the last of these at the market – note to self, make more of these Nutella Cupcakes next time!

Arabica Chocolate Cupcakes

Arabica Chocolate Cupcakes

These cupcakes were also chocolate.  I experimented with the Madagascan chocolate I bought at the Good Food and Wine Show.  I melted half of the Arabica coffee flavoured dark chocolate into the icing which gave the icing a beautiful rich caramel colour.  I added a piece of chocolate to each cupcake and these too were a hit at the market.

Orange Aero Cupcakes

Orange Aero Cupcakes

Staying with different flavour chocolate, these cupcakes I decorated with a piece of Orange Aero chocolate.  This chocolate is imported and I bought it from the SuperSpar in Olivedale.   A big thank you to the manager for going out of his way to get me some when he had sold out.

Top Deck Cupcakes

Top Deck Cupcakes

These cupcakes work really well with their name as they are chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla cream icing and have a piece of top deck chocolate for decoration.  They look delightful in the black and white dotted cupcake holders.

Cappucino Chuckle Cupcakes

Cappucino Chuckle Cupcakes

Cappucino cupcakes are not new to my cupcake repertoire as they are a popular flavour.  I have found the best way to get the coffee taste and aroma to the cupcake is to add espresso powder to the icing as it flavours it and it gives the icing a natural rich coffee colour.  I added a chuckle to these for added flavour.