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Vintage Iced-Coffee Cupcakes

Vintage Iced Coffee Cupcakes

In Good Company http://www.ingoodcompany.co.za/ opened their new store in Parkhurst, Johannesburg and I took time off baking to visit this new delightful treasure trove of a shop.  I came home with my goodie bag of treasure into which had found its way a pack of vintage cupcake cases (Cake cases for tempting treats).  At the time I fell in love with these cases but wasn’t sure where or when I would use them.  The perfect opportunity came when Michelle asked me to do birthday cupcakes for her friend Pat. Knowing both Michelle and Pat, both ardent scrapbookers, I knew that these beautiful cases would delight them both.

Vintage Rose Cupcakes

The cupcakes I baked were iced coffee flavour.  I added a cup of Woolworths Iced-Coffee to my vanilla mixture for a different flavour and then added espresso powder to the icing for a rich coffee flavour and colour.  The sugar paste roses I made from a dusty pink sugar paste and I finished them with a dusting of Rolkem’s Cerise Sparkles. They complemented the cupcake cases perfectly nestled in the coffee icing and the cream sugar pearls add to the vintage appeal of these cupcakes.

Vintage Rose Cupcakes

Vintage Rose Cupcakes

Happy Birthday Pat and I hope you had fun celebrating your birthday with your friends and your cupcakes!

Vintage Iced Coffee Cupcakes

Cream & Red Cappuccino Cupcakes


Cream & Red Cupcakes

Helen celebrated her birthday on the 1st May and I made these cupcakes for her to celebrate again with her scrapbooking friends this morning. I had delivered cupcakes for another customer 2 weeks earlier and Helen fell in love with the cream and red decorations on those cappuccino cupcakes.  She asked me to do the same cupcakes for her which I did but with a different play on the red and cream flowers.  Helen is a very beautiful elegant woman and I wanted the cupcakes to portray a little of her and her personality.  I made cream sugarpaste butterflies with a small red blossom accent and then small sugar paste roses and embossed cream flowers with an embossed centre.

Cream & Red Cupcakes

I embossed a 5 petal blossom and then made a rolled rose with a mixture of cream and red for a contrasting and different centre.

Cream & Red Cupcakes

As all scrapbookers love pattern I added miniature red blossoms to a  larger cream blossom and pressed them into the sugar paste, adding a rolled rose for the centre. For the last contrasting flower I pressed a medium red daisy into a larger cream blossom and then added a small cream daisy for added dimension.

I hope you had fun celebrating with all your friends Helen and as usual it was a pleasure to make these cupcakes for you.

Cream & Red Cupcakes

Musical Flower Birthday Cake!

Music & Flower Cake

Music & Flower Cake

My friend Vee fell in love with the pictures of my last cake a lime green and pink flower and butterfly cake and she asked me to make a similar cake for a family birthday celebration.  She gave me the extra challenge of making one cake to celebrate 3 different family members, one male and a musician and the other two female and arty.  I used the lime green and made sugar paste butterflies, flowers and roses and then for a contrasting colour used Rolkem’s Watermelon colouring to colour sugar paste to make the remainder of the butterflies, flowers and roses.  I placed these cascading across and then down the side of a creamy vanilla iced cake and then added a sheet of music and music notes for the male element of the cake. (The sheet of music I made by rolling a piece of sugar paste into a rectangle and then stamping music on to it with a rubber stamp and edible black food colouring. I gathered the sheet gently while still pliable and placed it on the cake adding the larger music notes to it for effect.)  The black ribbon with white polka dots adds the final dramatic effect to the cake and ties in the masculine and feminine theme of the cake.  I couldn’t resist photographing it on my favourite black and white tea towel as who could not feel but only joy at looking at this cake!

Music & Flower Cake

Thank you Vee for your faith in me in being able to do this cake for your special family celebration and I hope you had fun with all the family!

To Welcome Tiny Pink Feet…

Pink & Lime Green Baby Shower Cupcakes

Pink & Lime Green Baby Shower Cupcakes

I added 2 baby pink feet to embossed pastel green flowers for these cupcakes that Alison ordered to welcome a new baby girl into their family. They look so cute nestled in the flower on these cupcakes. The teddies I molded from a sculpey clay mold and added a pastel green flower to it before settling it on to the cupcake with some rolled sugar paste roses. The pink sugar paste boottees with their green blossoms and pastel green babygros with their blossom buttons  complete this baby girl cupcake order. I hope these only enhanced this special day for you and your family Alison.

“Pink bows and pretty things, Fancy dresses and golden rings, Little girl wishes and princess dreams, She dances on stars and moonlight beams.” – Veronica Curtis

Cupcakes for KMad – Decade Show

Red, Yellow, Orange & Black Cupcakes

Red, Yellow, Orange & Black Cupcakes

It was a real honour when Kelsey asked me to do the cupcakes for the Saturday evening of her KMad – Decade show.  It has been so exciting to follow the shows that Kelsey has produced in the last few years and I have spent many an evening marvelling at the talent of her young dancers who energetically and beautifully bring to life her awesome and powerful choreography.  When you watch any one of her dances you are no longer a member of the audience but you are drawn into the passion and story-telling of each dance as the dancers enthrall and the music captivates you.

How then do you do justice to Kelsey and the KMad dancers?  The Cake Boss did a cake for a dance production in America a while ago and I was intrigued how he took pictures of the dancers and placed them around the cake.  He then added two dancing figurines on the top tier and he made the sugar paste material of their costumes drape seductively down the remaining tiers.  I don’t think all of this would have managed to translate onto a cupcake so I chose firstly a brightly coloured theme of red, orange, yellow and black as Kelsey has to be one of the most colourful and interesting people I have met.  I decorated some of the chocolate cupcakes with creamy white chocolate icing and then added orange and black music notes and colourful flowers to these cupcakes.  The music notes symbolise the interesting pieces of music that Kelsey uses in her choreography.  The Decade Show reminded us of the brilliance of our local South African artists.

Red, orange, yellow & black flower cupcakes

10 years of passion and extremely hard work on her part meant I could add this to Kelsey’s cupcakes and most importantly without the beautiful and agile dancers and their musical feet there would not be such phenomenal entertainment for the dance audience, so I added embossed feet and bright flowers to the dark chocolate iced cupcakes.  I hope these cupcakes portrayed the excitement and joy that Kelsey and her dancers have given us all over the past 10 years and I hope that her talent and these dancers continue to enthrall many an audience.

KMad - Decade Cupcakes

Cream & Red Cupcakes

Cream & Red Cupcakes

Cream & Red Cupcakes

Alison spotted the cupcake order I had delivered for Glyn’s birthday at the Memory Shed last Saturday and she asked if I could do cupcakes for her group of scrapbooking ladies yesterday.  She requested cappuccino flavoured cupcakes and left the decorations up to me which I love as it gives me carte blanche to play with new colour combinations.  I decided on rich cream sugar paste roses, rolled roses, butterflies and of course tiny tags to go with the scrapbooking theme for the day.  I added the red miniature sugar paste blossoms to add a contrast to the butterflies and tags and dotted sugar beads on the rich creamy coffee icing.  The result was a gentle but elegantly appealing cupcake with an awesome coffee aroma. Thank you for this order Alison and I hope the ladies had fun scrapping and eating their cupcakes.