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Rose Cake Macaron Tower – Helen’s 50th

Jun3

Rose Cake Macaron Tower

A walk through Helen’s garden is a gift of tranquility, beauty, love and floral passion. Helen’s gentle touch and knowledge can be seen in every living space of her garden and home. It was with this in mind that I designed her 50th Birthday Rose Cake Macaron Tower. The brief was roses and pale pastel colours with macarons inspired by a family visit to the Laduree shop in Paris.

Rose CakeRose Cake

I made these roses from flower paste, carefully dusted in pastel shades of yellow, pink and peach. The pastel macarons completed the tower cake: soft yellow (lemon flavoured), perfect rose (rose water flavoured), pastel green (made with a combination of pistachio and almond flour), pretty orange (orange blossom) and pale brown (chocolate flavoured with cocoa).

Rose CakeRose Cake Macaron Tower

Beautifully displayed in Helen’s home, this cake showcased her personality and it was a pleasure to create this cake and then to share in such a beautifully planned 50th celebration.

Thank you for your kind words Helen:

” Thank you so much for the most incredible cake and macarons. You are a genius. It was perfect… the subtle delicate flavours, the subtle colours, everything.”

Rose Cake Macaron TowerRose Cake Macaron TowerRose Cake Macaron Tower

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Blair & Duncan’s Wedding Cake & Macarons

Jan13

Wedding Cake - Blair & Duncan

Sitting in a warm coffee shop in a freezing cold London in Dec 2017 together with Blair was the first I heard of Blair’s plans for her wedding back in Johannesburg. What a contrast to the beautiful August day a few months later that Blair and Duncan shared for their wedding here in South Africa with family and friends. When Blair mentioned a cupcake tower for her wedding cake, I had only tried macarons a few times and had given a few classes and demos on how to make them. As Blair was adamant I was making her cake, I set out to perfect these tiny (often troublesome) bites of deliciousness.

Wedding Cake - Blair & Duncan

My inspiration was Blair’s choice of an Autumn Sunset colour palette and Carol Anne’s meticulous planning of every detail of this wedding & her choice of flowers that would bring to life the colour palette. The result was a colourful ombre macaron tower topped with the wedding cake with an array of sugar paste flowers. The final flourish was the B & D initial topper cut by Rebecca at The Crazy Lemon to match the initials on the wedding invitation. I painted the back of the clear cut initials to match the invite colour.

Wedding Cake - Blair & Duncan

I chose to make  a peachy coral rose, yellow and purple ranunculus and white sweet peas to top the white fondant cake.

The macarons in the matching colours were from top to bottom; blue – Flavour Nation Hazelnut, purple – Flavour Nation Grape, berry – Flavour Nation Mixed Berry, peach – Flavour Nation Naartjie and mustard – Flavour Nation Passion Fruit. Huge thanks to Andre Sonnekus who photographed the macarons so beautifully. More of the perfect moments Andre captured will be featured in my next post.

Thank you again Blair for the opportunity to be part of your wedding day in such a special and colourful way!

Blair & Duncan's Macaron Tower - Andre Sonnekus Photo

Photograph – Courtesy of Andre Sonnekus Photography

Blair & Duncan's Macaron Tower - Andre Sonnekus Photo

Photograph – Courtesy of Andre Sonnekus Photography

Blair & Duncan's Macaron Tower - Andre Sonnekus Photo

Photograph – Courtesy of Andre Sonnekus Photography

 

Celebration of the Rose Class with Victoria Bean

Apr23

Rose Class with Victoria BeanRose Class with Victoria Bean

I could never have dreamed a few years ago when I started my simple sugar paste flower decorations that I would ever learn to create my own sugar floral art. Vicci Clemitson-Martin’s Celebrating the Rose Class was yet another fun and dynamic Victoria Bean class she has presented. Bev, Lizelle, Raquel and myself worked hard for 2 days …. & yes, we laughed and had fun too!!! Vicci somehow managed to keep us on track so that we could all complete our beautiful roses to create this beautiful sugar rose art.

Rose Class with Victoria Bean

Vicci, your passion for flowers and indeed everything that grows came through in the way you explained each step of the rose so thank you for bringing your green fingers and love of nature to this class, we will all be looking at roses in a different way and be challenged to create many more gorgeous roses. Thank your for celebrating the rose in all its beauty from the bud to the full bloom and including its dainty ending as it dies back and drops its seeds for the next floral generation. You are like this rose, sewing the seeds of beautiful sugar art for all your students.

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Wendy’s Roses Then(2013) & Now(2017)

Jan22

Wendy's Rose Cake Topper

Even if I had had a crystal ball in 2011, when I started Cupcakes2Delite, I could never have predicted how my friends would become an intricate part in the story of my business. The fun, the learning and the inspiration I have received from them is woven into the history of the writing of this blog.

Wendy's Rose Cake Topper

Wendy celebrated her 50th Birthday in the September of 2013, and she asked me to do her birthday cupcakes with a blue roses theme. I made her cupcakes and as a small gift added a 6 inch cake with a topper of blue & white roses, a butterfly & flowers on embossed sugar paste (pictured below). I blogged the birthday cake and cupcakes in a post Beautiful In Shades of Blue. In 2013, I had very little experience in the art of sugar flowers and didn’t even know what flower paste was. I was really proud of this little work of art though and it meant so much to Wendy that she kept the topper until last year when she asked me if I could redo it for her as it was looking a little sad!

Wendy's 50th Cake & Cupcakes 2013

Wendy’s 50th Cake & Cupcakes 2013

Wendy's Rose Cake Topper

Here is the same topper renewed and upgraded in 2017. I kept the topper to a tiny 5 inch size to fit into the glass display dome (thanks Ivana for spotting the perfect dome…..my friends even know what I am looking for when they are out shopping!)

The reward of seeing the growth in my sugar skills cannot surpass all the years of friendship with Wendy, but how awesome that the years of friendship have inspired the contrast of these 2 sugar pieces. Thank you Wendy for trusting me all those years ago with your birthday cupcakes and for loving something so simple that I had made for you, that you wanted it again to keep for another few years. I am honoured that this tiny rose display in its glass dome will think it is a sugar jewel sitting amidst your precious Swarovski pieces!

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Bo’s 21st Cake

Jan13

21st Birthday Hat Box Cake

What a pleasure it was to create this cake for Bo for her 21st.  The photos Stephanie, her mom, sent to me showed a beautiful, poised and elegant young woman and it was fun to translate these characteristics into a sugar paste figurine for her 21st Cake.  I had to create long eyelashes, silky brunette hair and a gorgeous curvaceous figure dressed in a sexy deep coral dress.  Bo’s sister, Amy, also wanted me to add on pretty jewelry.  It is all this love and understanding that my clients show for the person who is celebrating that make me want to create the perfect cake for them.

21st Birthday Hat Box Cake

Stephanie and Amy’s idea was to have a Hat Box Cake with their beautiful Bo sitting on the box. As Bo was completing her course in BConsumer Science in Clothing and Retail Management, I thought it would be great to add details reflecting her passions. The cake board I covered in embossed sugar paste with movement on the board to reflect fabric. I added my favourite Crystal Candy Lace I made using Crystal Candy Midnight Garden Lace mat, which I dusted a soft gold.  Gold and silver antique scissors, gold buttons and rolled ‘fabric’ coral roses, a coral rose and a name tag completed Bo’s Coral and Gold Hat Box Cake.

21st Birthday Hat Box Cake

Not only was this cake delectable looking but inside revealed a chocolate cake, layered with raspberry buttercream and coated in chocolate ganache. On collecting the cake, Stephanie and Amy loved the cake and I was delighted that they had trusted me with their order.

Stephanie … ” Thank you Lisa for this beautiful cake, we loved it. “

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My Cake Duchess Floraison Class Cake

Nov18

My Cake Duchess Floaraison Course Cake

Following on from my previous post, I can’t wait to show you my completed cake after 5 days work learning to make these beautiful sugar paste flowers with Sumaiya Omar of The Cake Duchess.  It was sweet sugar heaven when I added my carefully made roses,  rose buds, rananculus, David Austin roses, hydrangeas, sweet peas, tendrils and branches and saw just how much I had learnt in the week. The bass relief on the cake completed the floral theme of this cake. What a journey it has been from following your work Sumaiya, with many oohs and aahs, to eventually having had the privilege to have done a course with you.

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