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.”
Another new and exciting product from Crystal Candy was the inspiration for this vintage Music Box and ballerina figurine from my previous post. This time the new Bas Relief Mould with its vintage feel, was the perfect finish for my sugar paste music box.
I dusted the Bas Relief Mould with Crystal Candy’s Pearlescent Lustre in Antique Champagne and then pressed my sugar paste mixed with chocolate modelling paste (coloured a deeply dark grey) to fit snugly into the mould. I popped the mould into the fridge for approx 15 min (time always varies with me – depending on how distracted I get while waiting!) This, below, was the result after gently peeling the paste out of the mould.
I cut this into 3 equal sections to wrap around the music box that I had formed using chocolate modelling paste and then made another vintage piece for the lid. The chocolate modelling paste mixed with the sugar paste allowed me time to press the lid to fit in line with the bottom of the box. To cover the joins I used a strip of pearls mould & the same paste to create a line of tiny pearls stuck over each join. The fun part was dusting the entire box again with a light dusting of the Pearlescent Lustre, Antique Champagne and watching each relief come to life!
With an added embossed key the music box was perfect for my ballerina figurine who balanced gracefully in her pink and lace tutu. Thank you Ray for trusting me to try out this wondeful new Bas Relief Mould.
2017 ended with another challenging but really fun figurine project. Ivana asked me to translate Jorge’s appreciation for Johnny Walker and his love for their cute Scottish Terrier, Oscar, into sugar for his birthday in December. She new exactly what she wanted to surprise Jorge with on his special day and this became my inspiration for this figurine. Using my precious stash of Saracino Modelling Paste, I created a Johnny Walker figurine with his recognizable stride and red jacket but made him more a “Jorge” Walker to suite Jorge’s character. Once again just loved using Domy’s Sweet Revolution Man face mould. Ozzie looking adoringly up at him, was modelled using black Saracino Modelling Paste.
The signature gold top hat, I modelled with ivory coloured paste before painting it using Rolkem’s Special Gold mixed with alcohol. Ruffled white paste strips completed his over-sized collar, cravat & cuffs and he proudly sports a black bow-tie & painted goatee.
With gorgeous glutes and sugar paste legs like these, no wonder Johnny ‘Jorge’ Walker looks so dashing and confident. After the birthday celebration, I had him back again in my kitchen, this time to make a keepsake display platform (wood-embossed) for him and Ozzie to stand on. Thank you Jorge and Ivana for loving him that much that he is now standing proudly on his own shelf in your shop, that is the best thank you ever!
The delicious cake, lovingly made by Ivana, to accompany Johnny & Ozzie to Jorge’s celebration and a fantastic collection of Johnny Walker make the perfect backdrop for this figurine.
Even though my children are well grown past the age of small character toys, I am often magically transported back to my childhood with so many of my cake orders for young children and this was definitely the case with this cake for Jané. Who could nor find these little Sylvanian Family characters an absolute delight at any age? What fun it must be for children to collect these sweet character families and all the room accessories that go with them. There is a beautiful innocence in the design of these characters that is refreshing to come across these days.
As Jané’s party was a sleepover party, her mom, Janita, asked me to do a bed with these 6 Sylvanian Family characters on and around the bed. The colour palette was a pale pink and delphinium blue, so I embossed a rose pink sugar paste with daisies and covered the bed with this adding the white paste for the sheet along with the Crystal Candy Graceland LaceMold lace trim. I lightly air brushed the pink duvet cover and blush pink throw and also the wood embossed headboard and base board of the bed. The blue pillows and floor mat were the perfect addition for the accent of blue on this pretty bed.
The characters included a Zeelandia sugar paste rabbit, mouse, hedgehog, squirrel, cat and piglet all from the Sylvanian Family collection. I matched the outfits as closely as possible to the photos Janita sent me and then popped two of the happy creatures on their comfy bed and the remaining four on the wood embossed sugar paste floor. The baby hedgehog stole my heart with her cute hair do and gorgeous dress. Janita was once again delighted with this cake for her daughter and the best compliment ever was her saying that she loves ordering cakes from me as it makes her feel like a child again!
This post is a huge thank you to Etty van Urk of Cake Dutchessfor introducing this Better Modelling in 10 Days Tutorial on her facebook page. I didn’t know what to expect but after joining the group and setting aside a bit of time for the 10 days I was eager to see what we would create. Etty’s idea was for members to do a pre-assessment Angel on a Cloud Figurine and then for her to do a step by step live video tutorial for the 10 days and then see how everyone in the group improved with the tutorial practice.
I didn’t join in time to do the pre-assessment but I was hooked from Day 1 after seeing Etty modelling the beginning of this figurine and managed to complete my angel watching Etty’s friendly and informative tutorials. We started with the cloud, made our tiny seated angelic bodies, practised arms and progressed over the 10 days to this completed angel. Each one of us ended up with a unique Angel on a Cloud, each with its own delightful personality. My angel is this cute little girl angel complete with pink teddy and dummy, a very naughty face and cute round butt!
Not only did I take myself out of my comfort zone in order to model a baby, but I met a fantastic group of bakers from all over the world who were friendly and motivating to each other. I also learned that I am getting more competitive with my figurine modelling and that I do love to help and share my knowledge of what I have learned over the last 3 years of modelling figurines and 6 years baking. Thank you again Etty for your time and passion in helping us improve our modelling skills through your Better Modelling in 10 Days!
The signature gold top hat, I modelled with ivory coloured paste before painting it using 
cupcakes2delite 