Tag Archive | Sugar paste flowers

Rose Cake Macaron Tower – Helen’s 50th

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

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

 

Wendy’s Roses Then(2013) & Now(2017)

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!

Wendy's Rose Cake TopperWendy's Rose Cake TopperWendy's Rose Cake TopperWendy's Rose Cake Topper6Wendy's Rose Cake TopperWendy's Rose Cake TopperWendy's Rose Cake Topper

My Cake Duchess Floraison Class Cake

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.

My Cake Duchess Floaraison Course CakeMy Cake Duchess Floaraison Course CakeMy Cake Duchess Floaraison Course CakeMy Cake Duchess Floaraison Course CakeMy Cake Duchess Floaraison Course Cake

Chocolate Delight & Cream 80th Cake

Chocolate Delight & Cream Flowers 80th Cake

As usual, a pleasure baking for your family celebrations Vee! You chose this delicious rich chocolate cake with Amarula buttercream for your mom’s 80th Birthday.  I love that you chose the cream flowers as they contrasted so beautifully against the combed chocolate buttercream. Espresso mini meringues and chocolate balls, cream fondant rope detail and an embossed cream cake board completed the cake for this occasion.

Thanks Teigh and Carmen for my birthday voucher from Hostess Pro . I was so chuffed to be able to get this rope mould (among others) to add to my collection, it is always fun to have something different to finish off my cakes. Vanessa has such a wonderful selection to choose from so my just have to take another drive out to her shop in Pretoria!

Chocolate Delight & Cream Flowers 80th CakeChocolate Delight & Cream Flowers 80th Cake

Sweet words of thank from Vee: “Darling Lisa, thank you so much for the absolutely beautiful, delish cake. Everyone commented on it – it was such a great hit. You are a star.”

Chocolate Delight & Cream Flowers 80th CakeChocolate Delight & Cream Flowers 80th Cake

White Ruffle Flower Birthday Cake

White Ruffle Flower Birthday Cake

Simple but effective vanilla bean with vanilla buttercream cake for Ona’s mom’s 50th Birthday. This was an all white cake with softly ruffled sugar paste flowers & pearlized chocolate balls for decoration. I used a mixture of non-pereils and pearls from Jodees to sprinkle on the top of the cake and to finish off the cake board and some of the smaller flowers.

Sweet words of thanks from Ona: “Hi Lisa. The cake was lovely! Everyone enjoyed it! And my mom loved how it looked..100%. It literally was the cherry on the top! Thank you so much.”

White Ruffle Flower Birthday CakeWhite Ruffle Flower Birthday Cake