Happy New Year

Best wishes for the new year.  As we say goodbye to another year and welcome in a new please accept my best wishes for your health and happiness, the two things that really matter most in life. Hopefully you'll also find time to enjoy a little cake along the way.  Thank you for all your support and kind words.  Tammy xxx

Ginger Bread Houses

My kitchen has the most delicious scent of Ginger Bread. Here are some cute Gingerbread House I have made in need of a good home.
The perfect edible Christmas gift.

Santa Claus Cake

Hello Everyone,

Thought I'd share this super cute cake I made for my book club's 10th Annual Christmas Dinner.
Yes he is cake. Fruit cake with dark chocolate ganache and it was delicious. Thank you to Verusca Walker this is her fantastic design which I reproduced. Santa Claus stands about 30cm tall, and the chef at the restaurant even came out to tell me that he loved it, just wish I had taken a picture of him once we cut the cake, such fun xo

Mini Christmas Cake

Here is a cute little 4" Christmas Fruit Cake I have made with a little sugar paste bird on top.
Little birds fascinate me so it seemed like the perfect thing to put on top of these cute cakes. Hope all your Christmas preparations are on track.
Thanks for stopping by. xo

Christmas Figurines

Here are some cute figurines I have made to go on top of some Christmas cakes.

Rudolf dancing and cake decorators will recognize Carlos Lischetti's gorgeous Santa.

Both of these figures have a body and head of polystyrene which I have covered with sugar paste, they are quite large about 20 cm tall. In the photo they are sitting in a cake dummy I will show you some more pictures when they are on the cake.

Hope you like. How are your preparations going for Christmas?
See you soon. xo

Christmas Cake

Thought I'd share with you a cake I made using inspiration from Alan Dunn's Christmas Cake Book.

Since I first saw the picture of an Amaryllis flower I longed to make one but just never quite got around to it, until now. I also made some foliage from the book and tried to put together an arrangement in Alan's style, which is not that easy and very time consuming, never the less I was quite pleased with the result. The cake is an 8" fruit cake. I think it will be the family's cake.
Thanks for stopping by. xo

 

Bit of a close up Ilex berries.

Simplicity

Sometimes simple just works. In fact for me I think it always works. Pared back, toned down however you describe it a simple cake can look well, simply stunning.
I love to create cakes with one or two large statement flowers. This was a chocolate cake for a beautiful girls 21st birthday. Hope you had a great day Georgi.

 

Christmas Figure Modelling

Some cute little Christmas figurines I was teaching the students to make. All our made out of fondant with tylose powder added. Confectioners glaze gives a nice shine to noses and eyes. I use dried spaghetti as internal supports. Hope you like.

A Glamorous Cake

One of the new trends I have noticed with cakes recently is the use of edible sequins. When I say edible sequins I am referring to the little tiny discs of fondant cut out with the end of a piping tube. You can make various sizes and then you  stick them on to the cake. I stuck mine on with some royal icing and then gave them a touch with some edible gold paint. Yes, is the answer to what you are thinking. It was incredibly time consuming and laborious. It does look pretty however and as this was a birthday cake for sweet Giulia who turned 30 I think it was worth it.

I made some sugar paste lilliums to dress up the cake. The cake was an 8" and extended 5" chocolate cake.
Hope you like it.

P.S. People around the world that have to sew sequins onto garments you have my admiration and sympathy. Such pesky little things. xx

 

 

Thanks for dropping by. Tammy xo

Yippee. I'm Published

Some exciting news to share with you. I'm Published. Cake Central Magazine asked me to submit a cake based on an illustration by Arthur Rackham. Rackham was an illustrator in the late 1800's, early 1900's who actually illustrated the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales.
He was a wonderful illustrator producing some deliciously dark drawings, try and have a look at some of his work if you can it's amazing.
The illustration I based my cake on was from Red Riding Hood and the brief was to design a cake capturing the essence of the illustration.
Big thankyou to Jayden my talented photographer and thankyou so much to the Editors of Cake Central Magazine for giving me the opportunity.
So here's the cake, hope you like it.

Some More Cakes

Some more pictures I found in my camera that I hadn't posted.
I promise it wont be so long between cakes, next time.

Alexia's Holy Communion

 A Big 21st Cake { all chocolate }

 

My first Corset Cake

 Angela's Cupcakes

Bit of old School Piping

 



Pretty Sugar Flowers

 



More pretty sugar flowers

Sugar Cymbidiums

 

I'm getting into the piping

Tammy xx

Cakes Cakes and More Cakes

So it seems I have been missing in action for a while. Not intentionally of course but life just got very busy for a couple of months and I got out of the habit of posting pictures. So it's high time I checked in and shared with you some of the baked and decorated goods from the last few months.
On the cake front things were very busy. There were many varied designs produced, even did some cupcakes which I hadn't done for a while.
Teaching and keeping up to date with class projects also occupied a fair bit of time but I love spending time with the students and find them quite inspiring. They surely are lovely bunch of gals, talented to boot.
There was also a magazine shoot, my first. More about that tomorrow. I have to wait for 1st October when the publication is released then all will be revealed.
So life has been busy but then aren't we all?
So without further ado and in no particular order I will share some of the cakes I made in the last little while. Hope you enjoy and thanks for stopping by. Tammy xx

 

Baby Girl Cupcakes

A Scottish 50th and 21st

 

RSPCA

A little chocolate cake with Raspberries

 

Dinosaurs { the head was made out of rice Krispies }

There was a lot of decoration specified for this cake

 



Tiffany style Macarons

 and cupcakes



and the Tiffany Box Cake

Hollywood Themed 21st

Buon Natale

Another Christmas in July cake for this weekend. Not too Chrismassy, but I couldn't resist putting that big fat frilly Peony front and centre.
It's wet and cold and blowing a gale outside so all that yummy Christmas fare should go down a treat.
Thanks for dropping by and have a relaxing weekend. XO

A Royal Bear

A new Royal Baby how wonderful. XO

30th Birthday Cake

I love to try something different and when the cake is a gift from me to someone special that is the ideal opportunity to design something a little bit unique.
When I thought about this cake I wanted something a  bit sophisticated with a big statement flower and somehow I wanted the cake to convey movement with the petals of the blossom.

This is what I came up with. The cake is Almond and Orange Gluten Free with a dark chocolate ganache. Happy Birthday Vivianna.  XO

Christmas in July

Hello
For all our friends who live in the Northern hemisphere you may think we've gone slightly nuts  here, but I have to declare some people in Australia actually do celebrate Christmas in July.
Usually this takes the form of a dinner party with a trad. Christmas dinner. You know turkey, all the trimmings, Christmas pudding,  bonbons, mulled wine all of the usual suspects. I'm guessing some people even go for the gift giving. Why do it?

Well, in Australia we're currently in the middle of winter, its actually raining outside now and will be about 5 degrees tonight. That's chilly for us. It is the complete opposite at Christmas, which falls during the peak of summer, when its hot, hot, hot. ( Christmas 2012 it was 38 degrees Celsius )

So, I guess some people just like to have Christmas dinner when its cold and wintry.
Having enjoyed quite a few Christmas celebrations in the northern hemisphere I get that,
but before you get any fancy thoughts, sadly turkey is not on the menu tonight.
Actually my husband is cooking steak on the BBQ in the rain, but lets not try and explain that one. Sometimes its just good to sit back and appreciate life's little mysteries.

So without further ado this is the cake I made for Ute who is celebrating Christmas in July tonight. It's also her birthday, so big birthday hugs and kisses Ute. Enjoy your cake and that turkey. xx


P.S. Hope you keep warm or cool  where ever you are in this big old funny world. xx

        Close up of the big cute guy.