Our Beloved Early Childhood Educator is leaving :(

I've made a couple of cakes in the last couple of days for our loved teacher Tania.  She has taught my two oldest boys and waited just as impatiently as I did for #3 to turn up, she has been a part of my life for the last 3 and 3/4 years.  Dont worry I bake so she's not going far for long :) 

Anyhow the first cake I made was a shallow 10" square cake that has been plainly iced in white and is awaiting the children's drawing with edible markers tomorrow.  I have made and painted some stars with her name spelt out

The stars have been wired so we can stick them in the cake.  The cake is a plain yellow cake split into three and 3 different colours and then marbled.  Filled and crumb coated in SMBC.

I have also made a 2 layer 9" cake for her to take home.  This is a new chocolate cake recipe for me and it called for almond essence and despite my reservations I added it anyhow.  I think if I make this particular recipe again I wont add it and will just double the Vanilla extract.  It has been filled with SMBC but coated in ganache then covered in fondant.  It also had my first ever attempt at people modelling.  I had two different faces going the other more elaborate but didn't look like the components of the face belonged together so didn't use that one and went with the more simple one.  Not really all that pleased with it but one can only improve...  The flowers were made using a cutter and then me being the cheap arse I am formed them in a egg carton because I'm too tight to pay for a former.  Lol, nevermind.  I really should buy one though!

The last photo is of my ganaching of the cake.  While it is far from perfect I can tell you that my crumb coating has come a very very long way!  So I'm proud of it even though it is still far from perfect.  A lot of my trouble with stuff like this is that rather than taking as much time as it takes is that I am racing the baby clock - when will he wake up, because I know that once he's up I'm not doing it.

Ombre ruffles

I have just finished a cake for my Brother in law's birthday.  I like to do one for his birthday as it falls right where my life becomes MY life again   :)  I know I haven't posted in quite a while, I have been busy rearing calves everyday since then last week of July.  Calving takes over my life for a period before easing up and not being quite as busy.  We now also have 4 lambs and a pet calf.  I'm hoping my naughty dog wont eat any this year.

Anyhow, on to the cake. It is a chocolate cake (the cake recipe is from Annabel Langbein) with whipped ganache filling and mistakenly also on the outside. Oooops. For some idiotic reason (i'm blaming both calves and baby brain) I didn't think about how soft whipped ganache would be.  Laying the fondant was awful.  It has come out alright in the end though I feel.

Because of the disgusting laying of fondant I thought I would try out the ombre ruffle trend that is probably just about over knowing me.  It was relatively easy, altthough like any new thing it takes time.  The cake took me pretty much all day but this is, of course, in between feeding animals and children and husband and of course just general dealing with a baby who is cranky with teeth.  I'm pleased with the variance between the shades as i prefer ones that are gradual compared to the quite stark shade changes.  I thought I would handpaint his initial onto the cake which was nearly as untidy as I thought it would end up being.  There is also a fantasy flower which was hand cut and modelled (although I did use my veining tool for veining the petals, oh and scissors for the centre detailing) I'm not that enthusiastic about the flower.  It could be better but it could also be worse.  I did very much enjoy putting glitter on the stamens though.  It's all about the little things.

While typing this out I have been trying to get the photos to upload to photobucket.  And having a terrible time.  As we are rural (and in nz) our internet is rather awful.  I have had 6 attempts at uploading three photos and I have been averaging a upload speed of, wait for it,


5 whole KB per second.  That's right 5 kilobytes.


I think I will just hook my phone up to the computer and do it that way.

Oh and yes I did realise part way through my ruffles that the colour is so very vintage cabbage patch dolls.  Does it seem that way to any of you as well.  Never mind.

Oh and I soaked the cake itself in a boysenberry syrup and whipped some very well drained boysenberries through the ganache, although I might soak cakes in the syrup again I dont think I will add the berries to the ganache as I didn't think that enough berry flavour came through.

Now to go fetch my phone cord....

Done, I am using my phone because DSLR is having a battery issue :(

See you next time!

a big fat chubby cutie dino

And another seeing as how my sleep has off and run away with the spoon.

This cake was for my middle boy's 2nd Birthday.  He was so cute getting his cake! He was so excited but the then everyone sang him happy birthday he dissolved into a puddle of tears.  He was quite shy when he was 2, he certainly doesn't suffer from that affliction now!

I made the head and the upper body out of a marble sponge and the bulk of the body out of lollie cake.  Now for any non nzer's out there.  It pretty much consists of crushed malt biscuits, sweetened condensed milk, butter and lollies.  Here we use what used to be called fruit puffs (Im not sure you can get these over seas) but many people use pascall eskimos as well now.  They are this kind of stiff marshmellow thing.  I don't how to describe them.  It's kind of like trying to describe L&P (a nz specific soft drink) to someone.  Anyhow, lolly cake is delicious and loved by children everywhere.

This design is based on a Debbie Brown design so kudos where it is due.

I think it would be fair to say I almost threw this cake in the rubbish!  It was one of the very first times I had worked with fondant.  I thought to save myself time and effort I would buy some precoloured fondant.  I ordered online (I live rurally and there's no great cake shop anywhere near) and I for some reason didn't expect this shade of green.  I pulled it out and went WTF.  Once i got over that shock and was trying to cover the body I had problems with it tearing (novice me was the problem not the fondant) and cracking.  I removed the covering once and chucked it out and then recovered it.  By the time I decided that i didn't like that covering either it was too late to remove it.  Funnily enough didn't have a problem with covering the head.  The tongue was a bit of a problem as I hadn't learnt about tylose yet. But it sat ok in the end.

Just in case you all think I've been slack with the cake making (well I kind of have but you know....)  I have been busy knitting and crocheting as well.  I must say that I have been quite busy this term with all the kid commitments I have going on and next school term is a write off as I will be back into calving. 

A fourth Birthday Monster

This was my eldest sons 4th birthday cake.  We opted for a 3D monster.  It was a mix of both buttercream and fondant accents.  This cake actually wasn't too bad for troubles.  That is apart from the arms.... the arms are fondant covered dowels.  My lack of cake knowledge...  I had some real trouble getting them to look right so I ended up piping buttercream on top of the arms.  Plus seeing as how I had opted for a softish cake I was terrified that they would rip down the cake - they didn't.

Also seeing as how I can't seem to track down a digital photo of just the monster you all just kind of have to squint and look closely.  He was a very happy boy.

I must add that this design is a Wilton cake design.

My First Ever Gumpaste Roses

The cake itself was given to me to decorate.  It was quite a dense fruit cake, I would just like to say that between then and now I have learnt a whole lot more about how to cover a cake in fondant. Dont look too closely at the air bubbles, cracking and general uneveness! :) Every cake is a learning lesson. 

I approached a local acquaintance who I knew decorated cakes for her family and friends and was also attending her local cake guild at the time to help give me some pointers on making these.  I also have one of Alan Dunn's flower books so between the two I came up with these.

The first rose I ever made (the one in the center) took me nearly five hours to complete.  I can now say that they take me significantly less work time but now longer in general with learning about drying times etc.  I still think I dusted too heavily in the middle but that it looks ok.  As you can tell they are wired into position.




I made (and still do) more flowers than I would need a total of 3 full flowers and 4 half roses and goodness knows how many of those leafs.  I must say that now I know how to cut out and wire individual leaves better, they would be thinner.

And that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

A cake of Purple

I've had a pretty awful cold for the last week so I've mostly been out of action.  It is my mother in laws birthday and with only a small amount of notice I was asked to make a cake for after her birthday dinner.

It is a carrot cake with buttercream filling and icing.  This is a Confetti Cakes recipe for carrot cake.  It is made so differently from any carrot cake that I've ever had.  I put it down to regional differences.  I cant wait to taste it to see what it tastes like.

The 'buttercream' actually contains no butter! My father in law is dairy intolerant and quite by chance I decided to make this carrot cake and was about half the way through making it when I realised that it contained no dairy what so ever.  This was quite exciting because I always feel so rude making something he cant eat. I though oh help, I suppose I should try to make it completely dairy free as well.  As I didn't have a lot of time (you know 3 kids including 1 baby and all) I opted for a buttercream finish as I didn't have to time to plan and make decorations with enough time to dry sufficiently. Anyhow this buttercream is 1 part Olivani (here in NZ one of the few completely dairy free marg's) and 2 parts icing sugar.  I had looked around on chef google and had heard that if you beat margarine to much it can split, which presented a problem.  I wanted as whiter icing as possible. It's filled and partly crumb coated with the white (dont ask me why i crumb coated it with white as i'm not really sure... baby brain)  While mixing I was watching like a hawk for signs of splitting and I thought it was coming up just a bit dry - this is where I would normally reach for the milk. Right dairy free.... so had a bit of thought about it and realised I had some glucose syrup (corn syrup) and added some of that.  It must have had a stablising effect on it or something because I beat the living daylights out of that buttercream and it never split.  It is actually a beautifully firm icing.  I was concerned that because it was margarine that it wouldn't stand or it would droop and look like it was melting or something. But it's actually really good!  I flavoured this buttercream with lorann's flavouring oil in cheesecake flavour so the icing tastes very similar to a cream cheese icing.  Awesome right?!

This will be cut tonight after dinner tonight. I'm excited that I get to taste a new cake recipe and that it's completely dairy free so everyone at the table gets to have some.

My first decorated cake

This was my first ever decorated cake.  It was for my eldest's 3rd Birthday.









I enjoyed making this one so much that I thought i would continue to make pretty cakes.  That was my whole objective 'pretty cakes'  I am somewhat of a magpie when it comes to pretty things.  I think the hardest part of this cake for me (apart from the hand cramp!) was getting the colours right.  You can see that they aren't quite right but not too bad.  There is gaps between the piping but while they were there I promise that it didn't look that gappy in real life!  I think it was the flash from the camera.  This was also before i knew about crumb coating.  I have done a few of these flat style buttercreamed cakes.  But we'll catch up with that at some point.

There is a fundraiser for a local woman with breast cancer who has been off work now for 6 months so things are getting a bit tight in a couple of weeks that I thought i would do a cake for.  I am thinking about doing a ivory rolled fondant finish with the pink breast cancer ribbon on it.  I'm unsure of flavours as this is the perfect time to experiment.

Valentines Cake

So this cake was made because I was going through withdrawl after the birth of my 3rd baby.  It had been quite some months since I had made one.  There is a photo where you can see i had some real trouble getting my fondant cover to behave.  It was drying as I was putting it while trying to do homework with my eldest and ignoring a baby crying in order to get out the door for a parent teacher interview...  Recipe for disaster, yes? 

 The feet are my middle childs.

This cake was all kinds of wrong really. The ruffle heart - the discs were too thick, the cover was awful, I didn't paint the butterflies in any fashion, the balls around the base werent quite right either.  It was also the first time that I cranked up my cricut mini - learning curve. 

This is the photo.  See those terrible folds?!?

I also learnt that I'm not a particular fan of regalice fondant.  I'm sorry if you are but I'm not really.  The red and chocolate are both nice tasting but I dont like the way they behave.  Far too elastic and tear too easily - and if you are using it for modelling,  it never really dries properly even with copious amounts of Tylose added!  If you are in the mood you could scroll down to the duck shooting cake and see the maimai (shed that the men hide from ducks and shoot from) is made from the chocolate.  I made the pieces on the tuesday ready for use of friday with heaps of tylose in it.  The pieces still had a bit of give to them and I was very relieved that they didn't bend.  Rant over.  I still have a bit in the cupboard so I am learning how to deal with it a lot better than I did.

The cake went to my eldests class at school.  They actually made it stretch to the entire school. Its not a huge feat though - the school is 51 students. 

My favourite cake so far.

This is my favourite cake I've made so far.  It was based of a tutorial in a cake mag (can't remember which one) and was my first time making and using a Swiss Meringue Butter Cream (SMBC).  It was done using a petal tip, wilton 106? I can't remember off the top of my head. 

It was made for my Brother In Laws birthday.  The poor man will more than likely get my experimental cakes for the rest of my life as his birthday comes right after a very busy period where I do not get to make any cakes for a few months. So instead I spend that time thinking about cakes and what i might be able to make.

I probably make half and half of buttercream and fondant cakes, even though my preference is for buttercream.  I will one day be one of those clever people who make SMBC look like fondant. I like the versatility of it but most of all i like the taste!  

This cake was apple and cinnamon and the SMBC was a brown sugar SMBC.  It was delicious.  I did learn about the fact that I absolutely cannot use 'cool' cakes with SMBC I must use cold cakes.  As my oven is retarded and cant bake deep cakes (really anything deeper than a cupcake - i have to split normal cakes into two tins or they dont cook well) and I had tried to bake one deep one and even though it looked cooked and I had had it in there for a half hour longer and tested it with a skewer; when i released it from the tin complete outside cooked - and then....  It collapsed like a sink hole.  It was still raw on the inside - not cooked at all in the middle.  So I made another batter up and split it into my sandwich tins so the cakes were done in the middle of the day instead of the beginning so were not cold enough!

A Duck shooter's cake

 This blog is pretty much a visual diary for myself of some cakes that i make.  Over the next week or so I plan to catch up on most of the cakes that I have photographed, which i must admit is only a few of the one's I've made.  But for today I will upload some photo's of a birthday cake for tomorrow. 

One day when i figure the photo thing better I will relocate these things to my satisfaction. 




As tomorrow is the beginning of duckshooting this cake is duck hunting themed.  The ducks are my first ever attempt at modelling (and i think not bad!) also the camo covering is also my first go at it.  I may do this again and post it up as a tutorial.  It's really very simple.  I would also do the camo different next time.  I'm not sure why i didn't realise but it spread out much more than i though so the 'pieces' are much bigger than i intended.