Paint Splat

Paint Splat, a photo by Coco Jo Cakes on Flickr.

This cake was made for an 80's themed birthday party, and the birthday girl is also a Kindy teacher, so I think the design is just perfect!
I have to admit I struggled a little with my inner perfectionist, trying to get all the splatters right, but once I let loose, I had an absolute blast.
There was icing everywhere....on the fridge, the oven, the dishwasher, even as far away as my dining room table!

Lots and Lots of fun :-)

Hot pink and Black

This glamourous birthday cake was created for a Black and Pink themed cocktail party. Inspiration for the design came from the dress that the birthday girl was going to wear which was pink with black lace. This is only my second topsy turvy cake, and I am really happy with the result.

I had free reign over the entire cake, which was lots of fun....I was originially planning on airbrushing the tiers to create a gradual gradient from a lighter to darker pink, but decided to go with a two tone instead....or three tone, as the icing on the board was a darker pink again.

The paisly style shapes were created by using my frangipani flower petal cutters, along with a few tear drop shapes in there too. Finally the design was finished off with some black royal icing dots and cachous to give it the must have "bling" factor.

I tested out a couple of new flavours too (well not new, but new for me), with the top tier I went for a cookies and cream mud cake, and the bottom a chocolate cherry ripe mud cake.

Thank you for reading!

40th Birthday Party

This week my best friend, and husband turned the big 40. While he didn't want a big party, he did want to have a small get together with our closest and dearest friends. Now this sounded like a great idea to me (as now I didn't need to plan a huge party), we catch up with these friends once a month, so I was faced with the challenge of trying to make this particular one stand out from the rest. I decided to set up a beautiful table of finger food with a blue white and brown colour theme. Behind the table hung beautiful paper pom poms, with a couple scattered on the table. I also used by gorgeous glass candy jars to hold marshmallows, macadamia nuts and chocolate wafers.

Vege shots
(Carrot, Yellow Green and Red Capsicum in French Onion Dip)
Beside were some Kabana wraps
(Cream Cheese, Tomato Relish, Lettuce & Kabana in a Lavish Bread)

Mini Quiches are always a hit with the kids...
Quiche Lorraine
Tomato Salsa
Corn & Capsicum
Beside is a cheese and cracker platter

Good old fashioned Chocolate Spiders
(made by my eldest son)

And the cake!!!

A four layer chocolate cake, filled with chocolate ganache, iced with meringue icing

40th Birthday Gerbera Cake

From the pictures you can't really see how big this cake actually was....it was huge, and extremely heavy! Both tiers were caramel mud cake, with caramel filling iced with white chocolate ganache then covered in fondant.

The birthday girl's favourite flower is the gerbera, so she wanted some on the cake, along with other flowers and some lady bugs. She also requested that the cake be bright, colourful and cheery - and this is the design I came up with.

21st Birthday Star

Well, I have been a little slack with my posting....but I will endeavour to get back up and running.
The two tiers of this cake were chocolate mud and white chocolate mud, both filled and iced with delicious chocolate ganache before being covered in fondant.The design of the cake was inspired by the wonderful Inspired by Michelle Cake Designs....I was fortunate enough to travel to Sydney recently to attend one of her classes, it was a fantastic day, and a great experience to meet Michelle as she has been such an inspiration for me.

Hot pink glamour cake

Hot pink glamour cake, a photo by Coco Jo Cakes on Flickr.

This was a bit of a thrown together last minute cake, that I donated to our local Kindy where they raffled it off at their annual ladies Melbourne Cup dinner.
The cake was a triple layer chocolate mud cake filled and iced with chocolate ganache, then covered in fondant before being decorated with (all first attempts) a full fantasy flower, high heels and handbag all hand modelled from flower paste.
I wanted to add some feathers to give it a bit more of a "facinator" look, but couldn't decide where to put them....and also ended up running out of time.
The cake was a big hit with the ladies, and a fun night was had by all :)

Funky 30th Cake

I love this cake...the colours...the design...the bow!
It was my first attempt at making the topsy turvy style cake, and it took a lot longer than I thought, but I was really happy with the result. Inside the cake was a 7" chocolate mud cake, stacked 3 layers high, then carved to create the mad hatter style.
I have a two tiered version of this cake to make later this month and after making this I am really looking forward to it (but a little bit scared as to how long it is going to take me).

Caravan Cake

For my Father-in-law's birthday, G decided that I should make him a cake modelled on his caravan. He bought the van a couple of years ago, and we are planning a big road trip together later this year, so I agreed that it was a good idea (and seemed like a fairly easy cake to make). It was a combined effort, G cutting the board, and calculating the scale. It was cut from a 9" square chocolate mud cake, with the details made from fondant.

Perfume bottle cake

I really enjoyed making this cake, it's not something I would have ever thought of, but I think it turned out really well. The cake was for a lady turning the big 4 0 whose favourite perfume is the fragrance DAISY by Marc Jacobs. The cake is a white chocolate mud cake which was carved from 2 x 7" cakes.

80's Theme Cake

Designed for an 80's themed birthday party, this rubik's cube cake was made with chocolate mud cake. The Prom Queen figurine topper was modelled to resemble the birthday girl who was wearing a tiara, and sash. I love making the figurines...this time I added pupil details to her eyes.

21st Purple Cupcakes

These vanilla cupcakes are iced with two shades of purple buttercream and decorated with some simple purple and yellow blossoms. The design is based on some I had made earlier this year...I love the purple foil cases of these though.

Surfboard Cake

Here it is... the finished double barrel cake. I have added the lettering, made with my groovy patch cutters, and the hand modelled surfboard, made with a lot of assistance from my surfer husband :-)

Hot Pink Disco Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for a beautiful little girl's 7th disco birthday party. They are vanilla cupcakes with vanilla bean buttercream icing and were a big hit at the party. The fondant stars and mirrored balls were modelled from grey fondant and covered in edible glitter.

18th Birthday Cupcakes

I made an assortment of cupcakes to celebrate an 18th birthday on Friday. I made a dozen chocolate with chocolate ganache decorated with butterflies, 6 caramel with caramel buttercream and 6 vanilla with vanilla bean buttercream both decorated with fondant blossoms and flowers.

1 dozen chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache

Jukebox Cake

This cake was for a combined birthday party for a little boy and his grandad, the cake was a vanilla bean butter cake with vanilla bean buttercream, with fondant detailing. It was a fabulously fun cake to make, and very delicious (thankfully there were some off cuts). The fondant details were just some sausages around the edge, then black pieces for the base. The screen and speakers were cut using circle cutters, then black sausages placed around the edge to highlight. The finer details were just a matter of placing a bit here, and a bit there until it looked right.

21st Birthday Cupcakes

I have been playing around with various buttercream recipes, and yesterday I decided to do a bit of them all, and made up my own variation. Here it is pictured on chocolate cupcakes, it's a softer, smoother buttercream which is great for this style of swirl...and oh so yummy! Here is a picture of the cupcakes after they were topped with a fondant plaque.

Angry Birds Cake

My little boy turned 5 yesterday, and his "big" present was an ipod touch. Both of his brothers already have one, and his favourite game is Angry Birds. I have seen several angry bird cakes online, and was thrilled when he decided to have one for his birthday. He didn't actually have a party this year, so the cake was just for our family, grandparents and some cousins. I decided to go with a 7" round chocolate fudge mud cake, with chocolate ganache. I added green fondant just to the top of the cake then assembled the angry bird tower. I have been so busy lately, I needed something easy that could be made in advance. It worked perfectly as all of the figurines have been made in dribs and drabs over the past few weeks. so the actual decorating of the cake only took me ten minutes.

Flower garden cake

It was so much fun making all of the different flowers for this design. It was so pretty and feminine and just made me smile...a bit like sitting in a garden filled with flowers. The sides of the cake are piped with pin striping in royal icing, then each flower was delicately iced in place.
The pastel colour scheme allowed a lot more freedom for the assortment of coloured flowers, but it is always a bit of a worry having so many colours on the one cake. To help ensure they all compliment each other, I used the same colours in various flowers, like using the same yellow for the large gerbera in the centres of the white daisies. I think it all worked in the end.

Bow birthday cake

This lovely little 6" (16cm) birthday cake was a last minute request for a 40th birthday. It was a chocolate mud cake with dark chocolate ganache filling, covered in chocolate fondant and decorated with the birthday girls favourite colour fondant bow.

Gift box cake

Yesterday was my Dad's birthday, so I made him a cake (what a surprise!!!) - and what better opportunity to test out a new recipe, than when making a cake for family...so I tested out a chocolate fudge mudcake.
I also wanted to try making a giftbox, I have seen so many wonderful ones on various blogs... here is a fantastic one http://www.cakejournal.com/archives/gift-box-cake
Oh, and the verdict on the chocolate fudge mudcake????? YUMMMMY! I will definitely be making that one again - especially for a desert.