Funky 16th Birthday

Funky 16th, a photo by Coco Jo Cakes on Flickr.

My second last cake for 2011, was this triple layer vanilla butter cake, filled and iced with vanilla buttercream and decorated with fun and funky fondant flowers. The cake was finished off with some royal icing detailing. I think the flowers have a bit of a 1970's style...very funky!

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

How to make Candy Cane cupcake toppers

Candy Cane, a photo by Coco Jo Cakes on Flickr.

I recently made 30 gift boxes of Christmas cupcakes, with 6 cupcakes in each, all with their own decoration....Candy cane, Snowflake, Christmas tree, Christmas wreath, Holly and Stars. Here is a quick "how to" make the Candy canes.

You will need:
50g red fondant
50g white fondant
a little CMC

A hint to make red fondant, colour your fondant as red as you can, then leave it overnight for the colour to darken.

Mix your cmc into your red and white fondant, this will help it dry.

Roll out half of your white fondant into a long sausage, then do the same with the red.

Pinch the red and white sausages together at one end, then twist them together until they look like a candy cane, and the two colours are stuck together.

Cut your stripy sausage into equal lengths (how long depends on how big you would like your candy cane) Mine were approx 6cm, then shape into the candy cane and place on a baking tray lined with baking paper to dry.

I like to leave my toppers for at least a week to dry completely which will help them to keep their shape after being placed on wet buttercream icing.

Happy Christmas baking :-)

Glass of Beer

Glass of Beer, a photo by Coco Jo Cakes on Flickr.

I made this cake for the dad of one of my son's kindy friends. He (the Dad of course) is a big beer drinker and his wife asked for a cake shaped like a glass of beer. I must admit I wasn't overly happy with the shape, I would have liked it a bit more tapered in at the bottom, but I was worried that the whole thing was going to start looking more like the leaning tower of pisa.
It is 3 x 7" cakes, but the bottom board is a 6", and the whole thing stood around 30cm tall.
The white icing at the top is meringue (my favourite).

Cakes, Cupcakes and Cookies Market Stall

Last weekend was a very big first for me...my first ever stall at the local markets. A lovely lady has started a market called Mammas Fair, which is a market solely aimed at products for Mum's and their Bubs. Having never even attended one, I was very nervous, and unsure what to expect.
In preparation, I baked a toblerone mud cake for display, and decorated two fake cakes. I had seen some beautiful little car cookies here http://www.flickr.com/photos/42134065@N04/6019914446/in/faves-56138306@N07/ and decided to bake some similar to this, and sell them by the bag, and for the girls I baked daisies. I'm a bit cranky I didn't get a chance to photograph them...I think they looked great. For those wanting to have a go yourselves, here is the recipe I used from fellow blogger Glorious Treats http://glorioustreats.blogspot.com/2010/03/making-sugar-cookies-recipe-and-tips.html
Then came the cupcakes....Choc Choc, Choc Vanilla, Vanilla Choc, Vanilla Vanilla and Red Velvet - over 200 in total and they all sold well before the finishing time.
Overall I had an amazing morning, it all went like a bit of a blur but it was so much fun and I am filled with ideas for the next one!

Up up and away

Up up and away, a photo by Coco Jo Cakes on Flickr.

This was a last minute display cake I made for a local market. All of my design ideas were for girls so I wanted something for the boys. Some of the inspiration came from the amazing Bella Cupcakes. It was a huge hit at the markets, and I even had several little girls saying they wanted it for their birthday cake :)

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.