The simple things in life

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best.  Finding money in a pair of pants you haven't worn in a while, a slice of soft fresh bread thickly latered with butter, catching a waft of heady fragrance walking past a frangipani tree in full bloom, or my favourite - the excitement of seeing a beautiful cake!

With Easter just a short day away, and in the spirit of the holidays - I'm sharing with you some great pics that my dear clients have sent through over the last few years of their reactions to our cakes!

Firstly some cupcakes...

Love this one, from Tracy & Geoff's wedding....look in the lower left corner...someone has just sneaked a cupcake!

A wedding cake or two or three....

Well, technically, this first one was a bridal shower cake....

Yes, the awesome photo by Evermore photography of the moment contact was made with the wedding cake!!  We were in on the joke, but it's still a lot of fun to see that it did actually happen!

and of course, my personal favourites, the birthday and special occassion cakes.

Two thumbs up from Declan for his 2nd birthday.  That is one awesome kid!

That is a lot of excitement for one cake!!

This one for the Perth Airport - not as exciting, but it sure fed a lot of people!

A Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera.  The kids were obviously more excited than Dad.

For the beautiful girls at the celebral palsy association, much thanks to Toy Box international! 

 And Jarrad - a cake and his first real birthday party.  Look at that grin!

 And I just love this adorable one of little Alex with his cake! 

Lots of exciting new in the next couple of months.  Wishing you all an amazing and safe Easter long weekend.  

I'll leave you with the beautiful creations of Pierre Marcolini, Belgium - possibly the world's leading chocolatier.  This time last year, I was standing in his beautiful Brussels studio admiring the designer flat egg from his 2011 Easter collection.

Here is the 2012 Collection

Hope enjoying the craftsmanship is just as good as eating it....a long shot...I know!

 Love,

"Cute"

I have to say that when I design something I often to gravitate towards cute.  It's difficult, I grew up exposed to the likes of Sanrio - the Japanese stationery, giftware company that gave the world Hello Kitty, My Melody and of course, my personal favourite...........Little twin stars.

Though, I like to think that my style isn't as saccharine, I do admit to having a love affair with the pastel colours! 

Strangely enough, for me this week, there was a bit of that sort of 'kawaii-ness' about a couple of orders.

A birthday cake for Kluay (who's nickname means banana) dreaming on her banana moon, and the cute as a button baby shower cake for Alicia (who is Spanish and hence the red and the hand fan).

It was only natural then, to allow the cuteness to take over and carry it onto classes, starting off with the very adorable Ted on a Pillow cake.

and even more cuteness in cupcake class

Heeehee.... what came first?  The chicken or the egg?  Just in time for Easter!  Enough of the cute already?

Ok, here are other sweet things from the week.  A wonderful dessert table graced by our macarons & mini cupcakes at the blu grill.

A novelty cake for Gary Roberts (MD of Nova 93.7).  Apparently Gary irons all of his own shirts and is very particular about the settings on his iron.  So instead of a fancy new one, we made him his first iron.  Something retro from the 1960s!

Looks like Gary got the joke.  Making novelty cakes is always so much fun!

Love,

Being passionate

At the great risk of sounding like Oprah...... you have to have passion in your life.  Whether it be love, sports, shopping, fast cars or, perhaps, Sugar, spice & all things nice.

I've always had a sweet tooth.  Ever since I was toddler......

Yes, sweets always made me very happy!  (that is a lolly in mum's hand...)

So, how important is it to have passion for what you do?  I belong to GenX, we were brought up by our parents to have a steady job, work hard and that someone was always watching.  If you were willing to work hard, you could afford the nice things in life.  There wasnt all that much about creativity or 'living the dream', let alone being passionate about what you do.

Gladly, the world has changed somewhat since then.  The likes of Steve Jobs, Jerry Yang, and Bill Gates and a whole horde of Hollywood actors that gained overnight success and fame, lectured on the importance of following your passion.  So now, instead of just plain working hard, I work hard at doing something I love.  Although the money has yet to follow - it's not always easy to hold down a regular job that pays the bills as well as finding the energy to follow your passion!  Its rewards are great, so I wouldn't have it any other way.

~~~~

Here are the passionately made cakes and classes over the last couple of weeks.

Starting off with some cupcakes, footy themed...already!  Gee, I wouldn't mind some footy weather right about now!

pic ourtesy of Naei via FB

And these cuties headed off to a birthday party...in Bangkok.

As did this topper for an 80th birthday celebration. 

Fabulously done by Lauren.

A big cake for Alana's Grecian inspired 21st at the beautiful surrounds of the Claremont Yacht club.

White, gold, drapes columns and laurels to fit in with the theme.  21 exploding hearts and the Effiel tower (Alana's dream destination) in purple (her favourite colour).  Alana had a great time and  loved her cake, which was the most important thing.

Another very popular Giggle & Hoot cake for little Luke's first birthday

Many thanks to Vicki for doing a lot of the hard work :)

~~~

Moving onto the bigger cakes, is this romantic wedding cake for Jess.  Delicate princess stencilling and sugar pearls, resulted in a timelessly elegant design.

Jess was delighted that the cake turned out as she envisioned, but only got to look at it fleetingly.  She must have been a busy girl that night.  I hope the photographer took some lovely pictures for her to look over when she's not socialising with 120 people.

Something a little more modern for Sarah,

With dogwood blossoms and pretty ribbon.  This cake travelled down to Margaret River with the father of the bride, with strict instructions to keep it nice and cool - and no stopping for lunch!

Lastly, this understated but classic cake for Kim. 

There is a little bit of excitement in regards to what happened to this cake, but I will keep that a secret for now and upload the pics when I have them.

~~~~

And then of course the start to our Cake Love classes for 2012.

Classic 101

and Marvellous Macarons, and they really were marvellous!

 And then there was cupcake teaser thrown into the mix for a bit of variety

our May classes will be listed soon.  And dont forget all the great classes when Handi comes to town to do the amazing stiletto, advanced figurines and teapots!

At the end of the day, working hard at what you are passionate about beats just plain working hard!

So, as someone once said to me, if you had a spare sunday to do what you want, what would that be?  That is more likely to be what you're passionate about!

Me and my darling sis, the UAA, drooling away at a box of goodies (circa late 70s)

Mwah!

More caking adventures

We had such a slow start to summer, but it very quickly caught up with us!  With the hottest January on record in Perth, sweltering through caking projects was certainly a challenge.

I know I say it every summer, but seriously, how do you turn down really great clients?

 

This pretty cake for Wendy & Rob for a beautifully styled event at the Blu Grill.  Cake design by Sweet & Saucy and is all the rage in NY at the moment.

Macarons & Mini cupcakes to match the colours of all the gorgeous flowers, including Irish bells fresh off the plane!

~~~~

And this happy, retro, slightly whimiscal cake for Steve's 40th.  Doting wife Stella designed the cake to match polaroids of Steve from his invitation.

Apparently great fun was had by all the nieces and nephews tucking into Steves ears, and eyes and head.......  Life is so lovely when you are 6 years old!

~~~~

A couple of smaller cakes for Mr & Mrs King's wedding anniversary - a very thoughtful gift from Chef Noon for Mrs King.

And this really cute one for Ngee, who I made miniature Chanel bag and monkeys for last year.

 

~~~~

And then of course there was the Everything Baking Expo in Perth, with special guests Buddy Valstro and Debbie Brown.   I was so excited to be in Masterclass with Debbie, and felt like such a groupie!

Debbie who has 14 books to her name, and a real pioneer in the techniques of modern cake decorating.  I can certainly say that her style has influenced more people than any other cake artist in recent times.

My cake.....

and Debbie's cake, taking shape.

 

Voila, after 6 intensive hours,

 

After enjoying it for a day or so, this is where the Dragon castle ended up.

In front of a group of excited year one students at Rehoboth Christian School.  How wonderful to see all those toothless grins, I love how cake makes people so happy!

Hope you're having some cake love in your life too!