Krystal's 30th Birthday Cake

This past weekend was my sister-in-law's 30th birthday party.  A few weeks ago her husband contacted me and asked me to make her a nurse themed cake for the party.  Of course I said yes!  I was a little bit stressed out about it because it is the first cake I have made for her.  Thankfully it turned out pretty well despite the heat I was battling in making it.
The cake is a bit of a hybrid of a few cakes that I found via pinterest.  Originally I was going to make a stethoscope as well but I didn't end up having enough room so I just left it off.  I was pretty stoked with how the syringe turned out!  I think that is my favourite part.  The ecg line was drawn on with edible marker.
I am really happy that they asked me to make this cake! I had a lot of fun making it and it is one cake I was actually semi happy with when it was finished.  Usually with every cake I make I get to the end and hate it.  This one though I was kind of happy with.  I wonder what cakes 2014 will bring?!

The First of the Birthday Cakes!

So it's official....I am soon to be the mother of a one year old child!  I have no idea how this has happened.  Wasn't she only born yesterday?!  I have a sneaking suspicion someone put a super speed spell on the last year.  If you hear who it was let me know.  I'd like them to put a slow down spell on the next year so I can soak up a bit more of my baby time.  But, I digress.....



The real indicator of the birthday party season having arrived is that I made my first birthday cake this past week.  On the weekend my mummy's group had a bbq to celebrate all the kids birthdays.  It was a fantastic day!  Since being back at work I haven't been able to catch up with them as much so it was nice to see them all.  We decided on a fairtytale theme because the babies were born in the year of the dragon.  Fairytales seemed a bit more unisex rather than just dragons.  To fit in with the theme I made a castle cake.



The cake was my standard chocolate mudcake recipe with chocolate ganache.  The lavender fondant I bought already coloured from Spotlight.  It is by Satin Ice.  All other fondants were by Fondariffic.  I bought mini waffle cones from the supermarket for the turrets.  I used skewers to hold them into the cake and added paper flags to the top.  This is honestly a super easy cake to make!  I prefer cakes that look more cartoony rather than realistic.  They are super cute and super easy to make!

Mum's Birthday Cake

Mum put in a request for her birthday back at the start of the year.  She had seen a cute cake my aunty pinned on pinterest and asked if I could recreate it for her.  Now of course I couldn't say no.  I love to make cute cakes!  Plus when the women who has made you all of your amazing birthday cakes for the 25 years of your life asks for a cake you deliver!

Now if this isn't the cutest little cake ever I don't know what is!  Look at those little pigs bums poking out of the mud.  Adorable!  The pigs were the hardest part of making the entire cake.  I have never modelled with fondant before so I was just winging it.  I made the pigs a couple of days prior to mum's birthday so they were set properly before putting them on the cake.

I used the Planet Cake Chocolate Mudcake recipe again and made two 8" rounds.  I then made a simple chocolate ganache to cover the cake and for the mud on top.  Now the original cake used kit kats around the outside but I used those cadbury chocolate fingers instead.  It took 2 packets to surround this cake.  The ribbon around the outside is both decorative and helps to keep any loose biscuits from falling off the cake.

And that, my friends, is that!  This cake is really quite simple!  The pigs are a new terrain for me but they are pretty simple given they are just balls of fondant basically.  If you are wanting to try working with fondant and don't want to take on covering a whole cake this design would definitely be a good place to start.

New Recipe = New Favourites

One of my 101 in 1001 items that I have been working on for a while was to try out 50 new recipes.  I crossed this one off my list a few weeks ago and thought I would share some of my new favourites that I discovered.  I won't share them all because 50 recipes is a lot but I have put together a collage of some of my favourites.  To see the recipes simply click on the corresponding link below the collage

Lemonade Scones/Apple Cinnamon Muffins/Cheese & Herb Pullapart/Orange Pound Cake/Chocolate Celebration Cake

Chicken San Choy Bow/Valentines Cookies/Choc Mint Cake/Healthy Banana Muffins/Banoffee Pie

Chicken Taco Chilli/Bliss Balls/Curried Lentil Soup/Oat Banana Pancakes/Raw Vegan Lemon Bars

PB & Honey Granola/Blueberry Breakfast Cake/Pizza Muffins/Crunchy Thai Quinoa Salad/Apple Tea Cake

Chia Pudding/Raw Choc Mint Slice/Puffed Quinoa Balls/Quinoa Fried "Rice"/Blueberry & Banana Breakfast Muffins

My number one favourite by far has got to be the bliss balls!  They are just so easy to make and so delicious.  For the more savoury minded people the pizza muffins would have to be my pick.  They made my house smell amazing when I was cooking them.  If you give any of these recipes a go be sure to let me know.  And for more recipes I have tried and liked check out my folder here on pinterest!

Anna's Giant Cupcake

This past weekend was my adorable work friend Anna's 30th birthday.  We went out for a lovely lunch and she asked me to make her a birthday cake.  Her request was for a giant cupcake with a cherry on top.  I jumped at the chance as I have had the wilton giant cupcake tin for a few years but have only used it once.

I made the cake out of chocolate mudcake.  To make sure both portions were cooked evenly I filled the bottom half first and baked it for 15 minutes. Then I filled the top half and baked it for the remaining time.  Because the bottom half is a bit bigger this ensured that both halves cooked the same.

To give a real cupcake look I left the bottom half bare.  The top half was iced with buttercream icing which I tinted with sky blue gel colouring.  The cherry was made out of fondant and had a small piece of green wire in the top for a stem.  I was pretty excited to also get the chance to use my giant sprinkles.  I bought these ages ago just because I thought they were cute and this is the first time I have used them. I think I need to make some more giant cupcakes so I can use them again!

The chocolate mudcake recipe I used for this cake is a new one to me.  I got it from the Planet Cake book and I am so happy I tried it out.  Everyone raved about it!  Even my sister liked it and she is hard to please when it comes to chocolate cake.  I am going to be lazy though and instead of typing the recipe out I am going to direct you over here where you can grab the recipe.  Be sure to let me know if you try it and what you think!