Fairies and Firetrucks

I had the pleasure to make these two birthday cakes this weekend for a friends twin 5 year olds.   I find that the more I decorate cakes the longer it is taking me because I am learning to slowdown, not cut corners and  create as close to perfection as possible.  If you knew me well you would know that I rush to do everything, have very little patience and care very little for perfection.  Cakes are so much more than a stress relief or a hobby.  They help me grow in areas of my life that I am lacking.

babyshower cupcakes and yummy biscuits

Over the weekend I made these mini babyshower cupcakes.  I also made these yummy girl and boy biscuits for my daughter and her two friends today for a special outing.  These biscuits can be ordered for $3 each (minimum order of 6) and the cupcakes are $1.50 each (minimum order of 24).

Rugby!

This week I had so much fun making a rugby cake for my cousins 18th birthday.  With the rugby world cup just a couple of weeks away rugby is in the air here.  I love rugby and especially watching the All Blacks play so I am really looking forward to seeing them play in their home turf for the cup.  Now is a great time to get your orders in for any cakes, cupcakes or biscuits for your world cup parties!

Upcoming Fathers Day

Fathers day is coming up in New Zealand and I have been wracking my brain trying to think of some sort of special I could come up with for fathers day.  I really can't see dads being into cupcake bouquets or even a box of cupcakes.  Then it hit me yesterday.  Remember this cake?

I sat with my daughter as she stuck on the shapes and the letters and then coloured on the cake with edible markers.  My husband loved this yummy treat and it was so special coming from his little girl.  

So for fathers day this year I will be selling 'blank canvas' cakes.  The cake will be a yummy 8" white chocolate mud, chocolate mud or lemon poppyseed mudcake covered in white fondant, ready to decorate.  I will provide cut out shapes (either coloured or white) for your child to stick on the cake as well as letters for a short message of your choice.  I will also provide 3 different colours of royal icing bags for your child to decorate the cake with (I do not have edible markers available sorry).  All you have to do is sit back and watch!  The cake will come in a cake box with a label that says 'made by (insert your childs name)'.   The cost of this cake will be $50.   I will need orders to me by next Wednesday 31 August and cakes can be picked up on Friday the 2 September.

  

One Pot Chocolate Cake and DIY bunting flag cake topper

I havn't always done cake decorating.  I have only been doing it for two years actually.  Previously I was a government employee, a PA and a musician to name a few.  I finally feel as though I have found my 'calling' which is pretty exciting and I have big plans to where I eventually want this to go but for now I will just continue to do the odd cake here and there and maybe help to inspire you to bake!

Personally I would probably do cakes for free for all of my friends and friends of friends just to get the experience and could probably fill every weekend doing this but it is a pretty big sacrifice on my family. The weeks I do cakes nothing gets done around the house and I am often up until midnight a few nights in a row.  I am sure there are artists who understand this!  People often ask me how I do it with two kids, so now you know!

The prices that I charge for my cakes may seem expensive but when you look at the ingredients that go into them (I use real chocolate and alot of butter - a cake can cost anywhere from $20 to $70 just to make) the time they take to make (the average time it takes me is about 6 hours and I have spent as much as 20 hours on one cake) as well as the fact that I have to rent a registered kitchen to make them in, then the price is pretty reasonable I think.

I would love everyone to have a Mrs Woolley's cake for their birthday but can understand in this economy that some just can't afford what I charge SO, I am willing to share some wisdom and expertise if you are wanting to have a go at making your own cake.  Will your cakes be as good as mine to begin with? No, but neither were my first ones.  You have to start somewhere and there are some very cool things you can do to make a cake fun and easy.

To begin with I thought I would share with you this basic chocolate cake recipe.  No joke, this cake is the easiest cake I have ever made and quite possibly one of the tastiest!  It doesn't come from a box and it is all mixed in one bowl.  It doesn't even have butter in it is which makes it cheap as well!  It is incredibly moist and dense and a perfect cake for your chocolate loving friend.  You can find this recipe here.  I followed the suggestions of others and upped the cocoa to 1 cup and I also think that the quality of cocoa you use is pretty important.  I use a high quality cocoa powder and think that this does make a difference but it would most certainly be worth a try with a regular cocoa powder.  Before making the cake simply line the bottom of the pan with baking paper and spray/butter the sides so that the cake comes out clean.

To ice the cake I simply iced with buttercream icing between layers and on top and skipped icing the sides.  I think that this is a pretty easy not to mention an effective look to a cake, especially if you colour the icing.  I made my icing pink for this cake because I made it for my daughter of course!  On top I then made a bunting flag cake topper.  This is really popular at the moment.  You can do so much with this cake topper.  Use it for a vintage wedding cake, a baby shower cake, a birthday cake for your friend and definitely a cake for your child's birthday party.  You could make the flags black and red and put a racing car underneath or a monster truck for your sons birthday and you could made a pink banner and put a ballet figurine underneath for your daughter.

To make this flag you need two wooden kebob skewers, string approximately 8" long (20 cm), coloured paper and scissors or a utility knife.  Fold your coloured paper in half and cut out 5, 1" wide and 1" long triangles so that when you unfold them you have two connecting triangles.  (I cut out six because at the time I wasn't sure how many I would need)  Tie each end of your string to the top of the wooden skewers (not the pointy end).  Put the skewers into the cake so that they go in at a slight angle and pull the string so that it hangs ever so slightly. Then place your triangles next to each other along the sting.  You could use any colour paper and scrapbooking paper has beautiful patterns to choose from.  So easy huh?  Please send me an email if you have any questions!  I am more than happy to offer my advice.

Cakes this week

I had a busy week this week for cakes.  The first cake was for a woman who was turning 70 who loves to read, loves coffee and loves chocolate!  Everything on the cake is edible.  The second cake was another display cake made of styrafoam to go with a cupcake tower I made for an auction for the charity Cool Bananas.  I made 150 mini cupcakes in three different flavours of mud cake.  The auction was a fantastic night with lots of laughs and money raised for a great cause.  I look forward to next years auction!

Whoopie Pies

Whoopie Pies.  Yum, yum, yum.  These are a pretty indulgent little treat.  So rich and yummy with a such a  lovely texture to bite into.  Pillowy chocolaty sweetness.  I can really understand what the craze is about.  I think I could live off whoopie pies for quite awhile.  Or at least eat them for breakfast every morning (I love sugar for breakfast). This recipe did not disappoint and is relatively easy to make.  It does call for shortening but this can be substituted with butter or margarine if you don't have this available to you.  It also calls for sour milk which can be made by adding 1 teaspoon of white vinegar to 1 cup of milk and letting it sit for five or so minutes (this is a great tip if a recipe ever calls for buttermilk and you don't have any on hand).   I didn't make the icing to go with these as many people indicated it was pretty sweet and I didn't like the idea of the raw eggs for something I was giving away so I used a butter cream icing in the centre and it was perfect.  If you want to try the original whoopie pie than the icing would be worth trying.  

These cupcakes/cookies/pie or whatever you wish to classify them as (because that's really how great they are) were given to a family who has had a rough time recently.  A few weeks ago they had a house fire and much of their belongings have smoke damage.  They have had to move house because of this.  Thankfully no one was home during the fire but as you can imagine this is a pretty scary thing for anyone to experience. 

A few years ago our own house caught fire in the middle of the night.  Miraculously the neighbors saw it and woke us up and called the fire department.  Fortunately none of our belongings were damaged but for quite some time I would wake in the middle of the night reliving awaking to the sound of people banging on our house and with the realisation that we could have lost our lives.  We didn't have batteries in the smoke alarm as they had died a few weeks previously and I was 'getting to it'. I also figured that we were pretty safe with our cooking and neither of us smoked so the chances of a fire were next to nil.  I also figured that surely the smell of smoke would wake you (I now know you can't smell when you are sleeping).  When I found out the house was on fire, I panicked a little and didn't know what to do.  I feel sick about that now as my daughter was sleeping in the next room and I should have had a plan on getting her and getting her outside as quickly as possible.  I feel embarrassed about this but I wonder how many other people are like I was? I will always take fires seriously now.  I don't ignore the commercials on TV anymore and I always make sure my smoke alarms are working. Please, think about what your attitudes surrounding house fires are.  Make sure you do have a plan and you really know how you will handle a fire if it happens to you.  Because it could.  It happened to me and it has now happened to someone I know.  If you haven't done so go and check your smoke alarms because such a small thing could save your life.

You can find this recipe for whoopie pies here.