McChicken & Mini Me's

I made a burger cake this weekend just past and to my surprise loads of people on my Facebook page and whoever would physically listen, actually guessed right the type of burger it was! :D :D :D

It was a McChicken burger with 2 slices of cheese - the birthday girls favvvourriitee!! Let me tell you making this cake was such a mind f*ck. The whole time I was craving McChicken (the savoury one) and when I went to pipe on the "mayonnaise", I was so into it that when I tasted it, it even surprised me that it was sweet!! I can only imagine how odd this would've been for those who actually ate the cake! hahaha

The cake was my "Mango-nut" flavour. I was stoked with the rave reviews, suppose everyone loves MANGOES!!! and boy I cant wait for it to fully come into season... its still an exy $5 each at Woolworths and Coles :(

There are so many things I love about this cake, besides the fact that its a SWEETTTT BURGER!! It also has a lot of cute little figurines that reflected the birthday girl's likes and personality. Once I had finished the cake I realised.."omg, I made real life sized cakes of almost all the little figurines". Check it out .. my Mini Me's

These cute little figurines were no more than a few cms each. How cute is her little fluffy dog called Mimi! 

This is the back view of the burger... I wanted to show it because the scattered fries couldn't really be seen from the front.

I made the board look like a McChicken burger wrapper - totally edible of course! ... what do you think?

Sensible me

Real  Silly Me hehe

So tell me? Whats your favourite burger and what would you like to see turned into cake? Here are some other recent things I turned into cake :)

Glee Slushie

Dragon 

Dodge Charger

♥

Decorating Cakes

Harlo!!!

I am back from my European adventure!! (actually been back a few weeks but was so swamped with work I haven't had the chance to post!) It was great ... my goodness, 3 weeks of eating, eating more eating and of course roasting it out in France was intense, relaxing and awesome all at the same time! As per usual it went by much too quickly but before I jump into details of it all, I have to share with you all something very exciting! I received this beauuutttiful cookbook upon my return. It's a new cookbook out called "Decorating Cakes" by The Australian Women's Weekly.

Although I was totally jetlagged I had a quick flick through and was totally mesmerized by the gorgeous eye candy staring back at me. This book covers all bases from basic cake mixes recipes to cake decorations on all levels (easy, experienced, expert) and even tips and tricks/ conversion charts the lot! An added bonus is that its all just so PRETTYYYYY which makes it alot easier to digest!

It was quite difficult to choose between all the decorating options available but I decided to show 2 ends of the spectrum to demonstrate the versatility of this book. For my sisters birthday I made her a Hello Kitty Cake. I used the method for making Hydrangea's as shown on page 62-63 to add to the decorations around the cake.

This is quite an easy and simple technique to master. It makes a huge difference to your cakes by adding that extra 3d element. Simple and quick for a massive result!

Another great thing about this book is the step by step guide of how to do a certain technique. Personally, I dont like reading copious amounts of writing in order to get out what I can with a few pictures ... could be my laziness but hey "pictures speak a thousand words"!

The second technique that I learnt from this book was "raised embossing", not sure if thats what its called but that's the best way I could explain it lol. Basically its using embossed fondant on a cake then piping with royal icing over the top for that extra layer of lace look. I used it on a recent wedding cake that I made and was really happy with the results. It's more difficult than the Hydrangea flowers but its all about practice! 

Mine wasnt as fancy as the one in the book (see below) but I know with practice I'll get there! :)

     

Here are some snap shots of random pages in the book...

Its so prettily done isnt it? I love the styling in the book. I didn't get a chance to try out the recipes but there was one I had my eye on, it was the "Raspberry Hazelnut cake", sounds delish!! And... for all the recipes there's a chart for loads of different sized pans already calculated for you, so you don't even have to do any conversions or calcs! Genius!

I also forgot to mention its not just cakes. There's cupcakes, cookies, cake pops everything! A one stop decorating .. book :) Be great for a gift or even to surprise a baker.

The Australian Woman’s Weekly Decorating Cakes, ACP Books, RRP $49.95  Available from bookstores and online at www.acpboks.com.au

♥

Harry Potter!

Hello Peeps!!

Remember when I mentioned in a previous post that I had an upcoming cake that I was very very excited about?? Well I did it!! And for all those who's a bit of a Facebook junkie like me, you would have already seen all the pics plastered up.....

It was my Harry Potter cake!! Most certainly the biggest cake that I have made to date, it was such fun to make! Bradley and Hansen from Anime at Abbotsford contacted me way back at the beginning of the year about this mammoth cake. From the word go I was quite giddy at the thought of making a Harry Potter themed cake (because I am such a secret HP nerd fan). At first I thought that they meant they needed a 300-400 serve cake for a little boys' birthday who was having a Harry Potter themed party, I was thinking omg thats one popular kid...but then upon clarification I realised it was to celebrate Harry's birthday for a cosplay event.

The inital design was meant to be a Hogwarts Castle but we then decided to change it to something smaller. I was given free reign to do whatever I wanted, which was awesome because I really did go all out trying to incorporate as much HP stuff in the cake as possible.

I decided we needed a trunk, Hedwig, the sorting hat and some books. To add to the over look of the cake Harry's glasses and wand along with the Snitch and some potions were also a must. What is a kid that doesnt like sweets? So I incorporated all the funky gadgets and lollies from the movie for the final touch. I had Bertie Botts every flavoured beans, chocolate frogs and of course a Weasley & Weasley naughty gadget! - The Jinx Off.

Everything on this cake was edible. The hat was sculpted, even the box of Bertie Botts was made from edible gumpaste. I loved making this cake because of the amount of detail I could put into it.

The day went really well, Wobbles and I were dressed as Gryffindor students and ready to rock and roll!! It was such a great turn out and was such a joy to see little kids running around "attacking" the dementor hehe. There was a raffle organised where the prize was to be on TV with channel TVS cutting the cake and they also got to keep the snitch. In the end, one woman won and she had the hard job of to choosing between her 3 boys for this task.

The cake was the centre piece of the whole event and it was quite funny to see people ooo and ahhh over it. There were constant crowds surrounding the cake and through out the day you could hear people say .. "GO LOOK AT THE CAKE!!"& "OMG the cake!". There was one girl who forced her brother (who was not too interested). It was awesome to see such a positive reaction :)

When the time came to cutting the cake, I swear it felt like I was in a mosh pit. There were so many people and so many kids around that I just could not move!! Eventually, the 3 little winners of the raffle cut the cake with the TV crew exclaiming it "would be easier to film in a war zone".

I dismantled the books first, which were chocolate flavoured with chocolate ganache. Then moved onto the owl which was vanilla flavoured with white chocolate ganache. The suitcase was a hazelnut flavour. The cake served at least 450 people and there was still half of the suitcase left and the whole sorting hat left. Im sure Bradley and Hansen are still having cake for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

It was awesome to be apart of such a fun event! A big thank you to Anime at Abbotsford for organising and to Suiyi and Victor of Suictor Photography for the photos!

I'm actually currently at the airport waiting for my flight to London for the next 3 weeks... just trying to get this post done before I leave lol! So.. there wont be any cake updates for a while. But stay tuned for some London & France highlights when I get back! :)

x


Anime at Abbotsford
318 Great North Road
Abbotsford NSW 2046
(02) 9712 1418

Suictor Photography
http://www.facebook.com/Suictorphotography