Rapunzel, let down your hair!!

My darling Chels turned 2 over the weekend. If you've been around long enough you would probs remember the massive 1 year Winnie the Pooh Birthday cake I made for her last year :) This year I was a little pushed for time so I opted for something slightly simpler, a Rapunzel Barbie Cake. She is IN LOVE with Tangled so I wanted to incorporate that into her cake.

Theres a funny story behind this. I am an absolute Disney lover and with my younger siblings a little too old now to use as an excuse to go to the cinemas to watch such films, I missed out. However, I kinda forced Wobbles into having a movie night with me... and of course what did we watch? Tangled!!! hahaha it was really different to the other Disney Princess movies but with the same key ingredients that makes it so loveable. You know the damsel in distress, the shining prince who comes to the rescue, the ugly baddie, a bunch of awesome animal characters with cute personalities and of course a happily ever after ending! ♥ ( I know, I'm such a kid at heart)

The cake was made from Vanilla cake with a Lychee and coconut buttercream. (Its such a hit with my family). I used a real Barbie because I didnt have enough time to make her face and upper body out of gumpaste and I thought she can keep the Rapunzel Barbie afterwards so "2 birds 1 stone"! Woot! The dress I sculpted instead of using a dress cake tin which you can buy from Wilton. Pascal the little chameleon friend on her shoulder was hand crafted by me from gumpaste.

She had her very cute little soiree at Monkey Mania in Bankstown Sports Club. This place, let me warn you, is CRAZY! OMG there was this huge play set which adults and children were swarmed all over. There must have been at least 100 + plus kids running around, was enough to make me utterly petrified about becoming a parent. But on the other hand, it was also uber cute seeing them all run around in this kiddy paradise and it was hilarious to watch kids run out to their parents, balling their eyes out after being knocked about, recuperate after about 2 mins then head back in for round 2 lol

Here's little Miss, cant help but think she doesnt look too impressed with my Rapunzel cake ... lol probs comparing it to last years Winnie the Pooh!

Haha that kid in the background mustve been belting out the Happy Birthday Song! 

"I have no idea whats going on!! Why is everyone singing at me???"

Cutting of the cake

Look at that determination on her face!

It's been ages since I've been to one of these kiddy styled parties, brings back fond memories! Fairy Bread!!! hahaha

Happy 2nd Birthday Chels! 

You're growing up too quick!! 

xxx

Full Month Party

Saturday night past was not only Mardi Gras in Sydney but was also the date of the celebration of my cousins baby girl - Adeline - turning 1 month. We had a massive family and friends gathering, nothing short of 100 something people at Zilver in Haymarket. We were all spoilt with a lavish 10 something course meal, typical of the traditional do's that Asians have for big occasions. Incase, any of you were wondering, in Chinese culture its a really big deal when the baby turns 1 month. A big party is usually held for this occasion and its the time when the new born is introduced 'formally' to all their relatives and friends. My part to play that night was of course, the cake.

My cousin wanted something 'WOW' so what better cake to make than what I learnt in cake structures class with none other than the Food Network Cake queen Marina Sousa herself.

I learnt how to build gravity defying cakes and cakes that tilt and turn at different angles. I had only made a model cake out of complete dummy cakes before so this was a feat to try and do it with real cake.

This was my first crazy cake, there was soo much fondant on it, it ended up being so heavy!!

This mammoth cake was specially designed and created for Adeline. It consisted of many tiers... half of which was made from real cake and the other, display cakes. From the pink tier down were real cakes, the flavours we chose were Chocolate with chocolate ganache and Vanilla, lychee and white chocolate.

I must say I was quite a cowboy in my approach. I had a vague idea of what I wanted in my head but when it came around to doing the cake I just went with the flow. First thing I did was rushed to Bunnings and bought all the 'hardware' I would need to build the base of the cake. I felt like Cake Boss whilst assembling it and watching it all come together!

I had everything ready and then came the scary part.. transporting the cake. I dont think I will ever get used to anticipation and nerves of cake delivery. Its the most stressful part if you ask me. So many things could go wrong, "what if the cake slides", "what if it falls over or we need to hard break and then the cake will come crashing into the back seat, what if I drop it or trip over whilst walking in my 5 inch heels???" :S

As the cake was almost a meter tall, I thought it best to be delivered in pieces and assembled when we got there.  In total I managed to break down the cake into 4 parts and delivered in 2 cars. I looked after the more delicate items like the gumpaste booties, teddy and my hot air balloon, whilst my little brother looked after the dummy cake on the cake stand. The rest (that was real cake) was in dads hands. 

Of course nothing is ever simple, it was pouring down that evening.. which as I'm sure you all know is bad news because fondant cant get wet :/ We looked like retards running from the car to the safety of the steps whilst huddled over the cake parts to make sure they were safe from harms way!

Little Chelsea kept wanting to steal the elephant off the top all she did was point to the cake all night lol

Arriving a little late (all Wobbles fault because he wanted to go home and get changed), almost half the guests were already there, so pressure was on.. I could feel all eyes on me as I got onto the stage to put this thing together. Luckily, the cake came together quickly and nicely and all the decorations looked sooo cute! 

The cake standing proud and tall I was able to relax a little.. 'nothing I can do now, just relax and enjoy yourself' was what was going through my head. But I couldnt help myself and kept turning around to look at the cake during dinner because I was afraid for 1, one of the 1000000000 kids that were running around would knock it down, pull it or steal one of the characters lol and for 2, that my worst nightmare would happen and the cake would somehow fall to bits :S Luckily, it was all in my head and the cake stood as it should the whole night and when it came to cutting the cake, everyone (especially me) was sad to see it getting pulled apart. The lychee was a big hit, many people were waiting in line and it was so cute to see all the kiddies call shot gun on the gumpaste figures. I think one of the adult tables stole the bouquet of handmade roses... I certainly didnt see it at the end of the night lol.

Congratulations and a big thank you to the lovely hosts Rebecca, John and little baby Adeline for a wonderful evening!! xxx

♥

Yoda Cake & a whole lotta fun!

Hi everyone!

Remember in my last post, I mentioned I was making a Yoda Cake? Well here it is!!!

I have to say I was really nervous about this cake but I thought just give it your best shot and see what happens and I have to say I'm quite pleased with the result. Having said that though, there's somethings I would've done differently... for one, my Yoda's gotta go on a diet, he's slightly a little fatter than he should be and his nose needs to be a bit smaller and he needs to be grumpier/more serious etc etc I could go on but I'll spare you. Either way it was awesome fun making it. The flavour of the cake was a red velvet with chocolate ganache and a hint of Frangelico (maybe I lie.. think it was a little more than a hint ;)).

I got to use a new technique I've been wanting to try out for ages. This technique was hand painting on fondant. A little daunting at first because I didnt know how strong the colour would be or how the shades would blend in but I guess I kinda went with it and ended up kinda playing to my artsy side.

I wish I had some progression shots of it all, but unfortunately when I get stuck in I forget all else so the final product is all I have folks. :) In hind sight I also kinda wished I had put some "hair" on Yoda, I was gonna go with fairy floss but then I thought he might look like a bit of a cross between Einstein and Yoda... mmm dunno, if any of you guys can think of something let me know :)

I managed to finish the cake well before time which meant I was able to go relax and have some fun!! It was a beeeaauuutttiffulll summers day on Sat, so after meeting the lovely A to drop off the cake for her Beau we headed to the Sydney Cellar Door for the NSW Wine Festival in Hyde Park.

We went last year so we thought it would be great fun to go again this year and what a good call it was. It was a bit bigger this year, spilling out across 2 sections of the park and there was more spaces to sit and relax. 

After a bit of a commotion with the other lads trying to find us, we finally hit the food stalls. I had the pulled pork roll from Bodegna and Porteno last year so I wanted to try something different. Some of the stalls I saw were Bau Troung - Vietnamese cuisine in Canley Vale, Tony Bilson at Home by Moobi Valley - Modern Australian/French, Bar Coco - really cute stall that had a pull cart and Vespa looking thing that sold icecream and coffees MmmmMmm. 

In the end I caved into the Black beef Angus Sandwich at the Tony Bilson stall. It was served on a lovely fresh crusty bun with a beautiful onion relish and some mesclun to cut through the fattiness. We made a mini stop over at our first wine stall - Capital Wines from the Canberra Region before heading back to our lovely picnic table. We tried the 94/100 James Haliday rated 2009 Chardonnay. Cynical at first as I've never had a wine from Canberra before, I was really impressed! It wasnt dry and was so light and refreshing, perfect for that scorching summer morning. 

Out of all the wines we tried that day, heres a list of reviews of the ones I can remember lol:

Audrey Wilkinson - 2011 Moscato - Everytime I head to Hunter Valley I always visit this winery, its got a gorgeous cottage like cellar door overlooking the vineyard. Their moscato has a very distinct floral/rose scent when you first go to take a sip, there after, the fruit crisp taste follows. The difference of this moscato compared to the others out there is that its sweetness is not too overbearing but works well with the both the mouthfeel and the flavours of the wine. Its just such a delight. $22 a bottle.

Savannah Estate - Zibbibo (Hunter Region). This was a sparkling sweet wine also from the Hunter Region. I loved that it wasnt as sweet as a moscato but it was slightly sweeter than a sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. Again it was really refreshing and awesome to share with friends by a pool ... or in our case a park ;) $20 a bottle. 

Coolangatta Estate - Savagnin (Shoalhaven Region). The name of this wine intrigued me because I've never heard of it before and like the lady could read our minds she was quick to say it actually had no relation to a Sauvignon Blanc at all. This was a very very very dry white. 

Tyrell's Wines - Sparkling Pinot Noir  (Hunter Region) - Contrary to what the name suggests it was actually a sparkling white instead of red. It's light fresh and not sweet at all. Would pair beautifully with spicy food. 

Lilly Pilly Wines 2011 Red Velvet (Riverina Region) - As it was a really hot day, I tired to steer clear from reds. However this little number caught my eye. Even though its not exactly a red, closer to a rose but the colour of the wine was darker than most roses. Anyways, this wine was lovely, it had lots of robust flavour but it was light to the taste as well. I would have to say that this wine was a gem find. 

As well as wine tastings, there was also alot of condiments, dips and cheese stalls. Too many to mention but if you check this map out you'll find all the stalls that are avaliable. Its free to get into the event, however, you need to purchase tokens and a glass. $25 gets you 5 tokens plus a glass, then extra sheets of tokens are $20 each. Each token is for a 60 ml pour and you can do 2 x 30 mls pour to taste as many different wines as you like. 

It was such a fun and awesome day, would definately recommend it, if you wanna kick back with some mates, try some wines you wouldnt normally and just kick back and chillax. 

♥