Fish out of water

People who don’t bake don’t get it. The fact that I can take a few key elements and turn them into a delicious cake still makes me so happy.  Watching cakes rise in the oven and smelling that my cake only has a few minutes left in the oven is so satisfying. 

Baking has always been a great metaphor for my life, there a guideline of how you need to create your cake, but how you decorate is completely up to you.

This week, I was asked to make a 40^th birthday cake with a fishing theme. The men in my family are, by their own admission, NOT fishermen. So I haven’t really had too much exposure to fishing ‘stuff’. I had a look at a couple of cakes online to get inspired and then set about making the various parts for my cake.

Once the cake was baked, cooled and iced, I covered it with my blank canvas of blue fondant. So with a blue cake and a tray of ‘bits and pieces’ I set to work.

Slowly the blue fondant turned into a pond and the green bits became reeds. Soon my pond was filled with fish and a boat. This is probably the closest to fishing that I’m going to get, but this is definitely my kind of fishing!

 

Schooled in Skylander

Last week I had a request to make some biscuits and cupcakes for a Skylander party.  Before I could respond to the request I had to do a rather rapid Google search as to what exactly a Skylander party is.  Once I had the basics down I responded and admitted my complete lack of knowledge.  Not having kids or being a video game player, it’s no wonder I was clueless.  My client quickly filled me in on the intricacies of the game and the rest was up to me.

So I spent an afternoon cutting out a variety of random fondant shapes in the hope that they would fit the bill for this Skylander party.  I’ve never had an order where I really haven’t had a clue if the end product is what was requested.  In the end I was happy with them but there was still a bit of apprehension on my way to deliver.

In the end, my customer was delighted!  Chances of me playing Skylander are still as remote as before, but at least I can say I learned something new!




Skylander Cupcakes



Skylander Biscuits on Sticks 

 

Some days are a bit of a circus!

If someone were to ask me what cake I had for my 1^stbirthday I really wouldn’t have a clue! Not because my mom didn’t make me something delicious, but who really remembers their 1^st birthday?
 
Luckily for me in the past 2 months I’ve made a quite a few 1^st birthday cakes and while I don’t remember my own 1^st birthday cake, I’ll certainly remember theirs.


One of my last big cakes last year was this Winnie the Pooh cake. When the request came through to make this cake I happily accepted whilst having a mild heart attack as to how, with my limited artistic ability, I was going recreate the characters. Luckily I managed to find some premade characters which made my life a lot easier!













Last week I had a panicked call from an old colleague asking me if I could please help her make a xylophone cake for her daughters birthday. She had ordered it from somewhere else and they'd let her down at the last minute.  It was a bit of a rush, but I was very happy with the end result, as was she!




This weekends project was a Circus themed cake with animal cupcakes. 

I decided to start with the animals for the cupcakes so that they could dry.  I then set about making the circus tent.  I had planned to use my giant cupcake cake tin but it just wasn't giving me the right shape.  I eventually settled on using the top of the cupcake tin and a normal round tin for the bottom.  Once i got the right shape the fun began!





The tent was boring before the bunting and doors were added, but this was a classic case of the little details making up the cake.  Once the animals were added, I just loved the end result and I think this is one of my favourite cakes.

So while the birthday girls will only remember their cakes from pictures, I'll remember every detail that went into them all.

 

 

A mad hatter to start the year

The Sprinkles new year has started with a bang.  After a 3 week break, I arrived home to make cake pops before even unpacking my bags.  Cake pops by now, can be done with my eyes closed, however this past weekend had me challenging myself , my baking skills and my limited artistic ability!

I had a request to make a cake and cupcakes for a mad hatter themed kitchen tea. I love the theme and it is so easy to go overboard.

I started with the cupcakes as they’re quick to do and I knew how I wanted them to look.  I dedicated an afternoon to prepare the cupcake décor so it was just a matter of assembly

 

 

The cake was a bit more of a challenge, but after doing some online research, I saw an idea and decided to give the cake my own twist. In my head, the biggest challenge was going to be making the tea cup for the top of the cake. As it turned out, thanks to a silicone bowl the perfect teacup size, my cup ended up being quite simple to make.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall I’m really happy with how it all turned out.  I’m just glad I wasn’t around to watch my hat being demolished!

 

Newly aquired draping skills

Two months ago I was asked to quote on an engagement cake.  I sent samples along with the quote and was promptly given the job of making a three tiered cake, draped with fondant and decorated with pink roses.

Having never draped a cake before, I was quite excited to teach myself a new skill.  This past weekend was the delivery date and so the task began.  First step was obviously baking the cakes - the bottom tier is carrot cake, the middle is red velvet and the top tier is lemon cake.  Once the baking was done, the fun began.

I started with the smallest tier and after trying various techniques I finally settled on one that was worked for me.  Once I mastered it, it was fairly simple, although time consuming.  The time was well spent because I LOVED the end product!

 http://www.facebook.com/sprinkles.baking

Cake Pops til I drop

For the past 2 months I seem to have been on a cake pop making mission! It started at the beginning of October when I was asked to create some Bakers inspired cake pops and then help style a shoot for an advertorial. The brief was to create everyday cake pops as well as some Christmas specific ones. I was also asked to make and shoot a trifle but I’m really not a fan of soggy biscuits, so I’ll just pretend it was only cake pops. 

The December issue has just hit the shelves and the advertorial looks amazing. My cake pops (and trifle) look stunning thanks to the amazing photography skills of Rikki Hibbert. Below are a couple of photo’s of the cake pops that I took after the shoot as well as the final two page spread that is in this months issue of Good Housekeeping.




The end product!

No sooner had the photo shoot ended, when I began preparing cake pops for the Bakers stand at the Baby Indaba in Sandton.



Sprinkles table at the Bakers stand



Bakers inspired cake pops

 















Baby indaba done, and I was asked to make 300 cake pops for a function at AVI. Due to the magnitude of cake pops I had to make, and knowing that I also needed to make 300 mini cheesecakes, I decided to do upside down cake pops. They’re much faster to make, but still look incredible. On the day of the function, they were placed on trays and promoters handed them out, so in the end the upside down ones worked the best.



Cake Pops chilling in the fridge before being covered

Sitting on the promoters trays

Last week was the final cake pop project for the near future. I was asked to create a cake pop birthday cake with 60 cake pops and a small cake on top. I decided to do a blue and green theme, and due to the heat I decided that the best option was to make upside down cake pops again. The last thing I needed was the cake pops sliding off the sticks. I planned how I wanted it to look but only assembled the cake on delivery. I could never have imagined what the final cake would look like. I was so unbelievably happy with the end result as was the birthday girl.



Cake Pop Cake

 And now I’m going on a cake pop sabbatical!

 

One worm for a one year old

A year ago my nursery school friend had a surprise baby shower in anticipation of the arrival of her baby.  I was asked to please make some cupcakes for the party (something I never mind doing).  Knowing that she was expecting a boy made my decorating decision very easy – obviously blue, and then I decided to decorate the cupcakes with buttons.

  

Cole has just celebrated his 1^st birthday and Claire asked me to please make some buttons for the birthday cake and cupcakes.  The party theme was primary colours and included a multi coloured worm.  Along with the buttons, I was asked to please make a worm for the cake, and Claire took on the task of making the cake.

So last week I sat down to some serious button making!  200 buttons and one worm later, I was very excited to see how the cake would look. The primary colours looked amazing and made a nice change to the pastels that I normally use.

After an interesting drive to deliver the worm, it finally made it onto the cake!