Blue weekends and blue baby showers

There’s something unbelievably special about celebrating a baby shower. All the fuss and detail that goes into the party for someone no one has ever met is always an amazing indication of the love already felt.  On this rainy, blue weekend, I was asked to make a few tea time goodies to celebrate the imminent arrival of a special baby boy.  The baby shower was tea and cakes which is always my favourite thing to do so I had the most fun preparing for the shower.

With a ruffle cake ready to feed an entire maternity wing, some decorated sugar cookies and the crowd pleaser, cake pops, the mom to be had everything she needed for a wonderful shower (although the actual showers could have gone away!)



Vanilla and chocolate brownie cake pops






Bite size sugar cookies



Decorated pram sugar cookies
 



Blue ruffle cake with fondant hearts





Happy baking

Allyson xx

 

Don't forget to follow us on facebook   https://www.facebook.com/sprinkles.baking

Breakfast at Tiffany's

It’s the year of turning 30 for my friends and I (aaahhhh) , and 2 weeks ago my friend Taryn threw ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ themed party.  In her true style, it was all done beautifully the smallest details seen to, the décor beautiful and being Greek, the food in absolute abundance!  She asked me if I could make a couple of things for the dessert table, and being a fan of Tiffany’s, I was more than happy to oblige. 

During the week of the party I made some beautiful biscuits and cake pops, and the day before the party I made her cupcakes and my latest nightmare… petit fours. I’d never made them, but figured that they would be simple enough.  Well, more fool me and my persistence in learning new skills.   After numerous failed attempts, plenty of swearing at the tiny cakes (my definite low point)  and getting icing on everything including the dog, I finally managed to get something presentable together.

 

 

 

 

 

All drama was forgotten at the party, and I even had a couple of enquires as to whether I could take orders for petit fours. Thanks to Taryn turning 30, what I learnt is that I can make petit fours, but definitely won’t be making them again!

Happy Baking

Allyson xx
Visit me at http://www.facebook.com/sprinkles.baking

Hippy Birthday

 

I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m the worst blogger ever!  Ok maybe not ever, but I'm really inconsistent about posting.  I cant even use the excuse of being ridiculously busy because I had two very quiet months. I suppose it’s a classic example of ask a busy person to do something and they get it done.  Nevertheless, my time wasn’t spent doing absolutely nothing. Since my last post, I’ve discovered that some people on pinterest lie and if I forget to add my egg whites to a recipe or burn my homemade butterscotch sauce then it really isn’t foolproof is it???? And I guess that would also make me a bit of a fool.

Despite my pinterest disasters, I made one of my favourite cakes ever.  It was a friend of a friends 30^th birthday and she was having a hippy themed party.  What better to go with a hippy theme than a VW Kombi!  

After much planning and template making, it was finally time to put everything together.  It was awesome to see the car taking shape with each addition.

 

 Finally it all came together, with a last addition of some flower power cupcakes and the birthday girl loved it!

 

A magic Genie would have been wonderful!

In April, whilst taking some leave from baking, I received a request to make an Aladdin themed cake to feed 320 people.  I read the email, had a mild heart attack and promptly replied that Sprinkles was on leave for the next week and I would reply as soon as I was back.  The next few days were spent simultaneously looking for animals in the Kruger park and having thoughts of a monstrous cake swirling around in my head.

When I got home, I pulled myself together, gathered some ideas and set about preparing a quote.  Because the request came through 3 months before the cake was due, many emails bounced back and forth before a final plan came together.  The initial idea of having one cake that fed 300 odd people was thrown out the window (thank goodness) and instead, 2 identical cakes were ordered to be delivered over 2 days, one after the other.   The cakes were to represent Aladdin and Jasmines wedding cake and were fairly intricate.

Thanks to my love of lists and some serious planning, the magnitude of the task was broken into smaller tasks. 12 individual cakes needed to be made, iced and covered, gold drapes and balls needed to be prepared and painted, and an urn needed to be made from fondant and painted. 





Gold balls ready for decorating 



Drapes painted and ready

By Wednesday all the prep had been done and on Thursday I began icing and covering the cakes and finally putting everything together.  As with all big cakes, the thought of making them is always more daunting than anything.  Bit by bit the cake came together and I finally had a wedding cake for Aladdin and Jasmine.  


Cake covered and  drying

The final addition was the urn and the characters from Aladdin (who I won’t even pretend to have made). 




                                 

The urn has been added and the cake is in my car ready to go.  Aladdin, Jasmine and the magic carpet add the final touch

                        

                           Finished cake number 1

Finished cake number 2

The cake was delivered at 8am on Friday morning, and then I came back to repeat the whole process for the next day’s cake!  

 

 

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!