Happy Engagment Dan & Jamie-Lee

It's no secret I love a wedding and even more so when it's one of my children. I can't even begin to tell you how happy we are for these 2 and completely in love with Jamie-Lee the minute we met her.  These guys are a kind of a 'no frills and fuss' couple.  This I'm finding a challenge because my natural instict is OTT. I'm not sure when I'm going to get the picture because his two sisters have blazed the trail before him on the wedding front and as I write this I can hear Ashleigh's voice saying "mum, come on now. KISS- keep it simple stupid", with hand gestures so I really get the point. What can I say.  I have 5 daughters and didn't have any sisters growing up.

We had 150 cupcakes which included my favorite Rolo cupcakes, plus Oreo, Cream Cheese Frosting,  buttercream frosting all on my signature chocolate cupcakes. 

We went with a small, layered butter cake iced with cream cheese frosting.

Anyway, regardless of a cyclone hitting the coast, torrential rain and an emergency change of venue,  we had a fantastic night. Now the count down to July 4th.  I can't wait! 

Happy Birthday From W.A.

This order was a very special one.  A lovely lady contacted me some time ago to order a birthday surprise for a dear friend of hers.  She was moving to Western Australia, which is quite literally the other side of the world or at least might as well be because it's as far away from Brisbane, Queensland  as you can get. This meant she wouldn't be here for her dear friends birthday and wanted to have something special delivered to her on the night of her birthday. Needless to say she was very surprised.  It's nice to be loved....

Happy Dr SUESS Day!

 As you may know March 2nd is the official Dr SUESS day and for the past 3 years I've had the exciting job of making cupcakes for the year 1 class at Ferny Grove School. Last year I did Cat in the Hat so I wanted to do something different and settled for an old favorite 'Green Eggs and Ham' theme. You really can't beat a dr SUESS cupcake!

AAAAARRRRGGG Me Matey!!!!

This was so much fun to create a cake and cupcakes with a pirate theme. Cap'n Jackson was turning the very big 5 which we all know is a whole hand now so his mum ordered something special for him.  The cake is a 14' x 14' square chocolate cake with buttercream.  My girls had seen me make the fondant map then the next time they saw it it was in pieces.  "what happened", stay calm I actually broke it myself.

Before I iced the cake I burrowed into the centre of it, carefully making a 'secret cave' in which to bury some hidden treasure. I popped the cake into its box and included this special scroll for Cap'n Jackson to read so he'd know to be on the look out when cutting the cake that there is some 'pirate booty' buried for him and his mates.  Can't wait to see the photo's of the inside.

                                       

The fondant toppers I made in keeping with the pirate theme are rather cute.  Fortunately they aren't particularly menacing pirates so I think we'll all be safe for another day.

So a very special happy birthday Cap'n Jackson 

Savannah's Baby Shower

Well it was very fortuitous that the 2 Grandma's held the baby shower when they did.  There was so much speculation on the night about how 'low' the baby was and some reminding that there was still 3 weeks worth of 'cooking' left.  Savannah's Great Grandma wasn't having any of it and firmly told everyone that you could expect her arrival at any time. Sure enough not even 48 hours later Savannah arrived safe and sound and instantly surrounded by an abundance of love.  Congratulations to you all. 

Happy 13th Birthday Jess B.

Young Women's New Beginnings Night

Sunday was an exciting night for all the young women but particularly those who are turing 12 which included my Maddie.  We 'boarded a bus' and went on a safari ride spotting the 8 young women's values 'animals'. It was a fantastic night and the young women did such a fantastic job.

I had the fun job of providing 60 cupcakes for the night.  Each of the 8 values has its own special colour so we had flowers to represent each of those. If you're curious what those values might be click here.

You can't have a safari without some little monkeys.  The cupcakes are medium size chocolate cupcakes with buttercream icing.  I've been using the Costco Kirkland butter since Costco opened here.  It's rather novel for us here in Australia to actually have butter in really live 'sticks'.  Apart from been so terribly cute, the butter is white and creamy and requires much less beating time.  Once you add the white icing sugar you have a beautiful white buttercream.  I don't add vanilla when I'm doing white buttercream so as to not 'muddy' the lovely white.
 For the fondant flowers and monkeys I used white Satin Ice Rolled Fondant which was coloured with the Wilton Icing Colours.  The shade of colours created was fabulous.  Made a couple of days earlier you may find that the colour can change overnight and becomes a much richer colour.  

I do love these beautiful fondant flowers.  Check out my next post which has the beautiful photos taken of the cupcakes made for a thirteenths birthday.