Elegant Back and White wedding

On Saturday I had the pleasure of both styling and creating an amazing cake for Emma and Aaron's wedding. The brief was timeless elegance with the lovely heritage surroundings of Gipps Restaurant as the backdrop.

As Emma's stunning dress was a fitted lace creation reminiscent of the 1940's it was decided that a black and white classic clean look highlighted with deep red roses was the perfect plan.

So here are a few shots of the lovely tables.

And then came the cake.

The Centre piece cake was a 2 tier Raspberry and white chocolate mud cake with a double height top tier. Here are a few pics of the making of the cake. the top tier was wrapped in Sugarveil lace highlighted with edible pearls. The base tier was a black and white chevron pattern, gift box styles cake. The cake was topped with a floral bouquet replicating the look of the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets. White Sugar roses, rosemary sprigs, fresh red tea roses and diamantes created a dramatic top to the white cake.

 The cake was surrounded by tiers of cupcakes featuring piped Butter cream roses.

This was a cake of firsts for me - first chevron, first sugarveil and first piped roses! I am so in love with sugarveil and I can't wait to use it again!

 

I wish Emma and Aaron all the best and a long and happy life together.

xoxo

Sugarpie.

Kate & Matthew - a romantic black and white wedding.

When my lovely friend Vicki's daughter Kate and her fiance Matthew asked me to make their wedding cake I was thrilled. The beautiful couple had decided on a very romantic black and white theme and wanted a tower of 'gift boxes' to treat their guests to for dessert.

Using one of my favourites - white chocolate and fresh raspberry mud cake I set about baking 120 individual cube cakes ( I love my Alan Silverwood Mini Square Pans), covering each one in white chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream.

 

Each cake was then covered in antique white fondant and decorated with a black chocolate fondant band, bow and edible black diamante ( I buy mine from www.cakesaroundtown.com.au). The top tier was panelled with a 50/50 blend of white modelling chocolate and antique white fondant to give it more stability. The band and bow where ten added along with a pretty brooch centrepiece to match Kate's wedding bling.

 

And just a few pretty pictures in the function room at Picnic Point (such a lovely backdrop).

A special thank you to my ever helpful hubby who very patiently sat and folded all the cake boxes!

 

More weddings to come in the next few weeks :-)

xoxo

Sugarpie



Homerlicious Maple Cinnamon Pancake Pops.

So this week is my second Handmade Markets and I'm really excited. Last month I almost sold out and it was a quiet day. I am really hoping for a ripper of a day on Sunday. To get there I have been working on new and fun pops to sell and I have to say this is my favourite so far.

Mould your chosen cake/butter cream combination (I've used  cinnamon sponge with maple syrup butter cream) into small discs. Stack then with a little melted choc between before carefully inserting a paper lolly stick.

Once they have set, dip them carefully in your melted pancake coloured chocolate. I added a small amount of paramount crystals (you can use copha instead) to thin the chocolate to allow it to ease into all the gaps between your pancakes. Allow chocolate to set.

 Using a brown petal dust (I have used Barco Dark Brown) and a flat sided medium bristle brush catch the ridges to give you pancakes a crispy cooked edge.

 Melt some white chocolate and colour yellow with candy colour. At the same time colour some white modelling chocolate to match. Roll the modelling chocolate into little 'butterpats', two for each pop. Drizzle a small spoon of yellow chocolate in top, teasing it down the sides in delicious buttery dribbles and position the butter pats on top.

Let them set completely then watch them all disappear.

Happy popping!
xoxo
Sugarpie

chocoholics dream birthday trio

Last night we joined in the celebrations for our lovely friend Vicki's 60th birthday and what better way to celebrate such a wonderful lady than with a trio of her favourite chocolates. My original plan for a tea set cake sadly did not come to pass this time (very wet air in Toowoomba and a change of job at work put me on the back foot) but I do plan to go back to it at some point.
So anyway birthday cake phase two took shape as a cake version of three of Vicki's favourite chocolates.

Cake 1 - Chocolate Seashell.
Based on the Guylian Chocolate seashells with the praline ganache filling .... very yum. So I made the hazelnut praline to begin with, I have  half a jam jar full of the remaining nutty sugary powder, delish sprinkled on ice-cream.

I then filled a chocolate mudcake shell with delish mousse that had been gently mixed through with chocolate ganache and the blended praline.



I then added a layer of cake to the top and encased the whole thing in chocolate ganache. The whole cake was then swathed in a layer of marbled chocolate fondant. Colour and texture was added with modelling tools and chocolate brown, snow white and gold Barco dusts.

Finished off with a pair of red roses lightly brushed with gold lustre dust.

Cake 2 Strawberry Mousse Cup
This one was inspired by the Godiva Strawberry Trifle Cup. The base was a layer of Genoise Sponge moistened with Strawberry liquer. A delicious layer of French jelly (made with real strawberries of course) was topped with a very generous layer of strawberry mousse....I've even shared my recipe at the bottom of this post :-)
A sweeping of white chocolate ganache, some gold dusted chocolate panels and a trio of roses finished the cake. Sadly it was all eaten before I could snap a picture of the pretty layers.

Cake (well cake pops) 3 - the Lindt Chocolate Balls
Who doesn't love Lindt chocolate? A serious amount of Lindt went in to these divine little gold leafed treasures. With hearts of chocolate mud cake combined with Lindt Ganache and a splash of chocolate port, these little beauties where then dipped in dark lindt chocolate and the gold leaf was brushed on to the warm surface. Yummmmmm.

So together they made a very pretty and decadent dessert trio..........a perfect happy birthday.

And as promised, here is my recipe for the delicious strawberry mousse cake layer. Makes a wonderful dessert with the addition of some fresh berries and biscuit to garnish.

Strawberry Mousse
Puree 2 cups of fresh strawberries in the blender. Add 3/4 cup sugar and 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice.
In a small bowl glass bowl, sprinkle 1 sachet (1 tbsp) unflavoured gelatin over 1/3 cup cold water and leave to sit for a few minutes. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until disolved. Remove from the heat as soon as the gelatin has disolved.
Stir the gelatin into the strawberry puree and allow to thicken for about 10 minutes. In a large bowl  whip 2 cups of cream until medium stiff peaks.
Gently fold half the cream into the strawberry then fold the strawberry cream into the remaining cream gently with a rubber spatula.
Chill for minimum 30 minutes then spoon in to glasses.
To use in a cake, chill overnight tightly covered with cling wrap.
Enjoy.

XOXO

A little sweet treat

What a crazy week. Miss K's wedding tasting was a lovely afternoon. Sadly a fall at netball resulted in busted ankle for the bride to be the next day - get well soon lovely.

Tonight I have been modelling a spout and handle for a tea pot ready for Friday to create the cake. I am very excited about using my new fondant moulds to create vintage 'broaches' for the tops of the cupcakes, so pretty.

Tomorrow night starts the moulding of a full sugar paste tea set. This one will be a huge challenge as not only will it be moulded and fragile but it will also be hand painted to match a particular Royal Albert china pattern (and not a simple one at that).

To keep the sweets moving along while my next creation is on the bake, enjoy a slice of Glazed Strawberry White Chocolate mud cake.

Goodnight,
xoxo