Fox Head Logo Baseball Cap Cake – And Wedding Cake

Fox Head Logo Baseball Cap

I got asked to make a Fox Head Logo cake. Initially it was just going to be the shape of the Fox Head Logo. However after looking at some designs on Google Images I decided to do the baseball cap.

I had to use the Wilton ball shape cake tin, to get the natural dome shape. I did think of carving it out, but wasn’t sure if I could pull off the shape I needed to achieve.

Fox Head Logo

The logo is completely cut out from fondant. I traced the image and then using the pin method transferred to the fondant. Then I cut it out with a scalpel – slowly!

Considering it’s only about 2 inches big, it took a while to finish. The colour green is the favourite colour of Ben whose birthday cake it was.

I then brushed the green fondant with a green lustre dust to sparkle. The black fondant backing has some piping gel brushed to give it a different look. All the cake is edible, and the gold is edible paint.

I did start the cake the night before delivery, however after baking the cakes, for whatever reason, and not doing anything different from I would normally, the cakes didn’t rise. So instead of panicking. I set my alarm early and started again at 7am, and baked, decorated and delivered all by 11.30am. I would n’t normally do this, as I like a little breathing room! And cutting into freshly baked cake is a nightmare, as it just falls apart.

Some of you will know due to previous blogs, that my husband and I are renewing our vows next year – to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. And I have been drawing designs for our wedding cake. I think I have settled on the final design, unfortunately I am  not going to share it with you until after the big day. I will share that it will be all in ivory, 4 tiers and will have simple decoration reflecting the day and the theme. It also will have an element of lace in the design.

For now, all is quiet, my next cake is a belated birthday cake for my Mum, as during her birthday I had a surprise bout of severe tonsillitis and instead of celebrating her birthday she was looking after my girls instead. And my youngest daughters birthday is in 3 weeks. She has about 3 designs she is looking at, 2 with a princess castle theme. So I can already see pink fondant!

 

 

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Ruffle Flower – Wedding Cupcake Tower

Ruffle Flower - Wedding Cupcake Tower

This is what I did today.

My second wedding cake order.

Ruffle flower cupcakes, and a quilted chocolate fondant on a 6 inch cake.

Each cupcake has a thin layer of ganache and chocolate fondant. The flowers were made a few days ago, so that the fondant could dry out.

I received this order on Friday last week, on Saturday night myself and Mandy (who commissioned the cake for her friend’s wedding) talked for nearly 2 hours, about various different cakes and designs.

Her friend is getting married at 9.30am tomorrow (Saturday), it is to be a small affair, and fairly casual, so the cake had to reflect that. So we didn’t want a cake to be traditional. We had 2 ways of going with this cake. First was to have a black & white design, reflecting the brides dress. The second was chocolate. After a quick text message to her friend, chocolate was chosen.

The colours were chosen by Mandy, so they’re white shimmer, silver shimmer and teal. With black cupcake cases and teal ribbon to finish the accessories. The chocolate mud cake is covered with ganache, quilted and have some mini silver edible balls to highlight.

Engraved carabiners

The groom is a rock climber, who proposed to his bride with an engraving on a carabine with ‘will you marry me?’ So Mandy got 2 links and engraved them with the couples names – Catherine & Jon.

Ruffle Flower Cupcakes

The cupcakes had some prep work. The flowers are 4 layers of petals, because I chose to use fondant instead of gumpaste I had to let them dry for a couple of days more than I would normally.

They are glued together using Royal Icing.I was really pleased with the results, in fact I did a little happy dance once I had finished it all.

I did all the baking and decorating in the same day.

I loved making this, and it will go in my top 10 cakes.

Next cake will be my husbands birthday 🙂

Congratulations to the happy couple.

 

To advertise, or not to advertise? That is the question.

I received a call a couple of days ago from Your Child Magazine.

They asked me whether I would be interested in advertising Hollipops Cakes through their magazine.

I met up with David today to talk about whether the magazine would be a good fit for Hollipops Cakes.

The pro’s :

This magazine is run by a couple who not only organise the magazine, but they also have their own businesses which they run from home. This magazine is free and is put in places where there are children, parents and families i.e.libraries and McDonald’s etc. The circulation area is quite large, from up here on the mountain, to Ringwood and Rowville etc.

The magazine is useful for small, medium to large businesses and the costs are reasonable.  And you have control on what your ad looks like. So these are all good things.

The con’s :

Apart from business cards, I have no advertising costs. WordPress, Facebook are free. And I also have a fantastic group of friends who love spreading the word about my cakes. And if I think about it, the magazine called me up because they had heard of me. Which shows that my name is getting out there.

On the other hand, you have the old saying “you have to spend money, to make money.”

And I’ve only really been doing this for a little while, so I’m very much learning the ropes, and I definitely want to be in control of how the business grows. Ideally by one customer at a time, to grow a solid family business.

Maybe I’m worrying over nothing, maybe I need a to relax a little and go with what the universe brings me. The universe sent me a phone call, and I should say yes.

Maybe I’m just afraid of taking the next leap into the unknown. Maybe ……

And I don’t have to decide today, tomorrow or next week. I am to think about it properly and make the decision in my own time. (Another pro).

Any advise from other bloggers who have been in the same boat would be greatly appreciated.

Back to cakes, I am in the midst of my second wedding cake, I am making ruffle flowers, which is 4-5 layers of petals, so I have to make 150. So only 100 to go. This cake is much smaller than last week. It will be a 6 inch covered in chocolate fondant, quilted and silver balls. Underneath will be 24 cupcakes the flowers will be white, silver shimmer and teal. It should look really pretty when finished.

On that note, I really need to get off the laptop and get back to work, as those flowers most definitely won’t make themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My First Wedding Cake

My First Wedding Cake

Well here it is – my first official wedding cake order.

It is 2 double barreled – 2 tier, dark chocolate mud with white chocolate mud layers. Each layer has a thin covering of chocolate ganache.

Wrapped around the cake is chocolate fondant, and then white fondant to finish.

It took the best part of 2 days to fully complete, and I will be honest and say that it was quite challenging at times. Mainly due to the fact that this is the biggest cake I’ve made.

And it was incredibly heavy once finished. I am curious to know how much it weighed – maybe next time I’ll get the scales out. With the quantities of flour, sugar, butter, chocolate etc, it would be at least 10 kilo’s.

Gold Shimmer Leaves

I did nearly have the moment when the stress threaten to take over. However instead of curling up in a heap and giving up, I managed to harness the stress into something a little more productive.

I am glad that I didn’t give up, because the bride loved the cake.

Would I do things differently with the way it was made and decorated – yes I would.

I would have gone into a lot more detail. And I’ve never done double barreled before – it makes the cake look huge.

I love my roses, I am really pleased with how they look, and the gold leaves I am equally as pleased with.

I just wish I did more to the decoration.  I shouldn’t be to hard on myself. It is a learning after all.

Then again saying that if I am not hard on myself, then who will?

I received an email yesterday apologizing for the late notice, but would I do a wedding cake for next weekend.

So I will be making a small 6 inch chocolate mud cake, with 24 cupcakes underneath.

The colours will be teal, white and pale shimmer gold. So looking forward to wedding cake number 2. Hope everyone’s Friday 13th went as smoothly as mine.

My Roses

Lifeguards and Wedding Cake

Image from http://www.lifeguards.com.au

I recently got asked to make a lifeguard cake for a young man turning 18. In principal it is a fairly simplistic cake. It is going to be 10 inch round, there is going to be the beach and sea, maybe a couple of star fish. However on the beach will be a Australian Lifeguard looking out to sea watching the swimmers and possible shark.

All the figures will be made with chocolate – which I’ll be preparing tomorrow. The lifeguard will be using binoculars (not that I am making this difficult lol). I know the cake will look great when I’m finished it’s just getting to that point. I was meant to do the chocolate today, but life just got in the way of that idea.

Once the modelling chocolate is being prepared, I will also be trying a new chocolate recipe to make chocolate paste. You can use it to cover cakes, and to make roses etc. The recipe has come from a library book that I got today. I believe that with the likes of Google, many people have forgotten or can’t be bothered to check their local libraries for sources of information, I know I had. And that was a mistake. I came home with 4 books, including one all about edible flowers. I don’t believe I’ll end up loving gardening, but would really love to incorporate edible flowers in and around my cakes, there is something very organic about it.

While I am concentrating on my little lifeguard, I have to also start preparing my flowers for the big wedding cake order for next week. My first official wedding cake 🙂

The theme for the wedding is vintage glamour and inside will be layers of chocolate mud and white chocolate mud. Covered in more chocolate.

I will upload photos as I go for the lifeguard cake and prep for the wedding cake.

Well it’s getting late, and I am hoping for more rest than last night. I was tired, I switched the lamp off, and low and behold 30 seconds after that, my head fills will cake ideas. Tonight I have a notepad beside my bed to jot the ideas down 🙂

Goodnight.

Wedding, Chanel & Birthdays.

© Hollipops Cakes 2012 - My Dress

My husband and I are renewing our vows next year for our 10th Anniversary.

So this is the only photo of the dress you’ll see until then. It will be an elegant garden wedding, and I get to design the 6 tier masterpiece. I’d imagine that there will be many, many hours of design work, before I even think about making it. I have a rough idea, of how it is going to look, and even what will be on the cake. However I won’t be sharing too much with you at this early stage.

The wedding dress I found in Upwey Bridal & Deb Room – find them in Useful Links. The gorgeous Mel helped me pick out my dress, and who helped me put on 6 others, ordered the Chanel cake for her friend Sanya, who was turning 40. Today I received the best ever compliment from her.

– I wanted to say Thank you so much again for the gorgeous cake, my friend had tears in her eyes when she saw it and has kept the base with the letters..everyone loved it and we all had seconds. I’ve put a pic of the cake on my personal Facebook page and let all my friends know where I had it made. Thanks again xx

© Hollipops Cakes 2012 - Chanel Inspired Cake

I don’t as a rule take compliments well – I don’t know why, but to get such a positive comment about one of my cakes, makes me feel pretty good. In fact I’m chuffed to bits.

I truly loved making this cake, and I am really pleased that it was enjoyed by all.

Keeping on the wedding theme, I will be making a double high 2 tier wedding cake in about 4 weeks, it is simple, classy and elegant. Inside the cake will be a mix of chocolate mud cake, and white chocolate mud cake, with layers of truffle or chocolate ganache. Either way it will smell of chocolate and it will taste lovely.

Tomorrow I start prep on my eldest daughters Rockabilly 50’s cake, she is counting down the days until her party. I am counting down the hours until I have to work on this cake. On that note, my youngest daughter has fallen asleep on my arm – which is making typing a little difficult, so time to stop and put her in bed.