Lillies

My first lillies. They were quite easy. Using flower paste to make the stems and the flower. The stamen is covered with polenta which made it look like the pollen of the flower.

Tare Panda Mud Cake

This time round, made a Tare Panda on a aeroplane with little rabbit waving goodbye and another rabbit guiding the plane off.
The cake is a straight mud cake but didn't turn out that nice. It was so frustrating to have the butter leak out of my tin. I used a spring form tin and half the butter leaked out. The cake turned out dry and crumbly. Learnt my lesson on this one.

First Sugar roses

Have been attempting sugar roses. Not that good really. Actually pretty bad. The hard part is getting it into the shape and mould the petals to be the right thickness. Have been advised the petals shold be so thin I could read a newspaper with it. Well that is really thin!!
Will have to keep on working at it. Eventually will start adding some colour.

Out of flower paste and will need to make a whole new batch.
Where is that recipe I got..hmm

My first sugar flowers

These are my first sugar flowers. I tried to make them as thin as possible and added in the stamen. Effectively they are fantasy flowers as they are non descript of any specific species. Basically trying to get comfortable with sugar paste and how far it will go.
Overall I found the sugar paste is quite forgiving and found you can push it a lot before it would tear.
Got the recipe for the paste and will make up a batch for myself.

Orange poppy seed cupcakes

Found this recipe from the Crabapple cupcake book. Looked interesting and tasted good too. I modified it to be eggless and turned out perfect. This cupcake is filled with poppyseeds and orange rind. The frosting on top is filled with orange juice left over when I scrapped off the rind. The downside to this batch was the orange was not as sweet as it could have been. Bit to acidic which came through in the frosting.

Will also need to improve camera work. Shadows in the picture doesn't make it look too good. Need to also try and make my shots more professional too. Hmm..maybe a better camera.

Almond Biscotti

Whipped up some Almond Biscotti. Some people like callingit Almond Bread but they are much more thicker and taller. Almond Biscotti is much more thicker than mines. I like slicing it thinly which you tend to savour the flavour more. Should probably be called Almond wafers.

Almost got my macarons to perfection. Got the right mix and now trying to stablise the oven temperature. I think because my oven is fan forced it is over cooking the biscuits. Will try on 165 degrees which should be perfect.

Chocolate coated rumballs

I am still working on and perfecting my macarons. I have made several batches so far and not all successful. I have been reducing the sugar content and found the macarons are not holding up.
I made up some choc coated rumballs.

These rumballs I made up in the past with a standard rumball recipe and coating them with choc and striping with white chocolate.

I will be working on another batch of macarons and may add in almond biscottis as a face saver.
At least I know that recipe works.
I will have a mini project of making some choc treats soon.

Lemon cream Macaroons

Finally got the macaroons right. After several dismal failures, I got to know the eggwhites and balance needed to get the macaroons right.
One of the problems I found was the recipes I was using was the wrong mix for what I wanted. Some tricks involved but knew where I was going wrong.
Made a bunch of them and filled them with lemon buttercream.
Will try chocolate and other flavours next. Haha..I am so happy.

Blackforest cake

Made an eggless black forest cake. Three layers of sponge and filled with whipped cream and cherries. I dropped the kirsch as children were going to eat it but also it is hard to find..hehehe.

I think it turned out well, was not too sweet. Made it for the moon festival, though it has nothing to do with moon cakes or the festival. I just like making it.

Hmm let see what will be next.

Cinnamon Scrolls

Made up some cinnamon scrolls.

Green Tea Spiral Pastry

I made this spiral pastry which I thought looked so beautiful. The different layers turned out quite nice. It was not hard to make but from memory the outcome was a little bitter. I added a little too much green tea powder at the time. The pastry was filled with red bean paste.

Pipeworks with a mini cake

Had a light fruit and covered with RTR. After it had hardened, piped some icing.
I first attempted with a shell border and a grapevine design. The icing was too wet and couldn't control it. It didn't turn out the way I wanted,so wipe it off the cake and started again.

Second time round I piped a pearl border. The sides a decorated with a five pointed star and fleur de lis. The upper edge is with a herring bone and topped with hearts.
I feel it turned out much better than my grapevines.

Hugen's First month celebration cake

Hugen's the name of Yvette and Jimmy's new born boy. I decided upon making toy blocks. Originally was going to make three large blocks. I was stopped as I was told they already had some cakes ordered. So I downsized to one larger block and made smaller blocks from the remaining cakes from my 20cm tins.
I baked up a madiera butter cake and layered wit lemon butter cream.
The blocks turned out nice except I few of the corners wasn't quite level. I smoothed out the cake with my cake smoother and then topped the cake with a chocolate bear. The smaller cakes were not as nice. Attempted to cover up as much as I could.
Everyone was surprised the cake was made by myself.
Took about half a day and turned out to the be the centre piece for dessert table. I am happy with the outcome.

Tiffany-like bag cake

Got an order for a birthday cake from a work colleague. She ask whether I could pipe words on a cake, I said yes and she left it at that.
Thinking about it I thought I would give the bag cake a twirl. The inspiration is the Tiffany bag, The difficult part of it was the upper part/lip of the bag which I used tissues to support whilst the icing hardened.
Then the rest was more or less decorations. I made a ribbon gift box and topped the bag with thinned flower paste to look like tissues.
The problem which I am learning from is the side of the cake was rough and that is because I forgot to utilise my smooth tool.
The outcome turned out great for my first bag cake.
The cake itself was a cherry ripe chocolate cake layered with dark chocolate ganache.
I have thoughts of making some chocolate treats now.
In a few days I have to make a 1st month cake for Yvettes new bord Hugen, what should I make..thinking, thinking...

Lindy Smith Workshop

Attended a Lindy Smith Workshop to see a master at work.
It was just wonderful. The little sugarart bags she created was just amazing and inspiring. I can't wait to try these onto a cake.
The techniques and advice she gave is so invaluable. I am so happy with my path.
Must give thanks to my teacher John for organising this event.


OpArt


Some more OpArt


One of little bags






Lindy Smith

Father's day

Father's day has come and gone, this time I decided to make a choc strawberry cake. Funny thing is I am not a fan of strawberry but it is fav'd by other's. Can't force my opinion on to others.
I first made up a choc cake and filled it with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. Topped it with choc mouse and fresh whole strawberries.
To finish I got some fresh rose leaves from the garden and painted it with tempered chocolate and finally wrapped it with a strip of chocolate.
Chocolate with strawberries.. What do you think?

Cupcake success

Yay, baked up two batches of cupcakes and brought them to office. From my feedback it was enjoyed by all.
Made up a batch of Lemon and Lime cupcakes topped with lemon lime butter cream. The second batch was a triple chocolate cupcake. Chocolate muffin with choc bits from my belgium chocolate supply and then topped with dark belgium choc ganache piped onto it...Yummm!