Sunday, January 16, 2011

Leg warmers, E.T. and Wham can only mean one thing...

The 80s. Only one decade can conjure up such iconic fashion, music and movies. They talk about fads repeating but I think everything of the 80's will most likely remain unique. Who would bring back big shoulder pads and overly teased hair, fluro colours and jelly shoes? As much as all things 80's should probably stay in the 80's (except for Wham - Wham is timeless), it is a great decade for a fancy dress party. So distinctive. Men can dress as Don Johnson in Miami Vice and girls as Madonna (in the early years of course). And you all know you want to.

Well as you can tell, I love the 80s. So when I was told Andy was having an 80's themed party for his 40th, and I got to do the cake, I was overwhelmed with the possibilities. So many things I could include... but what to choose? In the end I decided to include as much as I could! And this is what I came up with:



The top tier is a 5"x5"x5" cube, and the bottom tier a 8"square, all white chocolate mudcake with white chocolate ganache. Around the bottom tier are 8 side panels, each with something I considered iconic of the 80s. They were decorated with edible markers (except for E.T. which had some painting and modelling). Here are some close ups:





But as 8 panels wasn't enough capture the 80s, I had to cover the board with more 80s memorabilia. It was so much fun thinking about the great movies and music and finding pictures to suit.

So the 80s will live on, through this cake and my iPod.


Happy 40th Andy!


Kat

PS: Did I mention that I love Wham?

Snail trail...

This week I took on the mammoth task of two cakes. That may not seem too bad to some, but when the majority of your work is done after the kids go to bed, it certainly felt like a huge project to me. Both cakes were for some of my best clients and were about as different as can be.

The first cake was a small one for Jessica who was turning 6. It's a 5" dark chocolate mudcake decorated with a "Littlest Pet Shop" snail.


Jessica's mum provided me with a photo of a cake she liked which I changed slightly with the addition of the flowers. You can check out the original photo here.

I was also lucky enough to find a tutorial on making the snail topper which was very helpful. You can check out the tutorial here.



Despite the painfully humid weather (a cake decorator's worst enemy) I was happy with the final result, and from all reports, so was Jessica.


Happy Birthday Jessica!


Kat

PS: For the second cake this week, read my next post!

Monday, January 10, 2011

Noo Boo's cookies

My friend, Vanessa (known to most as Vanoosh), is just about to pop. I had the pleasure of attending her baby shower on the weekend and took the opportunity to practice my cookie decorating (as well as try out a few new designs). Maybe this is a good way to get invited to a few more baby showers!



In case you were wondering, Vanoosh refers to her bubs as "Noo Boo", which is a combination of her and her husband, Brad's, nicknames. Here is Noo Boo served up on a platter:



I should point out that I do realise that babies do not hatch from eggs (having given birth to two of my own). I did consider this for a while... at first I thought that it would be great if they hatched from eggs but then I realised that I would still have to lay the egg, and decided that the current technique of reproducing will have to do for now.

Looking forward to meeting you, Noo Boo!


Kat