Mr Men themed Wedding Cake

I think the most fun part about making and designing cakes (aside from, obviously, the eating), is that every single cake is different - special, unique, and entirely specific to the person who orders it.

This cake was DEFINITELY no exception.

A good friend of mine - known as Miss Ammie - was lucky enough to marry a wonderful guy on the weekend - Mr Shane - and they ordered what has become my absolute favourite cake so far. I'll let the photos tell the (fairy)tale...

This is a cake with a story (as really, all good cakes should be)

This one is the story about how Mr Shane and Miss Ammie met, fell in love, and ended up cutting this very cake on their beautiful wedding day!

They're two pretty cool people, Mr Shane and Miss Ammie. Even their motorbikes can't be apart from each other!

Then one day, Mr Shane took Miss Ammie on a treasure hunt (geocaching)...

And surprised her with a BEAUTIFUL diamond!

And she of course said yes :)

They bought a house, and started a little family!

And now, will live happily ever after :)

To two very deserving people - CONGRATULATIONS! And thank you so much for letting me share in your special day xx

- B xx

Cookie dough!

Happiness is sometimes as simple as a fresh bowl of cookie dough <3

Sneak Peak - Wine Bottle cake!

Here is a sneak preview of the Wine Bottle cake I made today for a very special birthday! Vintage 1929 <3

- B xx

Madagascar cake!

I was recently lucky enough to make the CUTEST cake for a very special gorgeous 1 year old! And since then - have become lucky enough to start working with her grandmother in a kitchen and cake shop! Funny how these things work out.

I think despite how simple the overall design is, this is easily one of my most fiddly cakes yet. I LOVE fondant characters, so cute and edible, but gees they take some time and attention. I just love how these ones turned out! with their own little personalities.

The photos speak for themselves in this one - enjoy! <3

Love the giraffes quirky smile! Should have given him a bandaid like Melman in the movie.

The penguin was definitely my favourite - and actually an afterthought! Had a little space left on top of the cake, and what better to fill extra space with than a penguin...?

My favourite shot - animal bums all lined up in the jungle! Too cute.

Love that I have a hobby and job where I get to make these kinds of things - does anyone else have a job they just couldn't love more?

My happiest birthday wishes to Arabella!

- B xx

Cupcake class!

It's now coming up on a year since I made my very first cake - though it seems like much longer! Now I'm facing a huge cakes-and-catering project for a wedding, some fun new cake orders, the possibility of travelling for some real caking study, and some classes of my own!

A lot of people say the best way to learn about cakes and decorating is trial and error, and I can certainly vouch that that's true! but there's no overlooking how much FUN it is to take classes, and get caught up in conversation with like-minded people about fondant and plungers and holographic edible dust. As only cake nerds can!

Over the last few weeks I've had the pleasure of attending cupcake classes by Tamara at Tempt Cupcakes, and cake basics classes by a Wilton teacher brought in by Trends. Both started with things I already knew, but it's still always really good to see how someone else does things! Some photos of the final results from the Tempt class are below.

We learnt how to use silicone moulds - something I've always overlooked because they're so expensive, but are so easy and effective. (I have of course now gone out and bought lots :P such is the life of a cake decorator!)

We also made chocolate details - something else that's really very easy, and so effective on cupcakes, but certainly takes a bit of practice! I took my flat mate along on the last night, and we came home with a whole container of broken chocolate decorations! No point putting these things to waste... we took one for the team.

All the details on these cupcakes were handmade over the three weeks, and many of them are still around! I took my cupcakes up to the parentals place as we were flying out to Melbourne the following morning, and they still have flower paste shoes and flowers and letters on the kitchen bench that they couldn't bear to throw away!

This one was my particular favourite - too cute what a simple bow can do on a cupcake!

On which note, the trip to Melbourne was for my 25th birthday, and we discovered The Cupcake Bakery - is anyone else out there the kind of person who just HAPPENS to stumble on all the cake and cupcake and sweets shops wherever they go!

Look at that glorious window! how could we possibly have walked past

And this little wall display was inside - Cupcakes, Cupcake cakes, butterflies and ribbons - I should really have one of these on MY wall!

My flatmate and I enjoyed a Rockyroad Cupcake and a Peanut Butter cupcake - but I can assure you they were not the last for our trip! I'm tempted to go back and open a shop of my own...

Has anyone else done any cake or cupcake classes they recommend? I'd love to head over to Sydney and do one of the Planet Cake courses! Divine <3

For this week though - a cake that looks like a wine bottle! Wish me luck...!!

- B xx

Happy Blogaversary!

So I missed my very own one year Blogaversary. It's like missing your own birthday, or your pets birthday, or an anniversary on a really obvious day. Tragic.

BUT

I am now halfway between the anniversary of this blog, and the one year anniversary of officially launching Stiletto Studio as a business, so in a very busy and ridiculous month of madness, I'm letting myself off the hook :)

So - HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO ME! And what better way to celebrate than with cake? (On EVERY occasion, let's be honest) But before I get onto the details of that, here's a quick recap of the year that was!

- This time last year I was blogging about my first ever party! A Sex & the City 2 party organised with one of my besties, who has since moved away to Scotland. I miss doing parties - and I miss her more!

- Stiletto Studio started as a blog to showcase my cake-pop explorations a-la-Bakerella (as I've said before) but has since developed into parties, and then cupcakes, and now cakes. I haven't made a cake pop since April, and my 1st Wedding cake is in October!

- In the last year I have made 37 cakes, and (approximately) 600 cupcakes. That's about 300 bags of icing sugar! 80 blocks of butter, 85 blocks of chocolate, and at least a zillion hours spent bending over the kitchen bench squinting and thoroughly failing at multi-tasking.

- I have now moved into a flat with a whole room to hold all the cake stands, cupcake wrappers, tools, tissue paper, cupcake boxes, bags of fondant and cake tins I am now the proud owner of. One day soon, I will need a whole house.

So there you go! A year that was not at all what I expected, but perfectly summed up by a quote from one of the most fabulous and inspirational women of our time;

"I believe everything happens for a reason. People change so that you learn to let go. Thing's go wrong so that you learn to appreciate them when they are right. You believe less so eventually you trust no one but yourself. And sometimes, good things fall apart so better things can fall together"

- Marilyn Monroe (thank you to Jess of JB Photography for sharing)

Back to the cake - which I'm sure is what you've been waiting for. This was a 5 tier cake for one of my closest friends birthdays - 3 layers of Caramel mud cake, 2 layers of Banana cake, torted and covered in a rich milk chocolate ganache.

It was truly a towering goddess of sugary goodness.

On which note, I should perhaps go and whip up a cake to eat in celebration of finally putting this post up!

Still to come in the near future: an adorable Madagascar themed cake, Prince Williams' Chocolate Biscuit cake, and a Marshmallow slice recipe that needs to be eaten a tray at a time. YUM

- B xx

Cute as a button babyshower!

About time, I know. I completely forgot this post was sitting in my drafts, with the photos already chosen and uploaded, waiting patiently for me to share.

I think I've said once before that nothing ever ends up being what you expect. I thought this blog was going to be a quirky diary of my baking exploits - primarily at the time, cake pops a laBakerella. Then suddenly I was teaching myself how to make cakes, now I'm spending every day fielding calls and emails about Cupcake Bouquet deliveries! Like I said - not what I expected!

Now I suddenly realise my big one year Blogoversary (is there a correct way to spell that...) is next Tuesday! And I haven't even had a themed party since January, much less planned one for my own celebration. What a slacker.

The white board over my very busy and important desk has a list of all the delicious things I've done in the last year but am yet to post here, so I'm biting the bullet and getting onto the first one on the list - the Cute as a Button themed babyshower I made some treats for earlier in the year.

I think my very favourite thing about this theme (besides how adorable it is) is how simple it is - nothing complex or busy about it, just cute and colourful as everything baby-related should be. Plus the colour theme of this one (picked by the clients) would really work for any baby shower.

Lots and lots of teeny tiny vanilla cupcakes

They're so teeny tiny, they'd almost be cute even WITHOUT the buttons.

And then for something different - and probably my very favourite discovery in the last year - chocolate dipped marshmallows :D

If you've never had one, go and find a marshmallow, dip it in the first chocolate you can find, and experience bliss. (Or else go and buy marshmallows and chocolate - I forget that normal peoples kitchens don't necessarily have emergency supplies of marshmallows, chocolate and fondant at all times!)

The display boxes for the marshmallow pops were another of my favourite things. Just little gift boxes with foam and shiny plasticky strippy stuff I found, with a big yellow polka dot ribbon tied around them. Doesn't get much easier than that!

And very effective - as well as better for transporting. I think I even still have them somewhere.... though if you could see all the stock and baking related bits and pieces I've accumulated in the last year, you'd understand why I can't be sure.

And then cookies! And finally - FINALLY - I found a recipe for sugar cookies that I actually LIKE. The cookies I made for my sisters Breakfast at Tiffanys party LOOKED fabulous, but didn't taste too great... In fact I think we chucked the left overs out. But these ones are sweet, and moreish, and EASY, and a perfect colour. I found the recipe here. Thank you to Megan's Cooking for sharing!

(P.S - I haven't shared the Breakfast at Tiffanys party on here yet, because I was hoping with everything crossed that Amy Atlas might share it on her site! But since that hasn't happened in 5 months, I think it's time :) In the meantime, the photos are all up on my Facebook page here)

So there you go! The full spread of goodies for a very cute Babyshower - my first! Though hopefully there'll be lots more to come - I'm dying to do a Pea in a Pod themed babyshower for someone! Think of all that green pea cuteness.

Shall have to start thinking of what to blog about on my blogaversary... Probably cake! I have some photos of a truly delicious two tiered Lemon and White chocolate Mud Cake I made that may just do the trick. But then let's be honest, why pass up a perfectly good opportunity to make MORE cake??

- B xx

Sneak Peak - Birthday Cake!

I've just finished making a cake for one of my closest friends, so here's a quick sneak peak - I can't show you the rest because she hasn't seen it herself yet! All I can tell you is that there are five layers of happiness in this one... can't wait to try it!!

Happy Birthday Jaynee!

- B xx

Happy Mother's Day!

I love the kind of weekend where you feel like you got a lot done, but not so much the kind of weekend where you reach Sunday night, and realise you need another weekend to recover...!

I was overwhelmed by orders, requests, and feedback on the Mother's Day range I put out this year - my very first! so thank you to everyone who got in touch. The cupcake bouquets (previewed here) were definitely the most popular, and I had a ball making them! Here's the line up on my kitchen table yesterday afternoon waiting for pick ups:

Not a fabulous photo, chances are pretty high that I was covered in icing sugar by this point and trying to keep my camera clean-ish. I hope they all made it to their destinations safely!

Unsurprisingly, the LAST thing my Mum wanted this year was cupcakes - of any form - so I had to compromise on cake (since then it gets "shared" :)) and a painting (slightly less edible, but equally time consuming).

Again not a great quality photo, but would you believe - when I went to edit it tonight, it was focussed on some of my ridiculously long hair which had dangled into shot. Sigh. I clearly wasn't paying ANY attention at the time. Given that I was half asleep when I finished the painting itself, it's probably for the best :)

But back to the cake, since that's what we all came here for.

And not just cake. Cake with a VIEW

And Frangipanis! And happiness. And 3 layers of ribbon because I had no patience for letting the buttercream set, and it kept soaking in. White ribbon + tiredness + no other ribbon colour options = fail. Luckily you can't really tell in the photo. (Hush, no need to spoil my illusions!)

This was my very first go at making frangipanis, very last minute, and with no tools, cutters or molds... These were entirely hand made and shaped, and then painted with a little food colouring and water. I love the way they turned out for something so last minute - definitely inspired me to learn the RIGHT way though! Wonder if there actually IS a right way... I'm sure there's a gadget that does it all for you, but then where's the fun in that!

And the best part? (seriously, the best part) underneath all that buttercream and sunshiney goodness, are two tiers of dense and delicious White chocolate and lemon mud cake. YUM. Every time I try a new recipe I fall in love with it, no idea how people ever pick favourites!

I've made the lemon and white chocolate variation before, but this time I put half brown sugar and half white. Only a teeny tiny change really! but I think it made all the difference. Funny how just changing the sugar makes the difference between chocolate mud and caramel mud, then a dash of lemon juice and it's all different again! Just another reason to love mud cake, as if I needed one....

So there you go! Mother's Day over for another year (in my corner of the world at least). A big Happy Mother's Day to all you mums out there! I hope you've had/are having a lovely day and being spoiled rotten. Thank you especially to MY mum (though I don't believe she's figured out how to read this...) for being patient with all my Mother's Day musings over the last few weeks, I hope the cake makes up for all the pestering :)

What did you do with your mum/kids to celebrate this year?

- B xx