I am not a girly girl and sometimes it is a little harder to find that “pretty girly” side in me. However the moment I was transported into pastel fairy wonderland with the amazing printables created by Pretty and Print – I became a little girl again!

Nicole’s invitation made me think of enchanted gardens with lots of magical vines and flowers as well as rainbows and butterflies.

So to give the cake that enclosed magic garden feel, I designed a multi-layered cake that would allow for the magic I wanted to create.

The cake was given a lustre finish and it had the most perfect sheen. Then it was onto all the decorations. The back tree cakes were the backdrop and vines and lots of pretty blooms and butterflies cascaded down. Little mushrooms and butterflies were at the fairy’s feet while a large handpainted pastel rainbow looked over the entire garden. The little fairy of course was transfixed in her garden and I wanted to make her look like her invitations.

Everything is handmade by Blissfully Sweet. For the dandelions, I used clusters of pearlised stamens to create the dandelion look.

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Aussie Bush Christmas Cake for {Half Baked}

Thrilled, honoured, amazed ….. all words I used to describe how I felt about being asked by Carrie of Half Baked to be one of the 12 Cakes of Christmas! I was even more thrilled when I learned of the design brief – an open palette on what inspires us at Christmas.

I knew immediately – Australia. To me, the best country in the world. Unlike most of the world, our summers are spent by the pool, swimming in the beach or having a BBQ. The sun is scorching and it is a time to be outdoors!

Australia is creative, indigenous, rustic and has amazing native landscapes. How to incorporate this all in cake?!

The bottom elevated and triple stacked tier played homage to couture, aboriginal design and textures of our land. I used my main inspiration as the Miss Australia national dress costume and the beautiful ruffled layers of her skirt.

To create the ruffled layers, each was carefully placed individually and given a different textural treatment. The bottom ruffle was roughened with royal icing and then painted with a lustred finish to give the material look. The black ruffle was a pointillist style ruffle and was made up of many many royal icing dots. The next ruffle was watercolour painted in different earth tones. The next ruffle was handpainted in a indigenous style to create the motif and the top yellow ruffle had sunshine inspired piping over it.

I wanted a show stopper floral for the cake. You cannot get more Australian, or particularly from NSW, than our state flower the Waratah. This was a test of my patience, but all the hundreds of individual petals paid off and it proudly perched on the top of the ruffles.

The top 2 tiers were lopsided in placement for something different! ;P One tier was covered in a simulation of corrugated iron (like our typical bush huts) and the top was a homage to our indigenous heritage with some Aboriginal style painting. I had originally planned to cover the top tier in this, however I decided to just simply highlight this as the cake was already busy enough! ;P Finally the board was covered in the same corrugated iron look.

These amazing photographs are by One Love Photography.

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The brief for this cake was Italian Riviera Chic and mainly white theme with touches of black and yellow. Loved this theme so much! I immediately was drawn to some cushions I had seen recently at IKEA as well as some S&P china.

The cake translated from its inspiration by a white fondant backdrop and with handpainted yellow circles. The black graphic detail was hand piped on in a pointillist style and the 3D yellow bloom was a last minute addition that finished it off!

This would have to be a new favourite of mine! Loved the entire effect!.

The bottom and middle tier are chocolate mud cake and the top tier is lemon cake that has a soaking of homemade limoncello through it.

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I was asked to make a cake that reached Bella’s couture side. Bella loves beautiful bags and shoes (don’t we all), and the only brief I was told was make it bling!

This is my “bling” cake made for an 18 year old!

Everyone should know the shoe by now, Carrie made this brand and this particular shoe very famous! When I was asked to make a shoe, I knew I wanted to make this one. When it was finished, I wanted to slip it on and trip the light fantastic!

The handbag was different. I wanted something that was bling, but also age appropriate and fun and everything that a girl would want. I went for a quilted, glossy pink bag, with lots of gold accessories.

Everything you see here is completely edible. The shoe is made from fondant and given a silver lustre finish and little silver sugar beads made the diamond brooch on the foot.

The cake is white chocolate raspberry mud cake with white chocolate ganache.

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Ocean Sunset Cake made for Half Baked blog (the recent Beach series).

I needed to create a cake that was inspired by the beach. I spend most of my summers at the beach, and in particular at my family’s home which has panoramic coastal views. One of the favourite things that I love about spending my summers there, is watching the sunset over the horizon from our balcony. So when I was asked to make a “beach” themed cake, my first thought was sunsets and all their glorious colours. Many different ideas came and went as I thought of designs, however a beautiful artwork/sculpture by Jennifer Falck Linssen was my main inspiration. As soon as I saw her beautiful wave like structures (made from paper), these became my focal point for the cake.

I wanted the wave topper to be the WOW of the cake, so I decided to keep the rest of the lines clean and structured – where the beauty would be in the simplicity. Embossed wave patterns circled the cake and each wave was finished in a different sunset lustre colour. I wanted to start with the beautiful reds/pinks/corals of the sunset and graduate into the golds, greens and then the blues of the ocean. All the hues of the sunset led up to the fondant cut out wave that floated on the top. This is my ode to summer – how I believe it to be, full of relaxed, simple and beautiful days, rich in colours and feelings.”

The stunning photography is by Leanne Ambrogio for Sweet Style.

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Couture Inspired Engagement Cake

Such a delight to work with this couple. The cake is based off the design of the bride-to-be’s dress for the evening. Beautiful ruffles and sleek lines have been echoed in the cake.

Cannot really see from the image, however the top 3 tiers have a oyster coloured lustre finish. Today is a bit gloomy in Sydney town and the light was not very good for photos! :(

The bottom tier is covered in a slightly different type of ruffle, These are more extended and and more like the dress. And yes, they are all individual ruffled blooms! As well as the textural elements, the look my client was after was simple and clean lines. I love how elegant it looks!

This baby is HUGE (10,8,6,5) and will be assembled at the reception.

The bottom tier is chocolate mud cake.
The second tier is white chocolate raspberry mud cake.
The top two tiers are white chocolate coconut mud cake.

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This cake was made for my balloon loving son for a little birthday lunch at home. He is obsessed with balloons!

So a balloon cake was the main priority. A while back I saw this ingenuous balloon cake design by the uber talented Brenda of Sugar High, Inc. As soon as I saw it, I knew that it was the perfect little cake for Ben. I was thrilled when Brenda was happy for me to use her design. How perfect is it?!!

I used a high IKEA candle stick pedestal for the base and then the cake is made up of 3 tiers. As a special surprise for Ben, the cake was balloon themed on the inside also – see the photos when the cake was cut.

I put the cake together and wanted to add something a little personal for Ben. Ben and his brothers are always giggling at the silly antics of The Regular Show (Cartoon Network). So Mordecai and Pops were added on top and peered over the whole balloon escapade.

Everything is handmade and edible (except for Pop’s gigantic head – that is a styrofoam ball!).

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I had the privilege this weekend to create this cake for one of my most ardent followers.

Emma contacted me a little while back and asked for a cake for her children’s birthday party. Emma told me that she really did not care what the cake was, that she was just excited enough to get a cake from me! That was an awwww moment for me!

So I probed a little further and discovered that the party was for her son and daughter and when I asked what they were into, she said Spiderman and princesses. The first idea that came to my mind was Spiderman climbing up a castle to rescue a princess. I never really got far from that idea and the first thing to mind, is usually the best one!

So, as it was not meant to be a girly castle at all, I made it more like a medieval castle with grey walled turrets. One of my favourite parts is the old wooden door and the wood plank draw bridge – this was a last minute decision.

I initially wanted Spiderman to be actually climbing up the turrets, however this cake was to be travelling up the coast for 90 minutes, and Spidey needed to stay safe, so I kept him in a crouch position in the middle tier.

The bottom tier is white chocolate mud cake with white chocolate ganache and the top tier is vanilla/chocolate marble cake with dark chocolate ganache. The turrets are all fondant covered styrofoam and everything else is completely edible.

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Beautiful little Siena-Rose celebrated the Christening day today and this ruffley number took centre stage on the cake table.

Siena’s mum loved my previous “Isla” cake but we made a few changes. The bottom extended tier was covered in an ombre of pink ruffled blooms and the top tier was given a shiny lustre treatment. The little handmade rocking horse sat a top the entire creation.

All decorations are handmade by myself and completely edible.

The bottom tier is vanilla with raspberry swirl cake with white chocolate ganache and the top tier is vanilla/chocolate marble cake with dark chocolate ganache.

This cake was made for an extra special person! John, my old next door neighbour, feels like a part of our family also. When I was asked to make a cake for his 60th, I automatically thought of a tool box – because he is the handiest handy man around! He is oft times off doing odd jobs for me when the time arises and he is the salt of the earth! Cannot speak highly enough of this family!

So onto the cake. I wanted the actual tool box, to have a vintage wood feel to it. All the panels and cross bar were given a hand painted wood look to achieve this. Then there were the tools …. I started and kept going! The oily rag on the side of the box was a last minute addition, as well as the crumbled up paper as the birthday message.

The cake is chocolate mud cake with dark chocolate ganache. Everything is completely hand moulded by me and completely edible, except the cross bar, which is fondant covered styrofoam.

My client organised a fabulous reptile themed birthday party for her son’s this weekend and wanted an extra special reptile themed cake to go with.

Design was left to me – just to include reptiles and a special request for my red-eyed tree frog!

I wrapped a giant scaly fondant snake around the base of the cake. I handpainted his skin in shades of russet and gold. This was eerily real while making and was a little freaky. I then had a red-back spider climb up the middle tier with some grubs coming out of the dirt. The top tier was all about the red-eyed tree frog!

I handpainted the grass around all the tiers and decided to include 3D reeds for added texture. The reeds are just floral wire. I was going to cover in green fondant, but why really??! Even after all that, I felt it needed something a little extra – so I had cascading leaves over the cake – done!

All components of the cake are handmade and completely edible – except for the wire reeds!

This cake was made for my son’s schools Biggest Morning Tea being held tomorrow. It is being donated as a raffle prize at the breakfast tomorrow morning.

I have wanted to do a pot of flowers for a long time and this was the most opportune moment!

The pot is the cake and it is a white chocolate raspberry mud cake with white chocolate ganache. The dirt is oreo biscuits and the daffodils and leaves are all completely handmade from fondant.

One of my most loveliest clients came to see me about her son’s upcoming birthday party. She had planned a Cowboys theme and just told me to “do what you do”! Love that!

First thing I thought about was cowboy jeans – always wanted to try my hand at that! I wanted the cake to be fun, colourful and just right for the party!

I gave the jean’s a worn in look and used a pair of old jeans as my design inspiration. I wanted to include a ranch themed silver buckle also. The top tier was left quite plain with the cowhide look. I then wrapped a fondant paisley bandana (all hand painted) and topped the cake off with a cowboy hat perched on the side as well as a lone cactus on top!

This cake was made for a rainbow crafting party. I did not have to go far to find my inspiration … just needed to see the gorgeous printables that Nicole from Pretty and Print designed! I think these are the best rainbow printables that I have seen and so I wanted to make a replica in cake.

The rainbow stripes draped from the cloud at the front to the back of the cake and the coloured circles were a great little definition around the cloud. A last minute addition of white crystals around the edge of the cloud, gave some sparkle to this little cake with lots of pizazz!

The client wanted a jungle cake to go with her jungle themed party for her son. She loved two of my other jungle cakes and we decided on a mix of both.

I love the colours of this cake and the whimsy of it. The animals around the sides of the tiers are a mix of 2d and 3d to add some depth and to give the impression that their heads are poking out. A cheeky monkey sits on top next to a big #1.

This cake was made for a couple who wanted a wedding cake a little bit different. They wanted no flowers and to incorporate their wedding colours of yellow and shades of grey as well as the ampersand that was a feature on their wedding invitations.

The tiers were covered in a mosaic of grey shades and then the ampersand became the main feature!

Carnival to me, means rides and lots of ride tickets! The bottom double barrelled tier is completely covered in ride token tickets. These were beautifully designed by Nicole from Pretty and Print and then printed as an edible image.

The top tier is the vintage carousel tier. The beautiful vintage blue, matched with the rich reds and lots of ornate golden touches gave this tier the old vintage look.

The carousel is a hand carved cone and base from styrofoam then covered in the traditional ride and white of these rides. Little circus animals take a ride on the carousel ….. the shaggy, retro looking lion, the trick loving elephant and the impish looking monkey. Tash also wanted to incorporate a clown, so he was the master of the cake and took pride of place out the front!

Everything is handmade on this by me. The carousel top and bottom is the only inedible part. All animals and the clown and moulded from fondant.

From top to bottom this cake is HUGE. It is 24” in height!

There were also matching carnival themed desserts to go with…. jello shots, cupcakes, cookies, marshmallow pops, chocolate covered pretzels.

Made for a lady that is PASSIONATE about everything to do with music! A vintage record player was the first thing that came to mind when thinking of a cake.

I kept the cake detail to a minimum and used a faux wood grain panel for the record player and silver as the detail in all the components. Apart from the arm of the record player and the turn table and pedestal (which have inedible components), the rest is all handmade and edible.

This cake was made for a rainbow themed birthday party. The design was left to me, so I decided on many, many layers of rainbow coloured ruffles.

The ruffled bloom pom pom balls on top gave height and was a last minute addition