Sunday 11 September 2011
















So, this cake was for my cousins 21st, he told me he wanted an exact replica of his car. He tells me later on he was just joking, but he asked, he got!!!
Neil has spent a lot of time working on his car, and it is frikkin awesome, he is very, very proud of it!!
So again with this cake I had no idea where to start or how to do it, Tawa my sister in law came over and help me carve it, it was the first cake I had ever carved so we really were in no mans land. The two of us managed it okay in the end, although the shape was rather more like a chevy than a cortina!!!
It took about 3 days in total to complete it, the wheels took me 3 hours on their own!! I was determined every detail be correct, sure the fondant was a little lumpy and it wasn't perfect but it was very much appreciated and took about 3 weeks to eat!!

Thursday 1 September 2011



So I have always been a keen baker and when my brother and now sister in law were getting married, we started talking cakes, there was no way in hell they were paying hundreds of dollars for something I could make myself!!!!

So about 6 months before the wedding I started looking at cake decorating equipment and therein started an obsession that is still going 3 years later - do you have any idea of the pretties you can buy to decorate cakes??? I found this wonderful site

http://www.cakestuff.co.nz/zencart/

This woman is amazing, so incredibly helpful, nothing is too much trouble for her, if she doesn't have it, she will find it for you!!!

Anyway, on with the story, I started buying bits and pieces I thought I might need, then I found things I liked and bought them as well, half of them, I had no idea what they were for or how to use them, but they looked really pretty!!! In fact some of the things I bought back then I have only learnt to use recently!! I started with a small tool box of equipment and I currently have a room with four sets of drawers and two cupboards fully dedicated to stuff I just one day might need!

So before the wedding, there was the baby shower, I dusted off my pretties and decided I was going to do something spectacular, it took me about a week to make all the pieces and put together this cot. I was so proud of myself! So the decorating part worked well, then it came to the cake, I made it the night before, turns out someone changed the oven to grill (not naming anyone aye tawa) and I managed to grill the cake for a good hour, yes the top was rather black and the inside rather moist, but there was no time to bake another, so it just had to do.

This was the first cake I had ever covered in fondant so I followed the directions spread it with apricot jam and put the fondant on, but seriously, how the hell can you make it fit on the frikkin cake, I just could not do it, so I put the fondant over the top, cut around the edges, then put some more around the side, ending in a stunningly gorgeous join right at the top of the cake, that I then had to hide, so hide it I did!! My niece made some gorgeous wee bottles and booties out of fondant and they went on top of the cake as well. As you will see from the above photo, the cake itself, not so pretty, the taste, truly foul - but dear god that cot looked good!!