Ballerina Party

This party was all about ballerina’s as my 3 year old loves tutus!

And then there was the cake!

My first wedding cake

I’m so proud of this cake! My sister requested that I make her cake for her wedding and at first I was very apprehensive. I didn’t want the pressure of creating the perfect cake for the perfect day, to be seen and eaten by over 100 people! My sister, however, said ‘I don’t mind what you do, you have complete artistic license on this one!’ that took the pressure off… a little. I still discussed my plans with my sister and she guided the colour and the flower choice but she really trusted me with the rest.

Vintage theme wedding cake

The cakes were chocolate mud on the bottom, the top was white chocolate and lime while the middle layer was dark chocolate and orange. Each layer was amazing, guests had trouble choosing which layer to taste (some tried all three). The icing was buttercream and I had to make the colour myself by adding green to sky blue colouring.

The top layer of the cake was covered in fondant and then real gold leaf (yes it is edible) was applied. This was tricky and expensive but well worth the final look!

My beautiful sis and her man!

I cant wait to do another wedding cake, or maybe I will start making an ‘anniversary’ cakes for everyone I know!

Check out the cake my daughter made for all the kids at the wedding. She made the whole thing herself.

 

Are you ready for a Sugar Rush?

One of my kids has a serious sweet tooth. The theme she requested for her last birthday was ‘Sugar Rush’. For those of you who don’t know Sugar Rush is a world made of candy in the movie Wreck it Ralph.

Sugar Rush Supplies

This was by far the most fun party to create! I modelled the cake from watching the movie and tried to replicate the colour pallet. I chose bright colours (mostly pink) with spots and stripes. 

The Cake

The cake was definitely a winner with the kids! After all the sugar they had consumed, they still wanted more after seeing the cake!

Be warned though: after the sugar-high, comes a sugar low. My three year old lasted about 2 minutes after the guest left before she passed out face down in the middle of the toy room!! 

 

Piñata Cake

If you are looking for a cake that will thrill the birthday child, this one is it! My daughter had no idea what was inside her third birthday cake, but she took great thrill in cracking it open with her hammer! All the party guests were amazed and one of the dads even tried to do this himself!

There are a few tricks to this cake,

• bowl types- metal bowls work best for the chocolate
• cake sizes- Make sure you can fit the cake inside your chocolate bowl
• chocolate temperature- You need to heat the chocolate to the perfect temperature, too hot and it will crack too cool and it will stick.

I will be making this one again!

This cake was great fun to serve, the birthday girl cracked the piñata with her very own hammer!

Tiffany Blue 2nd Birthday Party

A simple colour theme based on ‘Tiffany’ blue

After feeling very unmotivated to create a party for my youngest daughter, I decided to throw one together at the last minute…I couldn’t let the opportunity to celebrate a huge milestone for my baby girl go by. After all, it will be the last 2yr old party I host. I am SO glad I did! Pudding really understood the whole birthday concept. She still talks about it now …. it was weeks ago.

The invitations: Cute girly vintage inspired invitations by Write To Me.

The cake: Hand made by ME! I am certainly proud of this one. It was so easy to make and it looks much harder to make than it actually was. The hardest part was piping the roses on the sides as it was so hot that day, they kept sliding off the cake!

Piped rosettes, really easy to do and they look great.

I wanted a Tiffany Blue theme, but it was really hard to find the things I wanted in the perfect colour. I decided to go with turquoise, white and brown as it was all I could find.

Turquoise Ombre Cake

Decorations: I made my own tissue pompoms….so easy! Blue and white helium balloons, blue table cloth and white table runner.

Favours: Plain old brown paper bags transformed by stamping my babys’ name on them, stuffing them with tissue paper and tying them with ribbon. As another favour, I tied ribbons onto sticks for the little ones to wave around. These were a hit with the older kids too.

Party favours

I really enjoyed doing this party and it think it would make a great baby shower theme, especially if you don’t know the gender of the ‘little bun’.

Party Inspiration

In a few months it will be my baby’s 2nd birthday. I know that she is growing up, and technically not a baby anymore, but she is my youngest and I can’t tell you how much I have enjoyed having …

Party inspiration- Spirited Away

Sometimes choosing a theme for a party can be the hardest part. I always have a look at whats available to get a few ideas, then I will look at the things the kids are into and make a few suggestions, ultimately the kids decide and I build a party based on that. I once did a Japanese – anime inspired party for my daughter. Her favourite movie was ‘Spirited Away’. It was definitely a strange request, but I had heaps of fun putting it together.

The cake was a challenge, it was the dragon Haku, a character from the movie. It was challenging but very creative.

• Invitations: made using the image above.
• Party bags: Noodle boxes with a decorative label glued to it. This was a notepad I found in Daiso.
• Food: I bought a selection of interesting food from the international section at my local supermarket.
• Decorations: I used bamboo mats on the table and placed some paper lanterns around instead of balloons. Unfortunately, this was one of those parties that I just didn’t take enough photo’s!

 

Baby cakes, baby shower

Oh those sweet little baby cakes!

I went to the most delightful baby shower a few weeks ago. I love a good party and I loooove babies! So I just can’t wait to meet my dear friends’ little one. As a gift for the mum (and the bun in the oven), I offered to make the baby shower cakes. Now, I do like to bake, and I love to create, but I am not very experienced with cake decorating. In fact, this was the first time I have made cut out flowers. I had a plan, had done some research, but I was mostly ‘winging it’. It was very stressful doing this for someone else! However, I am really happy with how they turned out.

These little guys took a long time to make and were irresistible to my little ones, we lost a few along the way!

I couldn’t find the ‘perfect’ cake toppers for the cakes so I made my own. I used scrapbooking papers, toothpicks and double sided tape. Miss 8 helped me.

Its all in the details

ta da!

Mermaid Pool Party

THE CAKE: This cake was heaps of fun to make, maybe because I made it up from several other cakes I have seen or made before. The ‘sand’ was crushed biscuits, the hair is made of sour straps sliced up and the scales are mini marshmallows rolled out flat (this was time consuming). I drew the shape of the mermaid to fit the tray I had, I then cut the mermaid shape from the top 2cm of cake.

Mermaid Invitation

INVITATIONS: Again there are many invitations available, the ones I chose had matching stickers that I used on the lolly bags that were white noodle boxes (see below).

DECORATIONS: Anything blue!

ACTIVITIES: prize fishing, mermaid swimming races, sand sculpting, bubble blowing and 

ON THE MENU: There are plenty of options for any ocean type theme. For this party we had ocean jelly cups, fish shaped fairy bread and traditional fish and chips. But the best themed food I ever made was lolly sushi, made with rice bubbles, snakes and black current fruit wraps (see the pic below).

Homecoming tradition

In our family, each time I have brought a new baby home we have had a ‘welcome to the family’ party. Its a very small gathering (with immediate family only) and we always have lollies and other party food. This is the ice-cream cake my husband made (yes, he is amazing) when my third daughter came home from hospital. The recipe is in the Australian Women’s Weekly Cake book.