Road Trip - Aoraki Club 5th Birthday Celebration

A little while ago I went on a road trip up to Timaru with about 9 other members of the Dunedin Sugarcraft Guild to attend the Aoraki Club's 5th Birthday Celebration. 

We left pretty early in the morning to get there by 9:30 or so, luckily one of the club members has an amazing giant people-mover so it was a cozy, warm drive up the road! 

We arrived to morning tea with scones and tea and coffee, then the demonstrators started. First up we watched a Chef from the local Polytechnic made a chocolate box, then a couple of woman made some very elaborate flowers and my favourite was at the end where a woman made a man lying on a sun lounger with a BBQ beside him!

We were treated to yummy food all day and it was a really fun experience. Hopefully there will be another opportunity to attend something like this again soon! 

Flowers - Stargazer Lily

It has been awhile! I finally have an Internet connection again, and I've got plenty of pictures to add to my blog. First up is this Stargazer Lily I made a little while ago. Usually they are pink but I decided to go with purple as I have already made a lot of pink flowers.

It took a bit of effort to get the whole thing done, all the petals are made separately. I finished it over 2 evenings, making the petals the first night then dusting them the second and taping the whole thing together.

The good thing about these flowers is they are so big!! You would only need a couple on a wedding cake. I'm really enjoying getting into the more time-consuming flowers now, it's so satisfying having this sitting at home and getting all the nice comments about it!

Lots more photos to come so check back again soon! 

50th Birthday Cake

Hello again!! It has been awhile. I finally have working internet again, so I can post these photos of a cake I made 2 weeks ago!

A friend of my sister wanted to order a cake for her Mothers 50th birthday party. She decided on a chocolate cake with buttercream icing, "Happy 50th Birthday Lynley"and some pink on it somewhere. I decided to make a white Swiss meringue buttercream, similar to what we used at the French Bakery where I worked for the gateau's. I wanted to keep it grown up, so used soft pink roses to add some colour, as well as lettering cut out with my stencil cutters.

I got some great feedback about the cake so I'm glad it was a hit!!

Prizes Galore!

Wow it has been a long weekend!! I arrived at the place where the competition was being held on Saturday morning and was dragged over to the competition work by the woman who teaches the classes I'm in. She directed me towards my floral spray, then my wedding cake, then my fondant entry...a certificate for each!!

Floral Spray - 73 points, Bronze Award

Wedding Cake - 78 points, Bronze Award

Fondant Section - 81 points, Silver Award!!

I was pretty happy with that!! My wedding cake was 2 points away from getting a silver, I needed a slightly bigger board but as I was up until 3am the night before finishing it, it would have been impossible to find a new board at that time!! My spray was slightly too large, I was trying to use all the flowers I had made as they took so much time. The whole weekend was a great experience and I can't wait to do it again!! Next time I will definitely start preparing earlier though, it takes so much time to make everything!

Hope it has been a great weekend for everyone. 

Competition Entries

These are the entries I put into the competition today. I'm pretty happy with how they came out! The wedding cake came out just as I planned which was great. The floral spray and the pettnice  (fondant) entry kind of came out of the blue, but they worked out and I'm pretty proud of what I've done in a short amount of time! 

They were getting marked this afternoon so I can go along tomorrow morning and see how I went. There was some gorgeous entries so it might be tough in a few catergories!

Have a great weekend guys, I'm looking forward to a decent sleep after many hours working on these!

Cakes times 2

I had to post these pictures of the cakes made for my parents recently. They have their birthdays within a couple of days of each other so we celebrated them in the middle.

My Dad is really into tramping so I wanted to make him a mountain cake with snow, a glacier and a lake like the photos he brings home from his trips. For my Mum I wanted to make a simple, classic cake - her favourite colour is red and I included these shoes I learnt to make the other week at class.

The tramping cake is banana flavoured, the red cake is carrot flavoured. I say flavoured, because they don't contain fruit or nuts. My tutor recommends not using real fruit or nuts in a cake as a classmate made a banana cake for a wedding and the fruit fermented, causing the cake to explode when the bride cut it....not pretty. I'm so happy with how they turned out!! We cut the red cake and tried some, it was pretty good and fed about 12 people with some left over so that worked out well!!

I have also been busy making my competition cakes. I have one week left!! So next weekend I will have some new photos to put up. I''m so excited to see what everyone else comes up with!

Stylish Blogger Award

Wow! I've been given the "Stylish Blogger Award" by the lovely Sandra from Kiwi Cakes! Thanks Sandra!! Here are the rules when receiving this award;

• Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award
• Share 7 things about yourself
• Award 15 recently discovered bloggers
• Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

So here is 7 things about myself;

1. I became interested in cake decorating when I started a job at a French Bakery at 17. The owner and cake decorator took me under her wing and taught me to ice gateau's. I've loved it ever since!
2. I love Melbourne, Australia - it is the only other city where I have so far felt at home. All those cake shops, boutiques and artsy cafes...so me!
   
3. My favourite colour (at the moment) is purple. I discovered by accident it looks great with my hair colour and skin tone and now I love it!
4. I love photographing flowers - there is something you can pick up in a photo about a flower you don't see when you look at it
5. I love buying scratchie tickets - the most I have won is $5 or something, but I can't help myself!
6. I love fuchsias - ever since I visited a garden across the road from my grandparents house and the woman who lived there turned one into a ballerina for me
7. I am on a quest to turn my wardrobe into one big stash of items that can be remixed as easy as that!

And now for the 15 bloggers. These will include both food/cake bloggers and fashion and style bloggers, as this is where my interests lie. Check my other blog A Sparkley Silver Lining to see my other interests! Some are very recent, some not so much! here we go;

1. Helen of Afeitar - I love her baking posts and her cute style photos. It's always great checking in on her blog!
2. Ellecupcake - A very recent find. She has some cute cupcakes up on her blog, well worth a look!
3. Annika from Escape - She has great style and fun posts!
4. Brenda from Give Live Love Life - She has amazing style and some awesome DIY posts!
5. Sasha from Black 'n Gold a la Mode - another style blog with some great vintage finds
6. Karly from Kar plus Wade - I love checking in on her posts, so happy, cute pictures and fun to read!
7. Grace's Art of Happiness - A very new discovery, she has gorgeous pictures of her baking and some great outfits up on there!
8. Kinsey from KinseyM - Great blog - it's cool checking in on what she's been up to and her outfit posts!
9. Kenzie Faith - Her blog has great photos and she has great style!
10. Catherine from Mangoes and Lemons - her blog is full of yummy looking treats! Well worth a look
11. Sarah from Sequin This - Has great style and some cool posts to check out!
    
12. K Come Karolina - One of my first followers. She has great style and it's awesome checking in on her posts!
13. Style Me Bad - Great blog and leaves me the nicest, helpful comments!
14. Samantha from This Fashionista - She has great style and her blog is well worth a look!
15. Leather Jackets and Rouge Lips - Her blog has some great fashion inspiration and some nice outfit posts!
    

Phew! I hope there is some new blogs there for everyone to check out! Enjoy the weekend!

Sweet Sweet Roses

I was a busy bee this weekend making a bunch of roses in preparation for competitions coming up in March. I took some photos of the various steps while making them. It's pretty cool when you get into a routine and you can bust them out at a reasonable pace!! I've still got a lot more to make this weekend, but at least I've started now.