Monkey Cake

Remember the princess cake I did last month? Well this month I was lucky enough to be making a cake for her baby brother, Nathan.

Monkey Cake for Nathan's First Birthday

While I was at the princess party I took some photos of Nathan's favourite toy, Jiminy. He's sort of like a sock monkey, totally cute! I made the monkey out of 50/50 fondant and gumpaste, I think he looks quite cute, don't you?

Photo I Took of Jiminy

Jiminy the Monkey

The Top of the Cake

Are You my Mother?

I love the colour scheme here, I did it to match the monkeys arms and legs and I think it looked really effective! I'm not completely decided yet but I think so far, this is my favourite cake I've made! Woohoo!

A Grace Cake!

This is a very exciting cake for me. It is the first display cake I've ever made!
A lady from my mums church asked for a display cake for a course they are doing on Grace. Apprently the course is all about getting something nice that you don't deserve, all of the course material had sweet things like cakes and pies on it so I decided to go with a sweet candy theme.

It's also a little bit funny for me because my middle name is Grace and that is why I've named my blog Grace Cakes, this is literally a GRACE CAKE! How cool!

I'm really sorry about the poor POOR quality of photos! I think I finished this cake at about midnight the day before it was due. So no natural light and not much of a working brain at that time of night/morning!

I made gumpaste letters for the word GRACE a week earlier but for some reason (maybe it's the weather?) they weren't hard enough when I put them on the cake so when I woke in the morning to race off to work the C and E had fallen over. Luckily HUBBY TO THE RESCUE solved my problem by putting them face down. He even stuck them down with Royal Icing! What a pro!

All in all the cake looked MUCH better than my photos show...you'll just have to trust me on that one!

Busiest Week Yet!

This week (while working full time) I have got three cakes and two batches of cupcakes to make! Crazy!
I said to my husband "this is going to be like that episode of Ace of Cakes where they have like 30 cakes due! ...except I have three" Haha!

Fondant and Gumpaste Decorations for Upcoming Projects

Don't get me wrong, I love all of these (I really do!) I probably should have said no to one or two of them but I'm actually excited about each and every project I work on. Now I'm planning what flavour cupcakes to take to a family thing and what decorations to put on my friends cake.

I know it'll be a stressy struggle this week but I don't care, I like a challenge! So bring it on week!

Green Cake with Black and White Flowers

Here are some photos from a cake I made for a 60th birthday. I really like the simplicity of this design! I was inspired by a cake created by one of the students in a cake decorating class I took last year.

I think I also need to mention the fact that my husband helped me to actually BAKE part of this cake! My top tier wasn't QUITE tall enough so he made me another cake to stack up while I was at work, it was a marble cake too! Now he keeps bragging to his friends that he made a cake! THANKS HUBBY, what would I do without you?!

Church Celebration Cake

I go to a church called Auckland Bible Church. It used to be held in a school hall but a few months ago we moved into a lovely HUGE building, with all sorts of fantastic facilities.

Celebration Cake for my Church

Our church decided to celebrate this wonderful building that we are blessed to have and held a special celebration lunch.

I haven't been very involved at church but I really wanted to have some sort of input and help out in some way, so (naturally) I made a cake!

The Newsletter with the Cake

When we moved to the new building we also got a whole new branding and logo for our church so I used the colours and piped the logo on the top.

Although my original idea (stars exploding out to top, logo on the side) was quite different to how it ended up I am REALLY happy with how it turned out!

Set up at Church with Stars

By the way, this is what my kitchen looked like after making the chocolate cakes and icing. It looked like a chocolate bomb went off!

Messy Kitchen!

It's Not Easy Being Green

This week I have not one but TWO green cakes to share with you! I didn't plan it like that (I swear!) one was to match a brochure and the other one I just really really wanted greeeeen.

I like green!

Green Dessert Table From Amy Atlas <3

Orange Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting

Hands up if you LOVE Martha Stewart *puts hand up!* I DO! I go to her website quite often for inspiration, not just for cakes and recipes but interior decorating an wedding planning (I'm helping a friend plan her wedding at the moment) Martha is amazing!

I made this ruffle cake for a friend using some lovely Martha Stewart recipes.

Orange Cake
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients
170g Unsalted Butter (Softened)
2 1/4 C Flour
2 1/4 t Baking Powder
1/4 t Salt
1 1/2 C Sugar
3 Eggs
3/4 C Buttermilk (or 1 T lemon juice or white vinegar mixed in with 3/4 C milk)
Zest of 1 Orange

• Heat oven to 180 degrees C and line one 8" or three 6" cake tins. 
• Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.
• Beat butter on a medium setting until light and fluffy, about four minutes.
• Add sugar and beat well.
• Add eggs one at a time making sure to beat well after each addition.
• Add flour and buttermilk, starting and finishing with the flour.
• Stir in orange zest and pour batter into cake tin/s.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.
• Cool in tin for 15 minutes then remove and place on cooling rack before icing.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting
Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients
225g Unsalted Butter (softened)
3/4 C Sugar
3 Egg Whites
1/2 t Vanilla Extract

• Beat butter with electric mixer until light and fluffy.
• In double boiler over simmering water, whisk sugar and egg whites until warm and sugar is dissolved (about 2 or 3 minutes). 
• Transfer egg mixture to a clean bowl and beat on high with whisk attachment until fluffy and cooled (about 10 minutes).
• Reduce mixer to medium-low; add butter 1/4 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. 
• Add vanilla and mix until combined.
• Switch to a paddle attachment (or normal attachment) and beat on the lowest speed 3 to 5 minutes.

Recipe Notes:
I halved the recipe for the Swiss Meringue Buttercream, mainly because (if you live in NZ like me) you would have to be rich to be using a whole block of butter on one cake these days, also because it's fatty! This quantity covered my 6 inch cake using the ruffle technique.

Yellow Ruffle Cake

I LOVE ruffle cakes! Love love love them!

My First Ruffle Cake

The first one ever I saw was from Martha Stewart, then I saw Amanda from I Am Baker doing some awesome stuff with ruffles!

A good friend of mine recently went through some serious surgery, she is one of the bravest and toughest people I know so I really wanted to give her something to enjoy while she gets better.

View From the Top

So I made a yummy orange cake, filled with orange buttercream frosting then iced it with Swiss Meringue Buttercream (my first time making it!) using the ruffle icing technique. I have to say it did *sort of* look like margarine piped onto a cake (note to self: yellow buttercream looks like margarine!) and I was VERY rushed (especially for the top of the cake...which I had no idea how to ice) BUT all in all I liked it!

View From the Side

I had made some orange fondant flowers to go on top a few days earlier, realised that just one flower on top looked better, popped it on top and VOILA! Ruffle Cake!

Leftovers!

Also, I thought you might like to see what I do with the leftovers of cake (the part I cut off the top) sometimes it goes in the bin and sometimes I decorate it and put a spare fondant flower on! Yum yum!

Cake? What Cake?

Alright, so I know I've been a little slack on the posting lately with not as many delicious cakes and cupcakes as usual buuuuuuut I have been REALLY busy lately and can't wait to share with you all my exciting experiences!

Stay tuned for ruffle cakes, new icing recipes, green cakes, fondant monkies and MORE!

Cupcake Merchandise

It's great when you have a hobby, it makes you easier to buy for! Check out these cute presents I've been lucky enough to receive (Thank you Katie, Hayley and Naomi!)

Cupcake Bandaids

Cupcake Bath Bomb

Cupcake Lip Gloss

Cupcake Pencil Cake

Cupcake Key Ring - Goes Perfect With my Cupcake Air Freshener!

Yummy Chicken, Camembert & Cranberry Filo Parcels

Mmmm I just made this meal for my hubby and I. He is about to get home from his shift work today, hope he is pleasantly surprised!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts (cut into small pieces)
Cranberry Sauce (I used Watties Bit on the Side)
125g Camembert (one packet)
8 Sheets of Filo Pastry

1) Heat oil in a pan and cook chicken until lightly browned.
2) Separate the pastry sheets so that you have two layers for each parcel.
3) Spread thin layer of cranberry sauce onto the top pastry sheet in the middle.

4) Spread chicken pieces to cover the cranberry sauce in the middle of the pastry.

5) Cut thin slices of Camembert and put over top of chicken. Repeat these steps for the other three parcels.

6) Fold sides over and turn over.

7) Cook in the oven at 180 degrees C for about 10 minutes or until the pastry is nice and golden.
8) Serve with your favourite salad and ENJOY!

UPDATE: Hubby LOVED these! I think he will request them every week now! 

Cupcake Cases Galore!

Cupcakes cases, papers, wraps, muffin cases, liners, whatever you want to call them...I have too many.

I have so many cupcake cases I'm not sure when or if they will ever be used up! Every time I see some new ones or some that are on special I just can't help myself!

I have funky square ones I bought in Holland.



I have silicone heart ones I use on Valentines.



I have rainbow colours.



I have cute princess themed sets.



I have shades in pastel purples and turquoise.



I have polka dots and stripes.



I have SO many cupcakes cases, but I love each and every one of them! <3