I am eagerly preparing for my very first market stall next weekend.  I will be selling cupcakes in various mud cake and other flavours.  I decided to make up a dummy cake to put on display to show what I can do with bigger cakes.

 I have spent the weekend decorating and have come up with three different designs. I like to think of these designs as simple, yet elegant wedding cakes but would also suit birthdays. All three of these cakes could be made from all of my mud cake varieties.  I have chosen the purple gerbera design to be on display for my market stall. If you are in Mudgee this Saturday, please feel free to come and see my market stall at the Mudgee Anglican Church grounds!

Yesterday was Jake’s 5th Birthday and he wanted a racing car cake, Maxi to be exact, from Roary the Racing Car.  I gave him the choice of cake flavour and he chose Caramel mud so it was time to get down to business.

I decided my best option for this cake was to use a loaf tin and cut the car shape from this.  I also baked four cupcakes with the left over cake batter to use for the wheels. Using a picture of Maxi to copy from, I did a free-hand cut to get the car shape and using the cut pieces of cake to increase the height at the back.  The entire cake is covered with white chocolate ganache and a thin layer of coloured fondant.  Maxi’s hat and sunglasses are pure fondant. The rear spoiler I was unable to make from pure fondant as it just would not hold straight so I used a piece of cardboard and covered with fondant for that added strength.  The track is also made with black and white fondant.

The kids all seemed happy with the results and were all very keen to eat a wheel.

I’ve spent many many hours over the past month or so organising a birthday party for my mum’s 60th.  I wanted her to have a spectacular cake. I decided on a three tiered square cake.  Mum loves toblerone so decided to try a toblerone mud cake. My first attempt of this flavoured cake was not so great, using a recipe I found on the internet.  I gave it another go, this time using my normal mudcake recipe and replacing the chocolate with toblerone.  This method worked fantastically producing a lovely cake.

Using a combination of 23cm, 19cm and 15cm square tins, I produced a 23cm toblerone mud, 19cm white chocolate & 15cm citrus mud cakes.  Covered each cake with ganache then covered with a thin layer of sugarpaste.  I decided on a purple and silver theme with butterflies. I handmade mini butterlies to line the bottom of each cake and three larger butterflies, one for each tier.

I was happy with the end result as was mum. Happy 60th Mum!!

A work mate of mine was celebrating her birthday so I decided to make a cake for her.  Not having too much time, I opted for cupcakes.  Now…..which ones??? After alot of thinking of healthy/non healthy, of course, I decided non healthy…it is a birthday after all!!   White Chocolate Mud it is then

 I was after some nice bright colours so went with purple and yellow.  I made alternate yellow case with purple buttercream flavoured with a touch of strawberry essence (boysenberry essence would have been perfect here but unfortunately I didn’t have any – it’s definately on the list for my next order!!) and purple case with yellow buttercream with a touch of lemon essence. Yum! I used two different piping nozzles for each colour for effect and topped each one with coloured cachous. She was very happy with  her cupcakes and quite happily shared them around with all at work.  She was ever so thankful!  Hope your day was wonderful Bori!!

Today I celebrated my 31st birthday in Mudgee with a few good friends and family.  I decided that my cake had to be something a little different so made 5 x 15cm square cakes.  I have been trying out a few experimental cakes of late so along with a few favourites decided on Cherry Ripe Mud, Peppermint Mud, Caramel Mud, Citrus Mud and White Chocolate Mud.

 I made them to look as though they were a pile of presents and thought this was a great way to show all the different flavours of cakes I can do.  Each cake was covered with ganache and a thin layer of fondant icing.  I chose pastel colours of pink, purple, green, yellow and light brown.  Each cake was decorated with handmade fondant shapes of flowers, stars and hearts. The top tier, I placed some handmade fondant ribbon curls, two handmade fondant flowers and the numbers “31″.

My young son Jake was very keen to help and made a few fondant shapes and numbers to place on the cake.  Everyone enjoyed the cakes and had a lovely sample of each cake to take home with them.  Thank you all for a lovely afternoon.  I’m looking forward to the next Mudgee birthday cake!!

My youngest boy Jake was very excited that his pre-school teacher’s birthday was coming up.  He so desperately wanted to make her a cake so Thursday night we made a batch of cupcakes for her to share with the class.

Jake helped me with measuring the ingredients and putting them into the bowl, cracking the eggs, turning on the mix master and of course licking the beaters and the bowl!  

We made a simple vanilla cupcake mix and I decorated with vanilla buttercream and handmade fondant butterflies and stars.  They turned out well and went down a treat with the class at pre-school!

  My latest creation is this black & white sheep cake.

I was asked to make a cake for a friend’s Pop’s 70th Birthday, a sheep farmer.  After looking at a few ideas, a two-tiered black & white cake (citrus and milk choc mud) with sheep decorations and the words “Happy 70th Pop” was decided on. 

The bottom tier was a 25cm milk chocolate mud with milk chocolate ganache and fondant icing.  The top tier, a 20cm citrus mud with white chocolate ganache and fondant icing.  Each tier had black and white polka dot ribbon.  The cake board was also covered with plain white fondant.  The lettering was made using alphabet cutters and modelling paste.  The sheep are hand modelled using modelling paste.  The stars were created using a small star cutter, modelling paste and wooden skewers which had been painted using Wilton black colouring paste.

All cakes, fondant and decorations were hand made in Mudgee by me.  I hope that this cake was enjoyed by all!! Thanks Kim and Dan for allowing me to create this cake for your Pop!!

When I was first getting into cake decorating, I was keen to get a lot of practise.  So when a friend of mine’s daughter was having a birthday party, I offered my services of making the birthday cake.  I was very excited when she accepted.  Also, not having any girls myself, it was a great chance to make a “girly” cake.  Thanks Donna!

	For a little girl’s 3rd birthday, the options were endless.  We decided on butterflies and pink.  The main cake was milk chocolate mud cake covered with ganache and fondant.  I shaped this cake from a square.  For decorations around the cake, I made little insects: bees, lady beetles, caterpillars, along with some little flowers and placed all around the cake.  The writing was done using purchased gel icing.
	I made some cupcakes for Scarlett also which were white chocolate mud iced with pink strawberry buttercream.  I topped them with some hand made butterflies and a few sprinkles.  I was pleased with the end result and they are still now one of my favourite cupcakes!
	I was over the moon when Donna asked me to make a cake for her son’s 2nd birthday in December last year.  So now for a little boy’s cake.  My direction was that Bailey likes big trucks and smarties, so I went with that.  Since Scarlett’s cake was a hit we again went with a milk chocolate mud cake covered with ganache and fondant, shaped as a truck – again, I shaped this cake myself from a square cake.  I put smarties in the back of the truck and used coloured fondant and letter cutters for the wording and number signs.

I hope that Scarlett and Bailey both enjoyed their cakes!

Its hard to pick a favourite, but this one would be a close contender as my favourite cake so far.

I decorated this cake for my niece Gabrielle’s 3rd birthady.

The cake is a milk chocolate mud cake, one of my favourite self tailored recipes. Covered in ganache with an outer layer of sugar paste fondant. The decorations are made using modelling paste.