{Tutorial} I heart ruffle cakes

I have become slightly obsessed with ruffle cakes lately. I think they are one of the most beautiful cakes. They look really difficult to make but they are sooo easy and if you are on a budget, you can make your own for under $20!!

The only equipment you need is a petal nozzle. I used the Ateco 104 petal nozzle . The petal nozzle comes in different sizes but all have one thick end and one think end.

Here are directions with hints and tips so you can do it too and not stuff it up!

1. Make your favourite cake as usual. I trim the top off as I like the flat top and squarish edges. If your cake is really soft and at risk of falling apart, put it in the freezer for about 20 mins before you cut the top off.

2. Make a good consistency butter cream, you can find our recipe here...

3. To colour the butter cream I used a little sugar flair gel 'chestnut' to give that vintage brown undertone, and then a little 'ruby' to turn it into that vintage pink. Liquid food colouring is fine but will alter the texture of the buttercream and only give you a pale colour. If you are after a really bright colour you need to use a gel food colouring. You can get these at online cake decorating stores: www.bakingpleasures.com.au have the best range, prices and fastest delivery I have found in Australia so far.

4. Give your cake a 'crumb' layer. This is the first and light layer that grabs all the cake crumbs and prevents them mixing into the next layer, so you get a nice clean finish.

5. Starting at the bottom, with the thin end of the nozzle to the outside, zig zag up the cake. Its up to you how wide or narrow you zig zag, I made mine about 2cm wide.

At the red arrow, you can see what happens if you keep squeezing and don't move the bag... it all bunches up... this is my lack of co-ordination, moving the bag and taking photos!! LOL. So to get nice smooth ruffles you have to squeeze and move the bag back and forth. 

6. Once you have gone around the whole cake, you do the top. I finished with two rounds of ruffles on the top, starting on the outside to cover the tops of the ruffle columns on the side, just zig zag back and forth as you go around in a circle. I put pink pearls in the middle to add some colour.

7. You can leave it plain, or add other toppers to your cake. I put mini cake bunting on top. Make your own or you can buy some from our Etsy shop or other Etsy shops. There are heaps of cool designs on Etsy.

{Recipe} Vanilla cupcakes! Australia!

So if you have been following my blog or my twitter and facebook, you will know we moved to Australia from the UK! I was devastated when I suddenly found my trusty cupcake recipe didn't work here! The Australian butter seems fattier, the flour heavier and the eggs have a strong eggy smell. So with some adjusting and baking practise, we have an Australian version of our Perfect Cupcake Recipe!

Ingredients:            
100 grams of good quality butter at room temp (I like Dairy Soft in the white container, 80grams of the yellow container)
100 grams of Castor sugar (approx 5 tbs)
1 egg
50mls of milk
150 grams of white wings SR flour (approx 7 tbs if you don't have scales like most Aussies)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbs quality vanilla essence or paste

Directions:
1. Beat the butter and sugar together until it becomes slightly lighter in colour
2. Add the egg, milk and vanilla
3. Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat with electric mixer until it becomes lighter in colour as well, about 2-3 mins.
4. Put into cupcake cases. This recipe will make 12 cupcakes using the smaller sized shallow cases that look more like patty cake cases. Or it will make 10 cupcakes in the bigger american-type cupcake cases.    A table spoon of mix in each one will produce cupcakes just below the rim (as pictured above), so you can seal in with icing to keep the cake fresh (as pictured below.
5. Bake in the oven for 10-12 mins at 180 degrees Celsius.

Viola! Pretty delicious cupcakes!

Mother's Day Cupcakes with Belle Bazaar

It's Mother's Day this weekend (in Australia), so we have put together a special set of 6 vintage rose cupcakes, gift wrapped for the VIP night at the Belle Bazaar Boutique on Thursday night, 5 May 2011.

So if you are around Brisbane, why not pop into the Belle Bazaar Boutique on Lumley Street in Mt Gravatt and treat yourself to all their goodies they have in store! A box of cupcakes is $20.00

 If you are on the Gold Coast, you can order these online at www.jamosiesweet.com . Order by 5.00pm Thursday May 6, and get your cupcakes delivered to you FREE on Saturday May 6! Gold Coast City suburbs only).

A special 'Happy Mother's Day' to my mum whom I love dearly and am very thankful to have her around. 

I love you Ma. xo

 

Vintage Yellow Wedding Cake

A while ago I came across a post on the 'Love My Dress' blog about a real vintage inspired wedding where the bride wore.... mustard yellow! You can read the original post here... it's definitely worth a look as the pictures are stunning! Not just from that post either, the whole blog is stunning!! But two things struck me... the colour... and the cake! Usually when you think of wedding colours, mustard yellow is NOT the colour that pops into your head, but this funky London girl pulled it off and this shade of yellow has since become a favourite of mine...slowly but surely making it's way onto my cakes. Here are some gorgeous pics from Love My Dress...

 LOVE LOVE LOVE this map rose

The other thing about this wedding that struck me was the cake! Usually wedding cakes are almost too pretty to eat with life like flowers and perfectly smooth tasteless icing... but this cake was a series of square cakes with icing that looked like someone had forgotten to go over the 'crumb' layer! But I immediately LOVED it when I saw it! It's so cute with the bright yellow flags and vintage birds.... and I it looks like it tasted so yummy... fresh butter cream and soft home made cake... nothing plastic and tasteless, just gorgeous cake.

This wedding inspired me to make my own rustic vintage cake... no fancy icing... just pure buttercream... on a home made almond sponge....with a bit of cherry jam in the middle... and some vintage flowers of course!!

 Sugar paste roses inspired by fabric rose/peonies...

 A little vintage sign of course...

 ...and pearls....

.... and the delicious part.... cherry jam inside!! 

Told ya our cakes are Pretty Delicious!! :)

Origin of photos: The first 5 photos in this post originate from the 'Love my Dress' Blog and are not the work of Janelle@Jamosie Sweet.  The photos of the vintage yellow cake are Jamosie Sweet's work (I am obviously NOT a professional photographer!! ) :)

Feature Friday: Suzy Q's designs.

By chance, our previous 'Feature Fridays' have all been Aussies, but this week our Feature Friday turns international with a quick trip across the shores! Susan Hesser is our talented lady this week... with her creative jewellery business SuzyQ's designs...and has a very interesting story to tell!

Susan grew up with her father in the military so she has travelled around a lot! She now lives in Korea as this is where she has spent most of her time so she feels an affinity for the country. I can understand why. Korean people are some of the kindest, funniest and friendliest people I have ever met! So all the different cultures, foods, languages and experiences she has had travelling and living in other countries is the inspiration behind her jewellery designs. Then of course, she goes with her heart and feelings and chooses colours and textures on how she feels on particular days - a true artist.

Susan's 8-5 job is on the military base so how do you go from being on a military base to making beautiful jewellery?? A lady saw some of her work and suggested she make her jewellery to sell, so she started making custom orders for her friends and family in the U.S and it went from there! She is about to release a line for MEN! Can't wait for the pics!

Susan has a younger sister and together they do their thing... jewellery and paper craft! They recently got together to make and sell their items for a charity concert to raise money for people in Japan. They helped the charity event raise over $3500! Very very cool!
Before you ask, Susan said she loves animals and has a pet dog Frosty and a pet cat but to be honest I didn't think twice about it, until I saw this picture on her facebook page.... how cute is Yumi the cat!!! Too cute. Chillaxin' with a drink of water.

Susan's advice for others? No matter what you do in life, people will judge you and try to bring you down. You've got to remind yourself that you're awesome, you're fabulous and you're beautiful!!

Very sweet advice.