Special Mother's Day cupcakes... a gift from us!

For Mother's Day this year, we decided to do something special for
 the mothers in our lives... well, here in New Zealand anyway 

(sending them overseas isn't very feasible!).

So we decided to do what we do best, besides cakes: 

CUPCAKES, 

especially packaged with all the love in the world! :)

As we were collating our photos for blogging, we found out that we don't have a 

photo of the cupcakes (minus the packaging). *sobs*

Fortunately one of the recipients of these cupcakes took a beautiful photo of it! 

*she saves the day!*

Thank you, Miss. Available Light Ltd. ;)

A very late happy Mother's Day to all! *LOL*

Thank you for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey! 

Love to you!

Franz & Kristin's babyshower cake

Two years ago, we had the honour of making Franz & Kristin's fun Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head wedding cake. A year and a half later, we were commissioned to make their baby shower cake! :) We especially love it when we get return customers. :) 

Thank you, Franz & Kristin for your continued support!

This is the brief for the baby shower cake they had in mind: unisex colour (green, white), a cot, and a baby. They decided to "not" know whether they were having a boy or a girl.

This is the cake we came up with:

The cake is banana mud cake with white chocolate ganache frosting.

Here's a few close-up shots:

The Baby!

 Thank you for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

ps. The baby is now almost 5 months old... 

a very healthy and beautiful baby girl named Azariah. :)

Joyce's Safari-themed 21st birthday

Joyce turned 21 in March. We, along with some of her church friends, decided to throw her a party right here in our (Joy's) backyard. Joyce is from Tanzania. So it was only fitting that she gets to have a Safari-themed birthday party!

Here's a photo of her invite - by Milbreé Moments, aka Jane:

And, of course, we got to make her a cupcake tower:

More photos:

 

The birthday girl:

And... the guests!

Our Princess! :)

There was so much laughter because of games like these... We won't tell you what they were doing. Just that it was a whole lot of FUN. :)

 

There you have it... Joyce's 21st!

Thank you for joining us in this Safari (but still sugary-sweet) journey!

A cake made with so much love, because of love, for Love

So here we are... after 6 months of blogging silence. Sorry! Life happened, as it usually does. Beautiful life. Crazy... but beautiful! Sprinkled with the most gorgeous cakes in between! :)

This post is dedicated to one of the most beautiful women we know, Christia, and her gorgeous family, Russ & their three boys. Christia is our Brisbane-based cake BFF. She's awesome! Check out her page here.

No. We did not make a cake for them. They made a cake for us: our wedding cake! (Jane's & Arvee's) 

We had our wedding at the beginning of this year. Yes, yes, I know. Why so late a post? It took me this long to start organising all our wedding things. In fact, all the wedding decors are still in boxes (unsorted!) in the garage (Joy & Kenneth's garage. Sorry!) For someone who loves to organise, this is a first for me! I wonder if that's normal?!

Anyway, back to the cake. Months before our wedding, we asked Christia if she could make our wedding cake. We didn't want to put our hopes up, firstly, because they were based in Brisbane. But after a few days, she got back to us to say yes and not only that - the whole family is coming! I cried.

So fast forward to the week before our wedding... this was truly a crazy time! In true DIY-fashion, I wanted to do everything! haha! It got a little bit crazy there - thankfully, with the help of lovely family and friends, everything got done just in time. But because I left so many things to the last minute, we didn't get to finish our part in the cake-making process: creating the edible roses and peonies. And, this is where I want to take a moment to thank Ricky & Daisy (family friends), and Minette & Makkyla (my youngest sister and my cousin, both bridesmaids) for saving me! Thank you for pulling an all-nighter with me to make the flowers!

and, here's a photo of Minette & Mykee hard at work:

On the day of the wedding, Christia, Russ, and Joy set-up the cake at the venue. I, unfortunately, don't have a photo of them setting up the cake but click here to see our wedding video... if you watch through to the end, you'll see them working hard at it. :)

Here's a few more photos of the cake:

The cake: Being a self-proclaimed "Plain-Jane", I wanted the cake to be simple. Classic. Vintage. Elegant. Pearlescent. Hydrangeas. Roses. Peonies. Gold-leaf. This was one YUMMY cake, too. Fruit cake, red velvet, white choc mud, milk choc mud... through and through! Baked by the one and only, Christia, of course!

Here's a photo of Arvee & me, with Christia and Joy:

 Us, cutting the cake:

 Cake - cut! 

Dear Christia and Russ (and the boys!), words can't express how thankful we are, and we can never thank you enough. The cake was perfect! It was as I have imagined it to be. Thank you so much! We can only hope that we could someday return the favour. We love you!

ps. Christia, thank you for dancing with us ladies and for emcee'ing, too! One of my most memorable moments on the day: when you, Joy, and I were crying, at the very end of the reception. I will never forget that. I love you... way more than cake! (",)

Thank you for journeying with us... it was sugary-sweet!

with so much love,
Jane

Alice's Sophisticated 16th Birthday Tiara Cake

Alice has to be one of the best clients we've ever had! Hard to imagine she is only 16. 

She knew exactly what she wanted in terms of what the cake would look like. 

She gave us this brief:

"All-white cake, with black ribbon/bow around the base. Edible black tiara topper with a red jewel in the middle. Happy 16th Birthday Alice written on the cake board." 

A very classy choice for a young lady of her generation, indeed! 

Wish granted:

 

The hand-made edible tiara (no moulds, or cutters... 

just hands, a plastic cylinder to dry it on, and a scalpel... just saying, LOL):

 You can tell it's made freehand by the sloppy edible glitters that's meant to only stick to the jewel in the middle. Hahah! Didn't bother Photoshopping just to make a point :D

 

"Happy 16th Birthday Alice" as per the brief:

And now, a couple more images for the sake of showmanship (LOL):

 

 Alice's reaction when she first laid eyes on her cake:

"Wow! That is exactly how I pictured it in my mind!"

 "My party went very well thank you ! The cake made it in one piece , everyone loved the cake. thank you so much again for such an amazing and tasty cake!" -Alice

See what we mean? Even in giving her feedback, she is very sophisticated!

Thank you, Alice, for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

3D Leopard Cake

Hello again, we hope everyone is sailing sweetly :)

Remember the 3D lion cake we made a while back? Well, someone who attended the event remembered us and came to us for this next number:

As always, there are many things we would do differently / better next time.

But in comparison to our first panthera 3d, we reckon this is a massive leap!

Anyway, before it became like that, here is a peak at the different stages the cake went through:

1. Sculpting & Ganache frosting:

 2.Fondant-finishing and additional sculpting and moulding:

 

3. The head is constructed separately. L: early stage of detailing.

R: Final stage with shading and contours.

  

And for some side profiles:

 

 The cake board was custom-made by Kenneth to accommodate the length of the cake:

ROOOOARRRR!

Thank you, Renata, for joining us on this sugary-sweet journey!