Mikhail's christening cake

In August, we were asked by a friend if we could make two cakes for her sons - one for Mikhail's christening, the other one for Mharcus' 6th birthday. They were having a combined celebration. Fun, right?! :) This Momma bakes and decorates cakes for friends and family, too, so we were especially surprised and flattered (if that's the right word) that she would even trust us to make the cakes (she left the design & details all up to us). Thank you, Rio (and Mark!).

Now, Mikhail's christening cake is one of the sweetest cakes we've ever made. :) You'll see...

Ain't he the sweetest baby? *sigh* 

We were told on the day of the event that hydrangeas are Rio's favourite flowers, too. Win! We love that they loved this cake! :)

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

Samara's "Jake and the Neverland pirates" birthday cake

Months ago, we signed up for Operation Sugar Ltd, a NZ-wide charity that provides free custom birthday cakes and photography at the birthday celebrations of children who have life threatening illnesses and/or require frequent hospitalisation. Cakers/bakers donate cakes, photographers donate their services. If you love baking/styling cakes or are into photography, check it out, it's an awesome way to share your talent pro bono – you get to do what you love doing, while bringing a ray of happiness to a very sick child at the same time.

In July, we set to bake & decorate our first ever project (and hopefully not the last one!) for Operation Sugar – we had the honour of making Samara’s 5^th birthday cake. Samara has been battling with b-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) for more than a year now, such a strong a brave girl she is! Click here to know more about her story.

Samara loves "Jake and the Neverland Pirates", this was her birthday party theme. We must confess - we had no idea what it was initially. But, thanks to the world wide web, we got to meet Jake, Izzy, Cubby and Skully... and soon we were experts on it! 

Samara was going to dress up as Izzy during the party - so we tried to make our "Izzy" sculpture to look a bit more like Samara, than Izzy. :)

Meet Izzy... aka, Samara :)

... and the rest of the crew: Jake (centre), Cubby (on the right), and Skully, the parrot

...and a couple more photos of the whole sweet-art:

We got to meet sweet Samara when they came to pick up the cake... that was the icing on the cake for us! When she first saw it, she recognised Jake, Izzy, Cubby, and Skully immediately (a big fat WIN! for us) --- then she saw her name: SAMARA. "It's for me!" she says, and the rest is sugary-sweet history! :)

Dear Samara, it was great to meet you and your lovely Mommy and Daddy! We were so happy to hear from your Mommy that you had such great fun at your party!

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

Melodie's 5th birthday cupcake tower

We caught the cake-bug (a very pretty bug!) when our friend, Christia of Take the Cake, invited us over one day to help her finish Larissa's babyshower cake. I'm not sure if we were of much help then. Haha! Since then, we have not stopped making cakes! Thank you, Christia! ;) One of the very first cakes we made was Melodie's first birthday cake. Melodie is Larissa's daughter. Yes, the "baby" in the "babyshower".

Melodie turned 5 this year, which means we've been baking and caking for the past 5 years! :) 

Mommy, Daddy, and Melodie are now based in Melbourne but this year they decided to fly back to Auckland to celebrate her birthday! We were stoked to be making her birthday cake! Melodie & Mommy wanted a cake that incorporated all these details: red & black, a handbag, a pair of shoes, and ladybugs!

And, so, we delivered just that! :)

And the cupcake tower at the venue:

A very belated 5th birthday, Melodie! (",)

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

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. :)

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!

Elegant Rose Cascade Floral Wedding Cake

Hello again! 

We're trying to keep up with all the blog entries we have to make, so excuse the blog-arrhoea.

This next cake was for a wedding last January, barely days after Jane's wedding. 

The venue was at the beautiful Markovina Vineyard Estate in Kumeu,

and the newly married Jane & Arvee did the delivery & set-up at venue.

The cake toppers were custom designed and resemble some of the bride & groom's

prominent features. We try our hardest to achieve this, sometimes with a light humour to it.

Some details of the handmade figurine toppers:

 The groom asked for their initials to be placed on his cap:

And now for the Sylvia Weinstock/Peggy Porschen - inspired sugar floral details 

(peony-type roses and white hydrangeas):

And for a last boast:

Thank you, Romit & Bandhana for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

Kyle's Pirate 5th Birthday Cake

What a 2013 it has been!!! 

We hope everyone is settling back smoothly into routine.

We have had an eventful end of 2013 and an even bigger start to 2014.

We'll tell all when we blog about Janey's wedding to Arvee...

Mean time, here's what we've been up to

in between wedding planning, full time work, choir practices and nappy changes.

  

Kyle's brother attended the centre where Joy worked at,

and that's how we have come to know Kyle's family. 

Here are is our fave shot of Kyle's Pirate-themed chocolate mud-cake:

And some cupcakes to match:

(Ps. No, this is not the same Kyle as the one we made an Old Macdonald Farm cake for)

Thank you Kyle and family, for joining us in this sugary-sweet journey!

  

Chris' Wine Bottle Cakescape (70th)

Yet another first for us. We love a challenge! 

Often the cost of making a cake does not take into account (at all) the extensive time 

and immeasurable effort we pour into our creations.

And we blame nobody else but ourselves for this -

we have, countless of times, found ourselves carried away

and diverting from what's meant to be a simple cake.

The true reward is simply proving to ourselves that we could!

Here is a perfect example of the above scenario: 

The box is the cake. 

The wine bottle (a replica of a real NZ winemaker's bottle) is made of fondant.

 The grapes and grapevine leaves were hand-crafted. No silicone moulds!
(Ain't buying overly-priced moulds for one-off jobs!Hmp! LOL)

Thank you, Chris & Penny, for joining us on this sugary-sweet journey!