Hopping and popping fun these school holidays!

Can't believe it's now Week 2, so the second term of school has well and truly started. Once again, as I sit here and reflect on the past school holiday program, I feel blessed to be doing what I do. What a wonderful school holiday program it really had been.

Personally, it was a tough fortnight as we farewelled our beloved family pet of sixteen years, but coming to class and seeing all of the smiling faces, the enthusiasm, excitement, anticipation and cheekiness, it really was a lovely distraction! I love teaching the kids to sugar sculpt and create something beautiful and yummy. It truly made me feel all warm and fuzzy knowing that I have made all these kids so happy.

Over sixty kids attended the school holiday program these holidays. As the Term One school holiday this year commenced with Easter, we decided to have an "Easter theme" for three of the four classes. The first session saw us creating a bird's nest. We created a rabbit in a hole for the second class, and in the final class, a gorgeous lop-eared bunny. By popular request, in one of the classes, we recreated the popcorn cupcake I taught at a recent Cake Me! kids birthday party.

There were so many highlights these holidays. It was so lovely seeing all the familiar faces and seeing how much they've grown since our last School Holiday Program. There were also so many new faces we met this time round. But to specifically name a few highlights: An eight year old student baked some chocolate chip cookies for me (they were delish!), one student travelled all the way from Traralgon just to attend my school holiday program, another student chose to celebrate her ninth birthday by coming to my class, and we were so lucky to have professional photographer Gavin Ferrier take photos of the kids in Session C & D (all photos have been made available to the parents and can be viewed in our gallery).

Finally, one particular highlight these holidays that I wanted to mention was that my daughter, who has been begging me to let her join our Cake Me! kids School Holiday Program, was finally old enough to participate. After attending the first session, she decided to come to all four sessions!! Since she had started Prep this year, I did feel some mummy-guilt thinking that I wasn't able to spend the ENTIRE school holiday with her - but in the end, I got to do just that :). What a bonus!!! My daughter loves cake and she loves fondant - given the opportunity, she would gladly eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. However she is also a hoarder, and will not eat her creations. So now on our kitchen bench are four new cupcakes that she's planning on displaying FOREVER.

What did your child do? Did they scoff their cupcakes down, or are they planning on saving theirs forever?!

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Special thanks to Lynn and Florence for assisting me with the School Holiday Program, and to Gavin Ferrier for the wonderful photos.

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Noah's Ark

Now this weekend's party was truly a party fit for a prince.

Noah, or kunchu (meaning prince) as his mother likes to call him, had his first birthday party probably mostly-planned whilst he was in-utero. We had created Noah's mum's bridal shower cupcakes, his parents' wedding cake, Noah's smash cake, and now his first birthday cake. So it came as no surprise to us when his mother requested to book us out for the second Saturday of September for the next five years, and is currently deliberating on the theme for his third birthday party.

Cupcakes for Noah's mum's hens, Princess and the Frog theme

Although this is only Noah's first birthday, Noah's mum is no novice at throwing awesome parties. Her wedding was a two day affair spanning two weekends, first at Nine Darling Street then at the beautiful Regent Theatre. Noah's party was no different. Face painters, balloon artists, a petting zoo, and of course, a party fit for a prince would also have a Cake Me! kids session ;P.

Sample cupcake for the Cake Me! kids session

Playroom transformed into the Cake Me! kids classroom

The eighteen friends of Noah's were aged between three and twelve. The kids were amazing. For me personally, it was a challenge catering for such a big range of ages and abilities, however all the kids were so eager, so enthusiastic, and all remained focused for the entire ninety minute session. Even the younger ones whose parents warned me prior to the class that their child probably wouldn't be able to last, they were still seated right until the very end. Even though Noah was too young to participate, the class was tailored to the theme of his party and the eighteen kids created their own monkey cupcakes. We loved how the kids were so confident with fondant and wanted to express their own individuality at the end, some giving their monkey a white hairdo, and another little girl gave her monkey a matching chef's hat to the one she was wearing.

The Noah's ark themed party was announced to me a few weeks after Noah was born, and I was so excited to have complete free reign on the design. Weighing in at 31.5kg and 59cm in height, the cake was enormous to say the least. Just the cake batter alone was 14kg. As my four year old put it, "there's enough cake for everyone in the whole world!".. Yes, just about!! Each plank of "wood" was individually cut out and stuck on, each animal lovingly hand sculpted, lustred and hand-painted. Everything was fully edible, including the "sea", "ark", "boathouse" and animals (with the exception of cocktail sticks and wires for the water droplets). Naturally, I wanted to build an ark and put lots of fun animals on it.. But I decided to make the cake more meaningful and relevant to the birthday boy, so I had to do some research.

The first animal on the cake are giraffes. Just before Noah was conceived, Noah's parents went to Africa and stayed at Giraffe Manor. The whales represent Hawaii, where Noah first holidayed. Noah's mum studied in New Zealand, so obviously sheep came to mind. So to make it fair, I asked Noah's mum what animal would represent his dad?... She replied, "hippo" for reasons I won't write in this blog, but it rhymes with hazy and pat. ;p Finally to represent Noah the cheeky and fearless little one year old, monkeys and lions.

Some people may question whether Noah will even remember his first birthday party when he's older? We don't know that answer, but judging from his smile all day, he had a super, fantastic day. But if you question any of his party guests whether they would remember Noah's first birthday party for years to come? They most definitely will.

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Monkeying about with my minions these school holidays

Just over one hundred students attended our Cake Me! kids Term 3 School Holiday program, and what an incredible time we all had! The students ranged from five to 15 years of age, all with varying skills and abilities. A few students came with an impressive lot of experience with fondant, but mostly students had very little experience or none at all. It was lovely seeing so many familiar faces and also meeting a whole new bunch of wonderful kids.

As I explain to all my students, no matter if you're five years old, or eighteen years old, you can still attend these sessions and have so much to learn. Even for me, I find myself always improving upon my own skills. Whilst a five year old may be attempting to sugar sculpt a monkey's head, the eighteen year old could be making sure the monkey's head is smooth and wrinkle-free. Both kids might be creating monkeys, but they end up with very different results.

One of the youngest of the kids having a great time sugar sculpting

An eleven year old concentrating hard on perfecting his minion

A five year old proudly creating her minion

Week One of the school holiday program was so exciting for my cheeky monkeys and I, I mean, for my students and I. As requested by the students from my previous school holiday program, Week One saw us sugar sculpting monkeys. The class was quite intensive and we had so much we needed done in the ninety minute session.

One of my first-time students, C*, showed me a photo of an incredible animal cake she had recently made. Even though she was quite experienced with fondant, she was still blown away by the monkey she learnt to sculpt in our class.

Five year old K* with her seven year old brother

It was K*'s second time with us at the school holiday program, but this time she brought along her older brother. Although K* is only five years old, and her brother is 7, K was the "experienced" sibling, so she was even able to give her older brother some help with his monkey. Her skills had definitely improved since we last saw her, it is amazing how quickly these little ones grow and learn.

Eleven year old E*'s mum was hesitant when she dropped him off as she was worried he was too old for the class. I was so pleased that E loved the class so much that he signed up to a second class in Week Two and had an amazing time there too.

Minions were the theme for Week Two of the Cake Me! kids School Holiday Program.

The kids and I had a blast creating our minions - with the kids starting off following my instructions very carefully, and then giving their "Bobs, Stuarts and Kevins" its own personality. It was such a joy for me to see how confident the students were with experimenting and doing their own thing, after starting off being extremely cautious. By the end of the class, we had minions flexing their muscles, minions with their own bananas, afro-minion and minion girls complete with eyelashes.

My workshop series was small and intimate so I was able to give the students my undivided attention. As it was a workshop series, the students were able to learn from the very basics to more advanced sugar sculpting and cake decorating, and develop and build on their skills from the first class to the fourth class. I loved getting to really know these students. It was uplifting knowing that I had played a small part in their lives and inspired some of these young people.

My eight year old workshop student, P*, who had also attended my previous holiday program, now dreams of opening up her own cafe one day. I felt this overwhelming sense of pride when her mum showed me a photo of the magnificent hamburger cake that the eight year old created after attending my session and she was able to use the skills and passion that we instilled in them. I know I didn't actually play a part in making the cake myself, but I felt so much pride. It was incredible.

A photo taken of the incredible hamburger cake hat an eight year old student created (photo courtesy of the child's mum)

Eleven year old workshop student, G*, has seen every episode of Cake Boss and all the different cake shows. This was G's first Cake Me! kids experience and she dreams of opening up her own bakery and has even named it "Sweets and Treats". After the 2D monkey cupcake session, she went home the next day and made another six monkey cupcakes. Her mum told her that they were good enough to sell. She asked her mum how much would people buy them for? She then decided that after four hours work, no amount of money would be worth her time, she would rather eat them all herself. I have to say, that I feel that same way all the time!

The third and fourth workshop in the series was dedicated to sugar sculpting Gemma the Giraffe. The word "amazing" just doesn't do it justice. I was totally blown away by how much love and patience was put in these giraffes and the end result was totally mind-blowing. These students ranged from eight to fourteen years of age, but if you saw their creations, you would not have known. I loved seeing the students utilising the skills learnt from the first three classes, in personalising their final showpiece giraffe in the fourth class. We not only ended up with Giraffes, these creative students also sculpted "zebraffe" and "gragon".

We look forward to seeing all your gorgeous faces again at the next Cake Me! Kids School Holiday Program.

A one in a Minion party

I had the pleasure of teaching gorgeous Erin and her friends, sister and cousins the art of cupcake decorating this weekend for Erin's 5th birthday. Parties like Erin's make me feel so blessed to be able to do what I love, and at the same time be appreciated for what I do. It truly isn't "work" when you have so much fun.

Gorgeous Erin with the minion pirate ship cake that her amazing mummy made her!!

Erin originally requested a Frozen themed party, but decided in the end that she really wanted a pirate minion party. Her very clever mummy created a huge pirate ship cake using wafers, chocolate chip cookies and even rice crispies... It was amazing!

I loved how very specific Erin's theme was, and I tailored my Cake Me! kids class to fit the theme. Erin was turning 5, however her nine party guests ranged from 18 months to 8 years of age. So to suit the age group of my students, I designed two 2D minion cupcakes.

Although we kept the class to 2D decorating and not 3D, to show Erin and her friends what they could make with fondant, I also made Erin a teeny tiny sugar sculpted pirate minion to go into the pirate ship cake that her mum made.

Erin and her guests were so excited and couldn't wait to start. They diligently washed their hands and put their aprons and hats on in record time. As usual, I was blown away by the level of fine motor skills and precision that some of these young kids had, and at the same time, the kids were in awe of what they could create. The mums and dads of the younger ones were fantastic and helped guide their children so they could keep up with the older ones. What also made me especially happy was the wonderful feedback from some of the parents there. I was so pleased to be able to break down the barriers and resistance to using fondant for some parents, so I'm really looking forward to seeing some wonderful new creations from these mums and dads in the future!

At the end of the class, all the wonderful cupcakes were boxed in our take home bonboniere boxes. Poor little Erin was frantically searching for the minion she had put so much love into creating for the past ninety minutes. She was trying to fight back tears at the thought that someone else had taken her prized possession. We opened each of the twenty boxes to search for this one minion, and I was so worried that someone else may have accidentally claimed it as their own. I thought Erin would have been heartbroken, she was probably planning on cherishing this minion forever. I felt this huge sense of relief when we eventually located it, and we quickly got a pen and wrote her name on the box. Erin's eyes lit up, almost sparkled from the tears that were welling in her eyes, she grabbed it out of the box and ran to the couch and devoured it.

“Dearest Liz,

Thank you so much for this morning, you run an amazing cupcake decorating class. You are incredible!

I asked Erin if she was surprised that she could make a minion and she said “I always waited for the teacher and did what she said”. You make it seem so simple.

Thank you for such an enjoyable morning and working with our diverse age range!! I want to do it again!!I hope to get into your booking sheet again in a few years for Melanie and Erin!! I had an awesome time making the minion as well!!! I loved seeing the kiddies have fun. Totally sorted out some mummy guilt there!

xoxo”

— Mei-Ling

“Thank you for a great time. It was also a really good learning experience. I didn’t realise rolling fondant was so easy.”

— Amy

Our School Holiday Program - a ROARING success!

Fifty three excited kids, three 90 minute sessions, fifty seven magnificent lions!

We've been a bit quiet on the blog scene these past couple of weeks as we have been juggling the huge interest in the Cake Me! kids Term 2 School Holiday Program, fulfilling cake orders, as well as enduring the wrath that is the school holidays on the home front ourselves!

Although I love my two babies dearly and take pride in being a mummy first and foremost, it is still a tough juggle, trying my best to entertain them and ensuring that they have a wonderful school holiday that is both fun and educational. We try to have a special activity for them every single day, not just to keep them out of trouble, but also because they are only kids once, they are growing up too quickly and we want them to have a memorable childhood. We have taken them to the movies, to the park, on the train to the city, the art gallery, to see the dinosaurs, a live performance, to the market, the drive-in, they've had play dates with friends, been to a couple of birthday parties, seen a magic show... And that was only three quarters of the way through the school holidays.

So today (Wednesday), they got to have a break from me and spent the day with their amazing and doting grandparents, whilst I entertained 53 (yes, FIFTY THREE!) other children!! We were ecstatic to hold not one, but three school holiday program sessions and that we had the pleasure of teaching such clever, creative and enthusiastic group of kids.

Held in the beautiful Art Studios at MC Square (Manningham City Council, on top of the Doncaster Library), our 90 minute sessions were intense and fast paced. There was no time to break, it was all GO, GO, GO! Amazingly, the kids stayed focused throughout the entire session and were all determined to complete the task of sugar sculpting their own 3D lion cupcake.

There were times during the session when a few kids felt some self doubt, "do you think my legs will be too big?" and "I can't imagine this to look like a lion", but eventually, even the disbelievers were blown away by their own masterpieces. We love how each child tried to make the lion "their-own". One student created a dress for her lion, another shaped her lion's tail into a perfect "s" shape.

Some of the kids came with five or six other friends from school, whilst others braved participating on their own. It really didn't make much of a difference as the kids all got along really well and made friends during the class. The only "bickering" we heard all day were kids on one table competing for the title of "Most Meanest and Ferocious Lion".

Although the sessions were aimed at kids aged five and above, we had children attend who ranged from three, up to 15 years of age. A few of the kids have had some experience with fondant and cake decorating, but most of the kids had never used or even seen fondant before. As I always tell people, no matter how much experience you think you've had with sugar sculpting and cake decorating, there is always something new you can learn and always room for improvement. We truly believe this, and even for us, we are always striving to learn new techniques or refine what we already do.

The pride on each and every child's face at the end of the class when they presented their cupcakes to the parents and all the "WOW, YOU MADE THAT?!!?!" that followed, was truly priceless. Thank you to all the wonderful kids who made today a truly ROARING success.

So... does anyone have ideas on what else I can do with my own kids for the remainder of the holidays?

A special shout out and thanks to Lynn, my wonderful assistant, we couldn't have done it without you today!

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“It was so much fun. My kids felt a sense of achievement in creating something so professional looking!!”

— Anonymous (from evaluations)

“Well done!! Definitely value for money & loved that the kids get to take creations home & also a cupcake for mum!!”

— Anonymous (from evaluations)

Winter Wonderland - Our first Cake Me! kids party

We were stoked to have been asked to make Miss Genevieve's eleventh birthday cake this year, and to also host her Cake Me! kids party, our FIRST official Cake Me! kids party!! This blog entry will be quite long as I want to share both the cake and the party with you, but if you don't want to read it all, click here for the cake, and here for the party. No hard feelings, I understand, we're all time-poor these days ;)

It's been five years since we made Genevieve's sixth birthday cake, how time has flown. To celebrate the beginning of winter, Gen decided on a Winter Wonderland themed party this year - and was very explicit when stating that it was a Winter themed cake and NOT a Frozen themed cake. We were told that anything to do with "blue, penguins, snowflakes, igloos are fine" ;) Clearly Frozen is for the younger crowd and Gen is now a young lady.

penguin iceberg cake cupcake cake me kids

Gen's sculpted iceberg cake was so much fun to design and create. I won't lie, for a moment there I did wonder whether I had been over zealous and had gone overboard with the sculpting, destroying an otherwise beautiful 5 tiers of white chocolatey goodness. But google images reassured me that icebergs do come in all shapes and sizes.

Images from Google Search : www.pixshark.com

My main priorities were for the penguins to have a slippery slide to dive head first into the icy turquoise water, and for the baby penguins to have a warm and cozy cave to huddle safely in.

Judging by the expression on the birthday girl's face, I'm ecstatic to say that the mission was accomplished :D.

We were so excited to hold our very FIRST official Cake Me! kids party after all the trial runs. Gen's Winter Wonderland theme was perfect. Using Gen's brief, we mocked up a sample cupcake and based our cake decorating and sugar sculpting tutorial on the sample. The 17 girls, ranging from four to 12 years of age, were so excited and couldn't believe they would be making their own version of what they saw.

The girls were so focused, attentive, enthusiastic and most importantly, they LOVED it. They themselves were in awe of their own creations. After our step-by-step tutorial, the girls were able to create their own masterpieces using the skills they had learnt from the session. It was amazing to see how none of these girls had prior experience with fondant before (other than eating it!) and how creative they could be when given some instruction. We were sooooooooo impressed! Here are some of the gorgeous designs they came up with.

I can't describe the feeling... watching the kids' eyes light up when they were free to experiment on their own, their fingers racing and not being able to catch up with all the ideas they had in their head, watching the dads relaxing on the couch deep in conversation with a coffee cup in hand, the mums snapping away with their mobile phone cameras... this is how parties are meant to be!!

We were so pleased to receive a text message from Genevieve's mum after the party. She said that this was the "first time it's taken less than 30 minutes to clean up after a party!" and that the birthday girl said that it was the "BEST PARTY EVER".

If you would like to read more about our Cake Me! kids adventures, please subscribe to our blog!

“A very happy birthday girl and a very happy mum. Genevieve said that this was “the best party EVER” and I agree. Liz had the girls enthralled and entertained for two hours with very impressive and creative results.”

— Diem