D'oh!, Donuts, Duff

To say that I felt excited when I was creating this cake just doesn't cut it.

The Simpsons has been a much loved cartoon throughout my childhood, my teenage years, and still now as an adult. The timeless comedy has amused both the young and the old since 1989, it would be difficult to find another cartoon in the same league.

Because of this, I was actually a little hesitant in accepting this order. The pressure to do the Simpsons justice, I almost couldn't do it. For me personally, I have yet to find a 3D Simpsons character out there that I feel, looks entirely true to the 2D characters that we all know and love. Especially not a 3D Simpsons character created with fondant. Everyone knows exactly how the Simpsons characters look, and a nose out of place or one finger too many, can cause die-hard fans trolling. Because of these reasons, I was really hoping that our client would change her mind.

But there was no chance, our client insisted on having a Simpsons themed cake for her boyfriend as he REALLY loves the Simpsons. Even though I tried my best to deter her from the Simpsons, she was so determined to have a Simpsons cake that she was willing to have "anything-Simpsons-related", and trusted us to create her dream cake. It was because of her persistence and determination that we agreed and decided to give it a try.

I was so glad that we accepted the challenge as I loved every moment of it. From designing the cake and running my ideas by my client (who was always enthusiastic and lovely to deal with!), googling images from the actual TV show, to sugar sculpting the toppers and finally putting the scene together on the cake.

When we agreed to do the cake, there was no question, it had to be Homer. Full of character, personality, habits, he would create an awesome scene. The setting also needed to be well known, so either the front of the house, or the lounge room, and there would need to be beer. Alot of beer.

So I got googling. I was ecstatic to find the image of Homer, passed out with a part-eaten donut in his hand. Of course, there has to be donuts!

Then I found an image by someone named "Ben", who drew the exact scene I wanted to recreate. Some of the aspects of that image didn't seem to be exactly how Matt Groening draws, so I combined Ben's scene with Matt Groening's masterpiece.

I started off with sugar sculpting the couch, and when I was happy with how it turned out, I started on Homer's head.

It felt like forever to get his proportions as accurately as I could best do it and finally, I was happy with how he looked. In fact, I was quite smug about it... until....

I placed him on the couch. Gasp. Shock horror... His head was almost a third of the size of the couch. Do I redo Homer's head from scratch, or do I make an entirely new couch? I chose the couch.

So after a new couch was sculpted, this time in proportion to Homer's head, we were able to sculpt the rest of Homer's body, and then add all the finer details, including his signature white Y-fronts. As the birthday boy's name is Alvin, we decided that it would be most fitting to brand his jocks after him. Creating the rest of the scene, the beer cans, donuts, rug, lamp table, complete with lamp, books and phone was just pure enjoyment.

Finally, for the side of the cake, I really really wanted to recreate the outside of the Simpsons house, yet at the same time, I wanted to do the Simpsons introduction sky theme. After speaking to my client and hearing that she was planning on decorating the party with clouds, the decision was made.

So there it is, our Homer Simpson cake for Alvin (Klein), complete with a fondant 30 donut! Happy 30th birthday Alv!

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Cake requests from a six year old

My niece turns 6 today.

My shy little niece, Chloe, hiding behind her cake.

This year, she dictated who she would invite to her party. I'm glad I made it to the list.

A few weeks before her party, she sent me a voice message on her mum's phone. "Aunty Liz, can I please have a butterfly cake?".

Then, "Can I please have a pink, blue and purple butterfly cake?". A few days later, "Oh and can it please have ladybugs? Eatable ones of course! Make sure they're eatable."

As her party drew nearer, more and more requests came through in her cute little voice. "Grass", "flowers". "Don't forget the butterflies". "Make the butterflies flying up". "Remember the eatable ladybugs". "Ooooh can I please have glitter? Sparkly glitter please!"

Quite often the start of her message would be truncated because she started speaking too early before the recording began, so I would receive multiple messages with the same instructions. How could I say "no" to that cute little voice?!

So here is the butterfly cake, complete with ladybugs. "Eatable" of course.

Happy birthday, Chloe xxx

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A special thank you to Sotty from Little Sotty, who assisted with cutting the wafer paper butterflies.

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First birthdays!

Happy first birthday to sweet little Joshua and baby Ariana who both recently turned one!

If you've ever planned a themed birthday party for a one year old child you would understand the conundrum. Do you go with what you love and think would look adorable (i.e. that awesome Minnie Mouse cake you've always wanted but never got), or do you go with what your eleven month old, turning twelve month old child, loves? Most people who don't have children would probably answer the latter, to go with what your baby loves... But those people might not have ever watched In the Night Garden before, where creepy creatures in squeaky costumes toddle around making weird noises. Luckily for me, it was quite easy as my daughter was a water baby and loved the beach, hence her Under the Sea themed party, and my son loved Dinosaurs, so both themes were fun for both baby and I.

We often consult with parents of soon-to-be one-year-olds who contact us for a special cake for their child's first birthday, but do not have any idea of what they should order, or what theme of cake they should have. We understand the pressure of wanting to make it really special for their child's first birthday. We would usually ask the parent if their child has any interests, perhaps a favourite book, toy or animal?

Joshua's mum had three options she was considering for Josh's first birthday cake. A Tractor theme, because Josh's favourite book is The Noisy Tractor, a horse themed cake because Josh was born in the lunar year of the horse, and then a cake based on this funny monkey toy which Josh loves. Joshy's mum was such a lovely and easy client, she let us select one of the three themes and then have free reign on the design. It was a no-brainer for me. I love kids books and as soon as I saw the cute illustrations by Stephen Cartwright of the noisy red tractor and of the humble cow by the fence, I was sold. The hardest part was choosing my favorite scene in the book to recreate, and one that would be most eye catching and work the best on the cake. I loved the splash scene with the pond and the ducks, and also decided to do a second scene, the one with the hammer and the barn. Coincidentally when we delivered the cake, the delighted mum told us that the hammer was Joshy's favourite part of the book.

Ariana's mum chose a Minnie Mouse themed cake for her first birthday with an adorable pink bow. Ariana's mum was also a delightfully easy customer, her only real request was for the cake to be pink, not hot pink, but any other shade was fine.

If you need inspiration or help with ideas for your child's first birthday cake or theme for your child's first birthday party, please contact us!

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“Another awesome creation Liz! Thanks again for such a delicious and wonderful masterpiece! We’ve read this book so many times the batteries are running low... the tractor is not so noisy anymore.”

— Faye

“Amazing, love it. So delicious and moist! Thanks again!”

— Yee-Ling

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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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

"You find magic wherever you look...."

“... sit back and relax. all you need is a book”

— Dr Seuss

To celebrate Noah's first year we were commissioned to create a Dr Seuss inspired smash cake. Moss17 Photography captured this sweet moment for Noah and his family.

“I know it is wet and the sun is not sunny, but we can have lots of good fun that is funny.”

— Dr Seuss

Noah loved his first taste of white chocolate cake and silky smooth Swiss meringue buttercream. True to the book, "Cat in a hat" however, this clean little boy realised that he was making a huge mess and he started to cry!

“And this mess is so big
And so deep and so tall,
We cannot pick it up.
There is no way at all!”

— Dr Seuss

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