All you need to know about embossing on objects such as cannisters. Materials and tools are listed at the bottom of the blog.
I decided to write this blog after my videos went viral on Instagram and although I try to reply to each and every message, it has been increasingly difficult to address each question with a lengthy and thorough response.
I don't know at which point I went from thinking that I had absolutely no creative bone in my body, to cake decorating and now calligraphy and hand lettering. I've always loved to write, but perhaps it is because I couldn't draw to save my life, I just decided that I wasn't creative.
About seven months ago, I decided to start a new Instagram account called Letter Me!, which allowed me to share my calligraphy and lettering work with the world, without annoying my existing followers on Cake Me!. Two hundred posts later, and I am incredibly humbled and blown away with having close to 30,000 followers join me. I appreciate every single "like", comment, follow and re-post, especially because after several years of love and hard work on Instagram with Cake Me!, I definitely know not to take anyone for granted. A lot of thought goes into every single post and followers are not easy to come by.
As much as I would love to continue and grow my passion in cakes, since the unexpected "success" (?) of Letter Me!, I have not been able to give my 100% to my family, and still focus on both lettering and cakes, and I realised that something had to give. It is for this reason that we have decided to stop taking orders for cakes, so that I can still give my time to my family, and to pursue my lettering dreams.
So here I am now, continuing with this blog, but from a Lettering perspective. I hope you enjoy this new journey with me.
Thank you,
When I was twelve weeks pregnant and hormonal with my second baby, I almost cried when the sonographer announced that my estimated due date was one day before my daughter's second birthday. Feelings of guilt that my first born would not only have to share mummy and daddy was now overtaken by even more guilt that they might now even share a birthday. I swore to myself that day that I would never make them share a party and they would always have their own day to celebrate.
As my EDD drew nearer and my daughter's second birthday approaching, I grew more anxious. "Come out soon baby boy, so that you're not born on the same day as your sister, " I pleaded with my growing bump. My obedient son did as he was asked and arrived four days earlier than expected. Also enough time for me to come back home from the hospital to celebrate his big sister's birthday.
The next year flew by, and just as I had promised, we had two separate birthday parties, a very special first birthday party for our little man, and two weeks later, a third birthday party for our little princess. She even got to decorate the rainbow cake she had requested and sugar sculpt the matching cupcakes. So picture this: Put up decorations, take down decorations, put up different decorations. Cook up a storm, clean up after the storm, cook up another storm. Same guests, different menus, different theme. Two cakes. Yes, we needed the two weeks.
I would have really really wanted to tell you that I kept the promise I had made to myself, that I would never make them share a birthday party. But to be honest with you and true to myself, I was only able to keep that promise for one year. Although minutes and hours may tick by slowly, the year flew past and before we knew it, we were planning my daughter's fourth birthday and my son's second. Do we hold two separate parties again or let them share one amazing party? We didn't have to deliberate for too long.
Fast forward yet another year and we come to present day. My daughter is already half a decade old and my son is now three. Being a daughter of cake people, our five year old only wants the latest cakes that are "on trend" and requested a drippy cake with ganache, macarons and meringue. My son gave us two options, Octonauts or superheroes.
Even though I couldn't keep my promise to give them two separate parties, I will keep my new promise to give them two separate birthday cakes... for this year at least 😜.
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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.
My little five year old's masterpieces
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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We were commissioned by six year old Elijah to create his Marvel birthday cake. He requested that his four favourite superheroes, Ironman, Spiderman, Hulk and Captain America to be featured on his two tiered cake.
Elijah's Marvel Avengers birthday cake
As we prefer our cakes to be uncluttered with clean lines and high tiers, our challenge was to fit all four characters without cramping up the two-tier cake.
The birthday boy advised his mum to tell us that his favourite of the four characters were Captain America and Ironman, whilst Spiderman was his least favourite of the four.
We decided that hulk was easiest and most striking on the top of the cake, Captain America on the largest tier and Ironman on the top tier. But where to put Spiderman?
To keep options open, we made the cake board and Ironman tier red, to allow us to play around and decide where to put Spidey.
Playing around with positioning... our three sample layout mock-ups
The end result?
What do you think? Where would you have put Spidey? Which design do you prefer?
Happy 6th birthday, Eli!
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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