Chocolate Wildflowers 60th Cupcakes

The brief for this 60th Birthday cake was pretty specific, the birthday girl loves chocolate, loves strong colours and loves native flowers and was happy to oblige.

Cutting cake - Classic Chocolate cake torted with dark chocolate
glaze, and finished with the same glaze. Styled with freestyle chocolate Australian Wildflowers, gum leaves and just a touch of green edible glitter

Cupcakes - Classic Chocolate & Vanilla, topped with dark chocolate glaze, styled with
freestyle chocolate Australian Wildflowers, gum leaves and just a touch of green edible glitter.

Dragon Fly Cake

Made for my lovely SIL's 50th, is a mad about Dragon Flies and is an extremely talented mosaic'r so the cake design just stemmed from these two starting points.

Bottom layer torted Chocolate Butter cake and Banana cake with Nutella Italian Buttercream.
Top Layer torted Chocolate Butter cake and Coffee cake with Nutella Italian Buttercream.

You can see more photos on my flickr photostream, I have another mosaic ed cake to post, fingers crossed I'll get it up today.

P.S. A lovely person on flickr asked - 'How long did this take?'

Too long! The decorating started at 8.45am with torted and crumbed cakes, and hour off for lunch and finished at 6.10pm, with me jumping in the shower, scraping the icing off my hands, washing my hair, slapping on some make-up and getting out into the kitchen to take some pictures (boo night photography). To get to the other side of town by 7.30pm. We made it just! Then it was cosmos and blackjack, until 11pm, and a drunken drive home (I wasn't driving) and silly texts to my best friend. Waking up the next morning thinking argh now I have to clean up. Long story to a simple answer, it took about 9 hours.

Men don't do pretty . . . cakes

Men don't do pretty . . . cakes, so when I was asked to create a 60th Birthday Cake for a friends Dad and the brief was marbled chocolate cake, the logical answer to me was to create this cake.

And also I wanted to have 60 candles but without burning the house down. I love how this one turned out.

Two tiers of Classic Marbled Chocolate and Vanilla Cake, torted with Oreo Biscuits and Cream, covered in dark chocolate ganache. Styled with 60 handmade dark and white chocolate transfer candles and a two toned chocolate 60. All edible, all good. Serves 35 - 50 depending on your slice size.

Superhero & Villain Cupcakes

Choose your cupcake, are you a Superhero or a Villain?

This is the ideal setup for a Superhero vs. Villain Fancy Dress Party, the birthday girls dressed up as the Villains Medusa and Bonnie (from Bonnie & Clyde) maybe Villains are sexier?

I created a series of mini cupcake toppers using the chocolate transfer method:

Superheros included: Superman, Sheriff, Robin Hood, Batman, Flash Gordon

Villains included: Medusa, Bonnie, Scream, Joker, Green Lantern, the Devil, Dracula

In hind sight there were so many more I could have added and this setup / design is adaptable to many different formats.

The cupcakes themselves were 50/50 vanilla and chocolate, with 50/50 vanilla and chocolate frosting.

A great suggest that was made later was halo transfers on angle food cupcakes and the devils on devils food cupcakes.

Happy 3rd Birthday - Samantha

My little girl turned 3, last month, and she requested a fairy, princess, butterfly party, with pink castle cake and cupcakes. I think I achieved her wish.

Classic Rich Chocolate Cake, torted with pink vanilla buttercream, modeled with pink white chocolate fondant. All decorations are made from fondant or modelling paste. The castle design & fairies are from Debbie Brown's book Enchanted Cakes for Children. I really had trouble with some unexpected humidity, the fondant was very very soft, so it didn't really work out as planned, but added CMC and became very patient. But the overall effect works and the birthday girl was very happy.

I am looking forward to remaking this cake, next time I will allow myself more time. I love the modern take on the style, it is really easy to get this one wrong, but I pulled it off . . . just.

Another Mater Cake

Yes, another one, it is so popular.

Classic Rich Chocolate Cake, torted with vanilla buttercream and crushed violet crumble. Styled with more crushed violet crumble, and tv mix, topped with a remote control 'Mater'.

This one is for a lady leaving Australia to work overseas. Lucky her. Poor old Mater he is really getting a work out.

Mag Wheel Birthday Cake

Classic rich chocolate cake, torted with Nutella buttercream, covered in chocolate fondant. All details made from fondant and the only non edible item is the candles.

I must say I loved how the tread on the tyre turned out.

And to go with the Mag we had 12 individually named classic chocolate cupcakes frosted with Nutella Buttercream, styled with fondant name discs, royal icing and chocolate racing cars, to give to the kids as thank you presents. The whole set of cupcakes and cake turned out wonderfully.

Peanut Butter Cheese Cake

A Whimsical Bake House recipe, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cheese Cake, rich, rich, fattening, but if you love peanut butter and chocolate and can't go past cheesecake this is a winner. Styled with a Ganache Galaxy in red & gold. Yum

Choc Peppermint Cake

Chocolate Chip pound cake, torted with whipped cream and choc mint biscuits, covered in dark chocolate glaze and crushed peppermint crisp.

I so stuffed this cake up, I over baked it. And it was for the hubby. The idea needs some work, love the styling, but the crazy angle does not work. And to top it all off, bad photography, I should be shot.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

Classic Chocolate Cupcakes topped with oh so yummy Dark Chocolate Fudge Frosting or Orange & White Chocolate Fudge Frosting.

Styled wtih edible glitter and coloured metalic balls.

Volcano Ice Cream Cake

Cadbury Choc Chip Icecream, smothered in Ice Magic. With a dusting of edible red glitter and the finish was red jelly to resemble lava. Simple, simple but tasty and no egg!!

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY NICOLAS

Mini Rose Cupcakes - Mary Kay

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes, styled with Pink Buttercream Rose and dusted with glitter. They are so simple and stylish, I don't know why I don't pipe roses more often. These I have to admitt were a bit rushed, due to a huge baking weekend (Starry Castle, Star Wedding Cupcakes aswell as a Mater Cake).

I find this picture very restful, it seams to reach into the distance. And yes, you may have seen these before, its a repeat order.

Mater Cake

Chocolate cake torted with raspberry jam, yellow vanilla buttercream and chocolate sultanas. Styled with yellow vanilla buttercream, crushed Maltessers, Violet Crumble and Choc Sultanas. Birthday boy's own Mater.

And yes, many of you have seen this cake before, the Birthday boy wanted a mater cake and his Mum thought that this would be perfect.

None too Shabby Hen's Night Cupcakes

The perfect cupcake to end a delicious meal, celebrating a brides Hen's Night. Unmentionable decorations were suggested but I went with delicate and pretty, it also gave me an excuse to make some overly feminine cupcakes for a change. A delicious cupcake, very light and moist, topped with Vanilla Italian Buttercream, styled with handmade pink roses, green balls and green & gold glitter.

The chocolate cupcake recipe is from Chockylit, who created this super light mud cake, it literally melts in your mouth. Some type of mousse like topping would have been ideal if they didn't have to be transported.

Disco Ball Cake & Cupcakes

What type of cake do you have to celebrate a 30th Birthday when the theme is 70's Disco? Why a Disco Ball Cake of course!

Chocolate & Rum Disco Cake Ball, styled with royal icing and individual tiles of silver fondant encrusted with edible glitter. Displayed on custom made cupcake stand.

Orange & Rum cupcakes frosted with lushious chocolate fudge icing, styled with orange sprinkles and gold glitter.

Chocolate cupcakes frosted with sherbet sweet white chocolate orange fudge icing, styled with grated chocolate and gold glitter.

Kalhua & White chocolate cupcakes frosted with Kalhua buttercream, styled with freshly ground coffee and gold glitter.

Hi Tops and New Stands

There is nothing like getting new toys especially new stands, these ones are Donna Hay Cake Stands, two weeks later the Cake Stand Fairy (my Mum) delievered the largest one. I am feeling that I need to so a set of English Garden styled Mini Cupcakes to completely cover the stands, Spring is on its way lets see how we go.

After I had finished playing with the Mini Hi Tops I packed 50 of them up for a friend who was planning on munching on them all weekend. Hope she had a tasty time.

Ginger Galaxy Cupcakes

Another take on my Galaxy Ganach Cupcakes, this time a scumptous ginger, lemon and creamed cheese pound cupcake topped with oh so dark chocolate ganache and styled with gold and silver balls and sprinkled with gold and red glitter, stunning.

Pretty Pinks

Image for yourselves a huge (12") classic chocolate cake, filled with (3 layers) oreo cream, sealed with Vanilla Italian Buttercream. Covered in chocolate fondant and studded with pretty pink daisies and a touch of glitter.

Yes I admitt that the cake was a tad on the large size for 35 people, but it meant that it lasted all weekend.

TMNT Cake

TMNT Cake
Originally uploaded by cupcaketastic.

I can't believe TMNT's are still around and still adored by kids. Especially this 7 year old, he knew exactly what he wanted, right down to the green slime inside. What fun!

Chocolate Buttercake, filled with Oreo Biscuit Filling and Green Slime. Styled with Basic Green & Yellow Buttercream and White Chocolate Fondant sewer lid & TMNT. Child's own Turtle figures.

Pinwheel Cake

Pinwheel Cake
Originally uploaded by cupcaketastic.

Not all my baking works out. This cake looks elegant and simply delicious, and the first mouthful was full of promise. But oh the disappointment.

Basically its a light chocolate cake, very dense and packed with sugar, and melted chocolate swirled through the raw batter. Looked & smelt lovely in the oven, but alas it sunk when it was brought out.

The filling is a chocolate butter cream, your basic butter, icing sugar, vanilla and melted chocolate, but too sweet not chocolaty enough.

I felt that there was no depth of flavour, being too sweet and sickly, and I could really taste the butter. I love the styling that I did, very simple and classic, but its all show and no substance.