A friend of mine had a vaudeville-themed birthday party on Friday night. Sadly I couldn’t be there but the photos look amazing! There were balloon animals, top hats, waistcoats, bowties and feather boas…
She asked me to make this circus-tent cake for the occasion. The cake is a chocolate cake covered in chocolate ganache and fondant, decorated with top hat :)
I flew up to Durban this last weekend to see family and celebrate my dad’s birthday. This is the second time I’ve flown with a cake and it’s definitely a nerve-wracking experience! Luckily both cakes reached their destinations in tact. I’m so glad I got to go home and be with my dad on his birthday. I hope you had a good one dad :)
My boyfriend graduated from CPUT in April with a degree in BTech Structures. To celebrate all his hard work I made him these graduation cupcakes.
The cupcakes are devils food with chocolate icing covered in silver sugar sprinkles and graduation scrolls.
Congrats PH, I’m so proud of you xx
These cupcakes were made for a corporate client. They are vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter icing and raspberries. They make me think of hot summer days…
A friend of mine celebrated his birthday at the end of March and was given this cake by his girlfriend. It was not his 21st birthday but hey, why not! We all need to stay young at heart! The cake is vanilla iced with white chocolate ganache, piped with dark chocolate and decorated with raspberries. I hope you had a great ‘21st’ birthday Quint!
My boyfriend and his twin sister celebrated their birthday on the 2nd April. They had an awesome ‘old-school’ Olympic themed party which involved some good old traditional games like egg-tossing and some other, well, interesting games! Everyone was dressed in theme- there were togas, headbands, tight shorts… needless to say that the day was lots of fun!
I made them these Olympic cupcakes for the occasion…
As I’ve mentioned before, I did an 8 week cake decorating course with Cakes by Julie. In the last 2 weeks of the course you have to design and make your own ‘project’ cake using the skills learnt in the preceding weeks. I’d seen a cake made by Charly’s Bakery that was featured in the Get It Magazine which I used as my inspiration.
I hadn’t made a two-tiered cake like this before so I was quite keen to learn how 
The cake is a chocolate mud cake covered in chocolate ganache which is further covered in black and white fondant.
I’ve always loved my birthday. Some people aren’t too bothered about celebrating their birthday but for me it’s a great excuse to spend time with friends, eat lots of good food and do something fun. My birthday fell on a Tuesday this year so I went out for sushi with some friends on the Tuesday night and then had a braai on the Friday night after which we went out. I decided to make cupcakes for the braai and I had so much fun playing around with decorations!
The cupcakes are vanilla and they’re covered with white chocolate ganache.
I was also very spoilt with lots of presents to add to my kitchen. Here are some of the great gifts I received. Thanks friends and family for spoiling me!
So if you’re a chocolate lover like I am, this cake is probably as chocolate as you can get! This was made during a lesson on chocolate in the 8 week course by Cakes by Julie. The cake is obviously chocolate, covered in chocolate ganache, surrounded by a patterned chocolate collar and filled with chocolate curls, hearts, leaves and flowers made with modelling chocolate. Now if there’s anything to satisfy a chocolate craving this will definitely do it!
In February and March this year I did a 6 week course run by Cakes by Julie. During the course we learnt how to make flowers, cover cakes in fondant, work with chocolate and so on. We had the choice of covering a dummy cake or we could make our own fruit cake to cover. My mom’s birthday was coming up and, being a fan of fruit cake, I thought I would make a cake as a birthday gift for her. I had to get the cake on a plane to Joburg which was a bit hairy but the cake made it in one piece and turned out to be a great surprise! I hope you had a wonderful birthday Mom!
These pics come from three different orders I’ve had this year. I hadn’t made ladybugs before so these were my two attempts at making them. I must say that even though there were a lot of steps involved in making them they were lots of fun and I learnt a lot along the way! The marshmallow flowers are inspired by a recipe in the Australian Women’s weekly book ‘Cupcakes and Fairycakes.’ It’s such a great book with lots of pictures to inspire you!
I had so much fun making cupcakes for Valentine’s Day! I made ten of these chocolate cupcakes for a friend’s work and I was so excited to hand them over! I’d spent some time making the roses and making them ‘girly’ for Valentine’s Day. I learned later that his office is full of males so I’m guessing that those are the girliest cupcakes those guys have ever been given!
I also had a order for a friend of mine from her admirer who lives far away. She had no idea that she was getting cupcakes and I think she was definitely pleasantly surprised! I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day and spread the love with those special to you!
There's something about Oreos. I don't know why exactly but I love them! So when I came across this cookies and cream recipe that not only had Oreos on top of the cupcakes but inside too, I knew it would be a winner!
In January, a friend of mine organised an international food evening where each guest had to dress up as a particular country and bring a dish native to the country of their choice. I decided that I would be a bit inventive and dress up as a Disney princess and take princess cupcakes from Disney Land :)
After some serious thought and looking around the shops I found the cutest princess sweets that made the perfect decorations! There were shoes, bags, teacups and even frogs! I had so much fun putting these cupcakes together and putting a princess dress on wasn't the worst thing either ;)
In September last year my sister gave birth to her first child, Zac. I went home to visit just before Zac was welcomed into the world and I took some celebratory cupcakes with me. My sister loves winnie-the-pooh so I found the cutest Pooh and Piglet decorations to add a special touch to the cupcakes. These cupcakes are 'devil's food' cupcakes which means lots of chocolate! There's melted chocolate in the batter and melted chocolate in the icing - pure decadence! Yum! Congrats Tam on your beautiful boy, I'm looking forward to making birthday cakes for Zac for many years to come :)
I also did a cupcake course at Chez Gourmet which is on Palmyra rd in Claremont. If you are ever interested in doing a cooking/baking course they are great! The classes are very organised and fun. There 
I was asked to do two cakes for a kitchen tea in October last year. My sister has the yummiest cheesecake recipe which I hijacked for the event. Thanks Nics! I also made a double-layered chocolate cake with lots of chocolate icing topped off with some glitter, flowers and the couple's initials. Congrats A&B!
