Art Deco Wedding - 21 November 2015

It is such a pleasure when delivering a wedding cake you see how the whole vision of the bride and groom with their choice of wedding cake design, comes together with the venue setting.  The Art Deco theme was carried through with the black, white and silver colours along with feathers and orchid flowers.

The design; three square cake tiers, black fondant icing, topper of real feathers along with sugarcrafted orchid flowers.  On the top tier the quilting is made up of 1,152 individually hand placed tiny silver cachous with a slightly larger one at the cross points.  The middle tier has white fondant patterns over painted with edible white lustre and the bottom tier balances the whole design with a grid pattern of silver cachous in three sizes.

The flavours; bottom tier is red velvet with cream cheese filling, middle is classic chocolate with salted caramel filling and the top tier is lemon with lemon curd and zest butter cream filling.

Wedding cake with a guest table setting in the background

The wedding cake with the bridal table in the background

Table place settings

Sugarcrafted Orchids to match the fresh flower and feather table arrangements

Venue: Mac's Function Centre
Styling: Ooh La La Events

30th Wedding Anniversary

Celebrating 30 years together.  Handcrafted sugar roses and lustred pearls adorn the top of our Lemon cake.  The anniversary was held at Boulcott Street Bistro and the guests took away boxed matching cupcakes at the end of the evening.

Weddings by Decorada

A not so secret recipe - Salted Caramel Six Layer cake

This is seriously the. most. delicious. cake. ever.  The salted caramel filling alone is to die for.

Read through the recipe completly as there are water and salt measures within the directions not listed in the ingredients.  I use Equagold dutch process cocoa powder and Whittakers 72% dark Ghana to really enhance the flavours.

Follow the link below for the recipe:-

http://www.marthastewart.com/857647/salted-caramel-six-layer-chocolate-cake

Enjoy!

Homemade Jelly

 Recipe

30g Fresh As powder (I used mango)
35g Caster Sugar
4 leaves gelatin
300 ml boiling water

Soak gelatin leaves in cold water until soft and squidgy.  Pour boiling water over Fresh As powder and caster sugar.  Squeeze water out of gelatin sheets and add to boiling water and Fresh As powder mixture.  Leave to cool on bench then refridgerate until set (about four hours or overnight).

Butterfly Garden Cake

I gave this cake my all, another February wedding. Tiers of ivory fondant with a ivory pearl lustre, sugar flowers of roses, hydrangea and carnation frame the porcelain couple of which I hand painted the brides dress to match the designer Sophie Voon wedding gown (The Butterfly Garden).  The cake is inspired by the dress and The Gardens of Amsterdam wallpaper by Resene which was used for table runners on the beautiful oak tables at the Cobar in Eastbourne.  I loved making this cake!

Butterfly Garden Cake and Wedding Favours

Venue Cobar.co.nz
Dress Sophievoon.com

Decorada Easter treats

Sunday's Wellington City Market Easter treats.

Decorada Easter treats; cookies, cupcakes, meringues and cake pops

80th Birthday Cake

Birthday's are special what ever the age, but 80th (and upwards!) are always lovely to make.  Lemon cake with lemon curd filling decorated with handmade sugar flowers and stencil side design.

Mary's 80th Birthday Cake

Pink Fairy Castle Cake

Set in Fairy Princess land this three tier, nine turreted pink castle cake is sure to please even the youngest of Princesses. Our classic chocolate cake is inside and everything is edible apart from the flag pole.

Tylers Minion Cake

Tyler and his friends just loved his minion cake, he was super excited when he saw it and told his mum it was how he pictured his minion cake would be.

The royal icing scroll pattern on this ivory three tier wedding cake was a replica of the couples wedding stationery. A bouquet of sugar flowers adorn the top.

Double Delight

For six year old twins, two tier dairy free birthday cake, chocolate base cake and vanilla bean top, sugarcrafted toppers and decorations.

Double Delight

Damask wedding

Every tier a different flavour; chocolate, red velvet, gluten free vanilla and banana, design incorporating damask quilting and royal icing to match the table place setting scroll. The macarons made a perfect gluten free favour with an edible image monogram for their guests.  Beautiful cake topper supplied by the couple.

Venue:  Ohariu Farm
Event Managers/Syling Red Pebble

Gluten Free Goodness

A little twist to our classic chocolate cake recipe to make it gluten free, here it is all dressed up ready to go.

Ganached!

Dairy Free Chocolate Ganache recipe

Ingredients

500grams Whittakers 72% cocoa dark ghana chocolate (which is dairy free)

250 mls coconut cream

Method

Chop chocolate into tiny pieces, heat coconut cream until almost boiling and pour over chopped chocolate, let stand for about three minutes then stir with a whisk to combine.

Lacewood

When the bride and groom came to me they wanted a 'lace' designed wedding cake to be in keeping with their venue Lacewood, which is a new venue at the elegant Tuhitarata Estate in South Wairarapa.

'Lacewood' Wedding Cake design

Two tiers of chocolate mud cake, sugar lace, handcrafted sugar roses.

Venue:  Lacewood

The Happy Fox

If you have ever wondered what kind of cakes cake decorators make for their children, this is a cake I made for my daughters birthday.  She has had 12 cakes now and they all have had a theme design or flavour - one year it was a cherry pavlova.  Here is the Happy Fox, the design is from Carlos Lischetti and I searched the world for a back issue of a cake decorating magazine which had the instructions in it!

The Happy Fox

Classic chocolate cake, handpainted tree stump detail, sugarcrafted fox, bark and leaf decorations, silver stand from Robert Gordon.

Happy 100th Birthday!

It was such an honor to have been asked to make Ivy's 100th birthday cake.  Her family choose a vintage lace design, as her birthday was celebrated at Trentham race course there was a nod to horse racing with the silver horse shoes on her cake.  The guests all enjoyed a horse shaped biscuit which I added a silver horse shoe and ivy decoration.  Today in the Dominion Post there was a small article on the occasion.

Photo; Wellington Racing Club

From my customer;

"Hi Tanya, I have been meaning to send you an email all day, to pass on our sincere thanks for what was truly the most beautiful cake, that you prepared for Nana Ivy's 100th birthday celebration, it was a huge hit! We had international and local guests, and they were extremely impressed with the detail, presentation and the taste, that the cake delivered, and may I say, the racing horse biscuits were the icing on the cake!"

We all Scream for Ice Cream

Last year I made ice blocks for the girls - this year it is ice cream!  While away for Christmas I had the most amazing licorice version of this which inspired my post.  I made mixed berry with a teaspoon or two of blueberry 'Fresh-as' powder (recipe follows).

No Churn Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients

• 200g Sweetened Condensed Milk (approx 1/2 a 395g can)
• 600ml Cream
• 1 tsp Fresh-As powder or flavoured essence
• 1 cup mixed berry's fresh or frozen

Method

Put the sweetened condensed milk, cream and fresh-as powder (or essence) into the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the whisk attachment whisk until thick and quite stiff, a bit like clotted cream. Gently stir through the mixed fruit. Scrape into a freezer container or a large loaf tin, cover with cling film and freeze until solid (overnight).

Macaron Minions

These super cute Minion Macarons make great gluten free party favours.

 

Yellow and blue Macarons sandwiched with yellow buttercream filling and decorated with fondant and royal icing detail.

Queens Wharf Ballroom Wedding

I managed to catch a glimpse of the beautiful bride having photos taken when I delivered this wedding cake at the Queens Wharf Ballroom.  Two tiers of lemon and the bottom tier banana with vertical pattern buttercream design, topped with a fresh hydrangea flower.

I received this lovely email from her;

"Thanks so much for the beautiful elegance of the cake. It took pride of place and we're so glad we ordered from you. You were a pleasure to deal with - absolutely unflappable and utterly professional. And we were all licking our fingers for days (needless to say, we didn't save any for our first anniversary. Too delicious!)."

 

Venue: Queens Wharf Ballroom, Foxglove, Wellington

Flowers: Woodstock