My Cake Album!

Posted on July 25, 2012 by natalietrew

I look at some of the things I do now and think how much I’ve changed! I guess it’s more that I’ve evolved over time rather than changed. I’ve always been able to cook and bake but have never had a passion for it. It was one of those things I did every now and again or I’d be right into it for a while and then I’d get bored! Then I became a mum and I had more of a reason to bake….especially birthday cakes!

I’ve always baked and decorated my kid’s birthday cakes from when my first born turned 1. I look back at the first few years and think OMG I really have evolved lol! Then I had a little girl and I think it was the fact I was able to play around with lots of pink and pretty things that I started going out of my comfort zone and creating something really special for my little ones:) At first I stuck to just cupcakes but by the time my daughter turned two I wanted to prove to myself I was more than just about cupcakes!

Since then I’ve made cakes from a designed cake tin, numbers, a horse track, two and three tier cakes and have done many themes! Originally I only created my cakes for my children, but now when there is a special event in the family I’m the cake lady they come too:) I even did my daughter’s christening cake last year (it only took to the third child to finally have a go)!

Here is a preview of the cakes I’ve baked and created over the past couple of years:

Before I do a cake I start with the theme of choice and then work from there with colours and decorations. I believe it’s not just about the cake. I use my large chopping board as my cake board and decorate that as much as the cake. I use my love of scrapbooking to help create the touches on the board which I think go nicely with the cake! At first I concentrated more on the decorating side of things and only used packet mixes, but as of late I’ve been experimenting with different cake recipes and baking from scratch!

I love doing my cakes and I know I have many more ahead of me. With each cake brings about a new experience. I have two special ones to do in the next couple of months, my nana’s 80th and my mum’s 60. These are sure to be special as they are for two very special women in my life. Keep an eye out in the future for any updates of future cakes that I create:)!

Mum’s 60th cake:)

Nana’s 80th cake:)

Sister inlaw’s 18th Star Wars themed cupcakes!

Halloween masterpiece;)

My very first Christmas Cake!

Christmas Cupcakes!

Mia’s 2nd birthday cake!

Bay’s 7th birthday Xbox cake:)

30th Broncos cake:)

Easter Masterpiece….choc chip cupcakes with buttercream icing and mini choc eggs and glitter dust to decorate!

Dad’s lolly cake:)

I even made my own birthday cake and cupcakes this year:)

It’s been two months since I baked or decorated a cake or cupcake. We’ve been through some very tough and sad times of late with the passing of my nana and other family tragedies. But this week we’ve spent celebrating my daughter’s 5th birthday!!! Over the past couple of weeks I’ve done a batch of cupcakes for Sienna and her class, a cupcake masterpiece for her birthday party and my very first rainbow cake! All were loved by my daughter and it was great to get back into doing something that I love!
Here are the finished products…

Etch it out!

Posted on July 4, 2012 by natalietrew

Bailey’s wrestling ring cake with the wrestling logo etched out andu filled with sprinkles!

After spending the past two weeks doing a lot of baking and decorating, I’ve decided that spending time in my kitchen cooking or baking is quite therapeutic….except for the dishes!

Cake etching…what is it? Just a little technique I’ve been using quite a bit lately! Back in february when I made my son’s football birthday cake, I needed something to create the stitching part of the footy! I could have used my decorating icing cans or even lollies, but to be completely honest I’d run out of anything alike, but had plenty of sprinkles! An idea came to me to etch out the lacing part of the footy and fill it in with white sprinkles….and this is how it turned out:

When I did Bailey’s wrestling ring I thought for sure we’d have the wrestling logo somewhere around here to put on the cake, but of course not! So I copied the logo and etched it out on the cake and filled it with sprinkles! I was quite happy with how that turned out!

Etching is great to use when you want to put a person’s name on their cake to! I’ve recently done two cakes and this is how they turned out:

My daughter’s cake she took to preschool:)

My sister-in-law’s cake for tonight:)

So how do you etch? Simple:) you need to find something that is pen like in size, I use a medicine syringe and then etch out of the icing what you want…

Once you’ve finished etching out what you want, you can then continue to fill the space. I’ve only used sprinkles so far, but other things like piped icing or lollies could be used…I’ve got so many ideas I can’t wait to try! When using sprinkles you have to do it very slowly and carefully. I keep the sprinkles in the bag they come in and cut a tiny hole for them to come out of.

So there you have it ‘the etching technique’…well that’s what I call it anyway:) happy etching everyone!!!

Just to let you know I’ve started a fan page for my blog on facebook…Click ‘like’ on My Party of 5 and keep up to date with everything relating to my blog! Thank you to everyone who is always so supportive of my blog:)

Sweets FoR mY Sweet!

Posted on July 1, 2012 by natalietrew

Birthdays are such a great excuse to experiment with baking and decorating! My darling little girl Sienna turned 4 yesterday and because she is such a sweet little girl that never wants for much, I decided to create something special….her very own sweets table!

Sienna is the kind of child who you can take to the shops and she never asks for anything more than a $2 packet of chewy! She has always been like that. Right up until two days before her birthday she still hadn’t really asked for anything for her birthday, she was just so excited that she was turning 4! A few weeks ago, she finally decided she wanted a strawberry shortcake birthday cake, so with some google searches and some tweaking of my own I created her the magical strawberry shortcake birthday cake of her dreams!

This is my biggest master piece yet! I love the fact that the strawberry shortcake sitting on top of the cake was mine when I was little….she is almost 30 years old:)

I don’t do big birthday parties every year for our children, we have selected years for that, but we always celebrate a birthday in one way or another. All Sienna wanted to do on her birthday this year, was have a swim at the Runcorn Pool, have a BBQ and jump on her jumping castle! That she did. But I still felt bad because this was the year for her brother and sister to have birthday parties!

One way to Sienna’s heart is food and sweet food at that! Sweets/dessert tables are so much fun and I thank my friend Michelle Shaw for her inspiration of them! Because of the strawberry shortcake theme cake, I based my table theme, colours and food around that! The colours I choose were hot pink and green with flowers for a touch of decoration and the food was either strawberry related or pink in colour.

This is how it all turned out:
The food:)

Home made marshmallow….so easy to make!

Star shaped fairy bread….for my little shining star!

Caramel cupcakes finished with vanilla icing and a strawberry and pikelets with jam and cream!

Jam drop biscuits, smartie cookies and strawberries dipped in chocolate!
Other foods on her table included her favourite things: popcorn, Cheerios, watermelon, chips and dip!

The decorating:

I decorated a toy storage container to display her name and made a sign to say she was 4:)

Everything I used from bowls to cups to the glass water bottles were in the theme colours of hot pink and green! I even decorated a special cup for Sienna to use:)

I created little name tags for the food. As a table cloth, I used a hot pink piece of material I had in the cupboard and cut out green felt circles and scattered than out first before I put everything out!

The day was a huge success and my reward was seeing how much joy was expressed on my sweet little girl’s face all day long!

Happy 4th birthday my Sie Sie girl…you are the light that shines in our party of 5!

Stay tuned in the coming days when I shall blog some of the recipes I’ve used over the school holidays!

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: