Farewell Ritchie!

{This is a late post by the way}.

Last month I had the privilege of making a special farewell cake for my sister-in-law's bf, who was leaving NZ on his quest to pedal across Africa in 8 months.  Yup, you read right.  I am not even kidding.  How amazing is that, huh?  That's just inspiring stuff right there!  If you would like to know more, or follow his journey, you can visit him on his blog here.

Now, back to the cake.  Tele wanted to surprise Ritchie with a special cake that would best represent what he's leaving NZ to do.  Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure.  Enjoy xo

First I started with a map of Africa.

To those who couldn't see the gif above ^, here's a still version...

Please do excuse the poor quality of the final photos.  They were taken on my phone at a low-lit Thai resto.

That's him in the middle, lol.  It was a fun night!!

Well, I hope you all enjoyed today's cake feature.  I still have sooo much more cake and DIY to share with you, but I've had a sick bubba and life has been jam-packed lately.  My family will ALWAYS come before the blog, so if I seem absent from time to time, it doesn't mean I don't love you anymore, it just means I'm busy with life and will be back soon.

I will definitely try my best to post as much as I can this week in order to catch up on months missed.  Until then, stay warm and keep smilin'!

Have a toasty Tuesday!!

xo,
Jackie

25 years in love...

Last weekend I made three cakes.  The first one was Alexis' Pocoyo birthday cake, and the second one was my cousin Gabriel's 21st birthday cake & cupcakes tower.  The third and final cake I made was for my neighbours' parents 25th wedding anniversary, which is what I'm featuring today.  What a special and momentous occasion to celebrate!!  I remember when my hubs and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary last year!  It was such an amazing time for us!  So, being asked to make a cake for this special occasion was super exciting for me :-)

My friend Lisa didn't really have any ideas in terms of design, but she did know that the cake had to be chocolate, square, with the colours white and silver.  So, I had more than enough to start with, and after some brainstorming, I definitely wanted to create something elegant.  I hope you like it!!

And here are some instagram shots for your viewing pleasure...

I hope you enjoyed today's {second} cake feature!!  Looking forward to Feb, because that's one very busy cake month for me!!  And it's all for family, too!!  Including all three of my boys :-)

Have a fab Friday and enjoy your long weekend!!

xo,
Jackie

P.S. Kids start school next week!!  Eeek!!  Are you ready?

Christmas cake & cupcakes!!

So, remember the Christmas cupcakes sale I had last week?  Well, I just wanna say a big fat THANK YOU to everyone who ordered!!  Your love and support means sooo much to me and I wish each and every one of you a wonderful and blessed new year!!

Here are the highlights xo

Seven flavours...

9 boxes have already been collected when this shot was taken...

 And then we had one cake request from my friends Mia and Terence...classic red velvet!!

Christmas-fied with sprinkles!!

Woohoo!!  I managed to post all my cakes and cupcakes before the new year, hehehe!!  Feels good!!

I truly wish you all a safe and happy new year!!  See you all back here for our December highlights and a special 'Best of 2012' post!!

Blessings to you all!!

xo,
Jackie

Golden graduation!!

So, last week I made a gold graduation cap for a young lady named Kathryn.  Her lovely Mum Arieta contacted me regarding this special cake that she wanted to surprise her daughter with a few weeks back.  I was excited to make this cake because the last graduation cap I made was over a year ago, and that one was not covered in fondant like this one.  And this cap was ALL GOLD!!  So I had fun painting and creating a beautiful vintage look to it to give it some character {to represent the hard work and time Kathryn invested in her studies in order to make it to the end!}.

Now, this cake was a huge challenge for me.  It's been extremely hot lately, and while I'm not complaining about the beautiful weather we've been getting, it just makes cake decorating that much more challenging.  For the first time I had something horrible happen to my cake.  It was pretty devastating actually...and I remember crying so much last week when it happened.  Crying more because I felt helpless because it was beyond my control...and I felt bad for Arieta who drove a very long way to collect the cake.  Oh, and plus the fact that it took sooo looong to put together :-(  To cut a long story short, the chocolate ganache melted underneath the fondant and caused it to shift.  Gravity then took over and the fondant cracked in two places then drooped down.  It was pretty ugly.  Thankfully Arieta was very understanding and allowed me to work on it that night {second sleepless night in a row}.  My family and I dropped the cake off the following morning, after I stripped everything off and started over, adding necessary reinforcements to ensure it didn't happen again.

This experience was a blessing in disguise.  It taught me a few things about myself, cakes, and people, and most importantly reminded me to lean on the Lord's strength instead of my own.  Sometimes we just have to go through unpleasant circumstances in order to come out on top.

Congratulations on your accomplishment Kathryn!!  And all the best for your future!!

I hope you enjoyed today's cake feature!!  Come back tomorrow for a fun kids cake that I made on the weekend {making it my third sleepless night in a row - yikes!!}  Can't wait to share it with you!!

Have a blessed day!!

xo,
Jackie

Farewell Summerland!!

It's been a wonderful journey!

My oldest son has farewelled his school last week as he will be going to intermediate next year.  It was a very emotional time for him.  Summerland was and is an amazing school!  He grew up there, with all the wonderful teachers and awesome friends he got to meet along his journey from a new entrant to a Year 6 student.  Javaughn has touched the lives of many and will be missed by his teachers and peers.

To show his love to his classroom and teacher this year, he asked me to put together a Summerland themed cake with cupcakes.  Although I was pressed for time, I still wanted to create something very special because it was very important to my son.  So here's how it went down...enjoy x

Chocolate cake and Vanilla bean cupcakes xo

It was a fun afternoon, especially when we all played NINJA TAG!!

Yup!  That's my boy with the yellow arrow...on his broken leg!!  I don't know eh...

And here are some home-made sugar cookies and candy canes packaged for his classmates to take with them as a Christmas/Goodbye present!

And some for his teachers...

These were individual cupcakes for my twins Javier and Carlyle's teachers - teacher appreciation gifts...

Hope you enjoyed today's post!  Come back tomorrow for another really cool cake!!  Can't wait to share this one with you!!

xo,
Jackie

Two decades of love...

This week my Aunty Faye and Uncle Ruben celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary!!  How awesome is that?  Twenty!!  That's double the time my hubby and I have been married!!  As a gift, I decided to make them their favourite - a classic red velvet cake.  If I had to choose a cake that represented true love, this baby is IT!!  :-)

ENJOY!!

Here my hubby and I set up their cake and a few photos from over the years to highlight their love story...oh and the faux rose petals to add a bit of romance in the mix...lol.

And here are the love birds xo

Here's a close up of this lovely cake...xoxox

My cousins made them an awesomely cool anniversary card!!  There's this one part I absolutely love and had to share!!  You'll laugh if you know it :-)

 Well, hope you are having an awesome day!!  And that you are celebrating your love with your other half every single day, because life's too short not to.

Have a lovely Thursday!!

xo,

Jackie

Sophia's baptism!!

Last weekend, my friend Moyra's youngest daughter Sophia had her baptism.  Moyra requested a cake from me while she was in Oz a couple of months back.  At first she didn't really know exactly what she wanted so I suggested for her to browse online and save the images of the ones she liked.  After doing so, she sent me a collection of different images she gathered.  The main ideas I got were the colours pink and white.  She liked the idea of incorporating a cross and flowers, too.  Although she had some favourites, she pretty much left me with full design control - so long as I incorporated the colours pink and white, as well as "God bless Sophia" on the cake.

I was really excited to make this cake because it's pink and girly!!  Girl cakes are still a novelty to me, as I get a huge amount of cake requests for boys.  So, using the colour pink is a rare occurrence :-)  Moyra not only wanted a cake, she also wanted three dozen cupcakes - chocolate, red velvet surprise, and vanilla bean.  Yum!!

So, without further ado, here is Sophia's baptism cake and cupcakes!!  Enjoy!!

Hope you enjoyed today's cake and cupcakes feature!!  Have a beautiful Monday!!

xo,
Jackie



Here's a lovely message I received from Moyra after the baptism:

Hi Jackie... It's the end of the day now and all have left for home. Thank you so so very much for the beautiful yummy gorgeous cakes and cupcakes. There were so many compliments from everyone. I have emailed your Facebook contacts to a few people so that's just awesome. Thank you again you are amazing.

Xx
Moyra


You are very welcome Moyra!!  Thank you for choosing me to be part of such a joyous and memorable occasion!!  xo

Farewell Mr. Fletch!!

Last Friday my son Javaughnn's teacher left NZ to move to Tunisia.  It was a very difficult time for him and his classmates.  They absolutely love Mr. Fletcher so it was heart-breaking for them to say goodbye.  Javaughn considers him his best and most awesome teacher ('learning coach' as he calls it) so far...and he's only had him for half a school year - that's gotta say something!!  Fortunately, I've had the pleasure of also getting to know {Dave} and he is definitely one amazing and inspiring person.  I was gutted at the news because I knew how much of an impact he has made on Javaughn, not just with his learning, but his positive outlook on life.  I also believe that he is one of the reasons Javaughn is excelling at rugby league this year, which is fantastic!!

Javaughn wanted to express his gratitude to his teacher on his last day in cake form!  So he asked me to make him a special two-tier cake for Mr Fletcher (and of course the rest of the class).  Even though I was beyond exhausted that Thursday, I knew how important this was for my son, so I sacrificed my much needed sleep in order to get it done.  So, without further ado, here is Mr. Fletcher's thank you and farewell cake!  Enjoy!!

{top tier: rainbow, bottom tier: chocolate}

Javaughn (below Mr Fletcher) and the rest of Team 17 

Hope you enjoyed today's cake feature!  See you back here for more cakes!!  Stay tuned!

Have a marvellous Monday!!

xo,
Jackie

  

Hitched!

A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of making a sweet cake for my first-wedding-cake 'client' Deepana.  I was so happy to hear from her and everything she's been up to.  She's one super busy woman I tell ya!  And that's without kids!  She was busy organising a friend's hens night and wanted to order the exact same cake as her wedding (because apparently it was the cake everyone raved about) - woot woot!  That's sooo awesome to hear!!

She wanted this cake to be simple but sweet.  She saw a cake I made for my hubby last year, and wanted the same cake for the hens night.  I must say, I don't think I've ever recreated a cake I've made.  I'm like a designer that creates one-off pieces, as opposed to mass-production, lol.  But it was actually quite nice because as I was making it it reminded me of the feeling I got when I was making it for my hubby - that "lovin' feelin'" hehe.  Definitely suited the occasion!

So, without further ado, here's the LOVE cake (but a more polished version to the first one I made)...

Hope you enjoyed this post guys!  I'll be back some time this week to show you the cake I made for my nephew/godson Josiah's first birthday!!  Stay tuned!!

xo

A sweet engagement...

Last weekend I had the pleasure of creating an engagement cake like no other - a snow mountain.  The lovely Jenny contacted me a while ago regarding this cake she wanted to surprise her son (Scott, who is a twin) and her future daughter-in-law (Emily) with.  Scott actually proposed to Emily on a ski slope, which is why Jenny decided to go for this idea.

I had planned on carving the cake really mimic a snow mountain, but I decided to give Jenny more cake instead.  This cake ended up being sooo heavy I struggled carrying it off the bench for its little photoshoot.  This was one of three cakes I completed last weekend.  Let's just say I was without sleep...hehe.  Now, without further ado, here are some pics of the snowy (and rocky) cake!  Enjoy!!

Click after the break to see more pics...

MJ tip-toe (part 2)

Good morning peeps!  Today I would like to share with you a cake I made last month (that I totally forgot to blog).  Remember my friend Kimberley from Vibe One?  She ordered the MJ tip-toe shoe cake and the Carrier pigeon cake from me a couple of months ago?  Well, since being abroad for quite some time she wanted to surprise her dancers with a cake for her arrival.  Of course, what better than Michael Jackson himself!  Well, kind of...half of him anyway...

Here's the image she wanted me to recreate into cake, but with hot pink instead of blue.  Pretty cool, huh?

Now, here's the cake!  I hope you like it!  I added some glitz and glamour to it just to spice things up a little.  The photo doesn't really do it any justice though...oh well, it looked good up close and personal.

This cake was actually very challenging because of the intricacy of the simple-yet-very-complicated design.  If I had decided to pipe royal icing or buttercream instead of cutting every little detail out of fondant, this probably wouldn't have taken as long as it did.  But, as per usual, I had to opt for the option that was most challenging.  It's the only way I can improve on my skills, so I hardly shy away from such challenges.

Sure, it didn't turn out 'perfect' but I'm still very pleased with the final outcome!  It took such a long time and a lot of patience and careful cutting in order to achieve the 'figure'.  Glad to have experienced it so I know what to do for next time.

A small and subtle message under 'WELCOME BACK' that reads "FROM THE V1 TEAM" just adds that personal touch to the cake to make it more special.  :-)

I hope you enjoyed this post!  I still can't believe I almost forgot to share this cake with you.  Luckily I was going through my photo archives and stumbled upon it.

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend guys!  Show some love to the All Blacks as they face the Ozzies.  You can do it boys!!

xo