Living my dream

Recent cakes I've made

I've been making cakes again. So much fun. And one of them was my first 'commissioned' cake. So exciting! I'll show that one first hey?!

It was for a pirate party and they showed me some cakes they liked the look of. This is what I made. I'm pretty proud of it too. Grin.

I had so much fun making the waves out of fondant and things like the anchor out of chocolate.

In hindsight, I could have done this differently. And I've learnt a lesson from it. But still looks pretty cool.

But my favourite part was the teeny tiny little canon balls. So cute!

The next one was a car cake. It and the next one were made for the kids I make cakes for each month. I loved making the little cars, and the road was super fun too. 

The little trees were fun too. But I need to work out a better way next time, and make sure the colour is much more different to the grass.

The last cake was more of a quick and easy, fun cake. I wasn't sure what the child would want, but did know their age. So thinking about kids my own age, I decided to fill it with chocolate and lollies. It turned out ok.

A couple of flakes over the top of the cake. Yum!

They were so much fun to make. I sure hope they were enjoyed.

A pinata cake

A little while ago I heard of a pinata cake and I just had to give it a go. I wasn't sure how I would work it, but knew I wanted to cut into the cake and find a treasure trove of lollies inside.

So I decided to give it a go.

I baked two cakes in bowls so they would have a round top. Then once they were cooked, I dug the middle out of each side of the cake, filled the inside with lollies, then iced the middle inside edges and stuck the two cakes together.

Once that was done, I was able to ice the outside. I wanted to keep it pretty plain since I didn't want to give the surprise away....

And I think it looks pretty good still. You still think ok, that's an interesting shape for a cake.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of what it looks like when the cake is cut as this cake was for my 'because you are special' kids. But I can imagine.

What a fun cake! And super simple! Now my kids want one for their birthdays. Grin.

A pinata cake

Oh I love a different cake and when Andy showed me a pinata cake the other day, I knew I just had to try it.

So for this months 'you are special' cake, I made one.

It's very simple on the outside, and I don't have photos of that, but take a look at the inside.

This is in the middle of putting it together.

You make two cakes (I made them in metal bowls so the end cake would be round in shape), carve the middle out of each of them. Fill the middle with lollies. Stick the two pieces together, then ice.

It's surprisingly easy and I hope will be quite a surprise for the child who receives it.

You are special - Octobers cake

Today was delivery day for "You are special". I just had the one cake this month so it made it easy.

I decided to try the 'zebra' design I initially saw Ruth try. But mine is pink and yellow instead of brown and white.

I then cut the cake in half, filled it with buttercream, and then iced it with two colours. The crumb coat was yellow. With pink as the main colour.

From there I decorated it with lots and lots of jellybeans. I decided to just go for it and see where it took me.

Loving the flowers!

And of course I added in some glitter. Grin.

Next month I've got about 5 to do. They will need to be done for I think the 29th November. I know a few of you were keen on contributing when I first started talking about this, so if you still are, please flick me an email or leave me a comment and I'll get in touch with more details.

I'm really enjoying the process of making cakes and delivering them. Knowing that someone is going to love it.

Cakes for 'Because you are special'.

Today I delivered my first two cakes to a new organisation I'm working with.

I will be doing approx 28-38 cakes for them in a year. And chatting to them, I feel really priviledged to be little part of something that they are doing.

The children involved are about the same age as Sarah so I had a lot of help and input from Sarah. She even helped me with the little fondant animals.

Here's a look at the first one...

I have to say it's my first time playing with fondant, but Sarah is so confident with it, she made it look easy.

We always buy white fondant and then colour it ourselves. It takes longer and is a little trickier, but it means we get the exact colour we want at the time we want it.

In saying that, I think we'll definitely be buying some black fondant next time I'm at the cake shop. It's so hard to get a true black colour when mixing any type of icing!

I LOVE my Wilton grass nozzle. I've used it a ton of times now and it's amazing.

It's my favourite chocolate cake receipe in a huge big tin. I had to lower the temp of the oven by 20 degrees and leave it in longer, but it meant that it cooked evenly throughout. Was another new trick for me.

The second cake was more along the 'princess' theme. All pink with sparkles. Sarah gave it the big thumbs up.

I'm still learning to get those sides right! I think in this case the icing was too thick. It needed to be slightly thinner.

I have done this style of cake before but it is so easy and effective, I just had to do another!

It felt really good to drop these off today and come home to a clean kitchen knowing what had been happening in it just a few hours earlier.

Fun times!

 

Was it only 5 days ago that I wrote a post about being excited about something?

Oh my goodness how things change in a short amount of time.

I am baking my first cake for someone special today. Tomorrow an agency I'm working with will be picking it up.

They also want me to bake one for a lady next week.

To say I'm excited just doesn't cut it. I am beyond excited.

What I'm doing doesn't have a name. Doesn't have anything. Just the heart and dream to help someone else.

I can now tell you about my idea. Because it is happening. TODAY! Tomorrow. Next week, and I hope for many more weeks to come.

It all started with the fact that I feel good as a Mum when I bake a birthday cake for my child. Yes, it's a silly thing. Baking a cake does NOT make me a good Mum, just as not baking one doesn't make me a bad Mum. But it's one of my silly little quirks, so I just go with it. Besides I enjoy doing it, so hey, that's me.

But as I was at one of my nieces birthday parties we talked about how lucky our children are. Not only do they get birthday presents, but cakes and parties too. We talked about how many children in NZ don't get these things and we realised that it is ALOT!

And so it grew, the idea to bake a cake for a child/Mum who needs it. Someone who's had a rough time of late. Someone who needs to feel loved and cared for.

Because for me, baking is love. When I give a cake/biscuits to someone I'm saying to them that I care.

So tonight I'm baking my first cake for a woman who needs a little love. She won't know that I made it. I won't know who she is. But she will know that someone cares. Cares enough to organise it. Cares enough to bake it. Cares enough to get it to where it needs to be. And she probably won't even realise all those things. And that's totally ok. She will hopefully one day realise that someone did care for her on her birthday.

And that's all that matters.

I hope and pray that I can build this little programme of mine. That I can get more organisations involved. More people baking with me. That we can get a community of people who can help, helping. That little by little. Cake by cake we can make people in our communities feel cared for.

Right now I have something to ask of you....If you pray, can you please pray for this idea of mine. That the idea can develop, and grow and the right people are brought into my life and vice versa. And can you please pray/think about the people that are needing care right now. That they will feel it through a simple birthday cake.

Thank you for sharing in my excitement.

PS: I also just got a hugely exciting email (this time scrapwise) which I'm just as excited about. Oh wow. Today is a day full of excitement.