Cake decorating ideas at Cakeriffic

A few piccies from the Cakeriffic expo last August.

There are lots of Cake Decorating Ideas at the expo with displays from the CDAV and the VCDS as well as from individual cake decorators.

Don't miss Cakeriffic this year:

Friday 18th July

Saturday 19th July

Sunday 20th July

at Caulfield Racecourse. 

Here be dragons.

I came across a couple of dragon cakes on Pinterest and thought I'd google to see if there were any others.

WOW! Of course there are heaps! (duh!)

Here's just some of the ones I like a lot.

This one is by Dawn Butler of 

Dinky Doodle Designs in England.

Dawn has lots of photos of cakes on her facebook page. 

Well worth a look.

Mike's Amazing Cakes in the USA are just that - totally amazing including this awesome dragon.

With over 39,000 likes on their facebook page, I think I'll have to dedicate a few posts just to them.

I love this next one. It's so darn cute!

I found it here and I just love the expression 

on the face and the big fat body.

Another green dragon with a cartoon-like feel to it.

This one is a cake topper and I found it here.

This awesome green dragon cake was made by a very talented Canadian baker named Rita at the Touché Touchet bakery in Columbia, Maryland. Large enough to feed 50 people, every inch of the cake is edible. The dragon’s skull and free-standing spines were made using chocolate. Everything else is cake and icing and it all looks ferociously delicious. 

Cakeriffic piccies.

Thought I'd share some photos from the 

Cakeriffic expo last August.

The first are those very cute doggies that John Quai Hoi from My Cake Delights was demonstrating at his stand. John will be back this year and we look forward to his fantastic demos.

Pure Heart Bulk Foods list organic and gluten-free 

amongst their cake mixes.

Where Is My Cake were selling stickers at the expo last year, however they have expanded their range and will be offering other goodies that you won't want to miss.

Some samples of the amazing Sugarveil Fondant Lace. We'll be having more demos on that this year too.

Contemporary Cakes and Classes in Queensland came 

along and Mary was on hand to help out.

Some awesome wee booties at 

Cakes and Supplies by Ximena. 

They came over from Florida and have 

already booked in for this year.

A hopeful customer filling in an entry form for the 3 big prizes generously donated by our sponsors.

New Year

I see that my last post was concerning my twin brother, Phil.
Sadly, he passed away on Christmas Day. He had oesophageal cancer which he had been battling since September 2012.
I do not believe that he was in any pain as I spent most of the his last few days with him. It was however, harrowing to watch him deteriorate and face the inevitable outcome.
He was a loyal brother and fought against this terrible disease as much as he could bear to.
I had spent 2 hours in the morning with him and gone home to make the Christmas dinner at ten am. I told Phil that I would be back between 2 and 3 and arrived back at the Palliative care hospital at 2.40pm. He died at 2.30pm. 
He was a moderate person and private about a lot of things emotional and perhaps his passing was something he felt he also had to do privately.

It has been a few weeks since this happened and apart from the odd meltdown, life must go on and in fact I am thankful for the "normality" of life and for the jobs and pastimes that are with us each day and that we must move through in order to "get things done" as it were.

The info for Cakeriffic has gone out to the traders and we are all looking forward to a brilliant expo with lots more traders as well as a cake competition (and we are also doing the photo cake wall again!).
Mark it in your diaries - 18th −20th July.

Christmas

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas 

and apologise for the lack of posts.

My own Christmas is not to be a happy one as my twin brother went into palliative care on Saturday. 

He has easophagul cancer and 

I do not think he will see the year out.

We hope for a miracle and if that is not to be,

then we pray for a peaceful end.

I hope your Christmas is happy and that you get to spend time with your families.
- Shirley

Santa Hat Cake Pops

Hi, I thought I'd give you another quick and easy tutorial for

 Santa Hat cake pops. I made some of these last week. 

Very simple to make.

You need some mini-marshmallows like these:

White chocolate melts:

You also need red candy colouring, 

cake pop mixture, white fondant (any brand will do)

 and cake pop sticks.

Pick out the white marshmallows from the bag. 

Cut them in half with scissors.

Shape your cake pop mixture into cone shapes and set aside to cool in the fridge. I used chocolate cake pop mixture but you can use whichever you fancy.

"Glue" the end of the stick into the cake pop by dipping it into melted chocolate and inserting in the base of the hat shape.

Melt the white chocolate and colour it with some red candy colouring, until you get a good colour.

Dip the cake pop into the melted chocolate. 

Tap it gently to shale off excess chocolate. Hold it upside down so that the excess chocolate runs off the point. 

This gives you a good thickness of chocolate at the point 

and helps the marshmallow to stick.

Put a marshmallow half on the point of the hat. 

Put aside to set.

Take a small piece of your fondant and shape it into a long roll. Press it onto the base of the hat as shown -

That's it! easy-peasy and looks good.

Enjoy!

Reindeer cake pops tutorial

I've been making these reindeer cake pops every year for the past few years and they go down well with adults as well as kids. Our American friends use pretzels for antlers, but I don't really like pretzels so I came up with these licorice antlers which are easy to make.

1. CAKE POP BALLS

I use a chocolate mudcake mixed with chocolate ganache, but if you prefer a different flavour cake that's okay with me. 

The cake can also be mixed with cream cheese or icing (frosting) if you prefer. 

Prepare your cake pop mixture, I measure a tablespoonful and then roll into balls. Dip the end of a popstick into melted chocolate and insert into one end. Chill them for a wee while.

2. ANTLERS

This is something you can do whilst sitting in front 

of the tv one evening.

You'll need a packet of this licorice and small sharp scissors:

You get 2 rolls in the packet and this will make lots of antlers.

Using scissors, begin by cutting a piece from the roll about 4.5 centimetres. Cut this piece lengthways into strips:

Cut each strip down the middle almost to the bottom, like these "Y" shapes here:

Cut a small piece from one side of the strip:

Using your index finger and thumb, roll up the shorter side so it looks like these (looks like a fishing rod): 

Using the same method, roll up the other side 

of the licorice strip:

Here's a close-up. You'll see that the lower side is beginning to uncurl. This happens with some of them - it depends upon how fresh the licorice is. 

I quite like the variation in the antlers, with some of them coming unrolled as you can see in the next piccie - I did a few here with three rolled up parts to them ('cause I could!): 

3. EYES

This is another job for the evening television viewing.

For this you'll need a packet of white ready-to-roll fondant 

and a tub of these Rainbow choc chips 

- find both things in the supermarket.

Roll tiny balls of white fondant and drop them onto a plate.

The rainbow choc chips have a pointed end - press a rainbow choc chip into the fondant ball pointed end first so that you get a nice round eye.

Here's my lovely blue and green eyes:

Rachel was helping me this day and here's her yellow!, orange!, purple!, and red! eyes!

Now I ask you, apart from when they are caught in headlights or have their photo taken with your mobile phone, when do reindeer have these strangely coloured eyes!!!???

Put the eyes in a container to harden up (eat all the yellow, red, orange and purple eyes that your friend has made!).

4. NOSES

Buy some m&ms and sort out the red ones. Easy-peasy.

5. PUTTING THE CAKE POPS TOGETHER

You'll need some chocolate Melts and a block of copha.

Melt the chocolate melts with about a quarter of the copha in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of hot water.

Retrieve your cake pops from the fridge and have the antlers ready. You may like to pair up the antlers before you begin (not necessary, but appeals to those 

who have an issue with symmetry).

Before you dip, press the top of the cake pop slightly with your thumb to flatten it a bit (easier for the antlers to stay on).

Dip the cake pop into the melted chocolate making 

sure you cover the whole thing. 

Tap your wrist to shake off the excess chocolate.

Place an antler on the top of the head leaving enough room for the other antler and gently push it into the chocolate. 

Do the same for the other one. 

Work quickly before the chocolate sets.

You may like to do all the antlers on all the heads before moving on to noses and eyes.

 Add a dob of melted chocolate for the nose. 

Push the m&m on making sure you have the side 

without the letter "m" on it facing outwards. 

You might like to pair up the eyes so that you 

don't panic while the chocolate is setting.

Add two dobs of melted chocolate for the eyes. 

Gently press the eyes onto the melted chocolate.

Here's some of this year's herd:

Close-up:

Here's a couple from last year. 

I used edible pen for mouths but it was difficult 

to get it looking good -

perhaps they have improved edible pens since then!

Cute-as. Enjoy!

Send your piccies of your reindeer cake pops and indeed any other Christmas cakepops, cookies or cakes that you are making for this festive season and we'll feature them on the blog and the facebook page.