Winter Wonderland Christmas

I have always dreamt of a white Christmas, where snow would fall outside, whilst we ate our christmas dinner and sang Christmas carols by the fire.  It's summer here is Australia so a white Christmas would only be a dream for me!. We had a very warm night on Christmas Eve and a very humid Christmas day here down under. But that did not deter my dreams of a white Christmas!.

I wanted to create a dessert table which was inspired by so many fabulous recipe's and decorations I had at home, and I figured if I couldn't have snow on Christmas Eve, I would bring elements of a white christmas wonderland to our sweets table. 

I painted a wooden tree I had in my stash of Kaiser products, white (yes. I was once a very keen scrapbooker) and hung cookie ornaments off the tree. I loved how it turned out.

Dessert menu consisted of vanilla cookies, pannacotta, raspberry swirl vanilla cupcakes, white chocolate mud cake, dulce de leche roll (caramel yule log ), cakepops and an assortment of macarons!

Candy buffet: Pink raspberry jellybeans, Blue lemonade jellybeans, Rafaello's, Dark chocolate bars and milk chocolate silver bells.

I hope your Christmas was as sweet as mine!
Merry Christmas!
x

Printables : Winter Woodland by Style Me Gorgeous
Cake stands, small glass pots, wooden spoons and jellybeans : Sweet Style
Panacotta recipe couresy of Blissfully Sweet

The very hungry caterpillar party

I had the pleasure of styling a very dear friends baby girls first birthday on the weekend.  When I heard she wanted to incorporate elements of her daughter's favourite book - "The very hungry caterpillar", into the party, it bought a smile to my face as this book has always been one of my favourites.... oh and the fact that my mind was running wild with the endless possibilities for the dessert table!

The backdrop to the dessert table was the greenery of a local park - and there was no need for added decorations to the backdrop or table as the elements of this dessert table were very bright, fun and told the story beautifully with printed buffet labels purchased from Jennifer Leonardini on etsy.

Vanilla Caterpillar cookies , vanilla cupcakes with butter cream swirls and Oreo ice - cream cake pops - all by Studio cake
The gorgeous mud cake adorned by handmade sugar elements was made by the talented Tanja of Choice Cakes.

Fruit platters - courtesy of the clever mummy!

Thank you Milly for allowing me to be part of your special day x

Cake Pops

I am loving making cake pops at the moment. Its so nice to be able to just reach for a couple of ingredients and create some yummy treats when the kids or I want something sweet and fun. Cake pops are the new cupcakes - in my opinion. And they are so much fun to make. What makes these little balls of cakes on a stick so appealing to both children and adults?.... well its the bite size loveliness of course!. 

There are so many great cake pop recipes out there right now, and if you happen to have Bakerella's book you will find so much inspiration, its just amazing what this lady can create. My personal favourite recipe (which is so simple and most importantly quick and easy to follow) is the Oreo and Philly recipe - Two ingredients 300gm of Oreo's biscuits and 250gm of Philadelphia cream cheese. Too Easy!

Things you will need to make these yummy little balls on a stick -

• Two packets of  Oreo biscuits (150gms each)
• One packet of Philly cream cheese ( 250gms)
• Candy melts
•  Lollipop sticks
• Sprinkles to decorate

Method

1. In a food processor, place the two packets of Oreo biscuits and whizz these, making sure the consistency resembles breadcrumbs

2. Add the cream cheese to the mix and whizz for a few seconds, until combined with the biscuits

That's it!!!, how easy is that

3. Next I use a 24 whole mini muffin tray and roll out small balls of the cake pop mix and place them in the mini muffin trays

4. Place in the fridge for a few hours, or if you are short of time, you could place them in the freezer, but remember not to leave in there for too long or they will go rock hard!

5. The next step is to prepare the candy melts. If you use compounded chocolate from the store be sure to purchase the correct product to colour chocolate. Roberts confectionery have a great range of colours. Or you can use the ready coloured chocolate from Wilton's which is readily available form places like Spotlight. I purchase mine from cakes around town. They have a large selection of ready made coloured chocolate melts.


Make sure that what ever you are using to melt the chocolate in is deep enough for the ball to be completely submerged in.
I melt my chocolate in the microwave using 30 second intervals.
Once the chocolate has melted and is smooth, you are ready to cover the cake pops

6. Take out the tray of cake pops from the fridge and place one lollipop stick into the melted chocolate. Next insert the stick in the hardened ball

7. Place the ball on the stick into the candy melts, ensuring the whole ball is covered with chocolate

8. Next take the ball out of the chocolate and lightly tap the excess chocolate against the side of your dish/cup to remove excess chocolate (note I have not done this for the ice cream pop as I wanted a melting effect)

9. Decorate the cake pop, using sprinkles, flowers, etc and then place the finished cake pop to set on a Styrofoam block

 Although a little time consuming to make, these little lovelies are OH so yummy and so worth the effort

ENJOY!

For these I used pearl balls  on co ordinating chocolate melts.

These yummy ice cream balls are a little more work, but how effective would they be on a dessert table!
I used mini ice-cream cones and smarties to decorate.

These mummy cake pops were a favourite at Halloween!,


They make such a fabulous addition to any dessert table. I hope you find this little tutorial useful, I am happy to answer any questions you may have or alternatively would be happy for Studio cake to make them for your next event. Prices vary depending on complexity, and start at $4.50 each. Please contact me for an obligation free quote.

Welcome

I am so excited to finally launch my new blog!. Welcome! and thanks for stopping by. It's been a crazy couple of months, heaps of cake designing and dessert table styling and party preparations for family and friends.

I have so much to share and so many ideas for this blog. It has been a while in the making and I would like to thank Sarah from Style Me Gorgeous for her patience and creative vision for my business logo and blog design. She has been amazing and so professional. It's so lovely when your expectations are met and you are so happy with the results. If you haven't seen her work, you should head on down to her blog here .

To my Sugar Cravings likers on Facebook, thank you for making the transition to my new page. I really appreciate you spreading the word amongst family and friends. And to those who have only just found me... welcome!

 

 

A little giveaway.

We all love a celebration don't we?... and what a great excuse to celebrate my new blog than with a little give away. All you have to do to be in the running for some Studio Cake yummies, is head on down to my face book page and "like", plus leave me a comment on on my blog.

I will then randomly choose someone who will win some lovely goodies just in time for Christmas. You have until midnight Dec 17th. I will choose a winner and announce December 18th 2011.