Updates at last!

It has been a while since I've had a chance to update photos on my blog and keep in touch. So here we go.....
A simply stunning 4 tier black and white wedding cake.
Pretty in pink - gorgeous cake and cupcakes for a 21st.

Anyone that has spent any time with me lately would know that chocolate brown and green is my favourier colour combination at the moment. I think these cupcakes are just stunning!

Last year I had the pleasure of making a wedding cake for Sonia and Allan. Allan apparently loved the cake so much that Sonia decided to surprise him with this comical cake for his 40th birthday.

What 5 year old boy wouldn't love this cake?

More gorgeous black and white themed weddings.The artwork on this cake was a replica of the gorgeous etching on the wedding invitations.

A fun engagement cake.

A stylish engagement cake - complete with my favourite colour combo at the moment.

This pretty wedding cake was designed around these cute love birds that had been a gift for the bride and groom on their engagement.

On a personal note it has been wonderful and a true privilge to make all of the gorgeous cakes, cupcakes and gingerbread orders over the past 12 months. I have been blessed with a fabulous team and would like to say a huge thank you to Alison for your incredible talent and creative inspiration. To Rebecca for being patient and an absolute wiz in the office. And to Olivia, Petra and Liesel for all of your fabulous work with "all of that gingerbread".

I hope all of those reading have had a fabulous Christmas and may 2010 be full of hope, blessings and love for both you and your families. I hope you have the chance to take a much needed break - I sure am!

Til next year,

Belinda

From the Heart

One of the wonderful components of Edible Creations is our Gingerbread Fundraisers that have been a great success this year for many schools, preschools and organisations. I wanted to make a way to use these wonderful cookies to raise money for a cause that I felt passionately about.

The Penrith Valley Fund was the cause that I ended up choosing as it is a way for money raised in our area to go directly to charities working in this area.

I recently attended the launch of The Fund and was literally moved to tears as I learnt about the homeless that live in our city and the plans the Fund has in supporting and helping to restore people that are caught in this predicament. Sure there will always be people that choose to be homeless but many of those on the streets or living out of cars are not there by choice. Sadly many are single mums and children, the mentally ill, people that have fallen on extreme financial hardship with no family to help them out and of course there are those that have fled homes that were not as safe as the homes that we were fortunate enough to be rasied in.

The money raised from the sale of the Gingerbread Trees will go towards supporting the following charities this Christmas: The Penrith Soup Kitchen, Barnardos and Fusion (specifically families in crisis).

Gingerbread Cookies can be purchased in boxes of 20 cookies and each box costs a total of $40 (or $2 per cookie). 25% of all sales will go directly to the Fund. The cookies make fabulous gifts, christmas platters, tree decorations and would look gorgeous tied to each gift you place under the tree this year.

Of course we would also be more than happy to have others that are passionate about the cause on-sell the gingerbread to their freinds, relatives and colleagues.

Please email me on belinda@ediblecreations.com.au or call 02 4754 1044 for more details.

Til next time,

Belinda

Our latest Cake Creations

We've had another full on, crazy busy week and I am a bit behind in keeping you updated with our latest cake designs. Last Wednesday, Rebecca and I had the great privilege of attending the launch of the Penrith Valley Fund. I will blog about this another day this week and show you the fantastic cake we made for the Fund then.
Here is a run of some of our cakes for the last two weeks.
I LOVE this Peter Rabbit cake. I just love cake design (another thing I'll get around to blogging about) and having Alison's fabulous painting skills as part of our team has meant that this delightful cake could be finished to perfection.

A beautiful colour combination for this cupcake design - ivory, caramel and chocolate with a hint of gold to the roses. When Kirsty had to change the date of her wedding due to a reception bungle she decided to fully embrace the Halloween theme.

Cupcake boards make a great birthday cake.

Alison was enjoying a holiday in Queensland the week I made this cake so I was left to do the handpainting myself! The initials were replicas of those used on the wedding invitations.

A beautiful engagement cake. Gorgeous toppers Ali! Unfortunately I had to use my phone for this photo as my batteries decided to die right before delivery :(

I was called a couple of days after this birthday party with rave reports of how much everyone loved the look and taste of this cake. The plaque is being kept as a momento (of course). All handpainted.

Til next time,

Belinda

Cake Artist Position Available

Edible Creations is looking for a talented Cake Artist to join our team. Currently a home business in Winmalee NSW (Lower Blue Mountains) Edible Creations is well known for its designer cakes that are handcrafted with care and attention to detail. Applicants must have experience in setting up, covering and tiering cakes. Experience at setting up cakes with ganache is preferred but not essential (training provided). Please take a look at the work in our galleries and if you believe you have the skills to maintain our high standard of cake artistry we would love for you to apply.

The position is on a casual basis, with a view to either part time or permanent employment. If you would like to become a part of this creative and enthusiastic team please email your resumes along with photos of your work to belinda@ediblecreations.com.au . Applications close Wednesday 4 November 2009.

Busy busy busy

Life at Edible Creations is the busiest it's been - which of course we love! Olivia and Liesel have come on board as casuals to help with piping gingerbread trees for charity this christmas - I'll give you more details soon. We have 5000 cookies to go out in just over a week. The delicious smell is too much!
Last week we made this gorgeous 5 tier wedding cake for Craig and Fabia's wedding. Craig and Fabe's are actually great friend's of ours which made it an extra special honour to design and make this special cake. Wishing you a lifetime of love Craig and Fabes.

This simple and elegant two tier wedding cake is really stylish I think. Congratulations to Leigh and Ashleigh. It was lovely getting to know you guys and we wish you all the very best in your married lives.

Til next time,

Bel

An order from Switzerland!

This elegant and romantic cake was a very special gift for an engagement. Dorothea's family liased with me from Europe to plan this surprise cake which was delivered mid engagement party. Andrew, my husband, had the honours of delivering the surprise and felt quite the centre of attention as all the guests 'ooohed and aahhed' over the cake.

Henna Wedding Cake

Amrita and Ben's wedding ideas were just a cake designers dream. They wanted a modern style cake and were hoping to incorporate henna patterns. I was sooooo excited by the whole concept. Again another cake I am super proud of.

Huge Kudos go to Alison with this cake as she planned out and painted this most perfect henna design. Well done Ali! I am so proud to have you on the team.

Poker anyone?

Last week Lauren decided to spoil her boyfriend with this Poker Birthday Cake. Isn't it fun! I'm told the guests were shocked that it was a cake - Love it! The fact that it tastes fabulous too is just the icing on the cake ;)
Happy Birthday PJ we hope you had a great day.

Alana's Beautiful Wedding Cake

I just love this cake and am really proud of the design. The design brought together the beautiful elements of Alana and Aaron's wedding. The scalloped piping with handpainting was inspired by their invitations and the sugar flowers and pale pink tied in perfectly.
The pearl beading just finished the floral arrangement perfectly. I selected pearl beading in the palest of pinks and wired them with very fine cake decorating wire so that they would hold in place.

It is a little hard to see from my photos (I'm getting there with my photography skills) the gorgeous detail that Alison painted. A beautiful design of roses and flowers were painted in white over a beautiful pale pink.

Thank you Alana and Aaron for the opportunity to make this beautiful cake. We wish you all the very best for your lives together - Congratulations!

Half Chick, Half Bloke ...

... that was the brief for the design of these cupcakes. My fabulous and very generous accountant ordered these cupcakes for a good friend's 30th birthday. After some email consulting on the things that Danni is into I came up with this fun cupcake design.

So how do you get girly cupcakes like this:

to co-ordinate with blokey cupcakes like this:

Well, just like this:

Lucky for me Danni was there when I made the delivery and I got to see her delight as she watched me take them in ... one of the best parts of my job!

Happy 30th Danni - I hope you had a fabulous day (oh and that your team won the backyard footy!)

Fantastic Tutorials

Hi everyone
I recently was made aware of these great tutorials and just had to share the link. Definitely worth a look at whilst having your next cuppa!
http://www.rolledfondant.com/how.htm
Cheers
Belinda

Ben 10 Cake

What 7 year old boy wouldn't be delighted with this Ben 10 cake? Nope, it isn't an edible image and it hasn't been printed. The gorgeous plaque on this cake was hand painted by Alison. I have preferred on some of the handpainted cakes such as this one (and previously Man U cake and 'pig cake) to opt for painting on a plaque. The main reason for this is that it allows me to use bright colours as the main colour for the cake which gives the cake the finish it needs. The same Ben 10 cake would have looked very boring in white.

Carousel Cake

One of the cakes we made this week was this very gorgeous carousel cake (or as my kids preferred to call it The Merry Go Round cake). I met with Judy a few weeks ago to design little Sophie's Naming cake. I had been day dreaming about doing a carousel cake and as it turned out Sophie had been given a gorgeous carousel as a newborn. This design was based on the carousel that Judy brought in as well as another gorgeous book that featured a carousel.

To say that Judy was delighted would be an understatement. Here is the email Judy sent through:
Belinda,
OH MY GOD!!!
I know I was a 'guinea pig' for this beautiful cake you designed but a happier 'guniea pig' there never was.
The cake was absolutely amazing - you are a wizard with icing.
Everyone at Sophie's Naming were equally impressed and awed by your creation.
I know you tooke heaps of photo's but thought I would send you a couple as well.
Thank you again for your amazing creation I was devastated to have to cut it and all of our guests were equally upset to have to cut it up - however, after serving it up we were all then amazed again at the taste from within. YUM! YUM! YUM!
Thank you so much again.
Did I mention YUM!!!!!
Love Jude

Here are some close ups of the beautiful painting detail done by Alison. She really did outdo herself here don't you think.

Welcome Spring

Well it is Spring at last and the season was kicked off with this beautiful four tier Wedding Cake for Sarah Jade and Michael. Sarah fell in love with the 4 tier cake on my home page and it was a delight to make again. It is always nice to know that the cakes we design and make are loved!

Congratulations to Sarah Jade and Micheal and all the best for a beautiful future together. I also made beautiful cupcake bombonieres for Ann this weekend but unfortunately the photo of them was not so wonderful. I hope your day was fabulous though Ann :)

This 60th Birthday Cake is simple but effective. The picture is an edible image of Mick's car. I really love the yellow - what do you think?

Til next week.

Belinda

An Interview with Fran from Cakes by Francesca

I recently interviewed Fran from Cakes by Francesca. Fran's passion for cake decorating is infectious and she is an absolute credit to the industry.

How did your passion for cake decorating get started?
When my daughter was born I decided I wanted to make her fabulous birthday cakes every year.It took until her 5th birthday for me to try fondant, and my introduction was a 5 tier mermaid cake design by Debbie Brown. It was awful, but I was fascinated by the medium and bought every cake book I could get my hands on and made birthday cake after birthday cake.

What do you most like doing and why?
Whilst I started with birthday cakes, my real passion is wedding cakes, I just love the ceremony and romance of weddings and creating a couple's reception centrepiece is a real buzz for me.

Who inspires you in your work? What do you love about them?
My biggest influences are Natalia Leelavetchabutr of Nati's Cakes and Planet Cake. I'm very fortunate to have close personal relationships with both. The perfection Planet Cake produces each and every day has always amazed me and I can pick one of their designs out of a magazine any day.
Nati encouraged me to go forward and make cake my career, without her friendship and encouragement I would still be making kids cakes for free. It's brilliant having a best friend who is as insanely addicted to something as you are, it continually gives me someone to chat with, complain to and seek advice from.

Do you have any advice for others that wish to persue a similar path?
Start with your council if you are beginning at home, like so many of us do.
Make sure you charge a reasonable amount from the start, trying to up your prices later on is difficult. Never be embarressed to tell someone your price, they are under no obligation to buy from you, you are under no obligation to sell to them.

How do you approach each new cake you make?
I usually chat with the client, get an idea of any designs they may like and then try to come up with something that will reflect their style and ideas for their function.
I will often sketch up something quickly for them, and then draw up a better design later.
I like to make sure the design is something achievable and stylish, and most importantly, something my clients will be thrilled with.

Is there any particular technique that you are known for? How do you achieve this?
I guess most people would know me for my madhatters and the sharp edges, both of these are achieved by attending classes at Planet Cake with the Madhatter Queen Anna Marie Roche and being fortunate enough to now be a part of their team, which allows me great access to the brilliant skills of Handi Mulyana and Margie Carter as well.

Where do you wish to go in the future with you cake work?
I hope to continue teaching with Planet Cake in Melbourne and also expand my business.
I would also like to educate the public on how a fantastic looking cake can also taste amazing.

Barbie Birthday Cake

Last week was very special in the Hutchinson home as we celebrated Erin's 3rd birthday. Here is a photo of her Barbie cake. I chose to carve the cake as opposed to using a dolly varden tin as I think this gives a much better shape.
Here are Isaac and Erin just before we sang Happy Birthday.

Amazing Male Birthday Cakes

Today I want to quite simply show off! I'm so impressed with Alison's beautiful handpainting - bravo Ali you clever thing! This first cake was made for an avid Manchester United fan (obviously). The plaque is handpainted and completely edible.


The young man receiving this cake is going to be completely blown away by this cake I think. Jake is into ... you guessed it! Pig shooting! Isn't it perfect!I really love this cake.

It has a hand painted plaque and the cake has also been finished with hand painting to complete the look.