Princess First Birthday

I'm beginning to feel finally that my brain is getting out of holiday mode, I've been back to week 3 weeks and still haven't quite got back into the swing of things. Its time to kick 2014 into gear, starting with the blog. My kitchenaid and I have been taking a well earned break from baking since Christmas, also with the amount of chocolates and treats left in my house baking more sweets seemed a little much. 

I'm starting the year in true ButterHeartsSugar style, with a bit of pretty, a bit of cute and a whole load of pink. A short post today to share this super girly princess party my cousin and I put together for her beautiful baby girl's first birthday. The day couldn't have been better, I woke up to smiles from a tutu wearing birthday girl, the weather was prefect and Miss Mia loved her party.

Vintage Floral Raspberry and Coconut Cake

This was a special cake for a special person, one of the people I love most in the world, my beautiful Grandmother! It was my Grandma's 85th birthday and I wanted to make her a cake that was as pretty inside as it was out.

My Grandma loves going out for coffee and cake, any outing we have ever gone on has been punctuated with a 'cappuccino break'. When I was little it was always exciting getting treated to an iced chocolate and something yummy. Grandma especially likes carrot cake and raspberry muffins, as the last cake I made her was carrot I decided to go with raspberry for this one.

This raspberry coconut cake is a new favourite of mine, I'm a little obsessed with coconut at the moment.  I blame the coconut bread from the coffee shop near work, It might be overpriced but the yummy toasted coconut flavour always brightens my day. 

The coconut in this cake made it yummy and moist and the raspberries dotted throughout are not only pretty but add lovely bursts of flavour. Coconut and raspberry are meant to be together and along with the white chocolate they make this a cake difficult to pass up.

For the Raspberry and Coconut Cake Printable Recipe

220 grams butter (softened)

1 3/4 cups caster sugar

1 teaspoon coconut extract

3 eggs

1 1/3 cup desiccated coconut

360 grams self raising flour

360 mls buttermilk

200 grams frozen or fresh raspberries ( if frozen, do not thaw)

To make the cake- Preheat oven to 180 degrees c. and grease two 8 inch round cake pans. Line the base and sides of the the cake pan with baking paper allowing about about an inch extra out the top of the pan.

In a medium bowl sift the flour and add the coconut, stir to combine.

Add the butter, sugar and coconut extract to a second mixer bowl and beat until light and fluffy.

 Add one egg at a time beating well after each addition. 

Fold in a quarter of the flour coconut mix at a time, alternately with the buttermilk.

Fold through the raspberries. (keeping the raspberries frozen stops them breaking up in the mix)

Divide the cake mixture between the 2 prepared pans and smooth over the tops.

Bake the cakes for about 1 hour, or until a skewer poked into the middle of the cake comes out clean. 

Allow the cakes to cool in the tins for around 10 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

For the White Chocolate Ganache

720 grams white chocolate (4 blocks)

220 mls cream

To make the Ganache- finely chop the chocolate and place in a large heat proof bowl.

Pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate. 

Stir the ganache mixture with a hand whisk until smooth. Allow to cool and set for a few hours before spreading onto cake. (I find if I make my ganache before work, its the perfect consistency when I get home in the afternoon.)

Sandwich the two cakes with a layer of ganache. Spread the remaining ganache over the top and sides of the cake. Allow the ganache to set. Decorate as you like or just cut a slice and enjoy.

Pastel Peppa Pig Cake

This Peppa Pig is one popular girl!

This is another quick share of a cake I made a few weeks ago, funny thing is I'm working on another Peppa cake right now.

Happy 3rd Birthday Lilija, I hope your special day was extra lovely!

Sprinkle Cake

There is one kind of cake I will pick over all others any day. What kind of cake makes me swoon you ask.  For me plain vanilla is where its at, with pink frosting (sometimes strawberry flavoured like this one) and some sprinkles to finish it off.

Sprinkles make me smile! 

A whole cake covered entirely with sprinkles, well that's face covering cheesy smile material.

It was my niece's 2nd Birthday last week, she makes me smile too so I made this cake for her.

To get the sprinkle coating I followed this fabulous tutorial from Half Baked- The Cake Blog, its pretty simple and most important mess free!

Peppa Pig Birthday Cake

Another fun little cake to start the year! I'm so out of touch, I had no idea who Peppa Pig was before doing this.  After a little research I found she is very cute and it was a really enjoyable cake to make.

Inside, the cake was my favourite vanilla cake with pink strawberry buttercream and a strawberry jam filling.The cake was covered and decorated with fondant. Happy to report the birthday girl was a big fan!

Very Hungry Caterpillar Cake and Cookies

A couple of weeks ago I got to make another really cool cake, it's my second Hungry Caterpillar cake and it was the most fun to do. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle was one of my favourite books as a child, so I was more than happy to make this one for friends little boys 1st Birthday.

As well as the cake I made some matching caterpillar cookies, their faces crack me up, I dont know if they're hungry or surprised. 

Happy first birthday Samuel!

Adventure Time Birthday Cake

Its decided, this is my favourite cake yet! Really it was an easy choice with a theme so cute. A friends little girl was having an adventure time birthday party and asked if I could do a cake to match. The birthday girl was dressing as Princess Bubblegum, so with that in mind I used the Princess and her Candy Kingdom as the main features of the cake.

Being an Adventure Time cake, I couldn't leave off Finn and Jake so they're on there too.

As well as Peppermint Butler.

And this candy corn person, because it was too cute not to.

The cake was all vegan, adapted from my favorite chocolate cake and buttercream recipe to make it was egg and dairy free. I covered the cake with fondant and also used it to make the characters. It was so much fun using all the pretty colours, I kinda want to make another one just for myself.

Happy Birthday Stella, I hope you had a lovely birthday!!

Mario Kart Birthday Cake

Its been one fun cake after another lately and this one was no exception. This is the second time I've got to do a Mario inspired cake and had such a great time making it.

The cake was my favourite chocolate cake sandwiched with chocolate buttercream. I covered the outside of the cake with green vanilla buttercream and used the same again to pipe on the grass. The  kart track and characters are all made of fondant. 

The Mario topper makes me laugh each time I see him.

The track was shaped into an X for Xavier the birthday boy.

I was told Xavier is saving the Mario topper 'until he cant wait any more and then will eat his head off''.

Cute!!

Happy 5th Birthday Xavier!!!

Its been awhile since I've shared any recipes on here and I'm really sorry. Its October now though and that means Halloween!! I'll have lots of yummy Halloween ideas coming very soon, wait and see.

Giant Cupcake Cake and Cupcakes

I was so excited when I finally bought a giant cupcake pan almost two years ago, sad to say this is the first time I've ever used it. For my first giant cupcake though I am so happy with how this cake turned out. 

 I was asked to make a giant cupcake and 80 matching regular sized cupcakes for a 21st birthday party. The birthday girl only really asked one thing, that it all be in super bright colours, no pastels in sight. 

For the cake I used my favourite vanilla cake layered and frosted with cookies and cream buttercream, the outside of the cake was covered with rolled fondant and more fondant for the decorations. The cupcakes were vanilla with vanilla buttercream, topped with fondant cut-outs and maraschino cherries.

Pink Black and Leopard Print Masquerade Cakes

A few weekends ago I got to make not one but two super awesome fun Birthday cakes. The cakes were for mother and daughter who were having a joint Masquerade themed birthday party.

The colours for the party were pink, black and silver, with some leopard print thrown in on the 21st cake.

I tried to match the shape and size of the cakes, tying them together using the same numbers and bows.

The masks were a great find from spotlight, with a few added feathers they matched the cake perfectly.

The 21st leopard print cake was my favourite vanilla cake with yummy vanilla buttercream.

To give guests more than one option the 50th pink and black cake was my go to chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream.

I loved having another reason to use my favourite new quilting tool.

Happy Birthday to both Birthday girls!

Glad to hear the party was great and everyone loved the cakes.