Cars Cake

I have never ever had a busier baking week, not even at Christmas time. After making 3 big cakes this week I have to admit I'm more than a little relieved its all done. I'll work backwards and share the last cake I made first, a birthday cake for my boss's son Jake.

Happy Fourth birthday Jake!

I've have not seen Cars so had a bit of trouble knowing exactly what to do with this cake, I did a little research and found lots of inspirational pictures.

I love how the little cartoony car characters turned out. Especially the little truck 'Mater' I think he's my favorite, he's so cute.

I have been a bad blogger lately, this is my first post in over a week and haven't had a chance to catch up on eveyone else's posting, but I'm working on it. I promise i'll have some more cake pictures and some new recipes to share soon.

Harry Potter and Holidays

I'm so very excited about the final Harry Potter movie, I'm off to see it in the morning. I really wanted to make some Harry cupcakes after seeing fantastic little themed cakes all over the blog world this week but have been a little preoccupied. I didn't get a chance to make anything for the occasion but did have fun with this Harry Potter cake mix I picked up a little while ago. It was quick and easy and reminded me of every single birthday party I went to as a child, there were always cupcakes with edible images on top, mostly Mickey Mouse I think.

I have a pretty good excuse for not baking, I really do...

We've enjoyed the last week in a lake-house on Lake Weyba on the Sunshine Coast. It was such a pretty spot, right between the Noosa beaches and the hinterland.

I've been busy relaxing...

By the beach... even though it is the middle of winter it was a beautiful warm sunny day.

This wasn't us swimming but I was super jealous. I did get to play in the water but because it was cold there was a lot of squealing and no swimming.

By the lake... each lake-house had its own private little lakeside area.

In the mountains... The views from Montville were amazing and the town itself is the cutest place ever.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

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• I haven't had a lot of luck making whoopie pies, my first two attempts making chocolate whoopies didn't go very well. The second batch were an absolute disaster, they weren't so much cakey cookies as they were miss-shaped chocolate puddles. Lucky for me and my whoopie pie making confidence these pumpkin ones turned out great.
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• I really love pumpkin baked goods and their yummy spiciness, they're so prefect for winter. The cake cookies are quite dense and packed with spices that pair perfectly with the slight earthy flavour of the pumpkin. The cream cheese filling is absolutely dreamy, the kind of frosting I'd happily sit down with a bowl and spoon. I'm sure I'll be making these again.
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• For the Whoopies (from Martha Stewart)
• 3 cups plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon ground ginger
• 1 tablespoon ground cloves
• 2 cups brown sugar (firmly packed)
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 3 cups pumpkin puree ( I used home made, allow to cool before using)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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• To make the whoopies- preheat the oven to 180 degrees c. cover two baking trays with baking paper.
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• Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves into a bowl and set aside.
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• In another bowl beat the sugar and oil until combined, add the pumpkin and vanilla and mix well. Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating until they are thoroughly incorporated.
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• Sprinkle the sifted dry ingredients over the top of the pumpkin and mix until combined.
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• Spoon generous tablespoons of the mixture onto the baking trays about 3 cm apart (try to keep them similar size and shape so they match up when sandwiched).
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• Bake the whoopies for about 15 minutes or until a skewer poked into the middle comes out clean. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool completely on the baking trays.
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• Once the whoopies are cool, pipe the filling onto the bottoms of half of the cookies, sandwich with the remaining halves.
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• Now I skipped this next step and just tried one straight away, but I'd recommended leaving them to set in the refrigerator for a short while to stop the filling squooshing out the sides.
• 
  
• For the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Filling
• 60 grams unsalted butter (softened)
• 250 grams cream cheese (softened)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3-4 cups icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
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• Beat the butter and cream cheese until fluffy and smooth, mix in the vanilla.
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• Add the cinnamon and the icing sugar a cup at a time until smooth and spreadable. If the filling isn't thick enough add a little more icing sugar at a time to get the desired consistency.
• 
• Whoooopie!

Teapot Cookies

I am a bit obsessed with tea cups and tea pots, I started collecting them but cant fit anymore into my little home. I have a tea themed cookie cutter set for some time now just waiting for an excuse to use them, I was very excited to get the chance.
I was asked to make these as take home thank you gifts for a baby shower. The shower was held at the Wishing Well Cafe, I haven't been there yet but it looks really cute, there are teapots everywhere and it has a pretty vintage vibe. I was told the mum-to-be loves all things pink and girly, so created a cookie set with that and the venue in mind.
I think I like the teapot cookies best.

They looked so cute all bagged up.

Skydive Cake

I'm so behind in my posts, I made this cake in the middle of July for my Dads birthday. For his birthday this year my brother and I decided to get Dad a tandem skydive complete with a care package including a nappy (just in case) and an after jump drink. As a bit of a clue I made the cake to match, with a free falling fondant figure of my Dad on top.

It was my first time making a person from fondant, I think it turned out really well. I used florist wire to shape the fondant and hold it in place on the cake.

I love how the little face turned out, its so my Dad. Its cracks me up each time I look at it.

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Triple Coconut Cheesecake

This is one of those recipes that has always caught my eye when flicking through my cookbooks. As I'm all about coconut at the moment I finally got around to trying it and it didn't disappoint. The recipe uses coconut cookies in the base plus a triple hit of coconut in the filling with the toasted coconut, milk and coconut rum.

I haven't made many cheesecakes, actually I think this may be my third ever and my very first baked one . I'm surprised it turned out as well as it did, I made a few mistakes on the way. I had just put the cheesecake in the oven when I glanced back at the recipe and realized I had forgotten the cornflour. I quickly pulled the cheesecake out of the oven poured the filling back into the mixing bowl and whisked in the flour. It was a little messy but it seemed to work, the cheesecake set nicely and turned out yummy and creamy. The coconut flavour was definitely there but didn't overwhelm, underneath it still had that classic cheesecake taste.

Triple Coconut Cheesecake (From Women's Weekly, Cheesecakes)

For the base

90 grams coconut macaroons (not macarons)

125 grams plain sweet biscuits

125 grams butter (melted)

To make the base- Crush the biscuits until fine, add the butter and mix in till all combined. Press the mixture over the base and up the sides of a round springform tin (the recipe asks for a 26cm tin, I used a 20cm tin for a deeper cheesecake). Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

For the filling

250 grams cream cheese (softened)

1/2 cup caster sugar

300 grams sour cream

2 tablespoons malibu (I replaced with 1 teaspoon coconut flavouring)

280 mls coconut milk

1/2 cup desiccated coconut (lightly toasted)

1/4 cup cornflour

3 eggs

To make the filling- beat cheese, sugar, sour cream, coconut flavour (or Malibu), coconut milk, coconut and cornflour in a bowl until smooth. Add the eggs one at a time, beat until combined.

Remove the base from the fridge. Pour the filling mixture into the chilled base and bake for one hour.

Turn of the oven and allow the cheese cake to cool with the door ajar. (I was impatient and took it out too early, causing the middle to split)

Once the cheesecake has cooled, refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

Spread over the chocolate topping.

For the topping

100 grams dark chocolate (finely chopped)

60 mls of cream ( the recipe uses 60 grams unsalted butter)

To make the topping- Place the chocolate in a small bowl. Place the cream in a small pan and bring to the boil. Pour the boiling cream over the chocolate, stir until smooth. Allow the ganache to cool before spreading over the top of the cheesecake.

Carnival Cake

I am super excited to share this cake with you! I got to make this cake a couple of weeks ago for a friend from work, his little boy was turning one and they were having a carnival themed birthday party. I loved the carnival theme, my mind was full of so many fun ideas i had a hard time working out which ones I wanted to use.

I think the little elephant is my favorite part, I was so happy with how it turned out I ended making a sea lion too.

I had a vague idea what I wanted the final cake to look like, but knew all the carnival bits and pieces I wanted to have on it. All the decorations were made from fondant, except for the poles which were paper straws. ( I am in love with paper straws!)

I'm still very new to fondant modeling, but was surprised at how easy it was to make a little elephant. After making the simple shapes, I allowed them to firm up a little before pressing them together with a tiny bit of water.

I wish I had a few more pictures of the building of the cake but after the initial icing things got a little too hectic.

After a very stressful car trip ( it took hours for my arms to stop feeling like jelly afterward) we dropped the cake at the party safe and sound. The party set up was amazing, it had all the great parts of a carnival, I especially loved the circus tent dessert table backdrop.

The cake was a big hit, especially the rainbow cake surprise in the middle.

Happy First Birthday Dash!!

How cute is he munching on his giant slice of cake! (Thanks Tory for the party pictures!)