Feeling some inspiration for Miss Angie's wedding

Super excited that in November Miss Angie L will be getting married and has asked me to make her cake. A lovely bride who trusts me completely to create something memorable, in fact so much so that the final design will be a surprise to her on her wedding day. I have known Angie for close to 15  years so I have a fair idea of what this lady is after.

Over the weekend I had some time to catch up with her and go through her inspiration and vision for her wedding day and as such have put together a collection of ideas to draw inspiration for designing her cake.

Inspirations from Ben Israel, Sharon Wee

 Cant wait to get started on decorating

Love Katie xoxo

Meeting Mr Alan Dunn from the U.K

I had the great pleasure to attend a sugar flower demonstration with Alan Dunn from London on rainy Thursday evening. Alan has over 20 years of experience in demonstration and flower making; in fact he started when he was only 14 years old. Alan, re-told many stories of how when asked what birthday presents he wanted growing up he would always ask for cake decorating equipment, and that his teachers often asked him to make family birthday cakes which were surprisingly more impressive than they expected.

Alan is certainly an eccentric character, he taught the class with no shoes, and was sweating profusely; I don’t think he was prepared to how humid Melbourne was that evening. Alan spoke about all the trade shows he had attended in Australia as well as how much he loved the name “Myrtle” and if in fact he was to buy another cat, he would name her so. A little of topic I realise, but funny.

Alan is renowned for creating realistic flowers from sugar, he has published a number of books and had a new book soon to be released in 2012. To be honest I didn’t realise how well known he was until I sat with the 70 year old ladies from the club (yes I was the youngest in the room) who acted like teenage girls at a rock concert. The ladies were all asking me to work out how to use their Nokia mobile phones to snap pictures, it was absolutely adorable.

There is certainly a cult like following with Alan’s work and seeing him in action, I can certainly appreciate why that is. He demonstrated a Chinese Hibiscus and Orchard in 2 hours and used traditional technique to colour the fondant to bring the flowers to life. Alan was truly amazing and his work is simply beautiful, he is certainly a true artist.

Until next time happy baking-decorating

xo

KB

A new year and a new start for What Katie Bakes

I am super excited to officially launch the "NEW" look of What Katie Bakes. This has been a project which I have worked with my favourite advisers/consultants TT, LKG and Al for a number of weeks/months/years. A massive thank you to these ladies for helping me decided on the direction of my business venture.

Whilst the blog has only had some minor renovations, lookout over the next few weeks for some new services and the official "Business is Open Launch". That is correct, the hobby is now turning into a real business.

Can't wait to share with you all, all the ideas and things that I have been working on over the last couple of months.

Let me know what you thing of the branding...Until next time happy caking! and dont forget to "Like" the What Katie Bakes facebook page.

KB

My baby Love, My Baby Love....

I figured it was time to get some one on one professional time, and thought that I would embark on a 6 week novelty class, tonight was the first class teaching baby booties and baby bib. Granted this was an easy one for me, it was still great to learn how to wrap a cello bag for piping, next week I will be making a fairy.

Whats on the cards for 'What Katie Bakes" you ask?

• I am getting really excited to create my girlfriends wedding cake, with it closely approaching I am looking forward to sitting down with her and getting the full brief.
• I am spending an evening with the winner of the Action for a Cure auction and teaching her how to create the cake and cupcake which she bidder on, we are still to lock down a date, but I think it will be organised very soon
• My 'koumbara' also got engaged so I am really looking forward to whipping something for her celebration
• and finally, I will be spending some time with a girlfriend of mine and teaching her how to make the now famous Blueberry yoghurt cake. I realise I am giving up my signature recipes, but its for the love of baking and I love inspiring others to follow in my footsteps, and hopefully they love it as much as I do.

Until next time.....

Happy Baking

xo KB

Jorge's 3rd Jungle Birthday

Apologies for the belated blog post, as it appears once again juggling work and cake decorating is proving to be a challenge, and lets not forget being a domestic goddess.

Here are the final pictures of Jorge's cake, we were going for something a little more rough and rustic, so we steered clear of the traditional fondant cake and opted for something a little more kid friendly, little Jorge was wrapped with the cake, as you can see below, and we had to have a chat to him about not eating the figurines until he blew out the candle. He was absolutely thrilled with his cake.

One great lesson learnt throughout this experience is the importance of ensuring that all the items on the cake are edible, when it comes to kids cakes. The minute those candles were blown out the kids attacked the balloons and the animals....it certainly made me fell special, this was one cake that didn't go to waste. Every last bit was consumed. (yay!)

The cake was inspired by Jorge's invite and mum Tonia let me have full creative control, which always makes the job a little more enjoyable and less pressure when there are no expectations. It was a chocolate mud cake with buttercream icing.

Nounna and Nounno with Godson Jorge

Until next time happy Baking

xo KB

Its' a jungle out there....

My godson Jorge is turning 3...his birthday also coincides with our third wedding anniversary. He was the youngest attendee at our wedding, all of 3 days old. Three years later he is stll such a cutie, but very cheeky. I am really looking forward to piecing this all together for his birthday.

The theme is jungle, so I thought I would try something a little different, a buttercream character cake, inspired by all the cakes out there in the world wide web.

Finished pictures to come when the cake is baked, for now here are my star attractions drying out.

Until next time, happy baking

XoKB

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Which can only mean one thing for the novice baker......its time for Christmas baking. Some of these goodies will be made a few days before christmas and other items will be made on the day. So far my christmas baking list looks a little like this

• Santa Hat Brownies
• Nuttela and chocolate macarons
• Coconut and strawberry biscuits
• Rudolf cake pops
• Snowflake & character cupcakes

I have include my inspiration board below and will post full recipe and pictures on Christmas day.  A few of these yummy goodies were sent to me by friends to bake a few for them, others will be give to the little kids to enjoy on the day....like the rudolf cake pops are reserved for under 12 people.

Hope you all have a great time baking it up this year...I would love to see all your creations via FB

xoxox KB

"Sniff, sniff"....Farewell my friends!

It is fair to say that I enjoy baking and decorating, it certainly has become my way of releasing tension and stress in my life.

My current project was extremely different, it was with great sadness that I baked this cake as it was baked to farewell my work colleagues and friends Louise, Leanda, Heidi, Karl & Matt. Our relationship spans over 5 years or 1300 days of amazing friendship, laughter, encouragement and support. Each person has made a massive contribution to not only my professional career but also personally.

They are each dear friends and while I wish them all the best on there future endeavours and adventures, I have no doubt that we will always remain friends and in each others lives, even without the day to day interactions.

I will certainly miss the laughter, jokes, the zumba moves and more importantly the quick shopping adventures during the lunch break.

Hope you enjoyed my farewell gift guys...Love you all

Oh and the Cake is Chocolate Sour Cream with a Herseys chocolate butter cream frosting

Katie B

Also, now that you all have some spare time I expect you all over for coffee and cake.....No excuses!

Love is sweet: A vintage kitchen tea party

Congratulations to my girl friend Vanessa for getting engaged but more importantly for her upcoming wedding. It only seems like yesterday that I was planning a similar event for my wedding and three years have already passed. The event was a vintage inspired high tea kitchen party. The weather was beautiful and the bride-to-be was super cute as always in her yellow polka dot apron. The entire house was themed to fit her vintage inspiration.

All the best Vanessa , looking forward to tasting all the sweets from your kitchen.



The cupcakes were vanilla with vanilla buttercream a rather popular combination, inspired by magnolia with a few minor changes as I have found that the original recipe was rather to sweet for us "Australians".

Until Next time, happy baking

xo
KB

Happy 60th Birthday to the Hamburger King

Never have I met a more generous and loving man than my Father in law,Con. I have known him for just over 10 years in fact I remember the first family event I was invited to was his 50th Birthday.

When his 60th came around it was a given that I would be baking something that he enjoys, making hamburgers. Dubbed as the "Hamburger King" of the Northern Suburbs, this cake was fitting.

This was my first attempt at a all over butter cream and I thoroughly enjoyed making, it was a labour of love. It took about 3 hours to complete, which included baking and preparation time, which is a world record. The cake is vanilla sponge with chocolate sour cream cake and lemon butter cream icing. It taste very moist and delicious,in fact the chocolate vanilla combo was great its been a good 2 weeks since I started my health kick, however I did enjoy a bite size of the cake, enough to not give me a sugar shock, I guess I will be burning that off at the gym tomorrow.

The expression on my father-in-laws face was priceless, definitely worth the effort. Until next time happy baking

xoKB