What's up Katie? What was on my kitchen bench this week

As many of you living in Melbourne will know, this week was rather warm and not particularly favourable for fondant or ganache.  I have been continuing on with my figurine class and tried to do all my prep work before I left for Sydney on Wednesday. Sadly for me, I just could not find the time and ended up having to colour fondant late Wednesday night. Was not a happy camper.

Had another great class, feeling like I have the figurine structures down pat. There are some basic principles if you follow them then everything turns out great. I wasn't overly impressed with the head of the fairy, the one below is one that our teacher Pat (70 yo) prepared. Her face looks a little prehistoric, or possessed Im not to sure which one more. Overall turned out cute.

I also prepared some cupcakes for a birthday/ picnic for tomorrow. I wanted to really try out a new cake flavours and thought  that this was the perfect excuse to dress them up in fondant to fit the theme.
Always in a rush, I didn't let the white chocolate ganache set (silly given that it reached 40 degrees in Melbourne and it is WHITE chocolate). Luckily it wasn't for a client, otherwise I would have started again. I was really happy with the cake recipe so will have to add to the list of flavours as everyone has been asking me to add to the menu.




So welcome to the list
What's up Doc?
Moist carrot cake with white chocolate ganache or lemon white chocolate ganache.

Until next week...hope you are all staying cool !

xox 

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