Leibster Award - For a newbie

To this I am completely new but I have a done a little research as to what I need to do.

Leibster Awards

How it works...

(I have  stolen this text from Sarah who stole is from Faye)

  -1- Make sure you mention the lovely person that nominated you - CHECK

-2- List 10 facts about yourself if you so wish - CHECK

-3- Answer the questions that you were bestowed by that lovely person who nominated you

-4- Nominate some lovely bloggers for the award

-5- Create 11 questions for those love bloggers mentioned above

-6- Make sure that you let those lovely nominees know about it so that they can tag along if they want to! No pressure at all to get involved, but you are definitely worth a mention for one reason or another :)

I was nominated by my favourite sister Sarah over at Oh The Things I Think and great blog she started when she was abroad all about her adventures and travel and most recently her adventure as a new mum. It was a great way for my family and I to catch up with her and share in all of her adventures.

Here she is with my beautiful niece Sophie.

10 Fact about ME.

1. I have a fantastic Husband who I couldn't love anymore than he loves me.

2. I have 2 Super Fantastic Children both born on the super lucky St Patricks day William who turned 2 this year and my newest Emily who was born this year.

3.I LOVE being creative in all ways my latest outlet has been Cake Decorating

This was my first cake for Williams 1st birthday

4. I have a fantastic OCD brain basically I just loves things to match and I love Symmetry.

5. I love Converse shows especially new new Yellow Pair

6. My favourite colours are Bright Pink, Orange, Green and just recently I have been in love with Yellow.

7. I love horses and riding sadly I don't get to go as often as I like and after an unfortunate accident with my 2 best friends which I think has put them off forever I am not I now have anyone to go with.

8. I just bought myself a beautiful new mixer in Pink (Sadly Yellow was out of stock)

9. I love Dogs, growing up I was always a cat person but after having our first dog Rufus I have been hooked. My favourite Dogs/Horses as my husbands calls them are Great Danes and Newfoundlands

Newfoundland

Blue Great Dane

10.  For some unknown reason I overuse Capital letters and put then where they don't BeLonG.

Sarah's Questions

What is your favorite holiday period?

Without a doubt CHRISTMAS  I am absolutely CHRISTMAS MAD - Can you tell

My Christmas tree

Tea or coffee?

Peppermint Tea

If you were a cupcake, what flavour would you be?

Peanut Butter cause I'm a little Nutty

What is your life theme song?

"I am always here" The Baywatch theme song 

Oh Yes I totally Love him always have

What is your favorite spot in the whole world?

Cuddles with hubby

What is one thing you have ticked off your bucket list?

Travelling to Europe

Who would play you in a movie about yourself?

A very hard question as I an so unique not sure anyone could really pull "ME" off

If you had an all-expenses-paid holiday, where would you go?

Scotland

#Heritage #Scottishpride #Family

Sweet or Savoury?
Sweet Just like me

Toughest thing about blogging?
Trying to get some quiet time to write without children or husband needing something

What got you into blogging?
My wonderful big sister and my love of cake decorating.

Nominees

#Havenofriendsandnewtoblogging

Mouse @ The Girl Back Stage

Sarah @ Oh The Things I Think

And my questions if you would like to play along!

1.Sunshine or Rain? Why?

2.Who is your favourite Disney "Prince" Why?

3.PC or Mac

4. Favourite cake flavour?

5. Do you really like Vegetable? I mean really? Come on?

6. If you could meet anyone who would you meet and why? (Living or gone)

7.If your life was a TV show which would it be?

8.Whats brings you peace? Chills you out?

9.Which Spice girl were you? You know you were one.

10. Favourite 90s Song?

Thanks Alex!

Back in time to last year, we were busy building our current home we were over half way and our fantastic Project Manager Alex was off to Australia, to thank him for all his help and everything he had done so far for our house I decided to make him a cake again more practise.

 Theme Building, Builders, Construction

 I didn't have a lot of time so this cake as we found out quite late that he was leaving so I didn't do much searching on Pinterest and just used what I had learnt from making my first figurine. What I forgot to do with this cake was layer it inside which meant it didn't have much height. I had a more luck with covering the cake, no cracks or seams this time though I did have a couple of folds but I managed to smooth out the worst of it.

 This time round I tried a Sitting Figure for my cake, I tried to make this one less cartoon-like so I sculpted the nose rather than adding it. I had a lot of fun again making the figure, there are just so many characters you can make just by making slight adjustments in your sculpting or something simple like changing the clothing around. Every time we had met up with Alex he was in a dress shirt and slacks and to be honest I can't really picture him in a fluro vest and stubbies.

Here is Alex before he got hair and eyebrows.

I had lots of fun with the wee accessories I made. To make them I just fiddled around with the fondant until I got the shapes I was after. I used a mix of colour paste and Cake Decorator's Fluid from one of my cake supply stores Cake and Sugar Art (I have previously tried using Vodka as suggested on a lot of tutorials and websites, however I found the solution to stay quite tacky and not dry. The Cake Decorator's Fluid has a higher alcohol content and I find it dries better and quicker.) to make a "paint" to add detail to my accessories. I haven't come across any specific ratios or a recipe i just go by the look and how it paints and adjust if I need to. Biggest thing to remember is to wait till it is completely dry before touching or placing on the cake otherwise you end up with grubby hands that you inevitably smudge all over you cake, yip lesson learnt the hard way.

The accessories.

Yip my bricks look just like Grain Waves cereal, I couldn't quite get the edges sharp enough.

I got his giant pack of cheap kids cookie cutters for around about $20 from The Warehouse and in there was an alphabet set which was great because I hadn't yet found the stainless steel set which are smaller and for cake decorating for a price that I was willing to pay.

And the finished product.

Not quite sure as to why his face looks so surprised, perhaps I was anticipating his face when he was surprised with the cake?

However surprised Alex still loved the cake and all the other  builders commented on how I had got his shirt just right, apparently they all make fun of him because he wears very tight shirts and there is an inside joke going around about how he is the only one that can get away with it. Their words not mine.

What will be next? Moving house setting up all my cake things and finally having a big kitchen bench I can decorate on rather than using the kitchen table.

Port or Cake?

I flew up to Auckland for a short trip to see my family. I was just up for a week, but at the end of the weekend was my dads birthday, though he is not big on sweet things especially cake I thought it would be a nice surprise for him and decided to make him a cake. Being in Auckland means I would also have my mums help with the cake.

Dad loves Port it is his one special treat so for his birthday we bought him a lovely bottle of Port and  ever eager to try new ideas and challenges I thought why not give a bottle of Wine/Port a try. I had never sculpted a cake before but figured that a wine bottle was probably an easy place to start. Now because dad is not big on sweet things we decided to make him a fruit cake lets just say this made sculpting extremely difficult as the cake was very crumbly and it was also hard to cut through the fruit which meant it just came out of cake leaving wee holes randomly placed around bottle.

Here are a couple of progress shots.

We did 2 layers of cake with a thin layer of butter cream in between. The first I put a wine bottle template on and cut this out exactly. I did this same process for the second layer and then using a very sharp knife little by little starting shaping the cake. One thing I would change next time is to make the neck a little longer as I feel it ended up a bit short.

So after I sculpted the cake it was time to crumb coat, this was a bit agonising as well because the cake was so crumbly it was challenging but we got there in the end. After it had rested in the fridge mum started  rolling out the fondant, she had been to a few lessons in Pukekohe for cooking and decorating and she tried to tell me we should be using corn flour rather than icing sugar on the fondant, but being me I had to argue cause everything I had searched and watched used icing sugar and talked about corn flour changing the taste of the fondant and of course mum being mum gave me the benefit of the doubt and guess what? She was right lol, the icing sugar dried out the fondant quite fast which lead to it tearing. You know what they say, Mother knows best!

Because the fondant was a little dry we had a wee bit of trouble smoothing it onto the cake, but I think we did a pretty good job considering and with only 1 wee tear down by the base of the bottle. Which we were able to cleverly cover up with shredded wood which added to the overall effect.

I used a mix of bronze powder and the  Cake Decorators Fluid that I used with Alex's cake, to paint the top of the bottle. The label is an edible print that I got from The Cake Shop which is in Pukekohe. They can print anything on an A4, you just have to email them the document, Such a great idea I have an idea for dads next birthday cake and again I will need an edible label for as well stay tuned for that cake as I am sure it will prove to be my most challenging.

After it was all finished we put it onto the lid of a shoe box that mum had cover with brown packing paper to look like a crate and then we filled the empty space with the shredded wood.

Here is the end result.

A trick I have recently heard of is that you can use a garment steamer to add shine to cakes, if I were to make another wine bottle I think that would be a great effect and would make it look glossy like a bottle. Dad was pretty shocked when we presented the cake to him and it wasn't till a couple of hours later when we asked him if he wanted a piece of cake that he realised it wasn't another bottle of Port but a cake. Thanks dad that was a great reaction! Love you and Happy Birthday!

It's time to get organised!

I have been quite busy on Pinterest looking at different cake decorating tools and ways to store them getting organised neat ways to display sprinkles and having everything you need all together, while we have some storage spots in the house I am a self proclaimed Hoarder so as much storage as we have a have twice as much "Loved treasures" aka crap so any ideas I can get on organising chaos and maximising your space I jump at. I have been slowly gathering more and more tools for cake decorating and just been stashing them in my hall cupboard without really thinking about being organised with it.

My dream way to organise would be this which I found on Pinterest.

But of course this is an American Shop. 

I did some more research and found this (above) got very excited and then realised it was from Walmart. I love living in New Zealand I really do but every now and then like when I want one of the latest Wilton supplies or something like this I get sad that we don't live in America and don't have the variety of products they do. I had my sulk and then moved on to what I could do.  I went down to ware house and bought some plastic containers and some glass jars.

Then I got everything out of my cupboard put it on the bench and got to work.

I used the wee glass jars to put all my different sprinkles in.

I used one of the plastic containers for all my piping nozzles and my piping bags.

I used a set of 3 stationary draws for all my cookie cutters.

I used a large plastic Store Box from good Kmart to store all of my Cake pans.

 I used a couple of other plastic containers for misc items and now it all fits neatly onto 11/2 shelves.

Not quite the look I was after but it works.

When designing our kitchen this is what I wanted for the cupboard above my fridge. When I talked to the kitchen designer she informed me it would be a complete waste and I would never use it because its too high. Well let me tell you I regret not getting it and will definitely have it in my next house.

While my OCD brain dreams of matching containers I am some what happy with it now, and have told my husband in the next house we need a butlers pantry with 1 side dedicated to all my lovely cake decorating tools all in matching containers all lined in a row and after all at least all my sprinkle jars match.

#WILTONLOVE cause I love Wilton!!!! Part 1

I love Wilton they are greats  for not only products but also Ideas. You can visit their website here but they are also on Pinterest here they also have a blog you can follow here, yip I love Wilton, Love Love Love. Sadly in New Zealand you can't get their full range, my favourite Cake supply shop is The Cake Shop which is in Pukekohe and where I have gotten most of my Wilton products from amongst various other products. I recently found that spotlight has a very big range of wilton but not everything. Anyway today I have a list of my 10 favourite Wilton products and look out for part 2 which is my Wilton wish list.

Wilton products I love!

Number One

My number one Wilton product you may think is strange but if you know me you will get it.

Its the Wilton Icing colour organiser. A brilliant wee container to store your food colouring pastes all neat and tidy. and if you are like me yours will be colour co-ordinated.

Number 2

Closely related to my number one is the Wilton colours. The range is huge and I alway get just the shade I am wanting. I have a great wee collection so far but my favourite is the Kelly Green.

Number 3

My Wilton Roll-N-Cut Mat. The best way to use is to wipe your bench down with a damp cloth and then it stick and wont shift about. It had a grid pattern to it so you can make straight cuts and it has printed circles so you know the size to roll out for what sized cake. I use it so everything from cutting out shapes to rolling my fondant, it is especially handy for keeping you fondant round when rolling incase your are like me and when to try to roll a circle you roll and odd looking oval.

Number 4

My Wilton Easy Layers 6" Cake Pans. What a fantastic idea who came up with this??? You get 5 wee cake pans you can equally divide your cake batter into and no mess or fuss trying to cut even layers once they are baked. I first used these to make a rainbow cake when my Nieces and Nephew were down visiting. 

Number 5

Number 5 is new to my baking cupboard but I have been wanting one for a while now it's the Wilton Twist Quick Coupler Set. Using this means you can quickly and easily change your piping tip without a fuss or a mess and using the same icing and same piping bag. Its also comes with a wee cap which means it keeps the icing nice until you are ready to use it, especially handy if like me you prepare your icing early.

Number 6

Though I have not quite mastered number 6 yet it is still one of my favourite and again how smart is Wilton to think of it. you get a set of 3 pans and an ingenious wee plastic divider, this wee divider means you can pour 3 different colours or 3 different flavours into one cake pan each pan you do a different order of the colours/flavours and then they are baked and staked you end up with a checker board effect so simple. Note I did make a mistake when trying this pan for the first time, my cake batter was a little to thick and meant when I pulled my divider out the cake batter stuck and lifted meaning it didn't stay in its place naughty cake batter this made the checker a little wonky and in one. But it's all a learning curve and next time I know ill do better with my fantastic pan.

Number 7

Wilton Smart Fondant Ribbon Cutter not surprisingly this cuts ribbons in fondant. It is again another fantastic product and you can do so much with it. It comes with 3 different "Blades" with 4 of each design and 3 different spacer options meaning you can make different width ribbons. It's very easy to use and easy to change the "Blades" or Spacers. I even use it if I just want to create a sharp straight edge all I do is just use 1 Blade.

Number 8

Wilton Whitener strange concept to most probably because you probably think if you want white icing just don't add colour, however if you use butter in your butter cream icing like I do then you you will know that the icing comes out at a pale yellow or cream which no matter how hard you beat you will never get it to white. I bought it not really knowing what to think or how it would work and it was awesome I only needed to use a wee bit and as I mixed it in like magic I saw but butter cream turning white Love it because to be honest I am not yet brave enough to try shortening in my icing I find the idea rather sickening but I will try it at some stage when I get brave.

Number 9

If you are like me you probably have at least 5 Fondant smoothers, first I bought one online and then it took too long to arrive so I needed to buy another and then... well lets just leave it at the fact that I now have fondant smoothers coming out of my ears. So having tried many different smoothers I didn't think the Wilton one would be that different, why did I buy it then you ask, Well for the simple fact that it is white and purple and matches all my other wilton products. How surprised was I the first time i used it, it out ranked every other brand of smoother I had tried the handle is so comfortable and fits very nicely in your hand and this simple fact makes it so much more efficient and your cakes so much smoother I love it and if I see it for sale again I will buy at least another 2 incase anything happens to my one, well you never know.

Number 10

Number 10 is a little bit of a cheat as it has multiple products in it. It is the Wilton Fondant and Gum Paste Decorating Set. I got given this as a gift and I love it!!!!! Firstly and probably most important to me how awesome is this container!! I love that all the Wilton products match really puts my OCD brain at peace. What is great about this container is although it comes full with tons of products you can still fit other items in there, this means when I am doing a cake I really only need to grab this out of the cupboard and a couple of other items. The best thing about this container you can't see on the picture but the lid can be stacked underneath the entire container, you just take the lid off and then place container on top, fabulous I can't even tell you, when space is an issue and lets face it it always is the more space we can save the better.

These are my top 10 products of all the Wilton stuff I have, hopefully this time next year I will have some of the products off my wish list and I may need to re visit my top 10 but for now I leave you with this, probably the most important thing....

I LOVE WILTON!!!