This was a cake I was commissioned to do for a 24th birthday. The birthday girl wanted a shark emerging from a cake – I'm in love with sharks, so I was only too pleased for the opportunity to make my first fondant shark.
Author Archives: cakecrumbs
Honey and Cinnamon Cheesecake
Of all the people I make food for, my number one priority in life is my boyfriend, Cameron. He's what motivates me to learn and try new things and attempt to impress him with some crazy dessert. He gets to eat almost everything I make, the only exception being commissions, really. I'll upload snaps of my cakes to Facebook and people will be quick to tell him how lucky they believe him to be. They think he must get the most amazing, whimsical cakes for his birthday. They think him blessed to be able to request from me to bring anything to life via this edible medium. But the reality is that he wants none of that. At heart, he's a simple man.
So when his 30th birthday rolled around I wanted to make him something impressive to mark the occasion.
He just wanted a cheesecake.
Dumbo Cake
Over on deviantART one of my favourite groups, Project Educate, is holding an Artisan Crafts contest. The theme this year is "Circus". I've been wanting an excuse to do a circus cake for forever. Alas, with the weather being as phenomenally hot as it is, I couldn't days working on an epic cake. So I had to downsize.
When I think circus, my first thought is my favourite: Cirque du Soleil. Particularly since I just recently witnessed their amazing Ovo show, as well as the Cirque du Soleil "Worlds Away" movie. I well and truly have cirque on the brain. But doing a cake that did that amazing circus justice was out of the question, do I went for something a little smaller.
Checkered Berry Parfait
And the berry madness continued. 8.25 kg of strawberries required active searching for uses for them. A nice change, considering I'm usually I'm trying to hold back from devouring a whole punnet at once. The first thing that came to mind was this dessert. It's extremely berry hungry so it fit the bill nicely. It's something I've made a few times before, and posted the first time I tried it, but I've since been playing and perfecting this recipe so it was time to revisit it.
The beauty of this recipe is that it works with any berry you like. If the effort involved seems too much, you don't even have to make it chequered. You could marble it, or only make one flavour and freeze it inside a bar tin. It's completely open to interpretation.
Home-made Strawberry Jam
I have to admit to not having had a desire to make jam before. It requires a lot more fresh fruit than my heart, or my budget, can take. I kinda feel like I'd rather just eat the fruit. Perhaps this has got to do with the fact that I'm not a great fan of jam. We never had it in the house growing up. It's only my boyfriend's love of this breakfast condiment that has me trying and slowly acquiring a taste for it. But with all that said, I'd never had home made jam before.
This growing season, Australian farmers had a great yield. But due to all the supermarkets refusing to lower their prices to meet increased supply, they left them as normal and demand remained the same [and many farmers ended up having to throw away perfectly good fruit they couldn't sell]. It's one good reason why I don't get my fruit at the supermarket, instead I prefer to support local fruit shops. My local fruit shop was happy to adjust their prices, and in return we had a summer of budget fruit. They were constantly having sales to move large amounts of stock, but my jaw almost hit the floor when I saw them selling trays of 15 x 250g punnets of strawberries for $8. When I returned two weeks later and found 18 punnets for $5 I almost fainted. A far cry from the $3 a punnet the supermarkets were still selling them for.
Strawberries are one of my absolute favourite fruits, so I had no qualms using up over 8 kilos of them over the month. They featured in desserts and on them. We ate them with a fruit platter or with chocolate sauce for a bit of a treat. We had weeks of fresh strawberry smoothies or an occasional thick shake.
It also gave me chance to finally see what all this fuss over home made jam was about.
6th Anniversary Cake
Last Saturday, my boyfriend and I celebrated out 6th anniversary. Where there's a celebration, there's gonna be a cake.
Being so close to Valentine's Day, it's often difficult to think of different and unique present, card and cake ideas. Both of us consider our anniversary as the real celebration, with Valentine's being more of a warm up of sorts. Valentine's is another excuse to do something a little special for each other, but we both feel it's more of a Hallmark holiday. The 16th of Feb is that day that really means something to us, and in turn I try to save the special stuff for that day. We also don't really want to have to deal with two cakes to finish, either.
This year, having just got back from our holiday I didn't have a lot of time to brainstorm, nor had I had the chance to replenish my cupboard with groceries. I had to make do with what was on hand, so I raided the pantry and fridge for odds and ends to throw something together. I didn't have enough cream cheese for a cheesecake (his favourite), but enough for some cream cheese icing (his favourite icing). Red velvet cake was the next logical conclusion.
Love Letter Cookies
A few days ago I got back from my holiday in New Zealand. I still haven't settled back into a normal routine yet and haven't quite stopped buzzing from the experience. We have a phenomenal couple of weeks seeing the amazing scenery, magical wildlife encounters and even geeking out a little. Well, a lot of geeking out on my part. I got more than my fair share of The Lord of the Rings fixes as we travelled the whole country. As a lover of Tolkien and a lover of nature, NZ really covered all bases for me.
During that time, I had almost all my meals prepared for me. We had a few days where we bought salads and breads and avocado and had our own little picnic, but there wasn't much preparation needed on our part. After a while, I really started to miss it. Every time I saw an amazing cake or pastry I just wanted to bake. Before I left, I was getting really over the whole cooking thing, so the holiday came at a good time.
We arrived back home just in time to celebrate Valentine's Day and, quite soon, our anniversary. Celebrating it away from homw would have been loads of fun, but at home I get to bake. I have a huge To Bake list, but it was fitting to begin with some baked goods for the love of my life.
Cook Book Challenge: Week 34
This week I found a moment to complete my next cook book challenge. As mentioned in Week 33, I have a few books published by Philidelphia that were freebies in the grocery shop. They're all fairly mouth-watering books with a huge variety of recipes. This week's recipe comes from "Simply Heaven: Volume 2".
I love home made gnocchi, but rarely do I make it. I find it time consuming so I have to be motivated enough to make it. When I do find said motivation, though, it is incredibly rewarding.
I usually make it with regular potatoes, but this recipe provided a new take on the classic. As soon as I saw it I just needed to try it.
Pavlova Wreath
In my last blog, I mentioned the profound effect the deviantART community has had on my culinary art. One of the most significant impacts has been on the photography of it. Photos were always just snapshots of my food meant to illustrate my blog and my recipes therein. The amazing food photographers over on dA, especially those submitting their work to the same groups as myself, inspired me to want to make the photography art in of itself.
Some time ago, I bought a book on food photography. It soon became obvious to me how little of what I learned I could put into practise with my point and shoot camera. So, right after Christmas, I decided to invest in a DSLR. I'm absolutely loving it and it is definitely one of my greatest investments. Every time I take it with me on a bushwalk, or on a bike ride with my dog, or take photographs of food with it, I am learning something new.
This pavlova wreath was essentially the first photographs I took with my new camera, aside from a few random ones prior when trying to work out how to make the shutter work. These photographs are mostly me not understanding how to work my camera ("how do you photo?"). It's such a steep learning curve, but one I am excited about experiencing.
As a baker, I get asked a lot what my favourite dessert is. Because I enjoy making the complex, most people seem to expect an interesting answer. Some intricate dessert, something complex feat of skill and beauty that is the epitome of perfection on a plate.
It's much more simple than that.
Pavlova
A crisp meringue with a soft, marshmallowy interior. Topped with fresh cream and fruit, I would eat it every day without ever getting sick of it. Most of my favourite desserts, in fact, include fresh fruit. You just can't beat the perfection created by nature in the form of fruit.
Pavlova is a staple at many celebrations in Australia and New Zealand. Such a staple, in fact, that most of us near faint from shock when those from other countries declare they've never heard of it!
1st deviantART Birthday
A year ago, I made the decision to finally join deviantART. It was a rather flippant decision, not meant to turn into anything significant. I certainly didn't plan to become invested in the site. I just couldn't comment and fave art I stumbled upon without an account, so I joined.
I turned into one of the best decisions I made. deviantART has a thriving artisan craft community. You have to dig a little to find it, and it's virtually imperceptible from the outside. But it is there, and it is full of some incredibly talented artisans.
The community has not only been supportive of me beyond what I thought imaginable, it has inspired me and it has changed the way I view this hobby. I've come to respect culinary art as an art form. From the photography of savoury dishes to the creation of novelty cakes, it's all art, it's all expression. The community has motivated me to improve not just in culinary art, but to learn and improve in still life photography as well.
I have so much to thank the community for, so I decided to say thanks in the best way I know how.
Cakecrumbs 