A change is here!

It's been a long time since my last update and a lot has changed. I spent some time in Sydney learning at Planet Cake (great eye opener). Bought our first home and started my home cake decorating business (took a lot of hard work), and got engaged (wedding planning in full swing). But while all of this was going on I forgot about the most important thing.... myself. I got to my heaviest ever at 93kg and let my unhealthy habits take over. I became very unhappy with myself and knew I had to make some changes. I had semi tried to get myself into gear but each time I gave up after a few days or a week and went back to my old ways of binge eating and unhealthy choices.



Till a friend of mine told me I had to join the Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation. It sounded great, but was expensive at $200. But I decided I had to try something. This was the start of a great program and most importantly I met a great group of people that supported me. Support and group fitness has been the only thing that has kept me in the game. So far I have lost 10kg and looking at another 10 to go.

I know I can do this as I have the tools I need to achieve my goals. Originally I wanted to lose weight to fit into a wedding dress, but at I went along I knew there was soo much more to it than just losing weight. I realised the mental benefits of being fit and achieving something was the most important to me. Being able to say 'yes I can do that' was great. Plus it has got a bit easier the more I've exercised.



My new goal is to complete Tough Mudder in August then get married looking my best in September. Can't wait to do this. I completed Warrior Dash last year and was stoked I completed the 5km in under an hour (my goal was 1 hour). I need to keep my eye on this prize to keep my motivation up, to be fit enough so I don't get hurt, lol.

So these days I have jumped into the whole clean healthy eating and am very interested in nutrition and good food. I am currently working on an idea to possible start a shop tailored to healthy whole foods and information for like-minded people looking for the same lifestyle (watch this space). So it is along these lines that I have decided to leave the cake decorating behind and focus on a healthier lifestyle.

So from now on this page will focus on my learning curve into a better me. I will share my favorite recipes, ideas and education into nutrition and hopefully my new business to come soon.

Experimenting

Recently I had a few spare eggs and cream cheese icing so thought I would make a sponge cake and have some fun piping. The sponge turned out nice and tall for a change and I was able to put together a nice two layer cake.

For the person I had in mind for the cake, I knew they are a fan of Rosella Jam so I used this to fill the cake. Then proceeded to play with my piping skills. I haven't had much practice with the bag and nozzle so this was only a bit of fun. But the end result still looked ok.

I then used the Rosella jam on top for a bit of colour.

The end result was nice, but I still need a bit of practice on my sponge making as it wasn't as fluffy as I would have liked. If any one has any tips, I'd love to hear them.

Easter Order

Over Easter I was asked to make something a bit different. I was asked if I did biscuits and slices. I love to cook any thing so I said I would give them a go. I was asked to produce a few batches of cookies and a couple of slices. I could choose what I thought would be good. The only condition was that only one slice could have coconut in it.

So I set off in search of some recipes and tried to find some that would slice up and store well. Because I wanted to jazz up the end product I wanted to put every thing in nice jars. As most people know the majority of slices are soft or sticky or contact coconut. So I settle on Choc Muesli Slice (the one with coconut), Toscanner Slice, Caramel and Peanut Creams and Apricot Bubble Biscuits.

I find that biscuits and slices are easy to do but the hard part is getting the cooking just right. Too long and they go too crunchy and too little cooking and they are too soft. I like a good median with them not too hard and not too soft.
Next time I will cook the Apricot Bubble Biscuits on a lower heat as they browned a little too much to my liking. I will also cook the toffee for the Toscanner Slice a little longer to give it that little more crunch. I think the Toscanner slice would also benefit from a little lemon rind in the middle layer.

The recipes for all of these can be found at www.taste.com.au I love this website it utilises so many great magazines and you can have your saved cookbooks and recipes. Most recipes also have feedback from users that are most helpful.

Babtism Cupcakes

I was recently contacted by a lovely lady who was after some cupcakes for your little girl’s baptism. For a change the order was for vanilla cupcakes, which a great chance to play around with a few new recipes I wanted to try.

Once again the best recipe came from the ‘Devine Cupcakes’ by Tamara Jane. The cupcakes turned out light and flavoursome. This recipe also had the cupcake rise to perfect height when the cups were ¾ filled.

This time I experimented with white chocolate ganache to top the cupcakes as I thought this would have a better flavour with a little vanilla. I used vanilla paste as I didn’t want excess liquid to spoil the ganache. I used Whittaker’s White chocolate, which was lovely; however I must have done some thing wrong this time around as the ganache just seemed to separate, I need to work on this I think.

The order was for yellow and pink with flowers and butterflies. Luckily this time around I had my butterfly cutters on hand and was able to use them. I premade the butterflies a few days before the cupcakes to ensure they had plenty of time to harden and set. However again I had some trouble with them setting. The weather was still a bit humid and hot plus I only had cake art fondant in stock so I think the inferior product and the weather made my little butterflies a little flimsy.

But I think with all things considered they turned out lovely. I am getting faster at putting them together. The secret is having everything ready for assembly then it’s just a matter of bang bang and you’re done. Hope you like the pics

Cake course No.3

Well a recent visit to Brisbane saw me attend another one of Jackie's cake courses at Contemporary Cakes.

The course ran for two days and was all about Flowers. Jackie is very thorough and we went through all the tips and tricks to creating wired roses, lillies, Arum Lillies, flower buds, frangipenies and leaves. We also went through how to make your own flower paste and tips on colouring and dusting.

This course was hard work but exciting all the same. A lot of concentration and time goes into making lovely flowers and I can so understand why they cost so much to buy ready made.

My flowers turned out nicely, buy I could definitely do with more practice. Especially when it comes to frilling the edges of the lillies. This is what I found the most trickiest.

The flowers once made will last for ever if kept in a dry cool environment. But I have found mine are already going soft due to the warmth and humid weather and I have already broken one lilly :(

I also have a larger shopping list for the things I want too lol.

Golf Cake

Last weekend I was invited to a friend’s birthday golf day. I thought this would be a great opportunity to put my creative ideas into action to create a golf themed cake.

I came up with the idea of doing the cake light blue (for the sky) with green patches for the 'Green' and some white patches for clouds. I even created a couple of toothpick flag poles. The flag poles where the only thing not edible on the cake. I went with the traditional mud cake as that seems to be a favourite amongst everyone.

This time around I wanted to experiment with a cake mix to see if this would be a more cost effective and tastier option. So at the supermarket 'Greens Traditional Chocolate Cake' was on special for $2.70 Bargain right? That’s what I thought considering if I make the cake from scratch I use about $10 worth of ingredients (small cake). The cake turned out great. It was easier to make, cooked faster and had a good consistency. But at the end I did feel like I had cheated, by using a ready bought mix. But in the end I saved at least 50% in costs and mess in my kitchen. Plus now I have three bags of icing left over that I’m not really sure what to do with.

Tip: I have discovered that the fondant I use (Cake Art), which is a ready made product I buy, is not of a good enough quality for the humid conditions I work in. It is like working with Black Fondant. It has no elasticity and is rather sticky. I will be ordering Bakel fondant from now on as this is what my cake teacher uses and it seems a far better quality. A friend suggested I make my own, so I might also give that a try too.

Lil.

Valentines Day

Even though Valentines Day was a while ago now, I’m only just getting the time to update my blog about the lovely 4 dozen cupcakes I did. Thanks to those who ordered, I heard you enjoyed them a lot.

I did choc mud cupcakes with choc ganache spread on top before decorating with fondant (sugar paste). Using a few simple cutters and a few hours, I was able to put together six different designs. Thanks to ‘Cricket’ for his idea of black and red. I think they turned out nicely.

My only sore spot is I had hoped to have a larger heart cutter to use but it ended up being just a bit too big. Oh well I’m sure I can do that for next year.
Lil.