Planet Cake - Basics 101 Exploding Stars cake

I booked into the Basics 101 course at Planet Cake in June and had been eagerly counting down the days and finally the wait was over!

I arrived at the Planet Cake headquarters in Balmain a little early on Sunday morning and admired their breathtaking creations in the window - and yes, i took photos of everything! We kicked off at 10am with Jessica and Marianne. They were both wonderful teachers, extremely helpful and really made it a fun day. The class was made up of 11 cake lovers who were eager to learn more about this wonderful art and take home the skills to be able to re-create what was taught.

We were taught how to cut a cake into layers (much harder that it looks!!), layer it with gorgeous chocolate ganache, cover the cake and cake board with fondant, create cut out decorations and put them on wires.

Everyone's cake looked wonderful! It was like a rainbow of cakes with each student choosing a different combination...see the group photo for evidence!

A huge thank you to Jessica and Marianne for your support and guidance throughout the day. I cant wait to recreate this cake again at home...may need to have you on speed dial! :)

Bumblebee Cookies

What did i do when my husband was at a work function on Wednesday night? What else but BAKE!

I had left over cookie dough from when i made the beetle cookies and decided that my Wednesday night project would be the bee cookies, again from Planet Cake. As i did with the beetles, i made the bees into cookies instead of cupcakes.

I prepared and cut all the fondant on Tuesday night, so Wednesday was just a night of decorating. The bees are the cutest little things! It makes it hard to eat them!!! I took half to work on Thursday and the other half to my neices. My 9 year old niece was fascinated and took 3 to school the following day to show off to her friends. How special do i feel? :)

Heart Cookies

While baking the round cookies for the ladybirds i had some left over cookie dough so i decided to cut out some heart shaped cookies. I decorated these with fondant and gave them to my husband as a little thank for all his help in the kitchen!

Ladybird Cookies

Since i had so much fun with the bow cupcakes, this weekend i took on my 2nd decorating project from the Planet Cake book - the ladybirds. The Planet Cake ladybirds are designed on cupcakes but i decided to make ladybird cookies instead, just for a change :)

Yep, i roped my husband into helping me make these aswell and we both had lots of fun making them together. We shared them with family on Saturday night and everyone was so impressed!

Our 3 year old niece was so eager to bite into a cookie that we had to bribe her to finish her dinner! She showed the most appreciation and you know you've done a good job when you get the thumbs up from a 3 year old!

Planet Cake's Bow Cupcakes for my Birthday

When i booked myself into the Planet Cake course i discovered that they had recently released a cake decorating book for beginner's which i was thrilled about! I headed to my local library, borrowed the book and in the mean time dropped hints to my husband about wanting the book for my birthday :)

For my birthday in July I decided to make the pink and black bow cupcakes on the cover of the Planet Cake book - simple, classy and classic. I thoroughly enjoyed working with ganache and fondant and learning lots of tips and tricks from the book. A big thank you to my beautiful husband who helped with the bows....black fondant is quite wet and hard to work with, i couldn't have done it without you!

I must add, the Planet Cake cupcake recipe was a hit! The addition of lemon zest and the moisteness of the cupcakes really sets them apart from other recipes.

I'm loving all the fun I'm having with fondant!

And yes, i did receive the Planet Cake book from my very attentive husband :)

My First Post AND Cupcake Decorating Course !!

Welcome to my first post!

In early June, after arriving from the most wonderful 5 weeks holiday in Europe with my gorgeous husband i decided this would be the year when i begin to explore my passion for baking and decorating. I love to bake and enjoy sharing my treats with my husband, family and friends, and lately work colleagues too!

I searched the web for beginner courses and stumbled across the wonderful Planet Cake website. I immediately booked myself into the Basics 101 course after seeing the wonderful creations that past students have created. I was so eager to learn some cake decorating techniques so in the mean time I enrolled into a cupcake course with Cake Decorating Central because, well, who doesn't love cupcakes!

I headed to Cake Decorating Central in Campbelltown on 16 July and arrived a little early which meant i spent some time AND money in their lovely and well stocked store!!

In our 3 hour course we decorated 9 beautifully coordinated pink and white cupcakes using a number of different icings and techniques. I never imagined i could learn so much in so little time! My proudest moment was seeing how simple it is to make roses and flowers! No doubt i will be making these again soon!

I must thank the lovely ladies at Cake Decorating Central for introducing me to a variety of decorating techniques and giving me the confidence to decorate. I thoroughly enjoyed the class and would recommend it to anyone starting out.

And i must add that no decorating tool kit is complete without sparkle dust! We brushed this onto our cupcakes once completed and it gave them a gorgeous shimmer and sparkle!

My favourtie cupcake is the one on the bottom left.

I hope you have enjoyed my first post !