Butterfly Cake for Aria's 1st Birthday~

I met a lovely lady at Amsy's 50th. She asked me if I could make her daughter's first birthday cake which I obviously couldn't say no to! I love making kids birthday cakes- who am I kidding, I just love making cakes in general!

Aruna~Aria's mum wanted a chocolate cake with cherry filling, very very moist and with a purple, pink and white butterfly theme. She sent me a picture with what she wanted- I think she ended up with something completely different yet in my opinion (bias) beautiful and styilish. Note the decor in the wings and the antenas! so cute!

She sent me an email on monday morning saying: "The cake was lovely. It was just perfect in fact. It was moist, not too sweet but at the same time tasted great. Everyone loved the cake including the Birthday girl. Thanks for making the great Cake." Now THAT makes my day!

Now on my way to planning a snowflake wedding cake for lovely Milyn's brother in law! Nothing like a challenge!!

Lavander lemon yoghurt cake!

I happen to know such a wide variety of people! so lucky! Once a fortnight on wednesdays I go to a girls group- so lovely, there I met Hari. She is a beautiful girl from Lancashire North West England. She has the most beautiful accent and is very kind. It was her mum's birthday so she asked me if I could make a very lemony cake with pale yellow icing and lavander- ok no worries! done! note to self: don't mask with ganache ever again!! buttercream is so much nicer and yummier! It was lemon yoghurt cake with lemon curd through it! and the lavander is made from flower paste! easy as cake! Apparently the cake was still moist and delicious and Sally (Hari's mum) loved it! I even got a special thank you from the dad!

Happy cake making days!

Sheep Turner Family!

I decided to practice doing more modelling with RTR/fondant! It is a great skill to have- it is not easy but not very hard if you have a lot of attention to detail. I was inspired by Su from Delectable and so I had a go!

Cata turned 30 and I offered to make her the cake- it was a passionfruit yoghurt cake, very yum! It was a hit, so moist and delicious~ note to self: don't bake in a rush... I ended up having to leave home the top tier because it broke as I was unmoulding it :(

Anyways, back to the figurines, since Isabella (Cata's baby) was born, her life is no longer her and Chris or even just her- it is Cata, Isabella and Chris, like the three inseparable "sheep"! I modelled Chris as a Ram, Cata as the ewe and Isabella the lamb with the nappie! She has a little blanket she is snuggling with which has the message of the cake which was pretty obvious! Cata loooved them! they were so so cute!

A true Feast!

I looooove experiencing new cultures, new things, meeting new people and getting to know their customs and obviously their food! I fell in love with some cultures when I first came to Australia six years ago, I met some lovely Korean, Malasian, Singaporean and Mexican people- all very amazing within their own cultures and I got to share their beautiful food and generosity of their table... that is one of my aims in Australia- to expose the generosity of my culture (Colombian) both in food and manner. I then just mingled with Anglo-saxon and got to understand their culture, their German hugs (Wen!) and the softness of their heart behind all that hard exterior! I love Australians and their ancestors ;) that one is for you Jamesy!

When I started teaching international students, I then absolutely fell in love with their culture (and food! sorry sorry sorry- with me it's all about food~) I love Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese, Malasian, Vietnamese, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, Mauritian, Phillipino and the lot, not to forget I also had a great student from Italy-that's it Angelo, you are the odd one out! I love steam boats and yum cha, Korean BBQ, Vietnamese noodle bars, Mamak and rotis, spicy curries and chapatis, Nasi goreng, Nasi Tumpang andsambal, sweet as lollies original pad thai, katsu curry, dumplings and adobo! I love the lot- I love food sooo much, I don't know why I am not the size of Homer Simpson considering how much I eat! (agree Vons?!!) This is a mini tribute to all the beautiful people I met in the last two years of teaching- who touched my heart, changed the way I think, taught me things I will never forget and above all shared their generosity of their hearts with me! I feel so privileged and so loved!

Anyway back to the title of the post: A true Feast, amongst all the students I met I also had the privilege of meeting some out of this world amazing trainers who I will never forget! One of them-Charlie is from South India and Oh yes he can cook! He used to bring me treats that he used to cook at home! yum! The most delicious and mouth watering fish curry I have ever tasted, heart breaking- petal throwing chicken biryani and more! Again, the generosity of this cultures outstands me! Charlie's wife~Amsy was turning 50 and they were celebrating in style and so I brought the cake... It is hard to design a cake when you haven't met the person you are decorating for, but I though if she is as kind and as sweet as Charlie there will be no probs! Well I just achieved that~

I made a square 14" chocolate mud cake (with Lindt balls through! bliss~) punched with Grand Marnier syrup and masked with velvety Italian Buttercream, I covered it with Ivory-ish fondant and decorated with lots of different bright coloured roses- Charlie wanted to celebrate her life and his garden! with a Feast!

So here is it the masterpiece! lol we had THE most amazing food that night! Indian food is so delicious and so spicy as James will testify! We had saffron chicken, chicken biryani, lamb biryani, butter chicken, ghee rice, okra curry, eggplant curry, raita and chapatis! A night I will never forget! Yum

Merry Christmas to you!

Pa Rum pa pum pum! This is what I am hearing wherever I go! Christmas music! so beautiful! You know when it has arrived because the over- indulging is just inevitable- and so is the gym actually!

Christmas started a little earlier for me this year, it started even earlier in the QVB (October) with the gorgeous and tall Swarovski Christmas tree! so shinny and mmm expensive... Lucky in Australia Halloween is not very popular so we get the chance to enjoy more Christmasy stuff!

I had a demonstration at Borders book store in Macquarie Shopping Centre. I was displaying my Gingerbread house and my Christmas cookies. The demo went really well- specially with the little ones! they loved the biscuits, they all wanted to buy them and join my course to which their parents answer to their request was a dry "no" :( sad for them but any way I got to run the gingerbread workshop early November and that was very fun and for 5/6 of the class -->rewarding! the remaining 1/6's house fell apart due to poor construction skills- not the trainers fault ;) A lovely lady who has already taken two of my classes emailed this: "Thanks for the lovely class on Saturday. We had a good time bonding and we loved our houses." ~now, this is what it is all about! people having a great experience and learning how to make beautiful food!

The Christmas cookies were so cute, I made honey cinammon and original gingerbread flavour. I decorated them both with RTR and royal icing- they were packaged very festively in clear celophane and tied with gold, red and green ribbons! A lot of people have asked me if I could sell them- truth be told is not very good business unless you do it commercially and then you loose the point of decorating them individually! they are very time consuming, as gorgeous as they are I only make them for pressies~ why are we such a time poor society??

Speaking about Christmas it started to warm up here in the Souther Hemisphere! It is either very hot or very cool- there is no average temperature. Sleeping is not fantastic but Oh they joy of spring/summer! Beautiful sunny shinny days, the birds sing, the cicadas try to keep up with the latter. There is so much time to play in the afternoons! Outdoor cinemas, wafer cone gelatos, woodfired pizza, buzzing food in Chinatown, late cups of tea, fish and chips at the beach, picnic dinners, sunscreen, fly spray, beach towels, skirts, sandals, stone fruits-mmm yum mangoes, cherries, apricots, nectarines, BBQ smell, pool parties and laughter. This is summer summarized very quickly for me~

Happy Summer & Merry Christmas to you!!

Unexpected changes lead to awesomeness!

Well- what life throws at you-unexpected and at the same time exciting! On thursday 5/11/09 life seemed like heaven! How can it get better than trips to patisseries and capuccinos at Max Brenner? mmm then the unexpected... how could it? no, no way! It was strong, the best of the best, awesome reputation, everyone was "secure", all of the others were going down like the titanic, it couldn't possibly happen- oh but it did... Meridian International Hotel School- "the dream" workplace closed :( It was a shock to the system and very very sad for all us trainers and students... but you know what they say! God has not got reverse, instead He is always taking us forward! so there you go! Unemployed and teary I hung-up on my ex-boss August and thought? "what to do next?" well-this is it---> "the dream" job!! my own business yay~~

The name is yet to come... it is actually very hard to name a business! My business has two faces and I want them to blend with eachother and for the name to reflect that... I will post it soon! I did realise it was daunting to set up your own business, I just didn't know how daunting. I have been receiving a lot of help from people who have been there and done that! Many thanks to David, Saxon and Ruby- in a few months they will see ROI! So yes! Mariani is starting her own business! World-Australia-Sydney here I come! Watch this space for more news and updates on my business! How exciting!!!!

Things I love...

There is something very satisfying about sharing feelings and emotions with strangers... perhaps it is the thought I will never have to see them face to face and embarass myself! or perhaps I am not embarassed at all in sharing what I think or feel...

If I was asked what my favourite thing in the whole wide world is, I would actually would have to do a countdown (in no apparent order)!

10- I love blankies! my first ever memory of a blanket is when I was little and I use to rug up to an AlItalia blanket that I was given by my aunt who is a nun who aquired the lovely blue scottish styled blanket on her flight from Rome to Bogota. See you have to understand Colombian culture- We are a land of kleptomaniacs! as James kindly puts it~but in a good way, we "apparently" only take what we are entitled to. Then came the Avianca blanket (Avianca is a Colombian airline) and later in life the American Airlines one! You see we are a family who travels quite a bit. I love wrapping myself like a burrito! mmm comfy-ness

9- I love being at home! nothing makes me feel more cosy, comfortable, at peace, happy, refreshed, content, relaxed than being at home. James and I clash in this one... James would always be rather somewhere else than at home... he loves adventure.... I love comfort! and home=comfort! I love the smell of my house and how invites me to be in it!

8-I love baking! Baking is sexy! Either in metric units or imperial units~ recipes seduce me! and say, cause they talk: "bake me, bake me, bake me, try me...!" it is so exciting to pre-heat the oven, get the equipment ready, take the ingredients out of the pantry, measure them and hear the little noises they make when they are combined together... mmmm lovely! Then it is oven time... while you wait for your glorious baked "item" to be ready, there is the washup (which is another one of my very favourite things) and then the very unique smell of baked items which is irresistible and unmistakable! yum! then it's happy times eating your yum yums with a lovely cup of tea!

7-I love cleaning! Yes I know, when you read this you are going to invite me over to your house quick smart! I get this fascination of everything being neat from my mum... so like with anything "fascinating" you don't procrastinate and instead get stuck into it. So yeah ever since I was a small person I loved cleaning and making things neat... It sometimes hurts and I do wish I wasn't so fascinated (not to say obsessed) with it. However I've learnt that neat-ness doesn't = happiness so I have mellowed down quite a bit. I still like things to be orderly but I don't stress out if they are not... instead I use (again my mum's principle) to start from the beginning when tidying up mess!

6-I love autumn! in fact orange is my all time favourite colour! My wedding theme was autumn, my favourite skirt is orange, my bible cover is orange, my make-up colours are "autumny", I love orange sunrise and sunsets... autumn makes me sigh...! The red, orange variety of colours on the trees ready to fall- and when they fall!!!! The crunchy noises they make! (crunchy noises another favourite-humble iceberg lettuce= crunchy!) I loooove them so much in fact I have gotten really good at judging whether a leaf is worth my step and when they are crunchy they make me smile! I have been known to change pedestrian sides just cause I spotted a crunchy leaf!

5- I love coffee- Skim capuccino please~ the skim comes after I had very very high cholesterol and I had to go on a strict lean/low fat diet and I got used to the flavour of skim milk, so much so that if I now have full cream milk it tastes so rich and delicious it feels like a creamy treat! anyway! so yeah coffee! Growing up in Colombia where we gobble the stuff and drink millions of liters a year I can confidently say I am not a coffee expert or snob! Sorry Sax! (Sax=friend coffee connoseur to the extreme). I just love the flavour of coffee, from the humble "tinto" to the capuccinos I have them all! My capuccino love affair dates to the times where caffeine as well as chocolate-treat-like flavours where much needed for early risings :0)! I love the foam.... You shouldn't do take away however! sorry if that rocks your boat! Capuccinos or coffee in general should be drunk in beautifully designed coffee cups! I MUST have a coffee after waking up and another one before 3pm! If one slips in between it means I have had too much fun on the day and should have worked more ;)

4-I love singing! I do I do I do (sorry Heth!) I have always been a performer- since I was little I used to wrap wooden spoons (the top round bit-in Colombia called a molinillo) with foil to immitate the good old microphone! and I used to sing until my heart was content! In fact up until this day it is singing which can cheer me up or bring me undone! Music brings the best out of you! Singing certainly does the trick for me! I love listening to music and therefore there is not much silence in my house, especially when James is home and has a little practice with his guitar, piano or lately drums~ I don't sing like a pro but I certainly won't throw you out of the room with intense ear pain! I love singing to 80's hits and I always change the lyrics to James' ammusement! Its not my fault but those people don't pronounce properly sometimes!

3-I love bread- If we were to play the khakies or jeans game and you asked me if I preferred chocolate or bread I would say whitout a doubt: bread! Don't get me wrong! I loooove chocolate- good chocolate though and it seems easier these days to find gooood bread instead of gooood chocolate. Bread love is inherited from my beautiful mother~Libertad! who can spot a bakery from miles! her smell buds are really good especially on the bakery radar! We (mum and I) looove bread! baguettes, soft rolls, tiger rolls, sourdough, bagels, baps, damper, ciabatta, rye, multigrain, white, spelt, irish soda, wholemeal, the lot even the newest addition to my collection of favourites: chinese pineapple buns! I can eat up to 6 rolls in a row on their own! Yum! however bread and butter are a favourite too! I also love baking it! I love the chemistry behind it! Bakers Flour + Yeast + sugar + time (20min) + Moisture + Oxygen = absolutely gorgeous soft chewy or crusty bread... sigh...

2-I love breakfast at the beach-Balmoral Beach please! The Bathers Pavillion Thanks!! Oh lovely-so lovely I even have entree for breakfast! yum! naughty but nice! I don't love Eggs Benedicte nah no thanks, I love creamy scrambled on toasted sourdough with roasted thyme tomatoes or fluffy ricotta hotcakes with sliced bananas and double cream or exquisite bircher muesli with fresh berry compote and natural greek yoghurt, or delicious thick toast with preserves and thickly smeared butter, or freshly baked and crispy croissants or pain au chocolat, or chorizo and arepa (Colombian corn pattie). Buffet breakfast, a la carte, you name it! I love it! Brunch is even nicer-yum!!! Breakfast treats in summer or winter in front of the beach are a must when you want to remind self why you are miles away from your homeland :)

1-mmmm I am going to have to think about the last one... deliberating with myself as you read ;)

Baby shower Cookies

Cata is having a baby! I only have a few Colombian friends in Australia and one of them, Cata happens to be pregnant! She is going to be mum to a beautiful baby girl called Isabella. I thought I'd like to do something special for bomboniere for the baby shower so I made some little white and pink botties! She loved them... they were indeed very cute, I wrapped them in celophane and tied them with pretty pastel ribbons~ they were a hit! They were delicious as well: honey cinnamon yum! :)

The joy of covering a cake!

This is how it all starts... I have tried different masking techniques and personally I prefer buttercream on the crumb of the cake, it is pleasant to eat and gives a smooth finish to the fondant or sugar paste. Smoothing the cake is a

bit tricky if you get air bubbles... however is it not impossible! With a pin in hand and loads of patience you are on your way to achieving a smooth, velvety, flawless cake~ that sounds so poetic!

You will get more and more confident as you practice and practice and practice... what do I tell the students? results are all about 80% trying!!!

Using your hands is OK, but not ideal as you get nervous and sweat and since sugar is hygroscopic (absorbs/loves moisture) the fondant gets overly soft and bumps and dents start to appear~ all of a sudden, your cake is not so flawless :) it is best to use two smoothers...

I usually trim off after I have smoothed quite a bit and then hold it with my hands for further trimming.... I feel like a taylor!

The truth is I love everything Wilton!! But I also have a excuse to be so obsessed with it -A really lovely lady who owns a cake shop in Rydalmere (Sweet Deliveries check it out!) gave me a small piece of advice, use the right equipment for the right job... you will save yourself time and tears! By the way I don't know her name ~ I should ask next time... She is very generous with her knowledge and is all for young women like me to embrace the love of cake making and decorating! Love free advice ;)

Truth be told once I am in the final decorating stages of the cake I am ready to give up... And I say... " I don't want to do a cake ever again!!!!" hahaha! as if I stick to that. The cake love returns once I have a specific decoration in mind and my imagination runs wild, I breath cake, sleep cake, dream cake until I get

to do another one!

There is always loads of washing to do... sticky equipment thanks to the icing sugar, very tired eyes and a grumpy wife for James. Thankfully he is very graceful and cooks me dinner during a "cake week" and is always very encouraging with his comments regarding all the details... also having worked as a Civil Engineer for a bit has been very helpful when it comes to assemble the tiers together! He is a gem! :)

So here it is! the final product... a cake inspired by Sally's favourite colour, red! she is gorgeous and girly but not too girly ;) ~ she is full of life and colour!

Happy 30th Sal!!! :)

Chocolate Pistachio Fudge

Nan was turning 82 and we were having dinner at Jude's! She is an amazing cook! Elizabeth was bringing the cake so there was nothing for me to do :( I thought we needed some petit fours to have after the cake! So I decided to make some indulgent chocolate pistachio fudge! needless to say they did't last long! They were so chewy and rich and chocolaty and nutty and delicious... very more-ish too! Yum! They were a hit and a doddle to make! :)

The dark knight!

James came to me after having had a work meeting and asked me how would I feel about making a Dark Knight cake for Rasem's (one of his clients) 5 year old son... I thought! Easy black suit, utility belt no worries eeeeasy!! And then he said: "oh it's an eggless cake, he is allergic to eggs, soy and sesame seeds!" bring it on! I had been asking for a challenge so it seemed like a good idea.

I did a practice run with a chocolate eggless cake recipe I found on the internet! Loved it! Delicious and soft and spongy! The way to test it also was to bring some to my vegetarian students so they could give me thumbs up! and they did! They all asked me for the recipe! Unfortunately the cake was too spongy so couldn't hold a tier on top to do the whole suit so we did a round one 10" and little individual cupcakes which apparently according to the reviews from Rasem were a hit! I covered them with basic chocolate buttercream and then topped them with black chocolate fondant and silver-ish batman logos stenciled on top... Very cool!!! Happy days! Love making kids birthday cakes! It is so rewarding!

The recipe was such a hit I have been sharing it all over the place... it is soooo easy to make... mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients! how easy is that!

Small beginnings

I have been playing with fondant! It's fun fun fun! It starts with (RTR) ready to roll sugar paste, then you proceed to knead the dough with corn flour/icing sugar until it is nice and smooth, then you colour-roll-shape-cover or pipe!

My friend calls it "play dough for adults"... I suppose she is quite right. Its relaxing yet stressful all at the same time... It's my new hobby and future business!

I started by covering a cake... February-Valentines Day! so yeah... love heart themed!

Then I started trying to mould fondant which is even more fun!! This is my first attempt, its a birdie... a blue bird? I tried to get some inspiration from wilton, their website is unreal and extremely helpful!!

Now, I went to work telling everyone how excited I was about my new discovery (fondant that is) and one of the guys at work asked me where to buy a Bumble Bee Cake- Note: A Transformers Cake... I thought?? mmm can I pull it off?! I have no problem with the baking (the actual cake is a doddle to make) the decoration is the hard bit.... so I said I will do it... and he agreed yes!!!!!!! I sold my first cake... With a lot of thought and help from husband James I ended up with a very good looking cake for 7 year old Jeremy!