Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Calling all Cake Lovers!

It’s been a while since my last blog post in fact nearly two months. I apologise, as many of many of you who know me understand my life can get hectic at times. I have been doing a fair bit of travel to Sydney (for my real job), which has prevented me from spending some quality time in the kitchen.

However I figured a blog post is long overdue, and so I want to share with you my adventures in the kitchen and out over the last couple of months, let kick this off.

All good courses must come to an end! -12 April 2012

I finally completed my eight-week figurine course; all in all it was a great experience. I learnt many new techniques that will help me. I wish I had more time to dedicate to educating myself, as I mentioned above work has become demanding and being away from home does mean committing to cakes can be difficult. So far my customers have been very understanding and accommodating so there hasn’t been to many dramas, and by that I mean that I have always been able to deliver a cake.

Here is a collage of all the things I learnt in my course along with my cute instructor Pam, she was great in showing us all the old-school cake decorating techniques. I cant wait to do the  mad-hatter class with her later in the year


Greek Orthodox Easter 14 April 2012


Being Greek, has its advantages and one which I absolutely enjoy is Easter, don’t get me wrong the fasting can be challenging but its worth it, both spiritually and the food you get to feast on at the end.

I hosted Easter Saturday this year at my place and it was a first having the family share in the traditional Egg-Lemon Soup (Avgolemono) and Tripe (Magiritsa) and for dessert we had a feast of Sweet Bread (Tsoureki). I have made these little gems every year since I have been married using my mother in laws recipe, and each year they don’t disappoint.

Congratulation on your Engagement Helena- 21 April 2012


A HUGE congratulations to my girlfriend and “Koumbara” Helena for getting engaged, I would put a picture up of the lovely couple to be but I think her fiancĂ© may kill me if I did that, so instead I have posted the cake that I made for them as a gift along with a beautiful Vera Wang cake server, I thought it was a fitting gift from the cake maker.

Happy Bday to me! 27 April 2012

I had the great pleasure in enjoying a beautiful dinner at Comme to celebrate the last year in my 20’s. I was more than impressed with the menu and the company was great also. Thanks to my girls for making it out, I loved catching up with them and sharing some Christian Grey stories.

Happy Bday Karlos & Soph!- 28 April 2012

A huge happy birthday to my mate and mentor Karlos and his gorgeous wife Soph. If ever there was a couple I looked up to, its these two, they seem to have it all together. Not only are they are gorgeous couple they are great parents, and friends. A 80’s birthday party didn’t make much sense to me given they were born in the 70’s, but we forgive them as it was a great party. The pictures are to embarassing to post.

 
Mia’s Christening- 5 May 2012

My gorgeous friends Vicky & George christened there beautiful daughter Mia Xenia. What a cute bubs, she was so well behaved in the church in fact didn’t hear her until the very end, but at that stage we were all getting restless. Here is a picture of the cake I made for them.  This cake will haunt me for years to come. I think I spent a good hour rolling out the fondant to get it the perfect size and given it was the week I spent four days in Sydney, I did not have a spare minute. In fact placing the polka dots minutes before racing out the door was stressful to say the least. I am very happy with how it tuned out and all the guests complimented me on the taste, which is the great.


A little uneven as I mixed up my ganache recipe and I couldn't get the cake to set...dam it! Lessoned learned DO NOT RUSH KATIE.


Unfortunately my only regret is that I didn’t take a picture with all the family, oh well we have many more events to that.

Sunday Strawberry Sponge. - 10 June 2012


Winter is now here, and Melbourne seems to be getting mighty icy in the mornings. We were thrilled to be invited for lunch (actually was dinner but I stuffed up the booking and double booked myself) with our friends Joe and Lucy.  As such being the gracious guest I made a beautiful strawberry Sponge, filled with French strawberry jam and vanilla cheese and cream filling. Yummo! The fresh strawberries really made this cake a winner.


Princess Julia…. 6 months on- 16 June 2012


Many of you may recall that boxing day 2011 my cousin Julia Passed away from breast cancer. I spent a considerable amount of time with her during my university days and was always touched with how generous the entire family was to me.  


During the time that Julia was in remission we spent every second Friday enjoying lunch “Soup” down Degraves Street and sharing stories. I recall mentioning to her a while ago how I found a lump in my breast and the only reason I had even gone to the G.P for a check up was prompted by her story. At 30 years old you don’t expect a healthy individual to be struck by cancer. Julia was really upset at me, she was outraged that I hadn’t spoken to her and that I was going through the scary process of testing, ultrasounds and biopsy without telling anyone. I was taken back, here sitting before me was someone who experienced the full-blown “C” and all I had done was a biopsy that thankfully came back clear and yet she still remained humble enought to still think of other and willing to be there for her family.
To celebrate what would have been Julia 35th  Birthday I baked a vibrant heart cake with a little piggy, which was Julia’s nickname (Porky) a family joke which stuck.


With all this talk, I want to remind you to all make sure you do your own self examinations, if you are unsure how to do please consult your G.P early detection is critical and at the end of the day we are all responsible for our own health and well being.

Thanks you all for reading, blog ya soon





Friday, April 20, 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday Lucy Girl

I had the great pleasure in creating this super cute frog cake for a friends daughter. The brief was simple; it had to be "Green".  As easy as this may seem, creating a green birthday cake for a little girl is extremely challenging. The cake was a moist vanilla sour cream cake (with green food die) and a crusty buttercream icing to finishing off the cake.



It seems that all the guests and the parents included loved the cake because there wasn't that much left when we visited them later in the afternoon.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Blueberry Yoghurt Cake

I thought I misplaced this recipe when a girl friend of mine asked me to email her the details, thankfully I have typed up the specifications on my blog as a "draft". So here it is, its perfect for a melbourne winter afternoon, in fact I think I am going to make it now. I have some raspberries that I might interchange in this.

Ingredients
  1. 1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon plain flour, divided
  2. 2 teaspoons baking powder
  3. 1/2 teaspoon salt
  4. 1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
  5. 1 cup sugar
  6. 3 large eggs
  7. 2 teaspoons grated lemon zest and a teaspoon of lemon juice (approximately 2 lemons)
  8. 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  9. 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  10. 1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed
Directions:
  1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees c. Grease bottom and sides of one 9 x 5-inch loaf pans; dust with flour, tapping out excess. I prefer using a silicon mould for this cake, just ensure you adjust the time, usually takes 10 minutes less.
  2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the yogurt, sugar, eggs, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 
  4. In a separate bowl, mix the blueberries with the remaining tablespoon of flour, and fold them very gently into the batter. This will ensure that the colour doesnt run throughout the cake.
  5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing loaf to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.
  6. When cake is cool, dust with icing sugar serve with fresh berries and double cream if serving as a dessert.


You can interchange the blueberries with any other berries or fruit.







Saturday, February 25, 2012

What's up Katie? What was on my kitchen bench this week

As many of you living in Melbourne will know, this week was rather warm and not particularly favourable for fondant or ganache.  I have been continuing on with my figurine class and tried to do all my prep work before I left for Sydney on Wednesday. Sadly for me, I just could not find the time and ended up having to colour fondant late Wednesday night. Was not a happy camper.

Had another great class, feeling like I have the figurine structures down pat. There are some basic principles if you follow them then everything turns out great. I wasn't overly impressed with the head of the fairy, the one below is one that our teacher Pat (70 yo) prepared. Her face looks a little prehistoric, or possessed Im not to sure which one more. Overall turned out cute.


I also prepared some cupcakes for a birthday/ picnic for tomorrow. I wanted to really try out a new cake flavours and thought  that this was the perfect excuse to dress them up in fondant to fit the theme.
Always in a rush, I didn't let the white chocolate ganache set (silly given that it reached 40 degrees in Melbourne and it is WHITE chocolate). Luckily it wasn't for a client, otherwise I would have started again. I was really happy with the cake recipe so will have to add to the list of flavours as everyone has been asking me to add to the menu.




So welcome to the list
What's up Doc?
Moist carrot cake with white chocolate ganache or lemon white chocolate ganache.
Until next week...hope you are all staying cool !

xox 



Monday, February 20, 2012

Feeling some inspiration for Miss Angie's wedding

Super excited that in November Miss Angie L will be getting married and has asked me to make her cake. A lovely bride who trusts me completely to create something memorable, in fact so much so that the final design will be a surprise to her on her wedding day. I have known Angie for close to 15  years so I have a fair idea of what this lady is after.

Over the weekend I had some time to catch up with her and go through her inspiration and vision for her wedding day and as such have put together a collection of ideas to draw inspiration for designing her cake.


Inspirations from Ben Israel, Sharon Wee


 Cant wait to get started on decorating

Love Katie xoxo

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Meeting Mr Alan Dunn from the U.K

I had the great pleasure to attend a sugar flower demonstration with Alan Dunn from London on rainy Thursday evening. Alan has over 20 years of experience in demonstration and flower making; in fact he started when he was only 14 years old. Alan, re-told many stories of how when asked what birthday presents he wanted growing up he would always ask for cake decorating equipment, and that his teachers often asked him to make family birthday cakes which were surprisingly more impressive than they expected.


Alan is certainly an eccentric character, he taught the class with no shoes, and was sweating profusely; I don’t think he was prepared to how humid Melbourne was that evening. Alan spoke about all the trade shows he had attended in Australia as well as how much he loved the name “Myrtle” and if in fact he was to buy another cat, he would name her so. A little of topic I realise, but funny.

Alan is renowned for creating realistic flowers from sugar, he has published a number of books and had a new book soon to be released in 2012. To be honest I didn’t realise how well known he was until I sat with the 70 year old ladies from the club (yes I was the youngest in the room) who acted like teenage girls at a rock concert. The ladies were all asking me to work out how to use their Nokia mobile phones to snap pictures, it was absolutely adorable.

There is certainly a cult like following with Alan’s work and seeing him in action, I can certainly appreciate why that is. He demonstrated a Chinese Hibiscus and Orchard in 2 hours and used traditional technique to colour the fondant to bring the flowers to life. Alan was truly amazing and his work is simply beautiful, he is certainly a true artist.

Until next time happy baking-decorating

xo

KB



Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A new year and a new start for What Katie Bakes

I am super excited to officially launch the "NEW" look of What Katie Bakes. This has been a project which I have worked with my favourite advisers/consultants TT, LKG and Al for a number of weeks/months/years. A massive thank you to these ladies for helping me decided on the direction of my business venture.


Whilst the blog has only had some minor renovations, lookout over the next few weeks for some new services and the official "Business is Open Launch". That is correct, the hobby is now turning into a real business.

Can't wait to share with you all, all the ideas and things that I have been working on over the last couple of months.

Let me know what you thing of the branding...Until next time happy caking! and dont forget to "Like" the What Katie Bakes facebook page.

KB

Thursday, February 9, 2012

My baby Love, My Baby Love....

I figured it was time to get some one on one professional time, and thought that I would embark on a 6 week novelty class, tonight was the first class teaching baby booties and baby bib. Granted this was an easy one for me, it was still great to learn how to wrap a cello bag for piping, next week I will be making a fairy.

Whats on the cards for 'What Katie Bakes" you ask?
  • I am getting really excited to create my girlfriends wedding cake, with it closely approaching I am looking forward to sitting down with her and getting the full brief.
  • I am spending an evening with the winner of the Action for a Cure auction and teaching her how to create the cake and cupcake which she bidder on, we are still to lock down a date, but I think it will be organised very soon
  • My 'koumbara' also got engaged so I am really looking forward to whipping something for her celebration
  • and finally, I will be spending some time with a girlfriend of mine and teaching her how to make the now famous Blueberry yoghurt cake. I realise I am giving up my signature recipes, but its for the love of baking and I love inspiring others to follow in my footsteps, and hopefully they love it as much as I do.
Until next time.....

Happy Baking

xo KB

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Jorge's 3rd Jungle Birthday






Apologies for the belated blog post, as it appears once again juggling work and cake decorating is proving to be a challenge, and lets not forget being a domestic goddess.

Here are the final pictures of Jorge's cake, we were going for something a little more rough and rustic, so we steered clear of the traditional fondant cake and opted for something a little more kid friendly, little Jorge was wrapped with the cake, as you can see below, and we had to have a chat to him about not eating the figurines until he blew out the candle. He was absolutely thrilled with his cake.

One great lesson learnt throughout this experience is the importance of ensuring that all the items on the cake are edible, when it comes to kids cakes. The minute those candles were blown out the kids attacked the balloons and the animals....it certainly made me fell special, this was one cake that didn't go to waste. Every last bit was consumed. (yay!)

The cake was inspired by Jorge's invite and mum Tonia let me have full creative control, which always makes the job a little more enjoyable and less pressure when there are no expectations. It was a chocolate mud cake with buttercream icing.
Nounna and Nounno with Godson Jorge

Until next time happy Baking

xo KB

Friday, January 13, 2012

Its' a jungle out there....



My godson Jorge is turning 3...his birthday also coincides with our third wedding anniversary. He was the youngest attendee at our wedding, all of 3 days old. Three years later he is stll such a cutie, but very cheeky. I am really looking forward to piecing this all together for his birthday.

The theme is jungle, so I thought I would try something a little different, a buttercream character cake, inspired by all the cakes out there in the world wide web.

Finished pictures to come when the cake is baked, for now here are my star attractions drying out.

Until next time, happy baking

XoKB