After planning to take this course for years, I finally got around to taking a course on making French macarons.

We were paired up in teams of two and each group had to pick their own flavor. After much discussion, we went with hazelnut macarons with a passionfruit ganache filling. If the school had Baileys on hand though, it likely would have been a different flavor we made!

These are coconut macaroons...

These are Italian amaretti macaroons...

And this is the macaron the instructor made. Orange macarons with an orange cardamom ganache filling - yum!

Among the other flavors tried in the class were coffee-chocolate macarons with chocolate-coffee ganache filling, black sesame macarons, lemon and Earl Grey tea macarons and gingerbread macarons with dark chocolate ganache. I'm glad I finally got around to taking this class... now which flavor will I try to make first on my own??!

This is a triple layer carrot cake with vanilla cream cheese icing. The cake was loosely wrapped with a white chocolate collar and the base surrounded with dollops of cream cheese icing covered with chopped pecans.

The cake was topped with candied carrot curls. This was the first time I had ever candied carrots and it is a fair amount of work but the results are really pretty I think for a simple birthday cake.

Happy Birthday Ken!

We're having a potluck lunch at work for Halloween and what else would I offer to bring but dessert?! This is a white chocolate espresso torte with hazelnut praline, according to the recipe a sophisticated take on tiramisu.

The sponge cake recipe for this torte was a flop so I had to throw it out. I took my vanilla bean cake recipe and edited the recipe to make it an espresso cake. The cake layers were soaked in a Kahlua-espresso soaking syrup and topped with a layer of chocolate ganache followed by a layer of white chocolate espresso mousse. The cake was iced in more chocolate ganache and the sides coated with hazelnut praline while the top of the cake is covered in white chocolate curls.

Happy Halloween!

This cake is a sour cream chocolate cake filled and iced with a chocolate chip cookie Italian meringue buttercream and covered with a white chocolate fondant.

The flavor of this cake was left up to me so I decided that I wanted the "cookies" theme should be brought into the flavor of the cake. I baked homemade chocolate chip cookies, ground them up in the food processor and mixed them into my vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream.

It is SO good that I think chocolate chip cookie buttercream will be something I will definitely be making again!

The cake is topped with a gumpaste Cookie Monster. His "fur" was piped on with blue buttercream. The "Sesame Street" sign and lettering were done with fondant as were the bright primary colored balls that form the border of the cake. The cookies on Cookie Monster as well as on the cake board are real chocolate chip cookies.

Happy Birthday Marcus!

This cake was a sour cream chocolate cake iced in a vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream and covered with white chocolate fondant with a matching smash cake for the birthday boy to play with.

I think of all the gumpaste animals on this cake, the sheep are by far my favorite...

Although I rather like this cow too... although I'm not sure he's in a healthy position. Doing yoga, perhaps?

The fence posts are made with fondant as are the bunches of hay. The lettering was done with fondant and the "1" topper was done with gumpaste.

It's a relief to know after a two month break that I can still make cake! Now if I could only find time to do it more often...

This is a remake of a cake I did a few years back and it isn't often that I make the same cake twice! It's not exactly the same but it is close. The cake is based on the Gummibear song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astISOttCQ0).

The cake was vanilla bean sour cream cake filled and iced with a vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream and covered with white chocolate fondant.

The small gummy bears are candy and everything else (big gummibear, microphone, palm trees, star) is done with a mix of fondant and gumpaste.

Since I just started a new job that is keeping me busy, I suspect this will be my last cake for awhile! Once I learn the new job though, I imagine I'll be back in the kitchen again :)

This cake was sour cream chocolate cake iced in a vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream covered in white chocolate fondant.

The design started out as just a simple race car cake, however, it ended up being a request for a "Webber cake". I don't watch car racing so I initially had no idea what that even was!

For those who may not know, Mark Webber is an Australian Formula 1 driver who is sponsored by Red Bull and his racecar is far from simple! I couldn't get the same level of detail on the cake but I did try to add the colors, emblems, etc so that it would be similar to Webber's car.

The cake board was covered in grey fondant and the red fondant lettering was added. The cake was carved out of an 8" square of cake but pieces were added to the end of the car to make it longer. I'd estimate that it was probably 10" long by about 7" wide. The detail work and the tires were all done with fondant.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Lachlan - I hope you liked your cake!

These are chocolate chip cupcakes with chocolate Italian meringue buttercream. It was the first time I had tried this recipe and once baked, they tasted good but I found the crumb a little bit dry for my liking so I made a vanilla bean sugar syrup and soaked them to make them more moist.

The cupcake toppers are made entirely of fondant and are based on the characters from Thomas and Friends. 

This cupcake just has train tracks on it. Simple but they added a little more color to the cupcakes.

James the Red Engine.

Percy the Small Engine.

I don't often do decorated cupcakes so these were really fun and a nice change from one big cake. I hope the 3 year old birthday boy is happy with them!

This is the biggest wedding cake I've done to date! The bottom tier is 14" and it was my first time using that cake pan.

The cake is sour cream chocolate cake and each layer was filled with raspberry preserves and chocolate Italian meringue buttercream. Each tier was also crumb coated with chocolate Italian meringue buttercream.

The flowers are made with gumpaste and are tones of pink with gold centres. Gold lustre dust was used to pipe stems between some of the flowers on the cake as well.

Each tier was coated in a layer of bittersweet chocolate ganache before the flowers were applied.

This cake is definitely going to be delicious - I hope it makes the 150km drive without any issues at all! Congratulations to the couple and all the best on their wedding day!

I honestly think doing children's birthday cakes is my favorite kind of cake to make. I love how much color can be incorporated and the themes are so fun to work with!

The cake was a vanilla bean sour cream cake filled with a strawberry vanilla bean filling and iced in a vanilla bean Italian meringue buttercream. The vanilla buttercream also filled up the gaps to the edges of the cake - I just hadn't wanted any chunks of strawberry to make their way out and cause the fondant to tear or for lumps to appear.

The princess was made of gumpaste and her dress was brushed with lustre dust and steamed to give it the sheen that it has.

The tiara was made from gumpaste and some gumpaste accents were applied to it and some food coloring was painted on to add details. I used three or four shades of pink petal dust to give it the depth of colors that it has.

A variety of colors of gumpaste flowers and a handful of gumpaste butterflies completed the design. I hope it's a happy 3rd birthday for the princess!