You can bake it too

Learning to pipe flowers with buttercream can seem hard but with practice you will be awesome at it. Below is the perfect recipe to help you achieve beautiful buttercream flowers in no time. I love using Swiss Meringue Buttercream to pipe for a few reasons.  It produces a smooth buttercream, the consistency is perfect for piping and best of all, it's not super sweet. Here are few tips to achieve a smooth buttercream: - Ensure all equipment are clean and dry as grease or oil residue will prevent the egg whites foaming. - Any trace of egg yolks in the egg white mixture will prevent the egg whites from foaming as egg yolks are high in fat. - Butter and eggs are best at room temperature.  Butter can be taken out of the refrigerator the night before.  Very important that the butter is soft when making the buttercream to avoid lumps. - Ensure the sugar is completely dissolved before removing from the heat to avoid grainy buttercream. - Important that the meringue mixture is com...

I'm excited to be taking part again this year with #25daysofcollabs on Instagram with some amazing bakers to celebrate this festive season.  Each day since the start of December, different bakers have been involved in creating a bake from different themes. This year I've picked three themes to be part of.  Kicking off with this first theme - Christmas Candy.  When thinking about Christmas candy the first thing that comes to mind would be the famous candy canes. This Christmas Candy Cane Cake is made of a moist chocolate cake with Swiss meringue buttercream in between the layers.  The whole cake is covered in the smooth Swiss meringue buttercream and decorated with crushed candy canes, candy canes, sprinkles and a mini gingerbread man. Be sure to follow #25daysofcollabs2019 on Instagram to see all the amazing Christmas creations everyday. Happy Baking xo Christmas Candy Cane Cake Ingredients · 1½ cups plain flour · 1 cup c...

This cake was a special bake for a beautiful girl who turned fifteen.  She wanted a cake that was chocolate or maybe vanilla. I decided to combine both together and make a marbled cake with different elements of chocolate throughout the cake. This Chocolate Drip Birthday Cake is made of a delicious vanilla marbled cake and filled with a smooth chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream in between the layers.  It's covered in Swiss meringue buttercream and decorated with a chocolate drip, chocolate pieces in the middle of the cake and sprinkles of course. This cake was fun to make as you can add any of your favourite chocolates as decoration in the middle of the cake. Happy Baking xo Chocolate Drip Birthday Cake Ingredients · 60 grams unsalted butter · ¾ cup caster sugar · ¼ cup oil · 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain flour · ¾ teaspoon baking powder · ¼ teaspoon salt · 2 teaspoons vanilla extract · 2...

This cake is a special bake for my beautiful friend Sasha @sashacakeschicago  I was so sad to hear that her Instagram account was hacked and deleted recently.  As the Instagram community is amazing, we have come together and dedicated a bake to Sasha to help her rebuild her account back up. Be sure to head over and give her account a follow as her bakes are inspirational and she is so beautiful, sweet and supportive. This cake was inspired by Sasha's technique of carving out part of the cake and adding sprinkles.  I had fun trying out this technique but adding the sprinkles was not as easy as it looks. This Sprinkle Christmas Cake is made of a moist coconut cake with smooth Swiss meringue buttercream in between each layer.  The carved Christmas tree is decorated with sprinkles and the cake is dusted with icing sugar to create a snow effect. I hope you're inspired to try this technique too. Happy Baking xo Sprinkle Christmas Cake Ingredients · ...

I was so excited to be taking part in this super fun Vintage Christmas Cake collaboration on Instagram hosted by the sweet and talented Staci @stacibakesalot  Be sure to check out all the amazing bakes from everyone #vintagechristmascakecollab When I think of Vintage Christmas, I always think of a cute red car with a Christmas tree on top. This collaboration gave me the opportunity to create something I've never tried.   I'm so happy with how the cake come together.  Boy, was it challenging trying to create what I imagined and put it into cake form. This cute Vintage Christmas Cake is made of a moist coconut cake with smooth Swiss meringue buttercream in between each layer.  The design is piped using more delicious Swiss meringue buttercream and finally decorated with some sprinkles. Happy Baking xo Vintage Christmas Cake Ingredients · 2 cups self-raising flour · 1 cup caster sugar · ½ cup desiccated coconut · ¾ cup...

I'm super excited to be taking part in this special collaboration organised by Joana @sweets_by_joana to surprise Sasha @ohlalaboulangerie for her birthday on the 25th of October.  Be sure to head over to Instagram and follow #sashabirthdaytribute to see all the amazing birthday creations. I decided to make a Square Sheet Cake to celebrate Sasha's birthday. This Square Sheet Cake is made of  moist vanilla cake with white chocolate swirls.  It's decorated with a deliciously smooth Swiss meringue buttercream and finally finished with some cute sprinkles. I used a variety of piping tips to decorate the top of the cake.  The great thing with this type of decorating is it means that you can let your imagination go wild with your own unique design every time. Have you tried baking and decorating a square sheet cake?  I sure had fun decorating this cake. Happy Baking xo Square Sheet Cake Ingredients · 60 grams unsalted butter · ¾ cup c...

This was a special bake for my cousin Tam.  It was her birthday recently, so I decided to make her a cake using one of Australia's favourite biscuit, the Tim Tam. I got the idea after her sister sent her a picture of a cake called the Tam Tam cake which I thought might have been a typo and should have said the Tim Tam cake. Tim Tam is a biscuit consisting of two malt biscuits with a chocolate cream filling and finally coated in a layer of chocolate.  It's made by Arnott's, an Australian biscuit company.  Tim Tam are super delicious. This Tim Tam cake is made of four layers of super moist chocolate cake.  The layers are covered with crushed Tim Tam biscuits and chocolate ganache frosting.  It is finally decorated with a smooth chocolate Swiss meringue buttercream and decorated with sprinkles and crushed Tim Tam biscuits. Happy Baking xo Tim Tam Cake Ingredients · 1½ cups plain flour · 1 cup caster sugar · ¼ cup cocoa ...

This was a special bake for an 85th Birthday celebration.  I must be honest, I found it hard to create a cake that was not pink or girly like. I'm pretty pleased with the way the cake turned out but I did have problems along the way.  Initially, I thought I would decorate the cake to look like the classic white birthday cake.  However, after adding a little drop of purple along with the white food gel, I felt that it looked a little grey rather than white.  The little touch of purple food gel was supposed to hide the yellow tint of the buttercream.  In the end, I decided to add sky blue food gel instead. This Chocolate Drip Cake is made of a super moist chocolate cake with delicious chocolate ganache frosting in between the layers.  It is finally decorated with a chocolate drip, Swiss meringue buttercream swirls and sprinkles. Happy Baking xo Chocolate Drip Cake Ingredients · 1½ cups plain flour · 1 cup caster sugar · ...

I was lucky enough to win a competition a few months back by Arika @mypaperkitchn over on Instagram.  Arika is a very talented artist who brings to life baked creations in her drawings. I was excited to be able to do this collaboration with her.  I decided to create this Blue Sky Cake for her to draw and her finished drawing is amazing.  Be sure to check out her account. The Blue Sky Cake is made with a super moist chocolate cake with delicious Nutella in between the layers.  It is covered and decorated in a smooth Swiss meringue buttercream and some sprinkles of course. Happy Baking xo Blue Sky Cake Ingredients · 1½ cups plain flour · 1 cup caster sugar · ¼ cup cocoa powder · ¾ teaspoon baking powder · 1½ teaspoons baking soda · ½ teaspoon salt · 1 teaspoon vanilla extract · 2 eggs · ¼ cup sour cream · ½ cup buttermilk · ¾ cup strong coffee · ¼ cu...