Easter Show cake 2012

Wow! I can't believe it's been almost 12 months since I last blogged here.
It has been a crazy 12 months for us as a family. So crazy we hardly even had time to sleep!
Most of the last 12 months were spent packing up house so we could move half way across the world to Malawi, Africa to do what God has called us to do for at least the next 10 years.
We have been in Malawi for 3 months now and settling well into our new life here in beautiful Africa.

That aside, what has been going on cake-wise in the past 12 months??

Well, back in March, I decided at the last minute to enter for one last time into the Sydney Royal Easter Show cake decorating competition. I knew competition would be tough this year since I've been bumped out of the 'novice' class into the 'open' class (once you win first place in one class, you need to move up to the next one) so I was a little worried that my cake would not meet the standards of the 'open' class.
Being the Easter Show, I wanted to make a cake that told the true meaning of Easter - that of the Son of God dying on the cross and rising from the dead for us. The result is a three tiered cake that depicted the story fo Christ from birth to ascension to Heaven. I didn't make this cake to win a prize so it was a nice surprise to find that I had been awarded 3rd prize! I used my $15 prize money to buy a showbag and my favourite cheese-on-a-stick at the Show :)

Cakes in the last 6 months!

Wow, it's been too long!! My apologies for being a little quiet...I just cannot believe how a year of 'not doing cakes' can still be so crazy busy!

Since my third child Micaiah was born in May, I have been busy with a few things.

The main thing has been our application with mission organisation SIM (www.sim.org.au) to work in Malawi as Christian missionaries. Finally, after much paperwork, we are finally 'official' and are working towards leaving in July 2012! For more info see www.ongsinmalawi.com

But in the midst of all that, I still found time to do a cake here or there :) Here are some things I've been working on since June but haven't had the time to update here!

JULY

Rainbow cake cones with marshmallow on top

Engagement figurines for a friend

 

Child dedication/baptism spread for a friend

Replaced our dodgey oven so resumed macaron making!

SEPTEMBER

First workshop with my baby girl!

OCTOBER

Kitchen tea cake for a friend

NOVEMBER

'Half' birthday rainbow cake for my baby girl

Spy themed figurine for a friend's daughter

Baby shower rainbow cake for a neighbour

Rainbow cake for a friend's 40th

DECEMBER

My last workshop ever before we head to Malawi next July!

Mini gingerbread house decorating with the neighbours kids

Baby Jesus cookies for my 4 year old to take to preschool

Wedding cake for a friend

Surprise peach figurines for the above wedding. Their last name is peach related!

Snowman macarons for a gathering with ex-neighbours

And last but not least... my new book!

You can purchase it from here: www.blurb.com/user/store/jong78

That's all, folks!!

Have an awesome Christmas celebrating the birth of Christ!

Love, Jo

baby-marshmallows-cake

 So... what have I been up to in the past couple of months?

1. I had a baby! 

Micaiah Joy was born on 5th May - a sister for Teaghan and Lucas.

She has a good set of lungs but is absolutely gorgeous and we love her to bits!

2. I made marshmallows!

With my oven out of order, I decided to give home made marshmallows a try.

This strawberry batch here is made with this recipe:

http://lisacampagna.blogspot.com/2009/06/boogers-and-phlegm-yum.html

Despite the disgusting name, this recipe turned out very well.

Mocha, passionfruit, and lime marshmallows for Teaghan's preschool teachers as an end of term Thank You gift.

I made these peppermint flavoured marshmallows cos I really liked this blue and thought it would go perfectly with mint flavoured marshmallows.

I made it using this egg-less marshmallow recipe:

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2008/07/homemade_marshmallows

This one turned out quite well. It was easy to make with less things to wash up but it wasn't as chewy as the recipe with egg. I think I prefer the egg recipe.

3. I made a mock cake.

I made this cake for a friend's adorable 2 year old. I made a similar cake for her 4 year old daughter when she turned 2 so it was only fitting that little bro got one too!

Sydney Royal Easter Show 2011 Cake Decorating Competition

My Sydney Royal Easter Show cake decorating competition entries

Last Supper Cake in the 'Most Creative Cake (Novice Class)' category

1st prize

I've been wanting to make this cake since last year but wasn't confident that I could pull it off. So with another year of cake decorating experience behind me, I thought I'd give it a go this year!

I really wanted to do something related to the real message of Easter - that of Jesus giving up his life to save the sins of the world. I didn't want a 'religious' looking cake. I thought the Last Supper was perfect as it is a well recognised painting.

  Japanese Udon Noodle Soup in the 'Most Creative Miniature Cake (Novice Class)' category

1st prize

Princess Cupcake Tower in the 'Most Creative Cupcakes (Open Class)' category

1st prize

 The Princesses: Tiana, Belle, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Snow White

The 'accessory' cupcakes for each of the princesses

Mummy Pig with Baby Pigs in the 'Sydney Royal Easter Show Novelty Cake (Open Class)' category

3rd prize

It was exciting to also be rewarded two other special awards:


The Bernice J Vercoe Annual Prize, supported by the Cake Decorators' Association of NSW Inc., for the most successful Exhibitor in Cake Decorating and Sugar Art.


The E Neville Jones Annual Prize for the most successful Exhibitor in the Novice Section.


For more photos of these cakes, become a fan of The Cupcake Gallery Facebook page!

Last but not least... I couldn't have done it without my beautiful family!

Thanks Pete for looking after the kids so I could work on the cakes :o)

Thanks to my two beautiful kids Teaghan and Lucas for keeping their hands off my cake table :o)

Thanks baby #3 for not arriving before the deadline :o)

and thanks God for blessing me with these exciting results which I didn't expect to receive! 

Mermaid figurine and cake pops

I made this figurine for our next door neighbour's 4th birthday. She loves Ariel and mermaids.

Her mum made the delicious chocolate-strawberry layered cake covered with buttercream frosting.

Melody the Mermaid

 Flounder and starfish

 I also made some cake pops for them to give to guests at the end of the party.

 Individually wrapped with a 'Thank you for coming to my birthday party' tag.

Happy birthday Teaghan & Lucas!

With my kids' birthdays only a month apart, we decided to have a combined birthday party this year. We invited 20 of their little friends and together celebrated Teaghan's 4th birthday and Lucas' 2nd birthday.

The party was held at our church's beautiful outdoor kids area under a canopy of trees. I'm glad I managed to grab some photos before it started bucketing down with rain!

Our challenge this year was to keep everything under a very low budget, which meant a lot of shopping around in variety shops & ebay, and making most of the things ourselves... even if it meant twirling fairy floss at 4am in the morning!! I was happy with how it all turned out.

Princess themed girls table

The mini castle cake and cupcakes with marshmallow buttercream (find the recipe here)

I couldn't resist these fairy princess cupcake toppers by Robert Gordon! Aren't they just gorgeous?

Heart cookiepops, veggie sticks with beetroot dip

Juice, jellies, and watermelon tiaras

Pink sugar coated popcorn and favour bags

Favour bags and pink fairy floss

A very happy birthday princess :o)

The cars themed boys table

Lucas' car cake and cupcakes with marshmallow buttercream

topped with more Robert Gordon cupcake toppers.

Blue sugar coated popcorn in cups

Celery and carrot cars with hummus

Traffic light cookiepops

'

Favour bags

The birthday boy downing his first bottle of juice