Animal Picnic for Nadya's First Birthday

These are really old but I haven't had the time to put these photos up. My baby niece turned 1 in January. My sister-in-law made the cake and I make the toppers. So, I decided to make miniature replicas of her 3 favourite stuffed animals/doll having a picnic - Sophie the giraffe, Harriet the Hippo, and Charlie the doll. Both Harriet and Charlie were actually knitted by my mom! All the figurines were made out of fondant and other details painted on.

The finished product

The replicas and the originals

The making of Harriet and Charlie

I have to say that I wasn't too happy with Charlie. She got a little chubby. It was hard to get her to stay sitting up without compromising her girth. I used a garlic press to make her hair - easy and already available in most households!

Harriet the Hippo

Sophie the giraffe

Sophie was made out of a single piece of fondant. I have to say she's my favourite. Spots, hooves, and other details were painted on using AmeriColor Gourmet Writer Food Decorating Pens(one of my favourite and most used purchases).

Available at Iced Affair in Camperdown (http://www.icedaffair.com.au/)

Close up

Nadya and I

Cheerios outfit for Nikki's 25th

Quick post about a cake I made for my friend Nikki's 25th birthday today. She loves Glee so I made a replica of the Cheerios' cheerleading top. It was a bit of a rush job so the joints aren't as neat as I would like them to be and normally, I would have carefully measured out things and been much more accurate but I was very limited by time (and bad planning).

The interesting thing about this cake is that it is a gluten free cake made out of maize flour. I learnt today that the cornflour that is sold in our supermarkets in Sydney is completely different from the cornflour you will see in American recipes. The cornflour that we have here is in fact made out of wheat (and thus, so very not gluten free) and is really corn starch. The cake turned out alright but methinks I'm going to keep experimenting with gluten free cake recipes until I find one I really like. In the meantime, I can't wait to make cornbread with my leftover maize flour!

If you're looking for maize flour, I got it from Dr Earth Go-Vita on King Street, Newtown. It has a great range of gluten free (and other health food) items (http://tinyurl.com/3dfqlhn).