Well its been a while since I last blogged and lots of classes and cakes have been created.
I had a short break with family arriving from Germany and we all were tourists again at the wonderful Australia Zoo which is ever expanding and has now the African display starting to evolve.
Christmas themed classes are still available for more information visit my website for further information www.contemporarycakes.com.au
I have a christmas cake demonstration for Sunday 11th of december 1-4pm and a Christmas cake workshop Sunday 18th of December 10-4pm
Places are still available for the childrens Christmas cupcake class thursday 22nd of december, parental supervision is required.
This month I am attending the Ronald Macdonald house Christmas party, with a cupcake decorating table and get creative with the residents and parents cupcake decorating skills.
I will upload the pictures after the party.
Wishing you all a great Christmas and new year.
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Lifestyle food channel!
New website with online class bookings have now been launched and I look forward to create a quicker way for students to book into my classes.
At last a much awaited television show of mine has now begun, the world of Choccywoccydoodah!
When I lived in the Uk I was Head chef at a prestige caterers called Champagne and Caviar.We would often cater for the rich clientelle of our neighbouring Sussex counties and catered for the rich and some famous! We would often sample the delights of a wedding cake from Choccywoccydoodah and I was amazed at the design and details of the cakes and took inspiration from them.The temperature and climate is much more suitable in the UK for those works of Art but was sometimes challenging when left in a marquee during a hot summers day!so a cold room was a must.
At the time, Choccywoccydoodah was also based in Eastbourne, as well as in the mecca of Brighton and I would often stop and glance through their window and be in awe of their amazing creations.
What a fantastic show with amazing talented staff and I look forward to seeing the rest of this series.
Have a good week, Jackie.
At last a much awaited television show of mine has now begun, the world of Choccywoccydoodah!
When I lived in the Uk I was Head chef at a prestige caterers called Champagne and Caviar.We would often cater for the rich clientelle of our neighbouring Sussex counties and catered for the rich and some famous! We would often sample the delights of a wedding cake from Choccywoccydoodah and I was amazed at the design and details of the cakes and took inspiration from them.The temperature and climate is much more suitable in the UK for those works of Art but was sometimes challenging when left in a marquee during a hot summers day!so a cold room was a must.
At the time, Choccywoccydoodah was also based in Eastbourne, as well as in the mecca of Brighton and I would often stop and glance through their window and be in awe of their amazing creations.
What a fantastic show with amazing talented staff and I look forward to seeing the rest of this series.
Have a good week, Jackie.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Ronald McDonald House Gala Charity Ball Brisbane Saturday 27th of August 2011.
I am really pleased that my husband and I,as well as another couple who have supported the 2 houses in Brisbane for several years with their baked goods have been invited to attend the ball as guests of the 2 houses, here in Brisbane. I am also in the middle of creating a cake for the nights events,that will be auctioned, a cake scullptured in the shape of a Macdonalds house all made of delicious chocolate mud cake with their helping hand logo.I will post a photo once the masterpiece has been completed ! I have also offered a baking cupcake voucher to be auctioned too.
Tickets are still available to purchase
I am looking forward to booging on down on the dance floor, to the one and only Leo Sayer who is entertaining us at the ball.
( My cousin who is a London taxi driver said he picked him up once and said he was like a live wire in the taxi very chirpy! some celebrities he has ferried around say absolutely nothing!)
Ronald McDonald House Gala Charity Ball Saturday 27th of August 2011
6:30pm til midnight
$250 p/person
Bookings & Enquiries: http://www.rmhc.org.au/events/qld-gala-ball-2010
For a night with some added sparkle, please come and join us at this year’s Ronald McDonald House Charities Channel Ten Queensland Gala Ball where star-studded entertainment, great food and wine, dancing and unique auction items make it the talk of the 2011 social calendar.
Money raised on the night will assist the funding of RMHC’S current Queensland programs and go towards developing our future commitment to the following:
Ronald McDonald House – Herston
Ronald McDonald House – Mater
Ronald McDonald Family Rooms – Gold Coast
Ronald McDonald Learning Program
As McDonald’s covers all administrative and management fees associated with the charity, we guarantee that 100 cents out of every dollar raised on the night will go directly to RMHC.
Dress:
Black Tie
Tickets:
Dinner & Entertainment: $250 per person or $2500 for a table of 10
For all enquiries and to confirm your reservation to this ‘night of nights’:
Meredith Holland, RMH SEQ
M: 0439 789 344
Direct Dial: 07 3636 2221
E: meredith.holland@rmh.org.au
Have a good week, Jackie.
Tickets are still available to purchase
I am looking forward to booging on down on the dance floor, to the one and only Leo Sayer who is entertaining us at the ball.
( My cousin who is a London taxi driver said he picked him up once and said he was like a live wire in the taxi very chirpy! some celebrities he has ferried around say absolutely nothing!)
Ronald McDonald House Gala Charity Ball Saturday 27th of August 2011
6:30pm til midnight
$250 p/person
Bookings & Enquiries: http://www.rmhc.org.au/events/qld-gala-ball-2010
For a night with some added sparkle, please come and join us at this year’s Ronald McDonald House Charities Channel Ten Queensland Gala Ball where star-studded entertainment, great food and wine, dancing and unique auction items make it the talk of the 2011 social calendar.
Money raised on the night will assist the funding of RMHC’S current Queensland programs and go towards developing our future commitment to the following:
Ronald McDonald House – Herston
Ronald McDonald House – Mater
Ronald McDonald Family Rooms – Gold Coast
Ronald McDonald Learning Program
As McDonald’s covers all administrative and management fees associated with the charity, we guarantee that 100 cents out of every dollar raised on the night will go directly to RMHC.
Dress:
Black Tie
Tickets:
Dinner & Entertainment: $250 per person or $2500 for a table of 10
For all enquiries and to confirm your reservation to this ‘night of nights’:
Meredith Holland, RMH SEQ
M: 0439 789 344
Direct Dial: 07 3636 2221
E: meredith.holland@rmh.org.au
Have a good week, Jackie.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
New Cake classes listed.
New cake classes are now listed on my new cake class schedule for October, November and December.
I have created 3 new designs.The first being a Fairy cake class I have been asked many times by my students to include a figurine as part of the design so pictured to the right is a very cute beginners cake.It is designed for students who are allready familiar through practise, ganaching and covering their cakes and this class has the added skills of learning how to create a marble effect in the sugarpaste as decorated on the cake board.We also learn how to get an even rolled out 2 piece plait as well as make hand rolled roses. A very cute fairy is modelled using sugar modelling paste with a 3d wand.
The next is a Chocolate wrapped cake.This is an advanced cake workshop, not suitable for beginners.Students will learn how to make chocolate modelling paste in the class and over the next 2 days learn how to wrap their cakes, create bows and ribbon tails and beautiful roses and leaves.Photo to follow soon!
Masquerade cake .This cake is a 2 tier offset stacked cake with sugarpaste applique in the design.The use of an airbrush will be shown and each student will use an airbrush to create this stuning visual technique.Pastillage modelled masks will be made with various techniques learnt in the class, embossing, piping and creating eyelets.
Cake Pops the craze that has arrived from America and I am teaching 3 classes all quite different in the designs.
The October class we will be doing additional designs to include Halloween and with the December class Christmas themed decorations will be included.
Princess, Pirates ,cupcakes and cookies.
This class is designed for students wanting to create both designs in cupcakes as well as cookies.
Wishing you all a good week, Jackie.
I have created 3 new designs.The first being a Fairy cake class I have been asked many times by my students to include a figurine as part of the design so pictured to the right is a very cute beginners cake.It is designed for students who are allready familiar through practise, ganaching and covering their cakes and this class has the added skills of learning how to create a marble effect in the sugarpaste as decorated on the cake board.We also learn how to get an even rolled out 2 piece plait as well as make hand rolled roses. A very cute fairy is modelled using sugar modelling paste with a 3d wand.
The next is a Chocolate wrapped cake.This is an advanced cake workshop, not suitable for beginners.Students will learn how to make chocolate modelling paste in the class and over the next 2 days learn how to wrap their cakes, create bows and ribbon tails and beautiful roses and leaves.Photo to follow soon!
Masquerade cake .This cake is a 2 tier offset stacked cake with sugarpaste applique in the design.The use of an airbrush will be shown and each student will use an airbrush to create this stuning visual technique.Pastillage modelled masks will be made with various techniques learnt in the class, embossing, piping and creating eyelets.
Cake Pops the craze that has arrived from America and I am teaching 3 classes all quite different in the designs.
The October class we will be doing additional designs to include Halloween and with the December class Christmas themed decorations will be included.
Princess, Pirates ,cupcakes and cookies.
This class is designed for students wanting to create both designs in cupcakes as well as cookies.
Wishing you all a good week, Jackie.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Ekka Show
Hello everyone and I hope you have all had a great week.
Last Saturday I joined a group of lovely judges and spent the entire day at the Ekka judging the cake categories.The stewards provided beautiful morning tea, lunch and constant coffee throughout the day.What a wonderful service they provide and the extent of their hardwork I hope is recognized, thank you.
What a wonderful array of designs, colours and shapes, amazing sugar flowers used to decorate the cakes and the smell of the fruit cake as it was been cut just deliscious!
The childrens cake category was just wonderful and the standards that were achieved makes me reiteratee the potential of getting our children involved in this amazing craft.I find, when I teach childrens classes, which I run several times a year from my home based cake studio as well as my yearly sessions at Christmas at my local library, the children have no inhibitions, no doubts, they just create! We all need to encourage them and nuture them in all that they do.
Now for those that know me baking is my love and passion that began when I was a child and those gorgeous guys from Southern Cross baking group are doing what they do best, sharing their amazing skills, passion and deliscious recipes again .
Southern Cross Baking group are hosting An Introduction to Baking with Preferments visit their website to book your spot.http://www.southerncrossbakinggroup.com.au/news/bookings-open-for-first-event-of-master-class-series/
(Louis Lesaffre Cup Master Class Series)
Brett Noy will demonstrate 3 breads of the Australian Baking Team made with preferments:
•Traditional Baguette
•Decorative Baguette
•Old Style Sandwich Bread
Brett was the captain for the Australian team that competed in the Louis Lesaffre Cup, China 2011. He has real world experience on how these unique breads can fit into a production schedule.
Will McPhail will discuss technical components:
•Using bakers % in formula construction
•Introduction to the biology of sourdough
•Important aspects in controlling a leaven
Will was the coach for the Australian team competing in the Louis Lesaffre Cup, China 2011. He spends much of his time developing practical applications from technical knowledge for use in small bakeries.
At the end of this class you will have had a chance to taste a range of different breads. You will have a better understanding of this production style, recipes and technical information to better assess the benefits of baking with preferments and their role in your production.
Date: Tuesday 20th Septempber
Location: Bakels Test Bakery
Address: 100 Compton Rd
Underwood, Brisbane
Time: 9:00am - 2:00pm
This is a great session and I highly recommend it, as I attended their last bread day.
I will not be attending as I have a designer handbag class that I am teaching and I am being a handbag diva for the day!
Have a great week, Jackie.
Last Saturday I joined a group of lovely judges and spent the entire day at the Ekka judging the cake categories.The stewards provided beautiful morning tea, lunch and constant coffee throughout the day.What a wonderful service they provide and the extent of their hardwork I hope is recognized, thank you.
What a wonderful array of designs, colours and shapes, amazing sugar flowers used to decorate the cakes and the smell of the fruit cake as it was been cut just deliscious!
The childrens cake category was just wonderful and the standards that were achieved makes me reiteratee the potential of getting our children involved in this amazing craft.I find, when I teach childrens classes, which I run several times a year from my home based cake studio as well as my yearly sessions at Christmas at my local library, the children have no inhibitions, no doubts, they just create! We all need to encourage them and nuture them in all that they do.
Now for those that know me baking is my love and passion that began when I was a child and those gorgeous guys from Southern Cross baking group are doing what they do best, sharing their amazing skills, passion and deliscious recipes again .
Southern Cross Baking group are hosting An Introduction to Baking with Preferments visit their website to book your spot.http://www.southerncrossbakinggroup.com.au/news/bookings-open-for-first-event-of-master-class-series/
(Louis Lesaffre Cup Master Class Series)
Brett Noy will demonstrate 3 breads of the Australian Baking Team made with preferments:
•Traditional Baguette
•Decorative Baguette
•Old Style Sandwich Bread
Brett was the captain for the Australian team that competed in the Louis Lesaffre Cup, China 2011. He has real world experience on how these unique breads can fit into a production schedule.
Will McPhail will discuss technical components:
•Using bakers % in formula construction
•Introduction to the biology of sourdough
•Important aspects in controlling a leaven
Will was the coach for the Australian team competing in the Louis Lesaffre Cup, China 2011. He spends much of his time developing practical applications from technical knowledge for use in small bakeries.
At the end of this class you will have had a chance to taste a range of different breads. You will have a better understanding of this production style, recipes and technical information to better assess the benefits of baking with preferments and their role in your production.
Date: Tuesday 20th Septempber
Location: Bakels Test Bakery
Address: 100 Compton Rd
Underwood, Brisbane
Time: 9:00am - 2:00pm
This is a great session and I highly recommend it, as I attended their last bread day.
I will not be attending as I have a designer handbag class that I am teaching and I am being a handbag diva for the day!
Have a great week, Jackie.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Ekka week
It is that time of the year for the Brisbane Ekka and I am very honoured this year in being asked to judge the Ekkas cake competition.I am really looking forward to a sneak preview of Queensland Cake talent this Saturday prior to the shows opening.I have also sponsored a cake category and wish everyone that enters the very best .
This week has been busy with cakes and classes and emails for cake classes and bridal cake bookings.
Please remember that my classes are only small and so do fill quickly and for cake bookings I need at least 2 weeks notice for party cakes and with wedding cakes a couple of months notice.
I received the latest Modern wedding cakes from the publisher in the week, prior to it be circulated at the newsagents and was very pleased with the cakes they choose that I had submitted.
Most bridal magazines will not travel up to Queensland for photo shoots and so I have to email my photos to them. For those that know me photography is not my forte! Anyway as you know that familiar saying practise makes perfect, well then I must have been practising with the camera as the pictures look beautiful!
The magazine has a mixed array of the latest trends in designs and again a lot of colour and ruffles are at the for front in designs at the moment. Tall elegant cakes and the simple classics are also featured.
A couple of weeks ago I created a 7 tier wedding cake (actually 9 tiers as 2 tiers were double stacked!) and delivered and set this up at Versaces.
The assembly of the cakes took 2 and a half hours with every sugar flower placed in a micro flower pick.The results was a very tall beautiful cake sugar roses and sugar phaelenopsis in a beautiful venue for a beautiful couple.
One last thing .....I meet a lot of medical staff through my classes and I would really like to get their message across to all that read this blog Have you ever donated blood ? or perhaps you can consider donating?
My husband and I would regularly donated blood in the UK but due to Mad cows disease risk (and yes I know what your thinking!!!) we cannot donate here in Oz and blood supplies are an all time low.
The blood banks simply need more.Can you help change that?
Have a good week, Jackie.
This week has been busy with cakes and classes and emails for cake classes and bridal cake bookings.
Please remember that my classes are only small and so do fill quickly and for cake bookings I need at least 2 weeks notice for party cakes and with wedding cakes a couple of months notice.
I received the latest Modern wedding cakes from the publisher in the week, prior to it be circulated at the newsagents and was very pleased with the cakes they choose that I had submitted.
Most bridal magazines will not travel up to Queensland for photo shoots and so I have to email my photos to them. For those that know me photography is not my forte! Anyway as you know that familiar saying practise makes perfect, well then I must have been practising with the camera as the pictures look beautiful!
The magazine has a mixed array of the latest trends in designs and again a lot of colour and ruffles are at the for front in designs at the moment. Tall elegant cakes and the simple classics are also featured.
A couple of weeks ago I created a 7 tier wedding cake (actually 9 tiers as 2 tiers were double stacked!) and delivered and set this up at Versaces.
The assembly of the cakes took 2 and a half hours with every sugar flower placed in a micro flower pick.The results was a very tall beautiful cake sugar roses and sugar phaelenopsis in a beautiful venue for a beautiful couple.
One last thing .....I meet a lot of medical staff through my classes and I would really like to get their message across to all that read this blog Have you ever donated blood ? or perhaps you can consider donating?
My husband and I would regularly donated blood in the UK but due to Mad cows disease risk (and yes I know what your thinking!!!) we cannot donate here in Oz and blood supplies are an all time low.
The blood banks simply need more.Can you help change that?
Have a good week, Jackie.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Chocoholics day, I want to go but I have a beautiful 2 day stencilling cake class to teach!
Chocolate Appreciation Demonstration with Drew Maddison hosted by Southern Cross Baking group.
26 Jul 2011 - 9:00am-2:00pm
Town: Brisbane
Location: Bakels Test Bakery
Address: 100 Compton rd, Underwood.
Notes: Drew developed his passion for chocolate whilst working at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. In 2008 he filled the role of Technical Sales at F.Mayer Imports in the Chocolate Division. He is responsible for the Callebaut and Cacao Barry brands for Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.
The last 4 years has seen Drew complete intensive chocolate and pastry training in Belgium, France, Denmark, and Singapore. This has allowed him to further expand his position to a more technical role which involves recipe and product development, training, and judging roles.
Drew will demonstrate the following
•Chocolate Decorations
•Dipped Pralines
•Chocolate appreciation tasting of Single Origins
Cost :
$35 Members
$50 Members
Book now! http://www.southerncrossbakinggroup.com.au/events/?event_id=26
26 Jul 2011 - 9:00am-2:00pm
Town: Brisbane
Location: Bakels Test Bakery
Address: 100 Compton rd, Underwood.
Notes: Drew developed his passion for chocolate whilst working at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne. In 2008 he filled the role of Technical Sales at F.Mayer Imports in the Chocolate Division. He is responsible for the Callebaut and Cacao Barry brands for Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania.
The last 4 years has seen Drew complete intensive chocolate and pastry training in Belgium, France, Denmark, and Singapore. This has allowed him to further expand his position to a more technical role which involves recipe and product development, training, and judging roles.
Drew will demonstrate the following
•Chocolate Decorations
•Dipped Pralines
•Chocolate appreciation tasting of Single Origins
Cost :
$35 Members
$50 Members
Book now! http://www.southerncrossbakinggroup.com.au/events/?event_id=26
Cake registration of home based businesses, do you want to get your business licensed?
This weekend 2 sessions in one day.
Sunday 10th of July 2011 10 am - 1pm Cost of workshop $325 inc of gst
Setting up your home based cake business. Are you a cake hobbyist at the moment and wanting to know how to become a licensed cake operation?
Registration and licensing requirements, the varying council requirements and Enviromental health and food licensing.Regardless if you are in Logan, Brisbane or in Perth the food licensing laws are all national, the various councils have different requirements.Public liability what do you really need?What are the costs involved , food safety supervisors certificate and organising meetings with council planning and the EHO.All of this is covered in this 3 hour workshop.
If you attend both workshops a light lunch will be provided.
Sunday 10th of July 2011 2 pm -5pm Running your own cake business. Cost of workshop $325 inc of gst
In this workshop we will discuss many topics including, cake pricing, quotes, consultations, advertising, marketing .What extras can give your business the edge from all of the others.
We will discuss delivery and transporting cakes, public liability, quotes deposits and balances.You will be given a folder containing valuable information to help run your cake business.
Let me share with you my six years of Australian life and starting a new business in a new country.
Contemporary cakes Jackie Thompson 33882453
jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au
Sunday 10th of July 2011 10 am - 1pm Cost of workshop $325 inc of gst
Setting up your home based cake business. Are you a cake hobbyist at the moment and wanting to know how to become a licensed cake operation?
Registration and licensing requirements, the varying council requirements and Enviromental health and food licensing.Regardless if you are in Logan, Brisbane or in Perth the food licensing laws are all national, the various councils have different requirements.Public liability what do you really need?What are the costs involved , food safety supervisors certificate and organising meetings with council planning and the EHO.All of this is covered in this 3 hour workshop.
If you attend both workshops a light lunch will be provided.
Sunday 10th of July 2011 2 pm -5pm Running your own cake business. Cost of workshop $325 inc of gst
In this workshop we will discuss many topics including, cake pricing, quotes, consultations, advertising, marketing .What extras can give your business the edge from all of the others.
We will discuss delivery and transporting cakes, public liability, quotes deposits and balances.You will be given a folder containing valuable information to help run your cake business.
Let me share with you my six years of Australian life and starting a new business in a new country.
Contemporary cakes Jackie Thompson 33882453
jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Cake baking tips.
I received the following email and wanted to share this with you all.
Hi Jackie,
I am having many problems cooking a cake that I have done many times before. I am at the point of tearing my hair out and would appreciate any help you could give. It is a Womens Weekly cake that I have cooked about 6 times in the old oven and twice successfully in the new oven. It is the one I sent you a photo of with the "J" on the front.
I am having many problems - from being overcooked on the outside to being not cooked in the centre or completely hollow. I believe these issues to be temperature related and I have varied the temp, the length of cooking time, the size of the eggs, added more flour. I don't know what else to do.
If a recipe states that it is for a 20cm round tin - is it ok to use a 20cm square tin? I can't locate my round tin in the renovations we are doing from the floods but am tempted to go buy another one just to trial it.
I hope this email finds you and your family well.
Thank you for your time, Ann.
Hi Ann,
I am sorry to hear that some cakes are not consistant.The first thing is to check the oven temperature and so you will need to buy an oven thermometer to check this.
If the cakes are overcooking on the outside and raw in the centre the oven is simply too hot.
Some ovens cook too quickly and so when the cake has formed a crust you can cover this with a piece of baking paper and a wooden spoon and this will slow the overbaking.
A "6"square tin has more volume than a 6"round tin, fill a 6"round tin with water to the level you would fill it with cake mixture and then pour it into the square you will then see you would need more mix to fill it, they are not the same quantity.
Are you pre warming your oven?
Are you measuring your eggs? or does the recipe say 3 eggs? If so they should be 50 g eggs not super dooper X large eggs.
Are the eggs fresh within use by date? the yolks should be nice and pert and the whites jelly like and not watery.
Are all the ingredients at room temperature before starting ?
Are you correctly weighing all the ingredients?Always sift the flour to add airation as flour is sometimes over a year old.
If the oven is over browning the cakes a small oven proof dish, ramekin, can be placed on a shelf with some water in it and this will create a moist vapour and slow down overcolouring of the cake.
Is the cake in the centre shelf of the oven? do not overcrowd the oven.
I hope this helps and I may have to put this on my cake blog as this is a common problem that cake makers have but if we create with the above guidelines we should be achieving beautifully baked cakes, fingers crossed!
Let me know of your outcome.
Have a good week, Jackie.
If you have any questions about baking just send me an email and I will reply on my blog to share with everyone too.
jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au
Hi Jackie,
I am having many problems cooking a cake that I have done many times before. I am at the point of tearing my hair out and would appreciate any help you could give. It is a Womens Weekly cake that I have cooked about 6 times in the old oven and twice successfully in the new oven. It is the one I sent you a photo of with the "J" on the front.
I am having many problems - from being overcooked on the outside to being not cooked in the centre or completely hollow. I believe these issues to be temperature related and I have varied the temp, the length of cooking time, the size of the eggs, added more flour. I don't know what else to do.
If a recipe states that it is for a 20cm round tin - is it ok to use a 20cm square tin? I can't locate my round tin in the renovations we are doing from the floods but am tempted to go buy another one just to trial it.
I hope this email finds you and your family well.
Thank you for your time, Ann.
Hi Ann,
I am sorry to hear that some cakes are not consistant.The first thing is to check the oven temperature and so you will need to buy an oven thermometer to check this.
If the cakes are overcooking on the outside and raw in the centre the oven is simply too hot.
Some ovens cook too quickly and so when the cake has formed a crust you can cover this with a piece of baking paper and a wooden spoon and this will slow the overbaking.
A "6"square tin has more volume than a 6"round tin, fill a 6"round tin with water to the level you would fill it with cake mixture and then pour it into the square you will then see you would need more mix to fill it, they are not the same quantity.
Are you pre warming your oven?
Are you measuring your eggs? or does the recipe say 3 eggs? If so they should be 50 g eggs not super dooper X large eggs.
Are the eggs fresh within use by date? the yolks should be nice and pert and the whites jelly like and not watery.
Are all the ingredients at room temperature before starting ?
Are you correctly weighing all the ingredients?Always sift the flour to add airation as flour is sometimes over a year old.
If the oven is over browning the cakes a small oven proof dish, ramekin, can be placed on a shelf with some water in it and this will create a moist vapour and slow down overcolouring of the cake.
Is the cake in the centre shelf of the oven? do not overcrowd the oven.
I hope this helps and I may have to put this on my cake blog as this is a common problem that cake makers have but if we create with the above guidelines we should be achieving beautifully baked cakes, fingers crossed!
Let me know of your outcome.
Have a good week, Jackie.
If you have any questions about baking just send me an email and I will reply on my blog to share with everyone too.
jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Brisbane Ekka Show.
I am very pleased to anounce I have been asked to judge the Contemporary Cake category at the Brisbane Ekka Show.
For those wanting to know how to enter their baked goodies or created decorated cakes click onto the below link., childrens categories also available too.
This is the link for the Brisbane Ekka show.
http://www.rna.org.au/royal-qld-show.aspx
I look forward to seeing all those beautiful entries.
Have a great week, Jackie.
For those wanting to know how to enter their baked goodies or created decorated cakes click onto the below link., childrens categories also available too.
This is the link for the Brisbane Ekka show.
http://www.rna.org.au/royal-qld-show.aspx
I look forward to seeing all those beautiful entries.
Have a great week, Jackie.
Queensland Cake Decorators Ässociation Show.
Friday 24th June 2011 11.30am- 4pm, Saturday 25th June 9 am -4pm and Sunday 26th of June 2011 9am -3pm at the Auditorium Mt Coot-tha Gardens, Brisbane.
Adults $3, Pensioners and students $1 and ankle biters free!
Cake decorating techniques and demonstrations will be featured throughout each day.
Come and view Queenslands talent and a chance to grab a cuppa and a slice of cake and purchase some cake decorating goodies.
Come and have a look at all your local talented cake decorators creations.
This years group displays are Australian Native Flowers in sugar.
Adults $3, Pensioners and students $1 and ankle biters free!
Cake decorating techniques and demonstrations will be featured throughout each day.
Come and view Queenslands talent and a chance to grab a cuppa and a slice of cake and purchase some cake decorating goodies.
Come and have a look at all your local talented cake decorators creations.
This years group displays are Australian Native Flowers in sugar.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
June 2011
Last week myself and Sharnee Rawson. a previous contestant from Masterchef had the delightful task of tasting and judging some very tasty morsels.I donated a shooting stars cake that was then auctioned to raise much needed funds and I also offerered a gift voucher for one of my beginners classes, to the novelty cake category.The entries were both equally spectacular so I ended up giving the contestants a voucher each and I look for ward to them attending a class very soon.
Talking of classes I have just listed my next 3 month cake class calendar with some additional children and teenager baking cupcake classes for the July holidays.I have also introduced some sweet baking classes of whoopie pies, decadent deliscious desserts and a zesty lemon day of baking to!
*********Wednesday 6th of July2011
Childrens animal cupcakes.Cost of class $250 10-4pm( 8 to 14) years) Adult supervision will be required.
This class is for children to learn how to bake cupcakes from scratch.With the help of adult supervision, they will then decorate the cakes with animal themes.Modelling Making faces of elephants zebras, lions and monkeys a great way of being creative with food.The cupcakes will be boxed to take home and will guarantee a roar once the box is opened!
A light lunch and refreshments are provided.
********Thursday 7th of July 2011
Animal cupcakes. Teenage cupcake class 10am-4pm $250 Year 10,11or 12 students.
This class is for teenagers to learn how to bake cupcakes from scratch.
You will then decorate the cakes with animal themes.Modelling faces of elephant,s zebras, lions and monkeys a great way of being creative with food.The cupcakes will be boxed to take home and will guarantee a roar once the box is opened!
A light lunch and refreshments are provided.
*********Friday 8th of July 2011Teenage cupcake classPirate and treasure cupcake workshop .
10am-4pm $250 Year 10, 11or 12 students.
This class is for teenagers to learn how to bake cupcakes from scratch.
You will then decorate the cakes with sugar paste and create pirate faces , treasure chests, gold trinkets and more! aaarrrrh!!!!
A light lunch and refreshments are provided.
Talking of classes I have just listed my next 3 month cake class calendar with some additional children and teenager baking cupcake classes for the July holidays.I have also introduced some sweet baking classes of whoopie pies, decadent deliscious desserts and a zesty lemon day of baking to!
*********Wednesday 6th of July2011
Childrens animal cupcakes.Cost of class $250 10-4pm( 8 to 14) years) Adult supervision will be required.
This class is for children to learn how to bake cupcakes from scratch.With the help of adult supervision, they will then decorate the cakes with animal themes.Modelling Making faces of elephants zebras, lions and monkeys a great way of being creative with food.The cupcakes will be boxed to take home and will guarantee a roar once the box is opened!
A light lunch and refreshments are provided.
********Thursday 7th of July 2011
Animal cupcakes. Teenage cupcake class 10am-4pm $250 Year 10,11or 12 students.
This class is for teenagers to learn how to bake cupcakes from scratch.
You will then decorate the cakes with animal themes.Modelling faces of elephant,s zebras, lions and monkeys a great way of being creative with food.The cupcakes will be boxed to take home and will guarantee a roar once the box is opened!
A light lunch and refreshments are provided.
*********Friday 8th of July 2011Teenage cupcake classPirate and treasure cupcake workshop .
10am-4pm $250 Year 10, 11or 12 students.
This class is for teenagers to learn how to bake cupcakes from scratch.
You will then decorate the cakes with sugar paste and create pirate faces , treasure chests, gold trinkets and more! aaarrrrh!!!!
A light lunch and refreshments are provided.
Monday, May 23, 2011
PAs Biggest morning tea,
Join me this wednesday 25th at PA's Biggest morning tea,12pm start, main foyer.
Princess Alexandra Hospital, 199 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba .
Are you a budding chef in the making?
Do you have a winning recipe?
...Enter your best Cake, Slice/Biscuit or novelty cake in the Bake Off.
HOSTED & JUDGED BY Masterchef Contestant SHARNEE RAWSON and JACKIE THOMPSON of Contemporary Cakes.
Princess Alexandra Hospital, 199 Ipswich Road, Woolloongabba .
Are you a budding chef in the making?
Do you have a winning recipe?
...Enter your best Cake, Slice/Biscuit or novelty cake in the Bake Off.
HOSTED & JUDGED BY Masterchef Contestant SHARNEE RAWSON and JACKIE THOMPSON of Contemporary Cakes.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Queensland floods 3 months on the road to recovery
Join me at Bakels for a cookie workshop to raise money for the floods, please support me in this event.
Join Jackie Thompson of Contemporary Cakes in a Cake Decorating fund raiser for the
Flood appeal. Saturday 7th of May 10- 4pm.
Hosted at Bakels 100,Compton Rd Underwood.
Cost of the day $200
All monies raised 100% will be going to the flood victims to purchase white goods. Dominique Rizzo from Ready Steady Cook will be talking about her soon to be published book, her recent travels overseas and why she loves to bake and cook.
Bakels rep. John will also be talking about their products that cake decorators can use.
Relish owner Leslie from the Logan Hyperdome will be donating a gift to our raffle as well also chocolate goodies donated from Jimele.
Gary, from The Packing Place will be showing us the latest trends in packaging and transporting cookies and cupcakes with some beautiful ribbons too.
I will also be donating a gift voucher to the value of $325 for a cake class.
Please bring a packed lunch and refreshments will be provided.
We will decorate already baked cookies, learn how to stencil the cookies using royal icing and then package them to take home. Readymade gifts for Mothers day! with other goodie bags to take home'.
To book your place please email me jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au 33882453
Join me at Bakels for a cookie workshop to raise money for the floods, please support me in this event.
Join Jackie Thompson of Contemporary Cakes in a Cake Decorating fund raiser for the
Flood appeal. Saturday 7th of May 10- 4pm.
Hosted at Bakels 100,Compton Rd Underwood.
Cost of the day $200
All monies raised 100% will be going to the flood victims to purchase white goods. Dominique Rizzo from Ready Steady Cook will be talking about her soon to be published book, her recent travels overseas and why she loves to bake and cook.
Bakels rep. John will also be talking about their products that cake decorators can use.
Relish owner Leslie from the Logan Hyperdome will be donating a gift to our raffle as well also chocolate goodies donated from Jimele.
Gary, from The Packing Place will be showing us the latest trends in packaging and transporting cookies and cupcakes with some beautiful ribbons too.
I will also be donating a gift voucher to the value of $325 for a cake class.
Please bring a packed lunch and refreshments will be provided.
We will decorate already baked cookies, learn how to stencil the cookies using royal icing and then package them to take home. Readymade gifts for Mothers day! with other goodie bags to take home'.
To book your place please email me jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au 33882453
Monday, April 11, 2011
Queensland flood appeal cookie class.
The great South East show was aired Sunday 3rd of April and I was overwelmed with wonderful emails congratulating me on my cakes, thank you.
I hope I have now answered all 200+ emails and have almost caught up with the answerphone.I look forward to meeting you all at your classes.
This past weekend I began the first of my business workshops.If you are wanting to get advice on registering a home based business or learn better ways of growing your cake business then check out my June cake class schedule.
Stage 2 big fundraising! Next month Bakels will be hosting Contemporay Cakes (me!) with a cookie workshop to raise money for the floods, please support this event.
Queensland floods 3 months on the road to recovery.
Join me Jackie Thompson of Contemporary Cakes in a Cake Decorating fund raiser for the
Flood appeal. Saturday 7th of May 10- 4pm.
Hosted at Bakels 100,Compton Rd Underwood.
Cost of the day $200
All monies raised 100% will be going to the flood victims to purchase white goods. Dominique Rizzo from Ready Steady Cook will be talking about her soon to be published book, her recent travels overseas and why she loves to bake and cook.
Bakels rep. John will also be talking about their products that cake decorators can use.
Relish owner Leslie from the Logan Hyperdome will be donating a gift to our raffle as well also chocolate goodies donated from Jimele.
Gary, from The Packing Place will be showing us the latest trends in packaging and transporting cookies and cupcakes with some beautiful ribbons too.
I will also be donating a gift voucher to the value of $325 for a cake class.
Please bring a packed lunch and refreshments will be provided.
We will decorate already baked cookies, learn how to stencil the cookies using royal icing and then package them to take home. Readymade gifts for Mothers day!
To book your place please email me jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au
I hope I have now answered all 200+ emails and have almost caught up with the answerphone.I look forward to meeting you all at your classes.
This past weekend I began the first of my business workshops.If you are wanting to get advice on registering a home based business or learn better ways of growing your cake business then check out my June cake class schedule.
Stage 2 big fundraising! Next month Bakels will be hosting Contemporay Cakes (me!) with a cookie workshop to raise money for the floods, please support this event.
Queensland floods 3 months on the road to recovery.
Join me Jackie Thompson of Contemporary Cakes in a Cake Decorating fund raiser for the
Flood appeal. Saturday 7th of May 10- 4pm.
Hosted at Bakels 100,Compton Rd Underwood.
Cost of the day $200
All monies raised 100% will be going to the flood victims to purchase white goods. Dominique Rizzo from Ready Steady Cook will be talking about her soon to be published book, her recent travels overseas and why she loves to bake and cook.
Bakels rep. John will also be talking about their products that cake decorators can use.
Relish owner Leslie from the Logan Hyperdome will be donating a gift to our raffle as well also chocolate goodies donated from Jimele.
Gary, from The Packing Place will be showing us the latest trends in packaging and transporting cookies and cupcakes with some beautiful ribbons too.
I will also be donating a gift voucher to the value of $325 for a cake class.
Please bring a packed lunch and refreshments will be provided.
We will decorate already baked cookies, learn how to stencil the cookies using royal icing and then package them to take home. Readymade gifts for Mothers day!
To book your place please email me jackie@contemporarycakes.com.au
Monday, March 21, 2011
What a week!
Last weekend my husband and I attended the 101FM Live and Local Logan business show.
The Albert and Logan came out to my cake studio and I posed for the front cover( in an Ace Ventura Pet Detective cover !)
I attended several networking workshops and had a varied time, what I mean by that it was a bit of an eye opener.
I listened to amazing inspiring speakers and attended the Fridays morning breakfast network meeting.
I sat at the back of the marque during the breakfast and a young woman stood up and spoke about cancer and how it had affected her family.She told us of her son that had passed away to cancer at such a young age and told us of how she set up a charity, I could just about hear what she was saying as the speakers could have been louder and the 3 tables behind were non stop chattering.With sevearal people glancing back at them , the chatting just continued in the end I got up and asked them could they keep their chatting down , there response was that they could not hear anything themselves.I replied we can just about hear if they were to be quiet!
Why do people bother attending these events and chatter through them? Why not just go to the Coffee club?if then want to have a chin wag and a bite to eat? That lady deserved for that room to all be quiet, where is the respect? Okay rant over!
I also attended a talk by John Anderson of Contiki tours empire a wonderful inspiring ongoing story and I bought his book,Only 2 seats left. A funny wonderful and inspiring read.John received a standing ovation at the end of his talk.
Friday evening I went home and baked just under 400 cupcakes by 1.30am they were decorated and boxed and ready for Saturdays show! My 2 wonderful apprentices,Matt and Adam assisting!
We raised just under $700 for the flood appeal and I also sold boxes of 24 to the various companies that attended.
I met a real lovely group of guys that were filming small businesses and we had to film for a minute( in my case or two!) and my husband answered the visitors questions with a knowledge that even dazzled me!
He explained all about the different classes , the different levels and what they will get up to and how pleased they will be when they leave with their finished cakes ! He is now back in my good books after The Junior Masterched incident( for those that know wink wink!)
Anyway I met some fantastic businesses and a lovely Logan Mayor who was very thought provoking and inspired me and best of all I had a message on my answerphone on Friday afternoon from Paul the producer of the Great South East Show that the cup cake class that they recorded will be aired Sunday 3rd of April Wa hoo!
I have also received nominations for Quest business achiever awards so if you would like to vote for me can you click onto the link below, thank you and have a really good week.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.questawards.com.au%2F&h=88fce
The Albert and Logan came out to my cake studio and I posed for the front cover( in an Ace Ventura Pet Detective cover !)
I attended several networking workshops and had a varied time, what I mean by that it was a bit of an eye opener.
I listened to amazing inspiring speakers and attended the Fridays morning breakfast network meeting.
I sat at the back of the marque during the breakfast and a young woman stood up and spoke about cancer and how it had affected her family.She told us of her son that had passed away to cancer at such a young age and told us of how she set up a charity, I could just about hear what she was saying as the speakers could have been louder and the 3 tables behind were non stop chattering.With sevearal people glancing back at them , the chatting just continued in the end I got up and asked them could they keep their chatting down , there response was that they could not hear anything themselves.I replied we can just about hear if they were to be quiet!
Why do people bother attending these events and chatter through them? Why not just go to the Coffee club?if then want to have a chin wag and a bite to eat? That lady deserved for that room to all be quiet, where is the respect? Okay rant over!
I also attended a talk by John Anderson of Contiki tours empire a wonderful inspiring ongoing story and I bought his book,Only 2 seats left. A funny wonderful and inspiring read.John received a standing ovation at the end of his talk.
Friday evening I went home and baked just under 400 cupcakes by 1.30am they were decorated and boxed and ready for Saturdays show! My 2 wonderful apprentices,Matt and Adam assisting!
We raised just under $700 for the flood appeal and I also sold boxes of 24 to the various companies that attended.
I met a real lovely group of guys that were filming small businesses and we had to film for a minute( in my case or two!) and my husband answered the visitors questions with a knowledge that even dazzled me!
He explained all about the different classes , the different levels and what they will get up to and how pleased they will be when they leave with their finished cakes ! He is now back in my good books after The Junior Masterched incident( for those that know wink wink!)
Anyway I met some fantastic businesses and a lovely Logan Mayor who was very thought provoking and inspired me and best of all I had a message on my answerphone on Friday afternoon from Paul the producer of the Great South East Show that the cup cake class that they recorded will be aired Sunday 3rd of April Wa hoo!
I have also received nominations for Quest business achiever awards so if you would like to vote for me can you click onto the link below, thank you and have a really good week.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.questawards.com.au%2F&h=88fce
Sunday, March 6, 2011
New Cake Classes
Just to let you know there are new classes for April, May and June. Including kids Easter cookies and kids Easter cupcake workshops, Mothers day cake class listed for the Friday, before Mothers day. I have also listed baking macaroon towers and croquembouche towers too.
visit http://www.contemporarycakes.com.au/ and click onto the cake classes.
For all who know me , I am really passionate about my cakes and it has been wonderful to receive emails and letters from my recent students, that have attended my classes, thanking me.
I know some of you are a little nervous when you arrive for your class but as soon as you enter my cake studio and as I say Welcome to my office! the fun begins.
My classes are small, why because that is how I like them!
I could have groups of 10 students and squeeze you in like sardines and I know plenty of cake schools that do but my cake room is large and spacious and could fit 10!
However I want every student to walk away pleased with their cakes and most importantly, have found a new passion in what they now do. So if you like my classes please do not be afraid to mention it on the cake forums,discussion boards and to your friends on Facebook.
Many students that I have met through my classes or at my local library demonstrations ask me how they can eventually have their own business from home so I have listed the following workshops to help them to do so.
Setting up your home based cake business.
Are you a cake hobbyist at the moment and wanting to know how to become a home based licensed cake operation? 3 hour workshop Cost $275
Registration and licensing requirements, the varying council requirements and Enviromental health and food licensing. Regardless if you are in Logan, Brisbane or in Perth the food licensing laws are all national, the various coucils have different requirements. Public liability what do you really need. What are the costs involved, food safety supervisors certificate and organising meetings with council planning and the EHO.All of this is covered in this 3 hour workshop. Please check calendar schedule for listings. Please note if you rent your home, a home based business is not possible.
Running your own cake business 3 hour workshop Cost $275
In this workshop we will discuss many topics including, cake pricing, quotes, consultations, advertising, marketing .What extras can give your business the edge from all of the others.
We will discuss delivery and transporting cakes, public liability, quotes deposits and balances. You will be given a folder containing valuable information to help run your cake business.
Let me share with you my six years of Australian life and starting a new business in a new country.
I have had a few busy weeks with baking and fundraising at the same time.A few cancellations due the floods and weddings rebooked for later dates.For those still recovering from the floods I wish you all well and look forward to creating your cakes in sunnier times.
I have been busy creating quite a few novelty cakes and will post a few of my latest creations.
visit http://www.contemporarycakes.com.au/ and click onto the cake classes.
For all who know me , I am really passionate about my cakes and it has been wonderful to receive emails and letters from my recent students, that have attended my classes, thanking me.
I know some of you are a little nervous when you arrive for your class but as soon as you enter my cake studio and as I say Welcome to my office! the fun begins.
My classes are small, why because that is how I like them!
I could have groups of 10 students and squeeze you in like sardines and I know plenty of cake schools that do but my cake room is large and spacious and could fit 10!
However I want every student to walk away pleased with their cakes and most importantly, have found a new passion in what they now do. So if you like my classes please do not be afraid to mention it on the cake forums,discussion boards and to your friends on Facebook.
Many students that I have met through my classes or at my local library demonstrations ask me how they can eventually have their own business from home so I have listed the following workshops to help them to do so.
Setting up your home based cake business.
Are you a cake hobbyist at the moment and wanting to know how to become a home based licensed cake operation? 3 hour workshop Cost $275
Registration and licensing requirements, the varying council requirements and Enviromental health and food licensing. Regardless if you are in Logan, Brisbane or in Perth the food licensing laws are all national, the various coucils have different requirements. Public liability what do you really need. What are the costs involved, food safety supervisors certificate and organising meetings with council planning and the EHO.All of this is covered in this 3 hour workshop. Please check calendar schedule for listings. Please note if you rent your home, a home based business is not possible.
Running your own cake business 3 hour workshop Cost $275
In this workshop we will discuss many topics including, cake pricing, quotes, consultations, advertising, marketing .What extras can give your business the edge from all of the others.
We will discuss delivery and transporting cakes, public liability, quotes deposits and balances. You will be given a folder containing valuable information to help run your cake business.
Let me share with you my six years of Australian life and starting a new business in a new country.
I have had a few busy weeks with baking and fundraising at the same time.A few cancellations due the floods and weddings rebooked for later dates.For those still recovering from the floods I wish you all well and look forward to creating your cakes in sunnier times.
I have been busy creating quite a few novelty cakes and will post a few of my latest creations.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Fundraising for the Floods
The last few weeks the Cake Gossip group has been busy with baking cupcakes, we baked 450 +
Jen Yap, Jenny and Hannah Wegner,Kellie and Sarah Ivory and Tiffanee and Brittany Coombes and Adam my handsome son ( he never reads my blogs anyway!) all mixed, spooned, baked and decorated one way or another beautiful rainbow swirls of cupcakes.
We then delivered them direct to some of the flood victims that were being housed temporarily at Warwick show ground at Ipswich.The weather was lovely as we left Daisy Hill but as we got closer we had torrential rain , strong winds and as we approached Ipswich a storm came through and our visibility to drive the cars was almost nil. We stopped several times as the roads had huge pot holes and I could not see the road markings! We eventually found the venue and delivered all the cupcakes and I realised then we were just scratching the surface of this huge life altering terrible experience to the families we saw.
We all wanted to help directly again so we put our ideas together and Tiffanee and Jenny thought about baking and selling cupcakes to local businesses.We then realised some businesses in fact all businesses have been affected in some way and so this might be putting more strain on them, by phoning around and asking them to buy the cupcakes, so we thought about having a cupcake stall, I mean how hard can this be with the amount of sausage sizzles every weekend at lots of stores?
Well our first point of call was at our local shopping centres.The cake gossip group are all cake makers based in and around Springwood, Beenleigh,Shailer park and southside of Brisbane.
So we called the Logan Hyperdome shopping centre and Springwood Centro shopping centre and they all said no as it was a conflict of interests as they had cupcake, cake shops and cafes.
I contacted Harvey Norman and they said yes as did Officeworks and eventually Bunnings agreed but we were looking for a busy indoor and air conditioned place( because of the cakes !) okay because we wanted to be cool!
Then I thought of contacting my favourite store Ikea ( who are not my favourite store now!) and they said no as they have allready helped with donations.
Kellie contacted Riverlink Shopping centre at Ipswich , which had been flooded and was under water, less than 2 weeks ago and yet was having a fund raising day with facepainting and activities and said a big Yes to us Wahooooo! With a bit of paperwork and uping my public liability to 20 million its easier to write the number then work out all the zeros! we had a venue! and yes they have coffe shops, cake stores and cafes too!
So On Friday Jenny turned up at 7.30am ( for those who know me I do not do early mornings and yes I know half of Australia have allready been awake for a few hours! I am more of a night owl! ) (That was a hoot!) and we got making the cupcakes and with a production line of baking and then Kellie and Jen arrived after the school run we went into baking and decorating mode. We spend almost the whole day and by 4pm the cupcakes were all boxed up ready for the next day. We made vanilla cupcakes and chocolate chip.
Albert and Logan came out to write about what we were doing and take a photo see link below
Click Here for paper article
A BIG Thank You.
We had donations of beautiful cupcake boxes from http://www.packagingplace.com.au/ thank you to Gary and his wife for delivering and donating them.( They are relocating to bigger and better premises which is great news.)
and our donation of yummy chocolate from Jimele http://www.jimele.com.au/
Driving through Ipswich it still looked like they had a lot more cleaning and repairs to do and you could see the level where the water had risen.We arrived at 8.30am Riverlink Shopping centre, the escalators were still not working or the lifts and my husband Matt and son Adam and I were met with a lovely warm welcome from one of the security girls( must have been all the boxes of cupcakes?) and we met with the other girls, Jenny and her husband Lindsay Kellie and her husband Don and daughter Sarah, we all got busy setting up the tables.What beautiful cupcakes and they all sold within 2 hours.We raised $1220 what a beautiful result.
We met lots of people that were blown away, when they found out that we had travelled from Springwood to help raise funds and it was going direct to the flood affected.We explained all our local shopping centres could not help and so we called further afield and we were all very pleased to help.
This shopping centre had been under water, the town and it surrounding areas flooded and yet a few weeks later was fundraising! and all the local residents came out to support this and they themselves had been terribly affected and so it was really good to be a part of that.
Today Kellie and I went and purchased with the money raised, 3 lovely fridge freezers for the Lockyer Valley flood victims, from our cupcake fundraiser on Saturday. They will be delivered to the families free of charge from The Good Guys.
What can I do next?
I am planning on a cake decorating fundraiser so that we can all meet up raise money and further our cake decorating skills all in one day and meet with other like minded cake decorators. All monies will go to the flood appeal, not just a percentage but 100% I will be posting more info soon on this blog and on facebook.
I like this quote I read recently "Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever."
Have a good week xxxx
Jen Yap, Jenny and Hannah Wegner,Kellie and Sarah Ivory and Tiffanee and Brittany Coombes and Adam my handsome son ( he never reads my blogs anyway!) all mixed, spooned, baked and decorated one way or another beautiful rainbow swirls of cupcakes.
We then delivered them direct to some of the flood victims that were being housed temporarily at Warwick show ground at Ipswich.The weather was lovely as we left Daisy Hill but as we got closer we had torrential rain , strong winds and as we approached Ipswich a storm came through and our visibility to drive the cars was almost nil. We stopped several times as the roads had huge pot holes and I could not see the road markings! We eventually found the venue and delivered all the cupcakes and I realised then we were just scratching the surface of this huge life altering terrible experience to the families we saw.
We all wanted to help directly again so we put our ideas together and Tiffanee and Jenny thought about baking and selling cupcakes to local businesses.We then realised some businesses in fact all businesses have been affected in some way and so this might be putting more strain on them, by phoning around and asking them to buy the cupcakes, so we thought about having a cupcake stall, I mean how hard can this be with the amount of sausage sizzles every weekend at lots of stores?
Well our first point of call was at our local shopping centres.The cake gossip group are all cake makers based in and around Springwood, Beenleigh,Shailer park and southside of Brisbane.
So we called the Logan Hyperdome shopping centre and Springwood Centro shopping centre and they all said no as it was a conflict of interests as they had cupcake, cake shops and cafes.
I contacted Harvey Norman and they said yes as did Officeworks and eventually Bunnings agreed but we were looking for a busy indoor and air conditioned place( because of the cakes !) okay because we wanted to be cool!
Then I thought of contacting my favourite store Ikea ( who are not my favourite store now!) and they said no as they have allready helped with donations.
Kellie contacted Riverlink Shopping centre at Ipswich , which had been flooded and was under water, less than 2 weeks ago and yet was having a fund raising day with facepainting and activities and said a big Yes to us Wahooooo! With a bit of paperwork and uping my public liability to 20 million its easier to write the number then work out all the zeros! we had a venue! and yes they have coffe shops, cake stores and cafes too!
So On Friday Jenny turned up at 7.30am ( for those who know me I do not do early mornings and yes I know half of Australia have allready been awake for a few hours! I am more of a night owl! ) (That was a hoot!) and we got making the cupcakes and with a production line of baking and then Kellie and Jen arrived after the school run we went into baking and decorating mode. We spend almost the whole day and by 4pm the cupcakes were all boxed up ready for the next day. We made vanilla cupcakes and chocolate chip.
Albert and Logan came out to write about what we were doing and take a photo see link below
Click Here for paper article
A BIG Thank You.
We had donations of beautiful cupcake boxes from http://www.packagingplace.com.au/ thank you to Gary and his wife for delivering and donating them.( They are relocating to bigger and better premises which is great news.)
and our donation of yummy chocolate from Jimele http://www.jimele.com.au/
Driving through Ipswich it still looked like they had a lot more cleaning and repairs to do and you could see the level where the water had risen.We arrived at 8.30am Riverlink Shopping centre, the escalators were still not working or the lifts and my husband Matt and son Adam and I were met with a lovely warm welcome from one of the security girls( must have been all the boxes of cupcakes?) and we met with the other girls, Jenny and her husband Lindsay Kellie and her husband Don and daughter Sarah, we all got busy setting up the tables.What beautiful cupcakes and they all sold within 2 hours.We raised $1220 what a beautiful result.
We met lots of people that were blown away, when they found out that we had travelled from Springwood to help raise funds and it was going direct to the flood affected.We explained all our local shopping centres could not help and so we called further afield and we were all very pleased to help.
This shopping centre had been under water, the town and it surrounding areas flooded and yet a few weeks later was fundraising! and all the local residents came out to support this and they themselves had been terribly affected and so it was really good to be a part of that.
Today Kellie and I went and purchased with the money raised, 3 lovely fridge freezers for the Lockyer Valley flood victims, from our cupcake fundraiser on Saturday. They will be delivered to the families free of charge from The Good Guys.
What can I do next?
I am planning on a cake decorating fundraiser so that we can all meet up raise money and further our cake decorating skills all in one day and meet with other like minded cake decorators. All monies will go to the flood appeal, not just a percentage but 100% I will be posting more info soon on this blog and on facebook.
I like this quote I read recently "Sometimes when we are generous in small, barely detectable ways it can change someone else's life forever."
Have a good week xxxx
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Brisbane Floods
To everyone that reads this blog I hope you are all safe and dry.What has happened over the last few weeks and over the last few days has been heartbreaking, to see on the news.
My home was flooded a week before Christmas and only ankle deep in water but just seeing the house like this I burst into tears and there within a few minutes was my lovely neighbour and family with towels helping to clear the water and clean up.I do not live near any rivers but the amount of rain and being at the bottom of a sloping rd , the drainage from the house could not cope.
This is insignificant to what is happening now and so I urge you to make a donation to the Queensland floods.
You can make a donation to the Premier's Disaster Relief Fund by phoning 1800 219 028 or visiting
www.qld.gov.au/floods/
or Donate by phone 0600 – 2300 7 days on 1800 219 028
My cakefriends and I want to help and so we are having a bake off of cupcakes to take to the various shelters,this coming Monday, if you are wanting to donate your time to help, please contact me on 33882453
My home was flooded a week before Christmas and only ankle deep in water but just seeing the house like this I burst into tears and there within a few minutes was my lovely neighbour and family with towels helping to clear the water and clean up.I do not live near any rivers but the amount of rain and being at the bottom of a sloping rd , the drainage from the house could not cope.
This is insignificant to what is happening now and so I urge you to make a donation to the Queensland floods.
You can make a donation to the Premier's Disaster Relief Fund by phoning 1800 219 028 or visiting
www.qld.gov.au/floods/
or Donate by phone 0600 – 2300 7 days on 1800 219 028
My cakefriends and I want to help and so we are having a bake off of cupcakes to take to the various shelters,this coming Monday, if you are wanting to donate your time to help, please contact me on 33882453
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Lilac sugar roses stacked cake.
Black and white themed cake.
Gazebo fountain Wedding Cake
Pink and white theme sugar lily wedding cake.
2 tier pilared square cake with red sugar roses.
Shooting Stars Cake
Tiffany Cake 2 day workshop, beautiful work.
Personalised figurine 1 day workshop
