A while back, I celebrated a milestone birthday. I was in total denial about my age, a feeling I'm sure  that many of you who are reading this can relate to. I mean, I still feel so young, so how can I possibly be that age. Celebrating was the last thing I wanted to do but I knew that if I didn't mark the occasion I would regret it later on. So as a way of coming to terms with it, I decided to throw myself into the decorating by adding my personality to as many of the details for the party as I could. Of all the projects I undertook, this was by far the most ambitious and time consuming but it was also the most satisfying. I created edible art in the form of mint patties by putting my zentangling skills to use for the bonbonnieres. I began with icing fondant which I flavoured with a few drops of concentrated mint essence . I rolled it out to about 5mm thick: thick enough that they would dry out a little but not so thin that the guests would crack their teeth wh......

If you love Tim Tams, then you'll love these cake pops! They are simple enough for children to make because there is no baking required and you can whip up a batch in no time at all. Shape them into Easter eggs instead of balls and you have a yummy and easy Easter treat. Here's how to do it. The base of these cake pops couldn't be easier to make: all you need is a packet of Tim Tams and cream cheese. Place the Tim Tams and 1/3 cup of cream cheese into the food processor and pulse until they are almost smooth. Then use an ice cream scoop to scoop out evenly sized portions. Shape them in your hands.... ..... until they are egg shaped. Refrigerate them for about 15 minutes to firm them up.  You may need to keep doing this whilst you are working the mixture as it is quite soft in warm weather. Whilst they are in the fridge, mix a drop of food colouring into some cake decorating fondant until it is well mixed. Make as many colours as you like. Roll the fondant out thinly and cut......

With the hustle and bustle of Christmas behind us I can now share the Hillam Gingerbread House with you. 2010 was the first year we made our own gingerbread house and we were pretty pleased with our efforts. But we learned a valuable lesson that first year: gingerbread and humidity don't go well together and if you construct your house too early, it WILL sag! So with that lesson learned, our Gingerbread house is now a last minute Christmas Crafting project which we start just a day or two before Christmas. This year our kit came from Woolworths. We didn't use the decorations or icing that came in the kit, preferring to visit Tom's Confectionery Warehouse for all the lollies we needed to make it a sweet treat that no bought gingerbread house can compare to. It was a rather small house, more like a cottage than a house so the decorating was a little less extravagant than our last couple of efforts but we still managed to pack a lot onto that little frame. So here it is - fr......

It was raining last week so I spent an afternoon in the kitchen baking. The whole house was filled with the sweet aroma of freshly baked biscuits. Mmmmm...... I use a forcer to pipe these pretty little biscuits. You might know this gadget as a cookie press. It comes with a selection of piping discs which give the biscuits their lovely patterns. Once baked and cooled, all you need to do is mix up a batch of stiff icing, divide it into small bowls and colour it. Then sandwich the biscuits together in pairs. Don't the pastels look pretty on a crisp white platter? This batch travelled with me to Adelaide for my Mum's 80th birthday afternoon tea. They were a big hit and by the end of the afternoon, the platter was empty. I think that's the best compliment any cook can have! 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...

Last week, Eli (my cake decorator) invited me to come and see how the cake was progressing and to make changes to anything I didn't like. I was very reassured to see her progress - she was totally on track to creating the cake I had imagined. When we first met a few weeks back to design the cake, I came prepared with lots of images of  what I liked. We put our heads together and discussed what would and wouldn't work, and together we came up with a very clear picture of what the cake would look like - nothing at all like the pictures I'd brought along but they helped us to arrive at the final design. We decided it would be purple and have lots of butterflies; everything would be edible including the ribbon and the greeting. It was exciting to get the sneak peek of the purple butterflies during my visit and my anticipation was growing as I knew Eli was going to create exactly what I wanted. I just couldn't wait to see the finished cake. And finally, here it is! Just as ......

Remember these from a few weeks ago?  Well, the time has come to put those flowers to use in a practice batch of cupcakes. The frangipanis look pretty good on the chocolate cupcakes. And I can tell you, they didn't last too long - I guess that means they tasted pretty good too. These will definitely be making it on to the dessert buffet menu! 'Til next time..... If you can't get enough of My Tutorials and you want even more inspiration,  click here to find my books and printable pdfs...