Wedding Cakes and cake-topper figurines

Happy Friday everyone, I hope you are gearing up for a lovely weekend. I am looking forward to a little bit of me-time with a facial and haircut booked in for Saturday and then it is off to dinner in the evening to celebrate my gorgeous sister Heather's birthday.

I was going through our portfolio of wedding cakes that The Little Oak Tree have had the pleasure of making over the past couple of months and thought I would post a few for you.

This was a three tier chocolate mud with stylized navy and white sugar orchids to tie in with the Bride's blue and white theme.

A square two tier caramel mud cake with fondant bamboo sticks and a gorgeous pink sugar magnolia.

This three tier stunner had a mud cake base, a caramel mud middle tier and a strawberry mud top tier. The orchids are hand made out of fondant.

This pretty single tier cake was created for a small spring garden wedding. Although it may look quite simple in it's design, a plain white fondant covered cake is often the hardest to do as it will show every lump and bump if you make an error. The fondant has to be rolled thinly with precision and the cake must have a crisp sharp edge. The sugar flowers on this cake are all hand made and I think this is a lovely example of how good things can come in small packages.

I couldn't resist showing you the cute-as-pie wedding cake topper that Trudy has just completed for a bride and groom. This will sit atop there three tier wedding cake. The little bouquet that the bride is holding matches the colour of her bouquet and the groom's waist coat is true to the colour theme as well. Pictures of the finished cake will follow soon.

If you are interested in having a cute couple on the top of your wedding cake, Trudy can completely customise the figurines to tie in with your theme or perhaps reflect your tastes or interests as a couple, even the family dog can be included. The figurines are completely made from icing and can be purchased separately from a wedding cake if you like.

Have a lovely weekend.

Hen's High Tea- Sex & The City theme

We are going cupcake crazy here at The Little Oak Tree putting the finishing touches on these cupcakes for a Hen's High Tea to be held tomorrow.

The inspiration for these gorgeous cupcakes was Sex & the City. One lucky bride-to-be will be eating these at her Hens High Tea. Her very lovely Maid of Honour has lots of devilish activities planned, and in true Sex & The City style we hear there may be a pink rabbit involved....I will say no more hehehe.

Do you have anything fun planned for your weekend? Hopefully this lovely sunshine will decide to stick around for a while. I will be spending part of my Saturday pulling together some ideas for an upcoming 30th birthday party which will have a 'country' theme. I will post an inspiration board for that in the next couple of days. Other than that, I am looking forward to spending my weekend relaxing with the hubby and our boy, and perhaps a glass of red wine.....or two.

Whatever you have planned enjoy !

It's a jungle out there!

The Little Oak Tree was recently contacted by a mum who wanted us to create a jungle animal cake and matching cupcakes for her son's 8th birthday party.

We were told that Dylan loved anything to do with the Jungle and I think Trudy certainly put the animal in the jungle with these gorgeous cupcakes. My personal favourite is the elephant, which is your favourite?

Close up aerial view of the jungle cake. The monkeys are so cheeky!

Classic chocolate mud cake and chocolate ganache, covered in fondant with hand made fondant animal figurines, yummo. We are sure this cake made one 8 year old very happy!

All of our cupcake designs are completely customisable and can include corporate logos or perhaps the hubby's favourite sports team so you are only limited by your imagination. 

Why not contact us at thelittleoaktree@exemail.com.au to discuss your ideas for your next party or gathering.  They also make a lovely bespoke gift for that special someone. Prices are available upon request and are based on the detail and size of each cupcake and quantity ordered.

Rainbow Roses - A cheery sight on a cold Winter day

Whilst out and about with the boy today we walked past our local deli and these amazing blooms caught my eye.

No your eyes are not playing tricks on you and yes these are real roses.  A quick google search when we returned home revealed how they are actually created.

The rainbow rose is a rose which has had its petals artificially colored.
The method exploits the rose's natural processes by which water is drawn up the stem. By splitting the stem and dipping each part in a differently colored water, the colors are drawn into the petals resulting in a multicoloured rose.

Wikipedia source 

I can't imagine a bride-to-be choosing them for her bridal bouquet but they would certainly be a conversation starter. 

So what do you think? 

• Do you love them or hate them? 
• Would you buy a bunch of Rainbow Roses?
• Have you ever seen Rainbow Roses in real life or have I just been living under a rock for the past 12 months, which is actually quite possible for those of you that know me.

The hubby and I are about to sit down to some goulash that has been simmering away in my slow cooker all day......Yum, gotta love slow food. What is on your menu?

An Autumn Engagement party - Purple and Green Theme

We recently had the pleasure of styling an engagement party dessert table for a gorgeous young couple. The brief included the use of the colours green and purple as well as a unique request for the cake. The location was an outdoor marquee in the country during Autumn, so I put together an inspiration board for them which helps to visualise their ideas and to make sure we are all in agreement on styling and colour choices. 

It was an evening event and the roof of the marquee was filled with little fairy lights. Purple lanterns in different shades hung above the dessert table. (unfortunately we were so busy putting together the finishing touches  that we didn't get any pics in time)

The bride-to-be wanted to have a cake in the form of a ring box on a pillow so Trudy started planning how it might come together.

The couple purchased their engagement ring from Gregory Jewellers and Trudy recreated a stylized version of the ring box nestled on a soft mauve pillow complete with tassels. They had requested a cherry ripe mud cake with dark chocolate ganache. Every part of the cake was edible other than the diamante jewels on the tassels. 

The dessert table featured a purple and green candy bar with bon-petit, jelly beans, rock candy and smarties.

Beautiful paper by Cristina Re (Indigo Tree) with it's autumn inspired colours was used throughout the table as lining for the platters, personalised chocolate bar wrappers and buffet/candy labels.

The personalised chocolate bars were a bit of a play on the whole sweet theme with the words "Amy & Justin, love is sweet" featuring on each chocolate. These were offered as a take home treat along with a lolly bag that the guests could fill from the candy bar.

The table also featured vanilla bean panna cotta with blueberry coulis served in a shot glass and blackberry macarons.

We had so much fun styling this table and creating all the different elements. A big thanks has to go to the lovely couple, Amy and Justin for choosing the Little Oak Tree to cater this special occasion. Congratulations on your engagement !

Marshmallow - soft, light and fluffy - what's not to love?

I have been playing around with a marshmallow recipe recently with the view of including it as a menu option on our dessert tables.

This one is classic vanilla with a touch of Wintons food colouring and it is finished off with edible rose petals scattered over the top. After cutting it up, I placed it on a white milk-glass cake stand and popped a glass bell dome over the top. I found that the bell dome trapped the scent of the rose petals inside and it actually infused the marshmallow with the soft flavour of rose....nice side effect? 

If you haven't tried making home made marshmallow before, why not give it a go? It is really quite easy and you don't even need to use a sugar thermometer. Once you have tasted it, you will never eat the store bought variety again.

Go easy on the food colouring, if you don't add enough, you can always add more gradually. But if you are to heavy handed to begin with, that soft pink colour you are hoping for will quickly become fuschia!

Vanilla Marshmallow

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons gelatine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Icing mixture to dust with 

Method

1. Grease and line a 26cm slice or lamington tin, allowing baking paper to hang over sides. (If you can't find a 26cm tin, one as close to this size as possible will also be fine)
2. Place the sugar in a saucepan, add 2/3 cup hot water and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar dissolves and syrup is clear.
3. Place gelatine in a bowl, pour over 2/3 cup cold water and use a hand whisk to combine. Pour mixture into hot sugar syrup and cook, stirring constantly, until the gelatine has dissolved and the mixture is clear. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
4. Pour cooled mixture into an electric mixer and using the beater attachment, place the mixer on high and beat for 5-10 minutes or until the mixture is very thick. Add the vanilla and your food colour and beat to combine.
5. Pour into the prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula or butter knife and leave in a cool place to set. Once set (about 1 hour) turn out of the pan and use a wet knife to cut into squares.
6. Dust the marshmallow with the icing sugar and place on a nice plate or cake stand.

Tip: A little trick is to get a plastic bag (a zip lock bag works brilliantly) put your icing mixture in and then pop a couple of pieces of the marshmallow in. Zip up the bag and very gently toss it around. This will thoroughly coat the marshmallow.

The marshmallow will keep for about a day, so it is best to try and make it on the day you want to serve it as it will slowly start to  turn gooey with the humidity in the air.

Now you just have to try and stop yourself from eating more than one piece. 

Enjoy !

Planting the seed of "The little oak tree"

Hello there, it is so lovely to see you, thanks for dropping by.

What are we doing here in blog-land you might ask? Well after much cajoling, gentle nudging and all round encouragement from our lovely friends and family, we have finally decided to jump in the deep end and start up a little event planning business, yikes!

We have named our little venture "The Little Oak Tree", and our belief is we can "grow your event with you".

The oak tree is a symbol of the Anderson clan (Kylie's family name) and we like the idea of our little oak tree beginning as something small before growing into a beautiful strong oak.

The Little Oak Tree will offer event planning and design as well as gorgeous dessert tables, cakes, cookies and lots more goodies.

This blog will be a space for us to post photos and details from some of our events, as well as thoughts about our life and loves and images and ideas that inspire us.

We hope you can join us on our journey, may this be the beginning of something wonderful. Oh, and if you are starting to think about your next big event, don't forget to contact us at thelittleoaktree@exemail.com.au