Silicone Putty Mold Making - Mermaid's Tail Cupcakes

What little girl wouldn't be thrilled to have mermaid cupcakes for her birthday party? Or for that matter, what big girl wouldn't want mermaid cupcakes? After all, inside every big girl is a little girl at heart! So I'm decorating a batch of these for my Mum's upcoming birthday celebration. But to start, we need to make a mould and I found the perfect item to make one from whilst I was wandering through the toy aisle recently. So, let's get started. Here's what you'll need to make your own: EasyMold Silicone Putty  - This is a food grade silicone and it's FDA compliant so it's perfect for this project Mermaid doll with a plastic tail about 7.5cm (3") long White Gum Paste Pastel Pink edible paint Edible Pearl Gold lustre dust Edible Pink lustre dust Edible glitter - Light Blue Disco Glitter - Gold Paintbrush cupcakes frosted with blue buttercream icing Make the Mermaid's Tail Mould Measure out equal parts of Parts A a......

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Edible Art - Zentangling on Handmade Mint Patties

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......

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Easter Egg Cake Pops

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......

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From Construction to Demolition in just 3 days

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 he......

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