Len & Leigh are no longer 30...

(Note- Tasmania)

Happy Birthday to Leigh!!! After seeing my inspirational Australian themed cupcakes an Australian flag birthday cake was ordered to help celebrate the fact that Len and Leigh are no longer 30... It is all buttercream with fondant accents.

Carving the cake- I made a pattern so I carved the shape of Australia not Antarctica...

Crumb coat down and final layer of icing smoothed with the viva papertowel method.

I cut the white part of the flag as one piece and used strips of red on top. I originally cut white & red strips but they all crossed in the middle and it looked strange.

Side view

I couldn't figure out how to cut a small star for the center star on the right so I originally just made 5 similar stars... But then I found a flower cutter that sort of looked like a star so I replace the middle star for the smaller star. I think it looks better.

Australia Day

This weekend we had our annual friends christmas dinner. Denise out did herself with the theme, decorations and the food. It was yummy... It is always great to get together with our friends. This group of friends is unique in that we are all pairs of sisters. It started with my sister's three friends and then grew to include a younger or older sibling and now includes husbands and kids... We have annual trips to NY, hang out at summer picnics and are generally making our way through life together. Good times...

To go along with the Australian dinner theme I made cupcakes representing various aspects of Australia.
Here are some pictures of them coming together...

Naked Cakes:


Flags...

The multicolor base of the oprah house... Water and Sky...


The boat looking cupcakes are the Sydney Oprah House... See it now...


Cupcakes ready for transportation... The red shelf liner kept them from spilling in transit. It really worked well...


I played with some of the toys I got at the cake convention. The flowers are hydrangeas... I made 1/2 a dozen flowers with cupcakes just to test them out...




Pictures of some of the many happy little faces that got to eat cupcakes.... :)


(The red cupcake is what it looks like when Lindsey is finished... The blue is Lilly... I'm not sure why I bother making the cake... I should just bring icing and let them eat it off of spoons...)