Birthdays, BBQs and baby showers!

So I've been crazy busy, so busy that I can't even finish reading a simple book filled with short stories.

Its been a month of birthdays, bbqs, baby showers every other weekend that I have no time to do any crafty things at all! 

To show you just exactly what I've been up to, here is a quick run down: 

Gorilla's Birthday: 

We all know The Alchemist cufflinks were a hit, so here is a picture of the lava cake: 

A delicious dark lava cake with a crisp cake like top and pours out a river of chocolate when you cut into it. Sorry, no chocolate river shot, I was too busy eating it!

Anne Marie's Birthday:

 Anne and I go way back and this year, I thought I make an extra special birthday for her: 

Anne had been a huge Michael Jackson fan so I came up with the concept of making her a jewelry set with the lyrics to her favourite MJ song, "You Are Not Alone"

An acrylic tube stuffed with the lyrics, embellished with silver filigree caps and bronze faceted beads. Threaded with a black leather cord that was doubled up. 

Here is a close up shot of the necklace

Earrings. Same thing, Acrylic tubes stuffed with lyrics topped with fligree ball caps and faceted copper beads.

The entire set covers the whole song. She loved it which was important! :)

And of course, I baked her a jar of marshmellowy- collapse-at-first-bite chocolate chip meringues

Then came the birthday cake: 

Bet you're all wondering, what the hell is that?? Is that Snickers I see and what are those round balls??

My dears, this is the stuff of cardiac arrests... Its a chocolate cake layered with Varlhona Milk Chocolate Mousse, Peanut Butter Cheesecake, Chocolate rice crisp balls, layers repeated and finally topped off with a milk chocolate Ganache and chopped up Snickers bars.... Anne is a massive PB fan so hence this monstrosity.. Also inspired by StarBucks Peanut butter stack...Man..This cake is awesome...

BBQ with Gorilla's Mates

Then the following weekend I had a BBQ with the Gorilla's mates, so I made the following: 

Pierre Herme's Nutella Tart

Its my take on it. The crust is my mom's recipe and its filled with the filling from Pierre Herme's recipe and I topped it off with a drizzle of white chocolate ganache.

And I brought a gift too!

 Another jar of Marshmellowy- melt-in-your-mouth meringues!

Baby Shower Cupcakes

The Gorilla messaged me asking me if I could whip up some cupcakes for his office on Wednesday. They were throwing a baby shower on Friday and so needed cute cupcakes pronto. The design was up to me and so was the flavour. I decided on the following: 

Butter cupcakes with blue vanilla frosting and topped with a variety of baby related items. I made this with homemade fondant from scratch and it was a huge success.

Mom and Aunty Cat's Birthday

So I had a lot of fondant left over and have been dying to try out a 3D cake with this. Hence this: 

Its a chocolate butter cake that's been frosted with a thick dark chocolate butter cream and covered in fondant.. My Second successful 3D cake!! 

Will update on how it tastes when we cut it tonight at the birthday dinner. Have a great weekend!!

UPDATE: THE CAKE WAS A HUGE SUCCESS!!!! Simply delish! :)

xoxoxox

S.T