Rainbow Cakes

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some bright fun rainbow cakes with these fab photos. Last year I made a three colour cake for Molly's Birthday, this year I want to make a rainbow coloured cake. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The wonderful colour in Rainbow Cake Earrings by bluekitty88makeup1
  
• The perfectly sliced Rainbow Cake by Vika.rayu
• The cute doodles on Rainbow Doodle Birthday Cake by Sweetapolita
• The pretty buttercream flowers in Day 97: Rainbow Cake by matt.koenig
  

Have a sweet day!

Anusha $100 Giveaway winner

My contest ended yesterday and I just picked a winner using random.org and I am delighted to announce the winner of the Anusha $100 Giveaway is...

Drumroll please? Without further ado, the lucky winner is...

Icing Bliss, of the wonderful cake and cookie blog Icing Bliss, who was loving their sparkle antique drop earrings. Please e-mail me your details.

Congratulations Icing Bliss, you will receive $100 worth of store credit for Anusha.

Thank you to all of you sweets that entered, to my loyal followers and new friends.

Have a sweet day!

Nine tier star cake

Yesterday we celebrated George's 90th birthday. To say that George likes fruit cake is an understatement. Ever since I made him the Star Christmas Cake I have been making him fruit cakes every few months, decorating them for Easter, Halloween etc. He likes to have a slice with tea everyday so for his 90th birthday I decided to make him a nine tier cake. He ate the top two tiers yesterday and his party guests shared tier four, leaving him with seven tiers to last him until Halloween!

Have a sweet day!

Seaside Finds

This week on "Wonderful World of Etsy" I bring you seaside finds. How cool are the chocolate starfish, they look so realistic in the bowl!

• Pearl Trochus shell
• Shell wreath
• Aqua coral throw pillow
• White chocolate candy star fish

Have a sweet day!

Laura Ashley

This week for my 'shops i love' page, I bring you Laura Ashley, a well renowned British High Street favourite.

Laura and Bernard Ashley started printing fabric on their kitchen table in London in 1953, following a Women’s Institute exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum on traditional handicrafts. From there it has grown into a large company selling interiors, womenswear and girls wear with growing franchise operations all over the world, including the Far East, Australia, Scandinavia and South America, as well as increasing numbers of licensing projects for products including carpets, eyewear, towels and tiles.

I am loving their new Autumn/Winter 2011 catalogue full of gorgeous inspiration. My favourite is Mid Winter; a warm cosy collection with a colour palette of cream, biscuit and duck egg blue. I am coveting the cable knit cushions and Florence bird lamp base from Mid Winter. I am also loving the nightingale bird grey linen cotton cushion from the Indulgence collection and I love the picture frame display in the second picture.

Have a sweet day!

By the Sea

Today in my series of posts "Inspirational Pins", I bring you seaside images in shades of blue and sea green. I am loving the bikini, shell and flower cookies and the beach bucket cake is so adorable! To see more seaside images check out my By the Sea board on Pinterest.

• The Cake Parlour
• Martha Stewart
• Hush
• Rachel Whiting
• Zoe Clark Cakes
• Simple Elegant Bridal

Have a sweet day!

Anusha $100 Giveaway

Diamante hair corsages

Elasticated silver bracelet

Green Carte Postale purse

Swallow stud earrings

Gabrielle soft blue maxi dress

I'm so pleased to announce a giveaway of $100 worth of store credit for Anusha, and it's open to readers worldwide!

Anusha is the brain child of Elizabeth Raderecht. Started in 2004, Elizabeth hand-picks everything for her beautiful boutique and only stocks things that she likes to wear or have in her own home. Each item is beautifully photographed and set to inspire and comes gift wrapped in lashing of wrapped paper. From beginning to end, shopping at Anusha is a treat! Always on the look out for more treats Elizabeth constantly freshens her store with pretty treasures between the main spring/summer and autumn/winter seasons. I have my eye on the delicately pretty swallow stud earrings and and the postale purse in cream for an upcoming wedding later next month.

To enter, please visit Anusha and then leave a comment below this post letting me know what you would spend your store credit on. The giveaway ends on Saturday, July 30th 2011 at 10pm (GMT) and I will randomly select and announce a winner on Sunday, July 31st.

To increase your chances of winning this fabulous prize, you can gain one additional entry for doing each of the following:

• tweeting about this giveaway
• blogging about it
• following/subscribing to the Torie Jayne blog/twitter

For the first two, please leave a comment below with the link to your tweet or blog post.

This giveaway is open to readers worldwide.

Good luck and have a sweet day!

Friday Feature - RubyJu

Welcome to Friday Feature. This week I am sharing with you the gorgeous, stylish dessert tables and candy buffets from RubyJu.

RubyJu is the work of best friends, Bec and Tammi, who found their combined love of fashion, entertaining, design, and all pretty handmade things brought them together to create RubyJu. The pair are based on the Gold Coast of Australia and there they create their unique dessert tables and candy buffets. I love the colour palettes and the intricate detail in their tables, from the satin ribbon wrapped macarons to the mini wedding cake pops and rose topped cupcakes.

To see more of RubyJu's work check out their pretty site and cute blog.

Happy Friday, sweets!

Sunny yellow cake pop supplies

This week on "Wonderful World of Etsy" I bring you sunny yellow cake pop supplies. How cute is the sweetie pop tree with the bumble bee cake pops? Or the stylish wooden cake pop sticks? I can't wait to make another batch of cake pops, the possibilities are endless!

• The sweetie pop tree
• Lemon drop yellow bakers twine
• Yellow sprinkle and sugar mix
• Wooden cake pops sticks with wooden ball at end

Have a sweet day!

Pipii

Truly Scrumptious Canape Flags

Pink Stripy Paper Straws

Aqua Bakers Twine - 10 metres

Dome Shaped Vintage Florals Favour Boxes

This week for my 'shops i love' page, I bring you Pipii; the home of ideas and creative inspirations for any kind of party and celebration. They have a unique selection of goods and are one of the only places where it's possible to buy a variety of coloured bakers twine and striped paper straws in the UK, both favourites of mine which I have seen used in so many stylish ways across blog land. If you have a party, gathering or just want to make your sweet treats and gifts look extra cool this is a must visit site!

Have a sweet day!

Fruitcake Pops

Last week I showed you my fist batch of cake pops, leopard print ones. I really loved how they looked and tasted and wanted to make more.

I have been recently working on a birthday cake and I had some fruit cake left over so I thought rather than waste the bits I didn't use I would make them into fruit cake pops. I went for chocolate buttercream as the binding element and have coloured and themed them to match the birthday cake.

If you don't have time to make a fruit cake you can always use a shop bought one! These are the second batch of cake pops I have made and I definitely need to keep practicing the coating part! It can be tricky to get nice and smooth. However, my plan of letting the cake pops with inserted stocks rest in the fridge before coating the cake in candy has stopped the cake pops from spinning on their sticks.

Fruit Cake Pops (makes 24 cake pops)

Ingredients
560g gluten free fruit cake (click link for recipe)
160g chocolate buttercream frosting (see below for recipe)
399g candy melts
Sprinkle stars
Edible glitter

What you will need
24 x 6" lollipop sticks
Polystyrene block
Baking parchment


Cooking instructions

1. Crumble fruit cake with your fingers so it is in the smallest pieces.
2. In a food mixer, mix the chocolate frosting with the fruit cake crumbles.
3. Whisk until it resembles a dough like mixture.
4. Place mixture into fridge to firm up, making it easier to work with.
5. Line a baking tray with baking paper.
6. Using electric scales, measure out 30g of mixture and roll into a ball.
7. Place on baking sheet.
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 until all mixture has gone.
9. Place candy melts into a microwavable bowl.
10. Heat for 1 min on medium.
11. Stir and continue heating in 30 second intervals until candy is fully melted.
12. Push one lollipop stick into the melted chocolate and then into one cake.
13. Place cake pop in fridge whilst you continue to repeat step 12 for each cake pop, placing them in the fridge after each cake.
14. Take cake pops out of fridge one by one and coat in chocolate, sprinkle glitter and stars on top.
15. Push into polystyrene block and leave to dry.

Chocolate buttercream frosting (260g)

Ingredients

• 55g (2oz) butter, softened
• 85g (3oz) sifted icing sugar
• 28g (1/2 oz) cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Cooking instructions

1. Whisk butter and vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
2. Gradually whisk in icing sugar and cocoa powder.

Have a sweet day!

Cake Pops

Today in my series of posts "Inspirational Pins", I bring you the prettiest cake pops in shades of lemon yellow, rose pink and dusky aqua. I can't wait to make another batch of cake pops to decorate.

• Rhubarb and Rose
• Honest Cooking
• Rhubarb and Rose
• Bakers Royale
• Lil Sugar
• Blog Holamama
• Strawberry Chic

Have a sweet day!

Nest Decorating

This week on Flickr Faves Sunday, I bring you some of the beautiful photos from Nest Decorating. I recently featured Tamar on my Wonderful world of Etsy series of posts. So when I saw these lovely photos on her Flickr photo stream I knew I needed to share these gorgeous pics from her home. Check back soon for some more of the most inspirational photographers on Flickr.

Some beautiful shots from my Flickr favourites (clockwise from top left):

• The pretty array of vintage dresses in Photo shoot dress
  
• The gorgeous coloured buttons in Eye Candy
• The whimsical Fairytale ornaments
• The delightful selection of prints in Pillow cases

Have a sweet day!

My Baking Pretties

My collection of edible glitter was starting to get a bit unruly in my baking cupboard so I bought some acrylic stacking pots from Muji and dispensed my glitter into them. I love how easy and compact they are now. No more little tubs flying out the cupboard at me! Now I want to get all my baking pretties organized!

My collection of cupcake cases has grown of late and I would like a new spaghetti jar to put all the red yellow, green and blue ones in. I have my eye on getting another flip storage jar from Jamie Oliver, this time in duck egg blue and some more tiny flip storage jars for my new brightly coloured non pareils and sugar strands that are precariously perched atop my neatly stored jars.

Have a sweet day!

Blooming Gorgeous Lounge

1. Cath Kidston plates, Spray Flowers
2. Elizabeth dinner plate
3. Pip Studio floral plates
4. Pip Studio large plate
5. Cath Kidston, dessert plates, Provence Rose
6. Mini flowers cushion
7. Pip Studio, birds of paradise round cushion
8. Chameli cushion
9. Vintage floral cushion
10. Flamingo Park cushion
11. Classic bouquet cushion

I love this picture from Monday's post. From the pretty floral plates on the wall to the floral scatter cushions adorning the linen patchwork sofa. I, of course, love the addition of the bird cage hanging from the wall!

Have a sweet day!

Leopard print cake pops

I recently reviewed the book Pop Bakery by Claire O'Connell and when I saw the stylish leopard print cake pops inspired by nail artists I knew they would be perfect for Annie: a gal who loves leopard print and flouro pink! Her birthday was on Tuesday so at the weekend I made my first cake pops.

The only change I made to the recipe in Pop Bakery was changing the flour to gluten-free flour and I used a very bright pink edible dust on mine. I wrapped the sticks in silver washi tape and tied pink bows around them. I packaged them in lace print cellophane bags from Jusco.

Making the chocolate cake balls was relatively simple but coating them in chocolate was a bit tricky to get smooth as my cake balls started to spin on their sticks. Next time I make them I will try inserting the sticks into the cake balls and leaving them to set in the fridge before coating them. I am hoping that will hold the cake ball firm on the stick so the cake doesn't start spinning as I coat them in chocolate.

They tasted great, lovely and moist and looked cute! Will definitely be making more cake pops, such a fun treat! The best bit; Annie loved them!

Have a sweet day!

Squires

Ice cream van with 12 cups and spoons

Patisserie Cupcake Box

Set of 3 Ceramic Pouring Bowls Pink, Blue and Green

Diamante Letter

This week for my 'shops i love' page, I bring you Squires Kitchen. Squires Kitchen's mission is to be the leading provider of creative and innovative products and services for those who share owners Beverley & Robert Dutton's passion - a passion for food and cake decoration!

They have been making and selling home baking products and cake decorations for over twenty five years. They now have over 5,000 products and continue to grow. They are the one stop shop for baking and making the prettiest sweet treats. Selling a large choice of food colourings, glitters, glazes, shimmers and lustres to colour your creations. Moulds, cutters and nozzles to create great shapes. Pages of ribbons, cake boxes and cases to present your sweet treats in. For chocolate lovers and creators there are chocolate moulds, transfers, colours and pre coloured chocolate.

Have a sweet day!