Well, I must say that I am rather disappointed with the ws site.  I didn't think they had a great selection and what they did have was very pricey.  I think I will stick with everten for my online kitchen shopping. 

I am curious about these gold cake pans.  If anyone buys any can they let us know what they are like.

AWhat projects are you all working on this weekend?

Hi Cazza1,

It's been a while since i last was on here. I've been extremely busy an this month is the worst month for me as it will be the anniversary for my mum passing away two years ago.
 

I went onto everten site. It is really good. I don't really shop on line as I'm not so good with the comp. But I do shop locally. I buy at Bakery Sugar Craft in Wetherill Park. I'm not sure if they deliver interstate. They do have a web page.

I must say they dont have everything.

I am trying another location for cooking equipment. But it is general. Sorry I may not be too much help.

Yes, from Melbourne.  Hobby baker so really no idea about products and pricing/laws.

I do have to say though that I LOVE the ideas and products that come out of the US.  Been given some great advice from our USA cousins- some directly but mostly by searching the boards.  Get green with envy when I see the products over there and then how reasonable they are to buy.  Some we get over here but they are very costly.  I have taken advantage of the high Aussie dollar and bought direct from the US (baking, cooking and craft things), still often cheaper than buying here.

Bought the Aztek airspray gun and compressor and the electric chocovision chocolate tempering machine direct from US.  Couldn't find a chocolate tempering machine here in OZ and the Aztek kit was still cheaper to import.  Love it to bits.  Needed a transformer for the Testors/Aztek compressor but only a plug for the chocolate tempering machine. 

I am wondering if Costco sells any reasonable baking and cooking supplies at their Docklands store.  Anyone know???
 

I also bought a chocovision machine from the US after a came to Melbourne to do a chocolate course at Savour chocolate school.  Wonderful 2 days but was not overly fussed on tempering the chocolate.  Now I make a cup of coffee and leave the chocolate to temper itself.  I also buy quite a bit of stuff from GSA and also from China and GB, through Ebay.

Evening all, I did a lengthy post this morning and lost it and of course I got a phonecall from a client and then I had to do all the housework that got neglected this week while I was caking and I have just got back in here now. 

I had a Friday wedding this week , so I had a lovely trip up to Tamborine Mountain yesterday to deliver it. I took my Mum and Sister and we all had lunch in a lovely little cafe in the Village. 

However I was less than impressed with the person I dealt with at the venue. He expected me to leave the cake on a table in the doorway of the restaurant ( open to the public ) because he couldn't be bothered to get the key to the reception hall for me to set up the cake. He was quite annoyed when I said no , it had to be placed on the cake table of the reception hall.  He grumbled something about not leaving a 'restaurant full of people' ( their were two people at one table and five staff standing around doing nothing) . I did get my way and set up the cake where I wanted it , I was going to have lunch there but was so annoyed that I went elsewhere. 

This is my cake , Butterscotch mud top and raspberry and white chocolate bottom . 

@ cazza - when my *gild* mini cake pan arrives and I use it I will come back and *report*

Yes, agreed, things are more expensive on the Australian WS site - but then shipping and handling from the States is added - so I guess it evens itself out.

Although then I do have to pay shipping and handling from NSW to WA - but that's the price one pays if one wants things that we can't readily get from Australia.

Must say, I am looking forward to getting the iPad tool to sit my iPad on.... wish the Apple store sold the ones they have to display their products - very nifty idea.

MG creations - sorry to read of your loss -  and although I do not know of your loss per sae - I do know what it is like to not be in contact with ones own Mother. Time is not always a healer.

Derbyfour - welcome to the Aussie thread.

Chelle - what a fool that chap was...expecting you to leave the cake *there*.

Honestly, some people just don't have a clue - or they just don't care - which sounds more like his attitude.

Good for you standing your ground.

Ohhhh, I haven't been up to the Tamborine Mountains for about 32 years. Such a beautiful pat of our country.

Glad you had a lovely lunch with your Sister and Mother.... Your cake looks gorgeous - and I love how you decorated the cake board... very pretty indeed.

Me - started creating a dummy cake last night for an up coming Bridal Fair - woke up this morning and hated the colours I had used - so will pull it all apart and start again tomorrow. Wished I had of made it paler than what I did....ughhhh.

Wedding Consult @ 1pm... A daughter coming to arrange her Mothers Wedding Cake.... Apparently ivories and warm champagne are the colours the mother likes - so the daughter has asked that I create something along those lines. I thought it sweet that the daughter arrange and pay for her Mums Wedding cake.

But for now, its time to curl up on the lounge with DH and have some movie time

Blue

  .

Very pretty and lovely smooth covering.  I like how you have offset the top layer. 

Great flowers! I've stuck to the standard gum paste flowers and Australian wattle so far.  Would love to get my hands on how to do Australian flowers, so if any one could jump in with a tutorial it would be appreciated.

derbyfour there is a book called 'Making Australian Wildflowers for Cake Decorating' by Sue Oteri and Dorothy Parsons.  ISBN 0-09-169480-9.  It was the first cake decorating book that I bought many, many years ago and is brilliant.  You may be able to find one second hand.   I did look it up on ABE Books for you but unfortunately they only have one copy and they want $1077.05 for it.  Oh and you will also need $6.39 for shipping!  Forgot to mention that that is US dollars so it will be slightly cheaper!

Brings back memories.  The wattle and gumnuts from it were the first gumpaste flowers that I ever made.

Wow Amazon has a copy for $333.64!

Evening all

Another Sunday and I have finally sat down for 1 sec.

Bluehue, thank you for your sympathy. It is extremely hard when your mother was your best friend. I miss her immensely. I haven't taken on any jobs this week.

I really don't think I would be creative anyway. You are right, 'time is NOT a healer' , not for me right now anyway. But I need to still live for the sake of my family. They depend on me!.

I do have great friends who are always there for me. This is a bonus.

It's nice to hear that your having a night in with DH. With all the running around and cake decorating it sounds like you need it. Have a nice night.

Chellescakes, I am glad you stuck to your guns and got to display your beautiful cake how you wanted to. It looks great and I love your colours. I wouldn't of trusted the cake in the doorway as well. Good on you.  My children know that when mummy is baking, No -one goes near the cakes. This rule has transferred when I'm making cakes for family and at the venue my daughter always guards the cake. Telling the other children to stay away.

Well tonight I'm doing some paperwork, boring - but something that needs to be done.

Yeah, we have finally had some rain.  I think I had forgotten what it was like.  Not so sure about the drop in temp, though, as have been enjoying the unseasonal 28 degrees each day.  I've been making Maggie Austin's cabbage roses.  Some look a bit square, rather than round and they all look a bit strangled, like most of my roses.  Am still deciding whether to put all those frills on my cake.  I'm not really a frilly person but it might be worth doing just to try the technique. I should have mentioned that I bought the craftsy class and have been following along with it.

Rain here too Cazza , I love making roses , if they are a bit square don't be afraid to add an extra petal to what the instructions say , I always tell my students to let the flower dictate the amount of petals it wants. ( works for me but I am never one to follow rules well )

Derbyfour , we have that book in our club library . I have promised myself when I have time I will do a couple of things out of it. Two years ago the Association's State show had a native flower theme. So we all made a plant or flower that was native to this area of South East QLD. 

Well one cake has gone already , a Winnie the Pooh cake , for the worst client I have ever had, I will certainly be "booked solid " the next time she rings. 

I now have to turn the four square cakes sitting around me into a three tier wedding cake and a carved wooden jewellery box birthday cake. Did I mention that I hate square cakes? 

They are all covered and ready to go , I just have to make two dogs , one cat , a bride , a groom , some jewellery and figure out how to paint woodgrain and do an intricate carved effect. Just another ordinary day of caking really. 

Blue , I hope you found colours to your satisfaction , sometimes the hardest thing is to create something that you are happy with. Sometimes the cake just doesn't look like it did in your head. 

MG , hang in there . This month it is thirty one years since we lost my darling Dad, there are still times when there are things I would like to tell him or show him. The pain doesn't lessen with time , it just becomes different. 

Well I better get cracking , these cakes are not going to decorate them selves . Happy Caking everyone, 

Chelle. 

Searched and searched online for "Making Australian Wildflowers For Cake Decorating" by Sue Oteri and Dorothy Parsons.  It is out of print apparently. 

Found one on EBay but had visitors on Sunday, got distracted and didn't get a chance to up my bid -  I missed it and was kicking myself.  Good news though as I  managed to get one through cupids cake decorations in NSW.

http://www.cupidscakedecorations.com/#/colours-index/4554883901

$35.90 plus P&H

Can't wait to try making some of these.

Derby I think you will be pleased that you went to the effort to find it.  I like your price better than the one of the copies I found.

Thought I'd make my presence known and say 'hey'!

I live in country South Australia, about 3 hours from Adelaide.

I'm 26 years old and have been 'caking' for around 4 years now. Loving every minute of it too!

It's great to have all us Aussie's here. Makes you feel very 'at home' :) Looking forward to hearing from everyone about their cakes as well as day to day bits and pieces.

Lena

xx

Welcome to the Australian thread Lena

I see you are a newbie as they say .... we fly into Adelaide about twice a year when I need to fly to country Victoria to see one of my sisters.

If we have the time we hire a car and drive up - absolutely gorgeous driving up through the hills through Hahndorf etc...

@ cazza - yes, I agree, Derbyflour's price is far more suitable than the $1000+ price.

@ Chelle - lollll, glad I ripped one of the dummy cakes apart and started all over again...... (read below) all will be explained lollllllll

All other Aussies - anyone doing anything creative re cakes...?

Me - Rain - the rains were so welcoming - and now the temperature has dropped it is lovely to drag the woollies and boots out

Received a phone call tonight to inform me that the bridal exhibition has been cancelled for this weekend....

Apparently staff problems and walkouts caused the cancellation.....

So I shall pack my dummy cakes away and keep them for September when they plan on advertising it all over again.

Things happen - so one can't get all hot and bothered over it.

I do have a Morning tea come luncheon for Sunday - so cupcakes and small sweets are on the agenda for that.

Blue

Ano exciting projects here this week :( just recovering from mothers day weekend I had a small wedding cake, 6 dozen cupcakes for a 21st and I ran a mother's day special on cupcakes which included 6 different flavours (normally minimum order is 1dozen per flavour) and I sold 32 dozen of them!! it was so much more popular then I could of imagined. and I have had numerous requests for mixed boxes since then. I think my following is getting to the point that I might soon be able to open my shop!!! yay!!! I have since managed to convince my husband that I should look into acquiring a commercial oven for my cakes now, my kitchen oven can only fit one tray if a dozen cupcakes in at one time, so it was a LONG tedious process that ensured about 5hrs sleep from Thursday to Saturday.

Hi everyone

I lost this thread for a while - looked everywhere but the Lounge!

Re. WS gold touch pans - I bought 2 x 8" square and 2 x 8" round a couple of years ago from the States. I'm pretty sure I ordered direct from WS, so maybe they changed their shipping policy at some stage. The pans  were very expensive but they are beautiful to look at and beautiful to use. I can bake a pretty good cake with my regular tins, but these bake a little more evenly I think. I don't regret my purchase.

Cris.

Does anyone know where I might be able to find a 16" white footed cake stand that will be sturdy enough to hold a tiered cake? I found one that I love online in the US (www.sarahsstands.com) but the shipping cost is huge! Hoping someone in Oz might be able to point me in the right direction please?

AOMG! I am very excited right now! my massive weekend has paid off and I have a retail outlet for my cupcakes!! new oven come at me :)

Hi Lena, where in S.A are you from? I'm from Naracoorte. Girls I had a fantastic pre-mothers day on Saturday at a cake deco workshop. I was able to make a beautiful peony flower that I could take home and stick on a cake for my mum. The instructer was a lovely lady from Melbourne (born in Shri-Lanka).

I made my own mother's day cake.  First one I've ever had!  The frills and the cabbage rose are from Maggie Austin's Craftsy class.  I must confess I am addicted to the craftsy classes.  They are so easy to follow along with.  I was so pleased with this cake.  It is certainly one of the most (if not) cakes I have ever made.

To all you newbies, Welcome.  Can I suggest that you participate in Friday Night Club, which is actually Saturday here in Australia.  It is a fun, personal way to see and hear what people are up to.

That was supposed to say 'elegant cakes I have made'

Cazza that is lovely , the ruffles in the dark chocolate look great . Beautiful roses. 

Woohoo Ashlea, that is great news , I just got a new oven and I am loving it. 

Welcome Lena to the Aussie thread. 

Danilou, lovely peony. 

Blue , oh well , like you said things happen and there is no using worrying about what you can't change. 

Well I got through my huge week , and I was quite happy with the way all my cakes turned out. 

The jewel box cake , ended up on instagram on the Samantha Wills facebook page . With her actually commenting on it personally. So I was a little chuffed with that. 

ABe

AI too make my own Mother's Day cake to try out a technique I found on here just last week! [IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3007417/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

AChelle, I LOVE that carved jewellery box cake. it is simply amazing.

Love the jewellery box, Chelle.  The ruffles on my cake are actually in black fondant that I steamed, not chocolate.

I saw that technique here, too, Kelly.  Didi it take very long to do.