It's no secret that we're all huge fans of Manu in here, so you can imagine the squeals of delight which emerged from our office this morning when this pic came through!

Our good friend, the very fabulous Anthony Del Col of Staging Connections sent us this gorgeous photo this morning from last weekends wedding. Just beautiful.

Cleo Bachelor of the Year

I have to admit I get a little thrill out of making the Cleo Bachelor of the Year cake each year. This year was by the far the coolest so far, as we made twenty individual cakes for the twenty top finalists. The Ken doll which wound up on my desk a few weeks back makes so much more sense to me now!

Update 19.03.11

Feeling uninspired by the rain? So were we. Instead of letting this damp weather get us down we decided on a little 'Springtime' this autumn. Get inspired by the gorgeous Springtime cake this week's Basic Intermediate class came up with!

If that's not enough to inspire you then hopefully these pics of our guys at the annual Taste of Sydney will! We had a fabulous time rubbing shoulders with some of Sydney's most famous chefs, oh and the food wasn't too bad either! Most of all though, as you all know, we love nothing more than converting the skeptical into total cupcake fans...mission accomplished.

Masterchef's Manu gets into the cupcake spirit 

 Anna Maria, Yasmina and Neen get ready for the masses



Anna Maria and Manu

Antony getting his cupcake on

Jess and I model our new outfits 

A couple of weeks ago we made a fabulous cake for the launch of Maria Venuti's book, and this week we were thrilled when she also asked us to design her 70th birthday cake. Antony had a ball and absolutely went to town with this leopard print extravaganza, complete with bling microphone. Just faaaaaabulous daaaaarling!

This enormous cake, made for charity, Cycle for Smile was so big Margie had to accompany our delivery guy, Carlos to the venue! 

Anna Maria is teaching the uber-popular Bride and Groom Figurine class as we speak, so stay posted and I'll try and get some pics of these very cute figurines out asap.

x

Update 12.03.11

Last night I was lucky enough to help out on the Planet Cake stand at the annual Taste of Sydney festival. With balmy weather, cool beats and the most tantalising smells you can imagine, we had a fantastic night preaching the cupcake gospel! Emma, Antony and Neen are back for round three this evening, and I promise to post some photos next week as soon as I can get my hands on them.

To all of our Melbourne fans, it is with great sadness that we have come to the end of our workshops for this year. While we love holding our workshops in Melbourne, at the moment we are just up to our eyeballs in classes, cakes and general ganachey stickiness here in Sydney that we have had to put them on hold for the time being.  We did go out with a bang however, with Anna Maria making a last-minute dash to take over the Handbag, Teapot and Shoebox course. Gorgeous work guys, we can't wait to see you all again soon, and hey this could be just the excuse for a girlie trip to Sydney?!

A MASSIVE thank you to our fabulous Melbourne facilitator's, Katrina, Heather and Noor, we just couldn't have done it without you.

Aside from running around like a bunch of chook's with our heads cut off, preparing madly for Taste this weekend, it was also a chocca's week as far as cakes go. While Margie and Ritzy worked their novelty magic, Anna Maria made one beautiful wedding cake after another. Our newest intern Neen, has been nothing short of a God-send, and this week made her first complete cake, unaided from start to finish. This is a name to look out for, believe you me.

Ritzy (painstakingly) hand-made these individual miniature wedding cakes. People are often surprised to learn that these cakes can take up to two hours to complete, and require mucho patience!

A fairy castle fit for a princess

Antony had an absolutely fabulous time designing this cake for the one and only Maria Venuti's book launch last week. From all reports the party was certainly one to remember and the cake was a huge hit!



Ah, Margie at it again making these terrible cakes, just laziness really!

I really do love this job sometimes. When else would you get the chance to help celebrate Ken's birthday?! This Barbie cake was featured on Channel 9's today show for Ken's 50th birthday (which coincidentally falls on the same day as Alice Cooper's birthday!)

5th March 2011

With minimum staff (again!) and a squillion events on the horizon, it was no easy feat this week to get all of these amazing cakes out. There were some seriously late nights, a lot of coffee and diet coke and some slightly stressful moments, but as usual we pulled it off with aplomb. Ritzy was at her novel best this week with Thomas the Tank Engine and a very cool iPod for a very lucky 15 year old, while Margie's 'The Thinker' was just stunning. Unfortunately the photo doesn't really do it justice, as the face was in the exact likeness of the client!

As you know, last-minute is our specialty and this week's drop-of-the-hat cake was this cakextravaganza made to help iconic band The Wiggles celebrate 20 years in the business (I know, could anything make you feel older?!). Don't worry if you missed out on seeing it, we'll have some shots of the cake on air up soon.

We've undergone some pretty tremendous changes over the last couple of week and appear to have emerged relatively unscathed at the other side. Last week we were very sad to say goodbye to junior decorator Adam Cremona. A very talented up-and-comer, Adam first came to us as a shy student who was snaffled up immediately by Paris who saw his potential. A fabulous decorator and human being, we wish Adam all the very, very best and know he will be successful wherever his career leads him.

While we said goodbye to Adam, we are super-excited to have 'Lovely Linda' back teaching at PC on a more regular basis (in between jetting across the country as a Qantas flight attendant). You will also be seeing a whole lot more of Queensland based decorator Danielle Talbot, as teacher here. I've received nothing but wonderful feedback about these two very talented ladies, so if you've been wondering whether or not to take the plunge into the addictive world of cake decorating now is a great time.

Now, those of you not in Sydney will be delighted to know that not only will we be attending this years Taste of Sydney show, but Paris will also be in Melbourne the week after next as a part of the Food and Wine Festival. Showcasing alongside the likes of Nigella Lawson, we were abso-freak'n-lutely excited to say the least! For more information on the event, check out their website:

http://www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au/

Also, fresh in the doors of Planet Cake, is our newest intern, Jhanine Love. We were absolutely flooded with emails when we advertised the intern position on Facebook and we are thrilled to have Neen on board. Follow her journey over the next six months on her blog: http://theplanetcakeapprentice.blogspot.com/

Check out Antony and I goofing around this morning. This is what happens when you leave us alone with the dress up box on a Saturday morning! (Yep, we really do have a dress up box. Dangerous, very dangerous)

Wishing you all a fabulous Mardi Gras weekend and I will see you all next week.

Thea x