Happy Monday! I hope your weekend was filled with fun and plenty of celebrations.

I have some incredibly pretty cakes to share with you today from Coco Cakes in Victoria.  Here is what the incredibly passionate Santhiago told us about how she became to be a magician in the kitchen.

How long ago did you find your passion for creating beautiful cakes?

From a very young age, I discovered my passion for art. As a result, I attended arts school in Brazil for 2 years and began painting and drawing as a hobby. Following this I attended Gastronomy school for 2 years to become involved with commercial cookery. Cooking was also a passion of mine and so I worked as a chef in many restaurants across Melbourne for 6 years. In 2011 I decided I could combine both my passion for food and arts to create cakes. My vision was to create cakes that were not only delicious to eat but also made a visual statement.

How long have you had your business?

I initially began creating cakes for friends and family in 2011. After all the feedback I received I officially opened Coco Cakes in the beginning of 2012

What is the most popular flavour of cake from your customers.

Our most popular flavour is red velvet with vanilla butter cream filling. Another flavour our customers like to come back for is our mud cake with Baileys butter cream filling.

To see more of Santhiago’s stunning creations visit her facebook page here or her website here.

Have you managed to get hold of the latest Fete Press Magazine?  Once again Jane and Annabelle have done a fabulous job with their winter edition.  I received my copy a few weeks ago and from the minute I read it I was desperate to try the Roast Lamb and Potatoes recipe on page 25.

I must admit I have not been great in the kitchen of late – something about a busy life, kids, a business to keep on top of … but last Sunday I said to Mr A that I was going to make an attempt at the recipe in an effort to get my cooking mojo back!  He was quick to jump on board and was straight in the car heading to the shops to buy the ingredients.

Five hours later and a phone call to find guests to enjoy it with us and we were enjoying slow roasted lamb shoulder with potatoes and salad.  Here is how the afternoon looked.

So how did it end up tasting?  Delicious… so delicious that my guests devoured it before I got a chance to photograph it.  Here is how it looked in the magazine though – must say mine did look the same!

To find out how to make this recipe plus many more make sure get hold of the latest edition of Fete Press Magazine on newstands now.

A special mention today also to our new blog sponsor Tanya from Life’s Little Celebrations.  Please visit Tanya’s fabulous new website and party directory that launched this week – you will see the link on the side bar or click here.  You are able to source everything you need for your next party just by one visit to Life’s Little Celebrations.

One of my favourite pacakaging items in the store is the Ice Cream Pail Favour Carton

I particularly love that it is plain and you can dress it up however you like and it can be used as a favour container or even for food!

You can see here that I used this carton to hold party favours at Sienna’s Flamingo Pool Party last year – the kids thought they were taking home a tub of ice cream!

It was perfect for popcorn at the Ladybird party I put together last year and you can see also how Tracey Lau has used them on her daughters birthday table to serve potato salad!

Add a custom design printable to the top or even some pretty paper or washi tape and you are ready to go.

 They are available in packs of 10 in the the Sweet Style online store here.

Happy Monday Everyone – can you believe we are half way through the year already.  We have strarted school holidays here in our part of the world – it is so nice not to have to rush out the door to school in the morning!

Today we are meeting Kelly Ivory from Belle Masion Cakes in Brisbane.  Kelly answered some questions for me so we can find out all her about how she found her way in the cake industry:-

How long ago did you find your passion for creating beautiful cakes
My grandmother was a cake decorator for David Jones in Sydney back in the 60’s and I loved the pictures of the huge 4 tier cake she made for my parents wedding. However I did not find my passion until our family moved to Brisbane and I tried to get a cake for my daughters birthday and I could not find anyone to do it so I had a go myself I then looked around for classes and for the next few years I practiced and made many test cakes until I perfected my recipes and when I thought I was ready I started Belle Maison Cakes. I now work out of a fully registered cake studio in our home and love making cakes of all types.

How long have you had your business
I officially started back in 2009 and Belle Maison Cakes means Beautiful Home Cakes.

What is the most popular flavour of cake from your customers.
Chocolate mud is the most popular however my Mocha, Cherry Ripe and Hazelnut are very close behind I always have rave reviews about my cakes many saying they are the best they have ever eaten I only use the best belgain chocolate and liquors and for my mocha I use a homemade espresso extract in both the cake and ganache.

If you would like to follow Kellie’s Facebook page please find it here and her website is here.

A note also on the online store – we will be closing up for a family holiday later this week so if you need products for your parties you will need to get in prior to Thursday.   Any products ordered between Friday 5th July and Wednesday 17th July will be shipped out on our return.  Please feel free to order non urgent items during this time.