Monday, 22 August 2011

Our First Couture Cupcake Class


Last Sunday we had he great pleasure here at Sugar Rush, of spending our day with 9 amazing ladies. Some new faces, some regular students; all excited to expand their cake decorating skills with our new Couture Cupcake class. 

Vanilla cupcakes, soft pink icing, lots of sugar, and big smiles. Pair that with a few coffees, a cupcake lunch, and you have yourself the perfect girly day.

This class is all about pearls, lace, bows, and shimmer. We start with the fondant details, so they have the afternoon to dry. The girls loved making the lace flowers, everyone creating different little blossoms to make it their own. The pearls were lots of fun, especially dusting the gold shimmer - somehow I think there was more on hands than anything else!!


After our "healthy" lunch, we got working on those fondant cupcakes. The concentration level went up quite considerably for the black piped dots; but everyone did incredibly well. Especially considering some girls had never held a piping bag in their lives. So proud!



These classes will be running once a month or so, please see our course schedule for more details.

Thank you to every one of our students for making this first Couture Class such a success. We could not be happier with the day, and your amazing creations. We love the little personal touches you made to your sweets, and can't wait to see more creations as you grow as cake artists!!





Images courtesy of Brooke Aime Art





Tuesday, 16 August 2011

Our beautiful girls photographed by Renee Bell of NFE


We had a wonderful chance to have our gorgeous girls, Hunny and Sydney, photographed by Renee Bell of NFE. They had an amazing time, lots of giggles, and the end result was incredible shots that are will hang on every wall in the house!





If anyone is interested in finding out more about Renee's work, check out her website and facebook. Her images are simply stunning, revealing, and honest. I love seeing her updates, and watching her body of work expand and grow to be one of the best in the world.


Thursday, 11 August 2011

2011 Class Schedule



Sugar Rush Cake Design Studio is well and truly underway, with classes popping up all over the year. It's time to get serious, and so below is the course calendar for the rest of 2011.

If you are interested in finding out more information, please call us on (02) 4948 1286 or email us at sugarrushclasses@bigpond.com

A full course outline will be featured on our new website in the coming weeks, and we will be adding images of each class cake shortly.

August 2011

Friday 12th Cupcake Bouquet  10am - 2pm $150
Sunday 14th Beginners Sculpted 1 Handbag Cake 9am - 4pm BOOKED OUT $375
Sunday 21st Couture Cupcakes 10am - 2pm BOOKED OUT $150
Saturday 27th Cupcake Bouquet 10am - 2pm $150
Sunday 28th Garden Cupcakes 12noon - 5pm at Tulloch's Wines, Pokolbin $180

September 2011

Tuesday 6th Couture Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150
Tuesday 13th Garden Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150
Tuesday 20th Cupcake Bouquet 10am - 2pm $150
Sunday 25th Couture Cupcakes 10am - 2pm BOOKED OUT $150
Tuesday 27th September Sugarpaste Roses 10am - 4pm $275

October 2011

Sunday 2nd Buttercream Cakes 10am - 2pm $200 ALMOST BOOKED OUT
Tuesday 11th Cupcake Bouquet 10am - 2pm $150
Sunday 16th French Provincial Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150
Tuesday 18th Couture Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150
Friday 21st Beginners 1 Round Cake 10am - 4pm $330
Sunday 23rd Beginners Sculpted 1 Handbag Cake 9am - 4pm $375

November 2011

Sunday 6th Cupcake Bouquet 10am - 2pm $150
Tuesday 8th Christmas Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150
Sunday 13th Beginners Sculpted 2 Bird House 9am - 4pm $375
Tuesday 15th Sugarpaste Figurines 9am - 4pm $275
Sunday 20th Buttercream Cakes 10am - 2pm $200
Tuesday 22nd Garden Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150
Sunday 27th Beginners 1 Round Cake 9am - 4pm $330
Tuesday 29th Couture Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150

December 2011
Tuesday 6th French Provincial Cupcakes 10am -2pm $150
Sunday 11th Christmas Cupcakes 10am - 2pm $150
Tuesday 13th Christmas Cookies and Cake Pops 10am - 3pm $180
Friday 16th Cupcake Bouquet 10am - 2pm $150

Monday, 1 August 2011

Sneak Peek: Hunter Valley Gardens Wedding Open Day




Sunday we attended the Hunter Valley Gardens Wedding Open Day. It was a gorgeous sunny winter day, and the vineyard setting was amazing. Tempus Two, if anyone is looking for a wedding venue, is a stunning sophisticated space with high ceilings, a lovely bar area, wine barrels floor to ceiling, the entire room just works!

We were lucky enough to be placed next to Peonies Floral Designer, well known as the best floral designer in the vineyards, and I suspect, the country. Darlene has been in the floral industry for around 20 years, and has remained at the cutting edge of floral design for all this time. Her sense of style, colour, flow and proportions are impeccable. I simply cannot fault Peonies. Every wedding we jointly style a reception, we create incredible displays of sweets and flowers. So when it came time to prepare for this HVG expo, we felt the natural thing to do to showcase our designs, was to create a joint mock wedding reception. 




For us, adding flowers, rose petals and tea lights into our space, and cookie bonbonniere into their's, just made sense. We love to meld the two together. For us, it's about harmony between all the pieces in the reception room. It needs to read as one; as though it was created by the one person, rather than a culmination of separate parts. But that truly is the beauty of working side by side. Many minds do really bring out the very best in each other. 


The desserts on this table reflect a soft romantic colour scheme, whilst incorporating natural baked hues. This just takes down the sophistication level of the design, and makes it sit comfortably in this mildly rustic vineyard setting. Personal style needs to be paired with elements that recognise the venue and location in order for it to really work. 




Darlene at Peonies created a reception table that would be the envy of any bride. I see many reception rooms, but this quite honestly, took even my breath away! The layers, the complex design, paired with simple flowers, just worked in the space. Kale, baby's breath and sweet peas may not be on every floral designers list, but this is what I find so exciting about Peonies. I always know their designs are going to blow me away, I just never know how!! 





When it came to creating a cake for this Open Day, we knew it had to be a show stopper. We created an ivory four tier extended cake with a gorgeous lace border on each tier, and decorated with sugar peonies and hydrangeas. The lace work on this cake took three decorators 5 hours to complete, whilst each sugar peony took 3 hours to create. The aim was to design a cake that was refined, timeless, and classic. One that was polished and elegant, yet still retained the modern clean lines we adore creating. 







We would like to thank Brooke Aime Art for supplying these stunning snaps of the day. They are just beautiful!