Picnic in the park Strawberry and cream cheese frosting cake

This cake is as simple as a picnic in the park.

Strawberries are finally coming down in price here which means the start of a few glorious months of plentiful and flavorsome berries so cheap you can easily top as many cakes as you like with a mound of berries and have enough left to puree up a sauce to drip invitingly over the edge.

This cake was made last year when strawberries were at their peak.

I used recipes from my own cookbook baking up a few batches of strawberry cake and cream cheese frosting (tinted blue). But you could easily use your own favorite recipe or a packet mix.

As you can see the strawberries are the stars of this cake. If you have kids let them help arrange the strawberries on top of the cake, if there happen to be too many and they slide off, don't worry it will just add to the charm of the cake.

The frosting was added with a normal kitchen knife. I  spread frosting onto the cake as evenly as possible and then I held the knife at the bottom of the cake and dragged it upwards to create a vertical line in the frosting, repeating all around the cake.

Thank you to Caketopia for lending me the pretty pink cake stand.

If you love strawberries click over HERE to get the recipe for my simple Strawberries and Cream cheesecakes in a jar. They're easy and berry delicious ;)

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:

Link to Amazon:

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! 

Or at Fishpond (free shipping Australia)

 

 Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Strawberry and Cream Cheesecakes in a Jar

Strawberries are so plentiful and cheap around here at the moment and everyone has those buy 3 punnets for $5 deals so our fridge is full of them.

That is not a complaint.

I love fruit. Mostly we just wash and eat it fresh here.

Seriously I did not fish around to find these strawberries, they were the top 2 in the punnet.

But I couldn't resist making up these strawberry and cream cheesecakes in a jar. The great thing about making cheesecakes in a jar, apart from y'know obviously they look lovely, is that you can spoon on heaps of strawberries and puree some up as sauce and it stays put as you scoop around eating.

If it doesn't happen to be strawberry season for you at the moment - just pop any fresh fruit in the top and it will be just as awesomely delicious.

I have used recycled jam jars, which actually took me a while to collect up, but you can use whatever you may have sitting around. In the past I found drinking glasses or even clean unused glass tea light holders from Ikea work.

Oh and if your a bit of a fan of upcycling and recycling you should check out the latest edition of 'Tickle the Imagination' online magazine.

I have a super yummy recipe for Blueberry jarcakes with cream cheese frosting in the lasted edition.

......hmmmm that styling looks familiar. Nope I didn't do it the same day (I don't have that many jars), although it was about a week apart. I needed to use the jars quick as my friend was collecting used jars to use at a party as drink glasses. Yup another fab recycling idea right there.

This photo is really Bubble and (a) Sweet

Now if only I could come up with an idea for recyling all those plastic fruit punnets I would be set.

and YAY for Bubble and Sweet, we were featured as one of Parenting.com's fav Halloween pintrest ideas for my Double Trouble Witch Brew Cauldron Cake pops. Thanks Parenting.com you can check out all their other creepily delicious favorites HERE.

anyway shameless self promotion over.....back to the cheesecakes.

Strawberries and Cream Cheesecakes in a Jar makes 6
You will need 6 clean 250ml jam jars or similar. If you do not have jars available you can use cupcake papers and bake in a muffin tray. Imperial conversion is approximate.

500g (17oz) cream cheese at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg at room temperature
1/4 cup cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 250g (8 1/2 oz) punnet strawberries
Extra whipped cream for serving

Preheat oven to 140 C (280 F).

Beat the cream cheese and sugar using a mixer at medium speed until smooth and lump free, add the cream and mix until combined.

Reduce speed to low and add the eggs and vanilla and mix until just combined.

Spoon mixture into jars, place on a tray and pop in the oven.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Allow to cool to room temperature and the pop into the fridge to chill for a couple of hours.

Just prior to serving puree about half the strawberries. Chop the remaining strawberries into small pieces. Evenly divide the strawberries and puree between the jars. Top with some whipped cream, decorate with sprinkles if desired and serve with a spoon.

How to eat a Tiara - Pink Ruffle Princess Cake with Edible Gold Tiara

Photograph by Alyce Holzberger
Recipe for Strawberry Layer Cake CLICK HERE

This is the cake from Lilli's 8th birthday party. Y'all will have to wait till Sunday for the rest of the party photo's but I couldn't help but share this with you today.

OK can y'all guess the party theme.

Photo by Terri Vandermeer

Lilli helped to design the cake which was great fun. The top cake is 4 layers of white graduating to dark pink/ burgundy and is raspberry flavored.

Yes please I will have some cake - Photo Alyce Holzberger

The rasberry flavored cake is modified from the strawberry cake recipe in my book Sweets on a Stick.

The tiara is edible fondant with edible jelly jewels held in place with a little royal icing.

Photo by Terri Vandermeer

Yup that's right the jewels are not those hard diamonds that cloud over as soon as you touch and break your teeth.them but flexible edible jelly that you can pop on cookies and for cake decoration......y'know for example tiaras.

Photo by Alyce Holzberger

I used patchwork cutters for the tiara template hand cut it out then applied 2 layers of gold americolor airbrush and 2 layers of gold home made paint which was a mixture of the americolor sheen, gold luster dust and rose spirits.

you can find them on Amazon here (US):


Available to Australia via Fishpond


Crowns Patchwork Cutters


For a tutorial on  how to make a ruffle cake see my Rainbow ruffle cake HERE for a tutorial on applying ruffles.

Oh and how cute are the cake boxes I picked up at and decorated with party dots from Polkadot Prints.

Cake boxes Robort Gordon Party Dot Polkadot Prints

Photography by Alyce Holzberger

Cake Photo and prop credits

Cake made and designed by Bubble and Sweet

Edible Jelly Jewels by Culpitt purchased from Ebay seller Party Animal
Tutorial on how to make a ruffled cake here
Photography by Alyce Holzberger Photography and Collette - Alyce did this
Party Dot Printables Polkadot Prints
Cake Boxes Robert Gordon from 
Cake Stand Clara French
Cake Recipe Sweets on a Stick

Available online here at Amazon

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)

Special Thanks to Caketopia for lending me your airbrush machine and Terri Vandermeer for styling assistance and photographs not tagged otherwise.

Photo by Alyce Holzberger

Coconut and Strawberry Macaroon Hearts for Valentine

A macaroon instead of a macaron for a change.

I have always loved macaroons, even before I knew about those pretty little temperamental french almond things I was a fan of the dense coconut confection that is a macaroon.

I used to love the chocolate dipped ones from The Shingle Inn, a bakery in Brisbane nearby where I used to work.

I have tried a few recipes over the years with less than fabulous results. Anyway I spied a recipe in Better Homes and Gardens basics magazine that I though had promise. So I made the recipe a bit smaller and added some finely chopped strawberries and the result was pretty delicious.

and of course then I shaped them into a heart for Valentines day.


Which is really only an excuse because if you have followed this blog for any length of time you would have noticed that I frequently shape or decorate things into hearts, just because they are so darn cute.

Then I made half of them into the traditional little pyramid shape which is pretty cute as well. They are the perfect bite sized treat and not overly sweet so you can have a quite a few if you are so inclined.

I was - inclined to have a few that is, in fact a few too many so sadly my plan of dipping some of the heart shaped macaroons into pink chocolate did not eventuate.

Oh well next time ;) 

Recipe after jump.

Once upon a time....... Strawberry white chocolate pot recipe and Forest tea party

Once upon a time there were 4 gorgeous little girls, they were the prettiest and best dressed girls in the land and one day they happened upon a magical tea party in the forest.

There were cupcakes, strawberry mousse cups, rose and violet macarons, pink cake pops, sweets, lollipop cookies and finger sandwiches and a magical far away tree....

This isn't a fairy tale it's real life (well ok maybe the bit about the magical far away tree's not real) but it wasn't an accident these girls happened upon this tea party.

Strawberry Chocolate Pot recipe at bottom after jump

Elizabeth from LaToriana had a wonderful idea for a photo shoot set in the forest and was kind enough to invite my daughters and I along.

Daneve from Ah Tissue helped set the scene with hanging pom poms and Naomi V Photography took the amazing photo's.

and of course I made the food and styled the little tea table.

It was such fun, and so lovely to meet Elizabeth Murphy of LaToriana in person as I have been a fan and customer of her store for a number of years.

You can see from the photo's just how divine the clothes are I fell in love with the new Little Miss J range, LaToriana sources some of the best brands from Australian and New Zealand. See more pics at her Forest Tea Party La Toriana style blog post.