Flour and Ink combined! Introducing ‘Deliciously Yours’
Today we are meeting Carol from Deliciously Yours who offers a unique service for easy planning for your kids birthday party!
Carol creates custom party stationary AND gorgeous matching cake and desserts (Sydney) . This means everything is coordinated and you only have to deal with one person to create the overall look, feel and theme of your child’s birthday party and have it all come to life in the cake and stationery!
I just LOVE this amazing mermaid cake Carol created:
Carol, tell us a bit about yourself:
I am the founder and owner of deliciously yours. I am a creative spirit, a lawyer and most importantly, a mum. I am passionate about designing and creating – I think it’s one of those things that defines who I am.
How did you start cake decorating and stationery design?
By accident! A friend of mine gifted me a cake decorating book for my birthday. I had never even heard of fondant or ganache at this stage. I first attempted a cake for my son’s 2nd birthday and fell in love with the whole process – perfecting the baking and each of the recipes, hand colouring fondant, mastering ganache – and above all, the designing!
I kept practising on family and friends until I felt comfortable that my work was up to scratch. And so, deliciously yours was born. I was an art student and really missed using my creative side and so deliciously yours has given me the most amazing opportunity to keep using my creative side.
I launched my stationery range earlier this year. I love planning parties for my own family and friends and love the idea of a theme for a party – and it all starts with the invitation. I love teaming my invitations with a unique cake and party favours, thank you cards or back drop (I’m crazy about this stuff!).
Describe your concept and style
So what is deliciously yours – flour and ink?
The concept is simple – unique cakes + matching stationery. I bake your cakes, I design and print all your invitations and party paper. You only deal with me and we work together to create something memorable for my clients and their families.
My style is nice clean lines (my cakes have gorgeous razor sharp edges!) and soft colours. I love modern hand painting and stencilling as well as traditional piping and sugar flowers.
Less is more – I like to stick to a couple of simple techniques to let the cake really shine.
What does a typical day look like?
My day is filled with meetings and family responsibilities. My evenings are usually quite relaxed and that’s when I work on my designs or sugar flowers or learn a new technique.
What is your most memorable project?
My son’s 2nd birthday cake – it was my first ever attempt at a fondant covered cake and he loved it! It really made me stop and think about doing this more often and getting better and better.
What is your favourite aspect of your job?
I love designing and playing with colour. Some days its hand colouring fondant, other days its working on a sketch or new colour palette. I often have ideas racing through my head when I talk to a client about their ideas. I love the collaborative part of what I do.
What advice would you give to a potential client when planning their cake?
Start with a theme – whether it’s a colour, texture, character or anything else that represents who they are. Everything falls in place after that!
Do some ‘research’ to get a feel for what designs they like and what inspires them. After that, I work with my clients and talk through what the celebration is about, what is important to them and how we can best represent that.
What I love about deliciously yours is that each one of my designs is different. They are unique to my client and what they are celebrating. I love helping them create that snapshot in time they want to remember forever – whether it’s wedding, 1st birthday, Christening.
Complete this sentence:
“I am happiest when… I am with my 2 little boys.”
Thank you Carol for sharing some of your business and inspiration with us as well as advice!
Now if you want a little piece of Deliciously Yours in your own home, Carol has shared her delicious vanilla cupcake recipe with us!
I’m looking forward to giving these a try:
Vanilla cupcake recipe (makes 12)
What you need…
115g unsalted butter (room temp or warmed a teeny bit in your microwave)
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs (room temp not cold)
3/4 cup milk
1 cup plain flour
1 cup self raising flour
What to do…
Preheat your oven to 170 (fan forced).
Beat the butter and sugar in your mixer until light and fluffy. The colour should be nice and pale and the texture almost silky smooth. On medium to high speed, this usually takes me around 5 minutes.
Add your eggs (one at a time) and your vanilla – beating well after each egg.
Add your milk and flour alternately and just fold. If you over mix your cupcakes won’t be nice and fluffy.
Spoon mixture into your pretty cupcake cases. I use 2 spoons to scoop them in or you can use an ice cream scoop. Bake for around 18-20 minutes. Do not over bake or they won’t be soft and scrumptious!
Thank you Carol!
Find Deliciously Your’s on Facebook here and website here
