Macaroon party favours and gift boxes

I make up gift boxes and party favours of Macaroons and Petit Fours. My friends love giving these as gifts and their friends love receiving them.

Happy Birthday!

Never too old for singing candles ...



... or too Macho for pink roses!



Macaroons at L'Epis Dore

Nicole's Pretty Perfect Pastry is now supplying Macaroons to L'epis Dore in Menlo Park, Pretoria. So ... all you wonderful people of Pre(his)toria, do yourselves a favour and take a trip to 'little Provance' to enjoy a Cappuccino and a delectable Macaroon amongst the Lavender and Roses in the quaint garden setting of L'epis Dore (Greenlyn Village Centre, 13th Avenue, Menlo Park, Pretoria).

Red Velvet Romance

To Tanya and Brett with love ... 

All you need is love.
Tanya & Brett 2 April 2011

My sister Tanya was gracious enough to entrust the making of her precious wedding cake to me. I say this because I have never made a Three-Tier cake before, let alone one for such a significant occasion. I am relieved to declare, with a fair amount of confidence, that I did not disappoint her.

Tanya and Brett wanted a Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. There is simply no better cake through which to celebrate love and life than a fabulously moist and silky Red Velvet Cake. I am certain that the best recipe for this cake, on this planet at least, is the one that I used from Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy. I have made the cake a dozen times and it has never failed to impress ... even the 'die-hard-non-wedding-cake-eating-guy' gave me a High Five Bru for my effort. Thank you Rich, exhilarating praise indeed!



For the love of cake

I first made this cake for 'my friend Stephen' for his 38th Birthday. I say this with the confidence of having made the cake a hundred times, whereas I have only made it five times. I found the recipe in one of my favourite recipe books titled 'Cakes to Celebrate Love and Life' by Callie Maritz and Mari-Louis Guy. The cake is called a 'German Chocolate Cake', but is not German at all. The name comes from the chocolate brand (German's Sweet Chocolate) used by the housewife who created the recipe. It consists of three tiers of moist chocolate sponge sandwiched together with toasted pecan and coconut custard, and covered with a rich Chocolate Buttercream Icing. Stephen described his experience of eating this cake as 'a culinary orgasm'. That's pretty lofty praise for a cake. Thank you Stephen, and thank you Callie and Mari-Louis for such a seductive recipe.

For the love of Macaroons