The first thing with a croquembouche is getting the spelling right!!

The croquembouche has been made famous in Australia by Masterchef. It truely is a French work of art.

A croquembouche is a very tall pryamid of profiteroles held together with toffee. The profiteroles are made from choux pastry which are bite size balls filled with a continental custard. They are held in place by a caramel toffee and built up to a height of about 26 inches to cater for about 120 people.

After the tower is constructed the whole thing is drizzled in toffee spun sugar or chocolate.

The word croquembouche is french for crunch in the mouth and is a tradional french wedding cake where the guests are invited to come to the pyramid and pull off a toffee ball and help celebrate the marrige of the bride and groom!

One of the most important things that affects a croquembouche is air humidity. Due to the make up of a croquembouche it is absolutely essential for any order that it is only to a room that is air-conditioned.

If you are looking for something special for your Sydney or Central Coast wedding please call me. A croquembouche is truely spectacular!

CONGRATULATIONS TO WILL AND KATE!

 
The royal wedding cake was created by Fiona Carins in England.

It is a traditional fruit cake with flowers, acorns and shamrocks, flowers of the British Isles! oh well maybe next time they may call Hemsleys!!

This cake is an absolute masterpiece. It is an eight tier wedding cake and has over 900 iced flowers.

The recipe for the cake is a secret but it contained a range of ingredients from dried fruits such as raisins and sultanas to walnuts, cherries, grated oranges and lemon, French brandy and free-range eggs and flour.

Well done Will and Kate.

After a pretty quiet February with hot and sticky weather, March is looking very busy!

One of my cakes from the Royal Collection seems to be very popular. It is the dark chocolate, orange and poppyseed cake with ganache coating and fresh strawberries YUM!!

Maybe it is popular because it is not the normal type of celebration cake!! It stands quite high and very dramatic looking!

The only way to find out is to ORDER ONE!!

David.

For February only I am running a special !!!

The Sydney wedding cakes that are normally $9.95 per slice, I will take orders for at only $5.95 per slice. Please note this is for February only. To qualify, the order must be made and a deposit of 50% paid for before the end of February 2011. The cake itself can be for any time this year, however, the order needs to be confirmed before the end of this month.

I am sure you will find this outstanding value.

David

It’s always nice to receive compliments!!!

Hi David,

I wanted to let you know that the fabulous Mad Hatter Cake that you made for my daughters 21st was a huge hit!

She was very impressed and thought it was extremely creative and clever. Everyone else at the party was simply amazed. So thank you very much and I will be back!

Lorraine

The cake tasted so nice, everyone loved it; it was a great job, thank you so much. Money well spent, thank you.

April

Making Sydney wedding cakes is an art.

As the new year starts I thought it may be a good time to talk about icings! Yes icings!

The plastic icing is the main white icing used for wedding and celebration cakes with royal icing as the medium, to pipe borders and flowers etc.

The only trouble here in Australia is the high humidity. It does not mix well with sugar. This is in contrast to England where the white icing (Renice) is a lot more pleasant to eat, and sweeter. It melts in the mouth!

The Australian version of white icing (Pettinice) is heavier and more like plastic, hence its name plastic icing! So why is there is a difference? It is because Australian recipes require more stablizers.

January and Febuary are the two worst months to create cakes!! Even with air conditioning in the kitchen, the cake has to be returned to air dry pantry otherwise it will start to sweat(icing goes sticky).

There are other icings or frostings as the Americans call it, but these are more used in tortes, gateaux etc.

As a side note, check out the Louis Vuitton cake I have just made.

If you have any other questions about the Sydney wedding cakes I create, please just call me. David

Hi everyone, well it’s nearly that time of year when the man in the red suit arrives!!  With both Sydney Wedding cakes and December Christmas cakes on the increase, November and December are busy months. Traditionally in Sydney, rich fruit cakes were made but now anything is ordered. ie dark chocolate, white chocolate, mud cakes through to lemon meringue pies.

With all Christmas Cakes I still use the colours of Christmas, red green and white.

If you are looking for something special this Sydney Christmas have a look at my Royal Collection.

With all cakes, Christmas or not, they should have a Wow factor(visual) and a Yum factor(taste). When I make a fruit cake the fruit is soaked in brandy overnight and at least three weeks before Christmas to let the cake mature. I make the traditional Christmas scene in snow, holly etc. all from sugar!!

I am also able to make a more modern look, say Christmas presents all wrapped in colourful papers. Either way, you can let your, or my imagination run wild!!!

As always, I personally deliver wedding cakes and Christmas cakes to Sydney and the Central Coast

David

Not sure why, but at the moment, as well as doing wedding cakes in Sydney, cakes with a military theme seem to be in demand. We have done a battleship, tank and are now in need of an air force aircraft order so that we can complete the theme. To see the full size photos click on the Celebration Cakes page.

After 8 months of restoration, David’s Classic (1971) Mini ClubmanVan is now ready to deliver Hemsley’s wedding cakes across the central coast and Sydney.

Click for slide show.   Hemsleys Mini Van

David celebrated his birthday on Saturday night with a cake sculpted to look like his classic mini van. Of course he invited his friends to party with him. They all ate cake, drank wine and danced the night away – live music provided by local band “Jellyfish”   HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!

Hemsley’s Fine Cake Creations is delighted to be included in the 2011 Sydney edition of The Bride’s Diary.

The high quality hardcover book is distributed at department store bridal registries and the SYDNEY BRIDAL EXPO in Darling Harbour - the  magazine (softcover version) will be available in newsagents early September 2010.

Are you looking for a Queen’s Baker?  You don’t have to go to London to find one!!!

In fact, you needn’t look any further than Copacabana on the NSW Central Coast -David won The Renshaw Cup for best student in 1983. Renshaw’s supply the Queens Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace with cakes and petit fours.

If you are looking for that special wedding cake, please call David. You won’t be disappointed.

Besides raising awareness of mental health issues, the national charity Good Therapy Australia are currently raising funds to improve the quality of community services they provide. Please help!!

Hemsley’s are donating 20% from the sale of all dark chocolate cakes.

Made from the freshest ingredients (no preservatives), each cake sells
for $15 -and cuts into 10 generous slices. Minimum order is $30*

You can choose from the yummy selection below.

1. Hemsley’s Signature Dark Chocolate Cake
2. Orange Chocolate and Poppyseed
3. Chocolate and Coffee
4. Chocolate and Pecan – Almond – or Macadamia
5. Chocolate and Chilli

CUPCAKES Box of 9 for $20

If you haven’t yet tasted David’s signature dark chocolate cake

DON’T DELAY!

Order one – no, order two!! – of his DIVINE cakes today.

You will NOT be disappointed.

To place an order, call Che on 9949 8907 or 0417 826728.

CAKES ARE DELIVERED FRESHLY BAKED AND LAST UP TO 7 DAYS

*Free delivery on the Central Coast. For North Sydney or Newcastle, please add $5 per order.

SERVING SUGGESTION

Thank You, your support is appreciated.