Nelle Cakes

Easter at Melissa's

2011-04-21T13:11:00.000+02:00

It's almost Easter weekend. Hope you have a wonderful weekend planned. Don't forget to buy some goodies before you go on holiday. All from your nearest Melissa's store.

Happy Easter everyone! Drive safe!

Pretty Blog DIY

2011-04-21T12:57:00.000+02:00

I had the privilege to work with Anelle from Seven Swans on my first Pretty Blog DIY. We had so much fun doing this DIY. Too much fun actually. Can't wait for future collaborations with Anelle. There will be many more yummy DIY's from Nelle Cakes on The Pretty Blog, so watch this space.

You can look forward to goodies for weddings, baby showers, kitchen teas, birthdays and special events like Easter. Can't wait to share all my ideas with you!

Have a look at our Easter cupcake in a jar DIY

Printable Parties

2011-03-04T10:14:00.004+02:00

So you're planning a party for a birthday, baby shower or kitchen tea and you can't find pretty stationary to suit your theme. Look no further than the amazing In Good Company. They have a whole section on party printables. Print, cut, stick, use. Simple as that! You can even have custom made printables designed to suit your needs.

Valentines

2011-02-10T09:36:00.002+02:00

Don't forget to buy your Valentines biscuits at Melissa's.

Pantone color of the year...

2011-02-10T09:15:00.004+02:00

Honeysuckle is Pantone's color of 2011. "A brave new color for a brave new world. Courageous. Confident. Vital. It's a color for everday, but nothing 'everyday' about it. Honeysuckle is encouraging and uplifting."

Below is a mood board inspired by honeysuckle.

photo credits: Real weddings, flikr, Brides, Thread, Sprinkles,
Sofia blanc de blanc, Florali, Martha Stewart, Jennifer Davis,
East six, Artfool

Anri & Nadia

2011-02-07T09:04:00.001+02:00

This was my beautiful friends' wedding at Delsma farm. Amazing pics by Cari photography.

Creative wedding

2011-01-27T11:51:00.002+02:00

Willem and Talita's wedding was colourful, creative and fun. Most of the decorations was done by Talita herself. Job well done! The reception looked amazing! I love how she used buttons everywhere. Even the cake adorned some buttons.

Photographs by Jaco le Roux

Your Wedding Day magazine feature

2011-01-17T19:58:00.000+02:00

This stunning black and white wedding by Izandi from I do was featured in the latest Your Wedding Day magazine. I had the privilage to make the damask print wedding cake.

Below are some of the photographs by Ryan Graham and a video clip by Missing Piece. What a beautiful bride!!

Video clip Nana-Marie & Follie

Giulio & Zelda

2011-01-16T11:06:00.001+02:00

This festive wedding was held at Beloftebos near Stanford. Such a beautiful venue (not ideal to drive on a 14km dirt road to deliver a cake though) Zelda wanted an all white cake with icing replicas of the ruffle flower she had in her hair. The end result was a very romantic look.

Photographs by Nikki Meyer

Merry Christmas to all!

2010-12-25T09:52:00.001+02:00

photo credit: eatdrinkchic

New Blog

2010-12-23T22:09:00.000+02:00

Welcome to my new blog! I have decided to create a new blog, because it's more user friendly for me and for you. Now you can go back into the archives. Yay!

I have added all the old blog posts, but obviously couldn't move all the comments. So feel free to visit the golden oldies and comment on them.

xxx

Cookie cutters

2010-12-23T11:29:00.003+02:00

A while ago I received all my lovely new cookie cutters from the USA. Can't wait to start playing around with new designs!

Will post some pics of the new cookies asap.

Red & Blue

2010-12-20T10:28:00.005+02:00

This is one of my favorite color combinations. Red is always that accent color I want to add to everything.

It's also a favorite for one of my brides: Anelle from Seven Swans wedding stationary. She had a regular feature on the cap classique blog about the whole planning process of her own wedding. Everything about this wedding just sounded wonderful. I was lucky enough to make some cookies for this very talented lady.

Below are the cookies that made part of Anelle's yummy cookie bar. The amaaaazing duo from welovepictures, were the photographers at their wedding. I'm absolutely dying to see the pics!

Anelle's cookies

Trailer Trash Wedding

2010-12-09T10:47:00.006+02:00

If you haven't seen The Aleit Group's latest limited edition wedding newsletter where have you been?
The creative genius behind this shoot was off course Johnny Hamman from The Aleit Group. Johnny can make trailer trash look chic. Nelle Cakes had the privilege to be part of this amazing shoot.

Follow this link for a lovely surprise... Limited Edition Wedding Newsletter

Lace

2010-12-07T23:00:00.004+02:00

One of the most popular designs so far has been the brush embroidery lace. What I mean by brush embroidery is that I pipe the outlines of a lace motif and then take a wet brush and brush the icing from the outside inwards. This creates a lace effect.

What I normally do is copy the lace on the brides dress for the cake design. This makes it more personal and unique to the specific wedding.

Here are a few examples of the lace and cakes...

Cute figurines

2010-12-05T22:44:00.001+02:00

On my previous blog post there were some pics of the adorable little bunny figurines the bride made herself. I found these cute ones on Etsy the other day. It can be custom made and shipped to South Africa.

I'm not normally a huge fan of figurines, but these are not your average porcelain figurines. These are pretty wooden figurines, each one hand made to look like you and your other half.

Here are a few super cute bride and grooms.

Off to the seaside

2010-12-01T20:34:00.004+02:00

This wedding was held at Strandkombuis in Yzerfontein. Unfortunately I did not get to meet the bride and groom as they live in Holland. I did however get to meet their amazing friends and family who helped to get the venue ready. I even got invited by the bride's mom to stay for the wedding. So sweet.

Zelda is very creative, this I could see right from the start when she mailed me some bits and bobs for inspiration. She made these cute figurines and mini bunting to go on top of the cake. Love it!

Xmas at Melissa's

2010-11-29T10:17:00.003+02:00

I know haven't blogged in a while. My excuse: over 2000 cookies for Melissa's. Trust me, this kept me occupied for 2 weeks while trying to finish wedding cake orders as well. Lucky for me, I love what I do!

Don't forget to visit a Melissa's store near you for yummy Christmas goodies.

Nelle cakes will be launching a permanent cookie range at Melissa's in the New Year! Watch this space...

For the little ones

2010-11-07T21:44:00.001+02:00

In between all the weddings I get to make some pretty little things for the little ones.

Featured in My Wedding Day Magazine

2010-10-25T21:16:00.005+02:00

The latest issue of My Wedding Day magazine is on the shelves and Nelle Cakes is featured in it. It was a privilege to be part of this amazing shoot and to work with such a talented group of people.

Make sure to get your copy now!

A sneak peek of what happened behind the scenes. Much more to see inside the magazine!

Grey Mood Board

2010-10-18T23:04:00.003+02:00

Since I'm on the grey subject, I decided to make an inspiration board for a grey farm feast.

Pasella

2010-10-16T09:06:00.001+02:00

The Pasella clip as promised

Shades of grey

2010-10-13T23:07:00.002+02:00

It seems like the color for weddings this season is grey. I've already had 5 wedding cakes which had mostly grey in it and there is still a few more to come. Whether it's a dove grey or charcoal it somehow maneuvers itself into a lot of people's color schemes. I love it! Especially grey cakes with white decorations.

First up is a cake which was one of my favorites from last wedding season.

Featured on Pasella

2010-10-07T23:24:00.000+02:00

Nelle Cakes was featured on Pasella last night. Yay!

I had a wonderful time working with Jaco from Just Jack, Jo-lize from Floral Affairs, Carla from Secret Diary, the students from The Aleit Academy and of course everyone from Pasella (they have a lot of patience, is all I can say) It was an amazing team, who together created two beautiful tables for this shoot.

For those who missed it last night, here's some pics from the shoot. Photographs were taken by Inecke Photography. I will try to get a clip and then post it on my blog.

Charlotte & Carlo

2010-10-01T23:32:00.000+02:00

Last weekend was one of my childhood friends' wedding. We go way back...I mean playing Barbie, way back.

Charly was the one that designed my website. This time I had the privilage to design something for her. They wanted red velvet cupcakes, so I had to come up with some decorations for these yummy desserts to fit in with the rest of the theme. Their beautiful wedding invitations (which Charlotte made) was the inspiration behind these. The wedding reception was at The Conservatory in Franschoek. Stunning venue!

Keep a look out for some of the wedding pics on Du Wayne Denton's blog. I know I can't wait to see it! They also had a couple shoot with Lizelle Lotter (who took the pics for my website) Take a look at this pretty amazing shoot on her blog.

Till then have a peek at some of the cake and venue pics that I took.

The inspiration

Isabel & Van Zyl

2010-09-27T23:34:00.001+02:00

The wedding season has officially started and what a beautiful way to begin!

I'm so excited to share these amaaazing photographs by Nikki Meyer with you. Its just breathtaking. Isabel loves Cocoa Chanel so that was the obvious inspiration for her wedding. She sent me a beautiful mood board full of Chanel inspired pictures and eventually decided on a combination of two of my designs for her wedding cake.

See more photographs of this stylish wedding on Nikki Meyer's website

The beatiful couple cutting the cake

Facebook Page

2010-08-28T11:35:00.004+02:00

We're on Facebook now! Come visit the page for latest news, pics and a freebie every now and then.

Love Hearts

2010-08-16T23:40:00.003+02:00

I've been sourcing a lot of sweets for dessert tables lately and have come across these love heart sweeties again. I used to love those when I was little.

The love heart/secret message sweets gave me an idea for love heart cookies. These cookies could add a nice home made touch to a place setting or it can be changed into a personalized name tag for each guest. Make your own muslin cloth bags and give them away as favors.

Love notes/hearts

Love heart cookies

Black & White

2010-08-03T23:53:00.006+02:00

Black and white is still one of the favorite color schemes for weddings. It's elegant, sophisticated and simple. It's also a very striking color combination for cakes.

Here's a few black and white cake designs.

Camelia Rose

Oh baby!

2010-03-24T10:19:00.001+02:00

I've had quite a few babyshower and christening enquiries lately. Baby cakes are one my favourite things to decorate. You can have a lot of fun with themes, designs and color schemes. From pastel to bright, it all seems right!

The cookies can be a nice gift for guests to take home and cupcakes are always a winner for tea parties.

Here are a few of my favourites.

Color of the year

2010-03-16T00:22:00.002+02:00

I'm happy to share with you that Turquoise is Pantone's color of the year.

Not only is Turquoise one of my favourite colors, but its also the color of Nelle cakes.

As Pantone explains: Turquoise is a universally flattering color that appeals to both men and women. It's inspired by sky & water. It reminds people of a tropical paradise and represents a comforting escape .With both warm and cool undertones, it pairs well with any other color.

Turquoise adds a splash of excitement to neutrals and browns, complements reds and pinks, creates a classic maritime look with deep blues, livens up all other greens, and is especially trend-setting with yellow-greens.

Here are some sweet things with different Turquoise undertones and color combinations. (I think it's quite obvious that I looove Turquoise)

Change is good

2009-12-11T09:17:00.002+02:00

I have a few examples of cakes that have been changed in different ways. From the ribbon colour, to a the shape and color of the cake.

The cakes you see on my website are just a few examples of what I can do in terms of technique. I want to encourage everyone to think outside of the box. I can turn pretty much anything into a cake. From something as small as your favourite brooch (see kamersvol blog) or the pattern on your wedding invitation, I can make it happen!

Pink Cascading Pearl - Lizelle Lotter

Pink and Black Cascading Pearl

It's all in the name

2009-11-30T09:46:00.000+02:00

When I had a look around for possibilities of a domain name for my website, I came across one of Nelle's namesakes, Nelle handbags in the USA.

Laura Nelli creates the most beautiful bags and accessories, I can't help myself but to visit her website on a regular basis. It was one bag in particular that caught my eye and was the inspiration for one of my wedding cake designs.

Nelle Handbags Tuxedo Cherub Clutch

Nelle Cakes' Frills

Kamersvol

2009-11-12T09:50:00.001+02:00

I've been to the kamersvol geskenke recently and felt so inspired by all the creative people out there.

It's very difficult NOT to buy everything you see when visiting this market. Here's just some of the lovely little things I bought that inspired me to play around with some cake designs.

A FAB Weekend

2009-11-02T09:55:00.000+02:00

Nelle had the chance to show off some cakes at the recent FAB bridal expo in the CTICC.

It was my first bridal expo and hopefully the first of many more. It was great to meet all the brides-to-be and
I had the chance to meet some lovely people in the wedding industry.

Thanks for everyone's support and well wishes.

Shooting the Cake

2009-10-24T10:07:00.001+02:00

Please note: there were no cakes harmed during this process.

When I met Lizelle as the photographer at my brother’s wedding, I knew that she would be the one to photograph my cakes when the day comes to set up my own business. Not only is she fun to work with, but also an extremely talented photographer with great ideas up her sleeve!

After two days of styling and shooting, we managed to get the perfect set of pictures for the website.
I hope that you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

behind the scenes

Day 1

Blank Canvas

2009-10-19T10:13:00.000+02:00

With a new venture, you need to start from scratch. That’s exactly what I had to do in just a few days.

Having to wait for the ship to arrive with my tools from London, I had 9 days to decorate all the cakes and cookies for the website. With many late nights and early mornings, I managed to get it done in time for the photo shoot with Lizelle Lotter.

Thanks to my lovely mom and sister for the helping hand and support. From washing dishes, to keeping me company until late at night, styling until 5 in the morning and transporting everything to the shoot, I would not have been able to do it in 9 days without you.

Thank goodness for strong black coffee and family!!

Cakes in the making...