Cupcakes and Jewels and my 'lil sister!

Do you know that I have a sister who runs a cupcake business called CupCakeMe and makes the most delicious cakes for every sweet occasion? I'm so proud that she has launched such a successful business in just over a year. Sometimes redundancy can lead to the most amazing life changes ;-)

We collaborated with photographer Christina Brosnan for a photo-shoot that combined her sweet art with some of my sparkling jewels. We had so much fun coming up with ideas and themes.

A big thanks to Lisa from Bride and Joy for featuring us on her blog today! Lisa is a real bride documenting her personal wedding journey - her blog is full of useful advice for anyone planning a wedding. Hop over to her blog and check out the post and be sure to leave us some comments!

See more of Tara's cakes on CupCakeMe and Christina's photography on her website.

Winter Wonderland Cupcake Kit

It's snowy white and very cold outside so I feel I am entitled to post about plastic reindeers and other important seasonally related stuff! These cool cupcake kits are available from BakeLab and cost just $12 - worth it for the reindeers alone I think!

Maya Hansen Corsets

I stumbled across the designs of Maya Hensen while blog-hopping and I just love her quirky corsets for their eye-popping colours and daring shapes. Maya is based in Madrid and specialises in the corset form, designing both underwear as well as evening and bridal gowns.

Maya certainly celebrates the female form and loves to accentuate narrow waists and décolletage. These sculptural, steel boned corsets combine high fashion with European style and traditional corsetry methods. You can see how her creations are also inspired by goth, punk, and rock.

Maya has a number of different collections but I love her 'Cake Corsets Collection', inspired by cakes and candies! These pieces combine richly colourful suedes and brocades along with decorative patterns and trimmings. Delicious...

Visit Maya's website to view her complete collection or plan a trip to Madrid if you feel like having a special piece designed :-)

All photos found via MayaHansen.com

Cupcakes and Jewels

As some of you know, my sister Tara runs a cupcake business called Cupcake Me! We decided to collaborate on a sisterly project and were lucky enough to have our tasty designs photographed by Christina Brosnan.

Christina loves photographing lots of things from babies and curvy bumps to weddings and engagements! Her style is so modern and fresh. Thanks Christina - we had so much fun hanging out with you last week :-)

Tara and I came up with themes in the same way we would with real clients. We chose some classic and whimsical inspirations and let our imaginations carry us away. Cupcakes are like miniature pieces of art and Tara makes all of her floral decorations by hand. Yes, each of those flowers and butterflies are lovingly created from sugar paste to suit each design!

I love this Butterfly Garden cupcake with it's miniature flowers and delicate embossed flowers. *Almost* too pretty to eat...

Or how about this Black Flower cupcake with a very decorative wrapping?

For more inspiration visit Tara's website or Facebook page. Make sure to check out Christina's website and blog too.

Edible diamonds

I met my sister for a coffee and cake in the Phoenix Park today. She is just back from an amazing cake decoration course in the UK with celebrity cake maker Debbie Brown.

So, while we were sipping our lattes, she casually mentioned that Debbie had told her about edible diamond decorations for cakes. These two words have been spinning around inside my head ever since she told me this afternoon. Tara runs a cupcake company called Cupcake Me and we are working on a 'sister project' which will involve a photo shoot of my jewellery with her pretty cakes. You can see all of Tara's recent creations on her facebook page too -

Some of them will have *edible diamonds* Just remember, you heard it here first :-)

(Ok, I admit that the pic above is of real diamonds)

Esme's Ibiza wedding

Well girls, this is hot off the press...
Esme, the winner of my bridal hair accessories competition is just home from Ibiza. Congratulations to Esme and Keith! These are some images taken by family and friends and I also hope to share some of the official pics in a month or so.

You'll notice that Esme is looking suitably radiant and bronzed after her Mediterranean celebration! By all accounts, the holiday was amazing with family and friends benefiting from a relaxing holiday and amazing wedding party.

Here is Esme with her two bridesmaids. She chose their colour theme to contrast with the white and creams of the Mediterranean surroundings. I love how the sun makes these colours pop.

Above you can see Esme's headpiece which was made of fine gold crochet. I incorporated lots of gold-lined crystal, cream pearls, mat gold and silver-lined beading. This delicate crochet headband was woven around the back of the head, (although you can't see that in these images). Below are some of the crochet forms that Esme tried on before deciding on her own bespoke design.

I've been so looking forward to hearing all about this wedding and would like to thank Esme again for sharing her stories with us. Here are a few words from her -

Well I'm back - the wedding was amazing! Everyone was raving about my head piece; it really pulled my whole look together. The wedding was out of this world. The villa was decorated to perfection and everyone commented on the presentation and quality of the food, it was amazing. The wedding cake was cupcakes in carrot cake and lemon drizzle flavour. We had a Spanish guitarist playing during the reception and after the speeches we had fire dancers, which were spectacular. Thank you so much once again Aisling, my head piece really complemented my dress - I think you are just brilliant at what you do.

You're welcome Esme - thanks for your kind words; I really appreciate them. I know that your wedding will inspire so many people!

Danish bridal shower

Please someone organise a mini party like this for me! I'm throwing out the hints today. I'm open to any theme...come on my lovely friends.

I've been meaning to tell you about The bridal Lounge; a Dublin based company offering something a bit different. Would you like a bit of help coming up with your wedding concept? How can you reflect both of your personalities? How can you make it fun to plan and do?

Aoife and Deirdre are established in the bridal industry as a make-up artist and florist & event planner. They decided to come together to share their knowledge and expertise in another way. The Bridal Lounge offer lots of different tailored services from inspiration consultations to sourcing of unique products or services to suit your style.

Aoife and Deirdre planned a bridal shower for Aoife's soon to be sister-in-law. Rikke is Danish so the girls created a magical red and white world within their stylish showroom. See the full feature on their website.

I'm also honoured to be represented on the bridal Lounge website as a recommended supplier in their Little White Book. I recently collaborated with Aoife and Deirdre for the amazing engagement shoot at Killruddery Estate.

Great things come from working with other creative people - here's to more exciting projects!

Lilac and Lily

Sometimes cakes can nearly be too beautiful to eat! How about floral displays that will get your mouth watering?

Helen Powell is a Warwickshire wedding and event florist and she created these dreamy floral confections. I love the idea of these as centre-pieces for a table setting. You could have different 'desserts' on each table.

Helen's company is the beautifully named Lilac and Lily and you can see more of her designs on her website and blog.

Some of you may know that my sister Tara owns her own cupcake company, Cupcake Me! Below are some of her flower-inspired cupcakes. You can also follow her recent news on her Facebook page.

Vintage Cake toppers

Amada Lebel creates whimsical one-of-a-kind cake toppers. Well, some are cake toppers and some are designed for those who don't feel the need to have a cake but still want a cake topper - I love this idea! If you look closely you will see that the base of the cake-topper is actually a box which you can open and store things in. And these can be used as a cake-topper for a cupcake stand too. Amanda describes this piece below -

“From This Day Forward” mini topper. A smaller version of one of my larger pieces. About 7” tall but with all the quality of it’s larger counterpart. This will look great on your large or small cake. I have many couples purchase this for on top of their cupcake tree.

See more of Amada's designs at her Etsy shop or visit her blog for more inspiration.

Cupcake Me

Happy birthday to my sister Tara - I hope she will be celebrating with some of her own cupcakes today!

Tara runs her own cupcake business called Cupcake Me and her gorgeous creations are featured in the Spring issue of Irish Brides Magazine.

You can also follow Tara's blog -

Truly, tasty, yummy, scrummy :-)