Gift Hampers

With the "home made" and "baking" trends on the rise, Gift Hampers are becoming more and more popular as presents.

We made so many in December last year for our Clients, that we've decided to share with you just some of the options available.

There are many small options, such as a parcel of home made Marshmallows, a pot of freshly baked Shortbread, a bag of Rocky Road, some bite-size Chocolate Cherry Puddings, or a packet of Creamy Coconut Ice.  Here are some photos of the smaller options:

Red Velvet Cupcakes in boxes make great Christmas presents too. 

Then there are some larger options, such as a large jar of Marshmallows, or an assortment of tasty treats put together to suit any budget.

Christmas 2011

With the "Silly Season" well and truly over for another year, I thought I'd share with you some of the ideas we had for our own Christmas lunch this year.

As with most of our personal events, the emphasis was on the desserts and sweet items.  We had a massive 6kg ham, glazed with Chilli Jam, and roast potatoes, salad and rice as sides.  But the main event was the amazing Gingerbread House that looked like it was straight out of a storybook.

Here is a photo of the beautiful Gingerbread House.

To sit on the side of the Gingerbread House, and for everyone to nibble while they were admiring the house, we had red, green and white marshmallows and coconut ice.  And once we'd eaten the savoury course our Bûche de Noël, or "Yule Log" was placed on the table for everyone to eat.  We served it straight from the fridge, which made it lovely and cold on such a warm day.

We also put together lots of different Christmas gift hampers and baskets, which I'll show you in another post.

Baby Showers

Over the past 2 years, we've catered for plenty of baby showers, in fact our first ever event was our official business launch at my baby shower back in September 2009.

Having just provided lots of cupcakes for yet another baby shower this past Sunday, I thought I'd share some photos from baby showers we've baked for.

These first photos are from Sunday's baby shower.  The gender of the baby isn't known yet, so the theme was pastel blue and pink.

The 3 photo is from a baby shower where they didn't know the gender, but wanted a really girlie pretty pink theme.

Obviously these all pink cupcakes were for a baby girl's baby shower!  There's something lovely about keeping it simple and all one colour.

This theme was pink, white and black.  The cupcake wrappers were black with white polka dots, and all the cupcakes were decorated with white icing and pink flowers.  I personally like this theme, because its a bit of a more sophisticated twist on traditional white and pink themes.

And of course, our homemade marshmallows are always a favourite at baby showers!  If the theme is pink and white we usually make the following flavours: Vanillla Bean, Roasted Coconut, Raspberry, Raspberry & Coconut, Strawberry.  If the theme is neutral, or a lovely yellow theme, we usually provide Passionfruit, Pineapple & Coconut, Lemon, Banana, Banana & Coconut.

I personally think marshmallows is one of the best sweets you can have at a baby shower, because they're a special treat that you don't see often.  They look fantastic on the table, and also make a great little gift to give your guests when they leave.  At my baby shower we had lovely little pink boxes with Strawberry and Vanilla Bean marshmallows inside.  We had these stacked up on the dessert table, then handed them to all our guests as they left.  Of all the food we provided, the marshmallows were definitely the most talked about item!

More photos from South Sydney Markets

A picture paints a thousand words, and I'm all out of words after Easter, so here are some recent photos.

Our first Sunday at South Sydney Industrial Markets!

Well, today was the much anticipated first day for Innocent Catering at the South Sydney Markets.  We had such a lovely warm sunny day until the rain came over in the afternoon, but it didn't matter because we were undercover - yay!  It makes such a pleasant change to be dry and comfortable while doing a market stall.

It feels like such a lovely family of stall holders, everyone takes the time to know everyone else, and all the stall holders are passionate about what they do.

We trialed two new varieties of homemade marshmallows - Vanilla with sprinkles and strawberry rolled in roasted coconut.  Both new flavours were a massive hit!

Our Whoopie Pies were quite popular too, which was a bit of a surprise as no one has seen them in Sydney before.  We really think they'll take off as a new trend in baked goods.

The Gingerbread Men were by far the most popular treat at our stall today, with two little girls actually coming back for more!  It goes to show that the traditional homemade treats are still hitting the spot with a new generation of kids.

We're having a couple of weeks break from the markets due to the School Holidays and Easter Long Weekend, but we'll be back again on Sunday 8th May in the brand new purpose built market space within the complex.  We hope to see you all there :)

We've also got a Foursquare app "Check-In" at the markets, so when you come visit make sure you check in at our stall "Innocent Catering @ South Sydney Markets".

Our market stall

It's been a while now since we had our regular stall at Bondi Junction Farmers Market.  But we really wanted to get involved in markets again, so as of this Sunday 10th April we'll have a stall at the South Sydney Industrial Markets!

These markets are on every Sunday ho matter what the weather because they're completely undercover.  This is such a great feature that no other markets around here have.  It not only makes it more comfortable for us as stall holders, it also appeals to families who are looking for something to do with their kids on rainy weekends.  We've actually been there a few times already on rainy Sundays instead of going to the park, because there's a free mini zoo, and plenty of space for the kids to run around.


We're really excited about the treats we're making for this Sunday and the new materials we've put together to make our stall look pretty :).  Each week our stall will probably have a slightly different range of sweet treats, and a slightly different display just to keep it interesting.

If you live around the Alexandria area, or anywhere in the Inner West or East, you should definitely come check out these markets, and of course come say hi to us!

New Whoopie Pie photos

Here are some new photos we took of the Whoopie Pies that Dani baked this week.  They were a hit at the GourmetRabbit Issue 2 launch on Tuesday night!

If you still haven't tried one, and you live in the Inner West, come find me (Anjee) at the Magic Yellow Bus during the week, as I'll have samples with me!