Noah's Ark Cake

This was definitely one of the most fun cakes to make. A chocolate cake Ark, topped with lots of little animals. 

This was the first time I've attempted painting on the icing with food colouring to get a wood effect, I would definitely recommend this rather than trying to marble lots of shades of brown together; was much quicker!

I chose the animals that would give the most variety in colour and that might appeal to a one year old. I know that my girls were very disappointed when this one left the house!!

Cupcakes for all Occasions

Flower Cupcakes

I made a rather large batch (over 100) of flower cupcakes; I had bought some new sugar paste flower moulds and was keen to try them out. They took a little bit of getting used to, but I can safely say that after making at least 300 little flowers I became quite efficient!

Lemon and Raspberry Cupcakes

These little cakes had a lemon sponge with a raspberry jam filling, topped with lemon and cream cheese buttercream and a fresh raspberry!! Yum Yum! One of my favourites!!

Moulin Rouge inspired Cupcakes

Chocolate and vanilla cupcakes. These were inspired by a Moulin rouge theme, lots of red and black and plenty of glitter!!!

Sherbet Lemon Cupcakes

Cupcakes for a sherbet obsessed friend. These Cupcakes had a lemon sponge, injected with lemon sugar syrup, topped with a sherbet lemon buttercream and dusted with more sherbet! 

Cake Catch Up – Anniversary Cake with a British/ American Theme

I haven’t blogged in a while, so thought I’d do a little cake catch up.

First off, a cake I made for a wedding anniversary that needed a British/American theme.

I found it hard to begin with to find inspiration; I knew I would keep the colours red, white and blue, but then I found some very cute little rice paper butterflies on eBay.  They had British and American flags on that had a sort of vintage feel. Perfect. So I went with a more vintage palette and the cake just sort of evolved.

Rapunzel Cake

So, the most important cake of my year had arrived; my eldest daughter’s birthday cake! (not to say that my youngest daughter’s birthday isn’t as important, but she’s too small to really care yet!).

My big girl turned four and the cake was a big deal! She remembers her birthdays not by the presents she was given or by the party, or the family day out of her choice, but by the cake that she had!

She had decided months ago that she wanted a 3d Barbie cake for her birthday after seeing one in a cake shop window. About a week before her birthday, she was choosing the plates and napkins for her party (proper little party planner!) and she saw some with Rapunzel on from Disney’s Tangled. She knew instantly that she wanted a Rapunzel Barbie cake.

I was very pleased with her choice of cake as we were going away and I didn’t have a lot of time to make it, so something not too complicated was a blessing (plus, I’ve wanted to make one of these cakes for ages, but never had the excuse).

I opted for a good old vanilla sponge with jam and vanilla buttercream icing. I don’t have a special Dolly Varden cake tin, so I made 3, 8 inch round cakes and one cake cooked in a 6 inch pyrex bowl (1L) and then carved to the desired shape. I then layered them all up with the jam and buttercream and was ready to get to the fun bit, decorating!

I cleaned my daughter’s Rapunzel doll, wrapped it waist down in cling film and put her into the hole that I had created down the centre of the dress and began decorating. I could have got carried away with the detail of the dress, but time restraints meant that I had to adopt the attitude that less is more.

My daughter was thrilled with her cake and I was thrilled with her smiles!!!

Birthday Cakes for Kid’s (even the big ones!)

There have been quite a few cakes that I haven’t got around to blogging about recently, so I thought I would dedicate this post to the children’s birthday cakes I have recently made.

Dinosaur cake

I struggled to find templates for a dinosaur cake online that actually looked like a dinosaur ,so instead just decided to get stuck in and make it up as I go along, using one of my daughter’s toys for inspiration. So I hope you can tell this cake is a dinosaur and not actually a lizard!!!

 

 

Spiderman Cake

Superheroes seem to be the latest cool trend for my children’s friends, so this is the Spiderman cake that was requested by one of them. I asked my daughter if she were a boy would she be pleased with this cake for her birthday, her response “no mummy, I’d still want a Barbie princess cake!”. I don’t think she really understands the whole superhero thing that her friends have going on, but even though she is the only girl (except for the babies) she is still happy to get stuck in with the games even if she is somewhat amused and confused by it all.

 

Pirate Ship Cake

This cake was for my husband’s 30^th birthday, he didn’t have any choice in the matter, our daughter was very insistent that he was having a whole pirate themed birthday party! She wanted flags, treasure hunts, fancy dress and a pirate ship cake. So that’s exactly what he got, and I think he was secretly delighted! Little does our daughter know that before she was born, for his 25^th birthday he also had a pirate themed party (just with a bit more rum!), so she obviously knows him very well!!!

 

 

Cocktail Cupcakes

These cupcakes were a great excuse to try some different techniques that I hadn’t used before. I was aiming for a taste similar to a cosmopolitan or fruity based vodka cocktail. I really enjoyed this little project as I based everything on taste rather than looking up recipes and felt quite pleased with the finished result! Fortunately, I like vodka cocktails!! ;)

I started with an orange sponge brushed with vodka.  This was then injected with a shot of orange sugar syrup and a separate shot of grenadine syrup.  The two tone buttercream swirls were flavoured with orange, cranberry and more vodka! Perfect for a Hen night!!!

Giant Jungle Cupcake

For my gorgeous nephew’s first birthday I made this giant jungle cupcake.  Originally, my brother and sister-in-law wanted to come up with the most challenging cake they could think of (King Kong climbing up a sky scraper and Tracey island were a few of their ideas!!!), but fortunately they decided to be kind and opted for a jungle themed cake.

 (the cake got a bit wet in the rain!)

The cake is an orange sponge soaked with orange sugar syrup; layered with orange butter cream, chocolate ganache and an orange curd with a milk chocolate cupcake shell.

I need some practice when it comes to the fondant figures, but I enjoyed making them, it’s just like playing with play dough but without being bossed around by children!!!