Beads and Roses Cake

This cake was for a friend’s Mum who was celebrating her 80th birthday! My brief, to make a birthday cake with no reference to 80, her favourite colour is lilac and she likes flowers.

I thoroughly enjoyed making this one, especially the research (looking at lots of pretty, vintage inspired cakes whilst sipping tea!). I have learnt lots on the way too, some of which might have been useful before I made this cake; such as that there are such things as pearl moulds, so I needn’t have rolled each bead individually!!

I think my daughter was most disappointed that this wasn't a cake she would be getting a slice of; she took one look at it and said "wow, we must be having a really big party with that cake!!"

Auntie Bob's Coffee Cake

December was also the month for Auntie Bob’s birthday. Bob is not her real name, but the name she has been affectionately given by my daughter and now sometimes, I can’t actually remember her real name!

Auntie Bob got her request in early for a “coffee cake incorporating white chocolate in some way”. So, I decided that following on from the giant rocky road cupcake, I would repeat the chocolate case but in white chocolate, fill it with a coffee cupcake with coffee buttercream icing and a white chocolate ganache filling.

I actually remembered to take pictures a long the way this time too!

Christmas village cake

Happy New Year!! I hope you’ve all had a fabulous time and overindulged as much as I have!!

So I thought I should let you know how the Christmas Village cake turned out. Well, the fruit cake actually turned out quite nicely seeing as I had no idea what I was doing really and even I quite liked it. My daughter kept insisting that the fruit I was soaking to make it should be thrown away, as it “had a big smell”!! I tried to explain that it was supposed to smell like that, but it is just for grown-ups, however she was most concerned about whether Father Christmas would like it, “but does Father Christmas like alcohol???”…………………

Anyway, once it was a bit closer to Christmas I made a chocolate cake and a gingerbread cake as well and began to build my cake houses. The original plan was to have a main house (fruit cake) and then some mini sponge houses (which I had a special mini house mould for) around the outside; however once I’d stacked up the fruit cake house, iced it and given it a roof, I still had a lot of cake left. So rather than scrap it (which really means eat it all!!!) and make more for mini houses I decided to construct another big house.

This cake was also the first time I have attempted making figures myself, so be kind and don’t laugh too much!!!  I must admit that by about midnight on Christmas Eve when I was still decorating it, I was cursing myself for not at least buying the tree!! Oh well, by the early hours of the morning it was done and although not quite how I’d imagined it; I’d really enjoyed making it and got to try out lots of new things for the first time, so it was most definitely one to learn from!!