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!!!

Lace and Pearl Wedding Cake

I made this wedding cake for a friend of a friend who was also having a vintage theme for their wedding.   It had an orange cake with orange buttercream base tier, a chocolate middle tier and a vanilla sponge with lemon buttercream top tier.

I did invest in a pearl mould this time and was rather impressed at how well it worked; it certainly sped up the process!

My daughter was truly disappointed that she wasn’t going to the party where the cake was going, she desperately wanted a slice, but some left over icing softened the blow!!

I was most relieved when I heard it had survived the journey to the venue!! I hope that they have had a fabulous wedding day!

Bunting for a Beautiful Boy!

This cake was for my gorgeous nephew’s christening. It’s an orange sponge soaked with an orange sugar syrup with a lemon buttercream.

I wanted to avoid the traditional themed christening cakes as he will be one next month so they all seemed a bit too babyish for him. A little while ago I saw a picture of a cake that had beautiful bunting painted all around the sides; bunting is perfect for every kind of celebration so I decided to use that as my theme. I also love all things Cath Kidston and thought the combinations of red and blue and navy would be perfect for the bunting on the cake. It was also a nice change from all the usual pink girlie colours in our house!

My eldest daughter helped make the sponge and cut out lots of the tiny circles for the polka dots on the flags, she sat with me for ages rolling and cutting and painting edible glue on all the tiny pieces. She was very pleased with the end result; like her mummy, she also loves a bit of bunting………and cake!!!!

Hearts and Roses Wedding Cake

I got married last week and because it was such a small intimate wedding wanted to do as much as possible myself (with a lot of help from my Mum of course!!) and when it came to the cake I didn’t really know what I wanted but was excited by the challenge!

I decided that I would make a round 3 tiered cake even though there were only 12 guests, but I thought a quarter of a cake per person was probably about right for my family of beasts!! I think technically the cake could have served 90 but I wasn’t going to let a technical detail like that put me off!!

I opted for three different flavoured sponges; the bottom layer was an orange cake with a lemon buttercream, the middle layer a chocolate sponge with a pistachio buttercream and the top layer a coffee cake with coffee buttercream.

The theme for our wedding was sweethearts and roses because my eldest daughter is known to us as ‘my mummy’s sweetheart’ and my youngest daughter as ‘our little rose’ and we wanted everything to have a bit of a vintage look as well.

So a few days before the wedding, my Mum looked after the girls for me so I could bake in peace and slowly but surely the vision for the cake came together. After numerous hours googling wedding cakes I had merged all of the things I’d seen and liked into our cake. A huge factor in the design was that I had to get the cake all the way to Brighton, so decided that it would probably travel best in separate tiers and then be assembled on site. This meant that I had to be super organised with repair kits and spare parts in case anything broke en route, but to my amazement and despite a few hairy roundabouts the cake arrived completely intact!

We had a wonderful wedding day and in fact even my family couldn’t quite get through 3 tiers!!

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!!

Thinking of Christmas..…cake

I am currently planning my first ever Christmas cake. I have never really made any kind of fruit cake before as I don’t like it, but if any occasion requires a fruit cake, it’s Christmas! I know I need to get cracking and start soaking my fruit, I’m sure I’m probably way behind the experienced baker's schedule for Christmas, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.The trouble is I get so lost in the creative side, deciding how the cake will look and be decorated that I keep forgetting that I need to make the cake first!!

I decided quite early on that I didn’t want to make just an ordinary Christmas cake decorated with holly or bells, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I like to give myself a challenge!!

I was out shopping the other day and I came across some miniature house moulds, they are really sweet and it suddenly came to me, I am going to make (or at least attempt) a Christmas Village!

There will be a main house in the middle which I’m thinking will be fruit cake with a roof made of chocolate cake and the mini houses around the outside will be vanilla sponge. That way there is a bit of something for everyone! I am most excited about putting all the little details together like making some snow men and Christmas trees to decorate the village with.  If I’m honest I think I’m using this opportunity to play houses with cake! I’m not sure that the finished project will even resemble the masterpiece I have created in my head but I’ll have fun trying! J

A Very Rocky Road...........

A good friend of mine was coming round to visit and I’m so pleased she now has her own little bundle of joy (who is gorgeous) and they can hang out with us whilst on maternity leave; I thought this was definitely an occasion where a cake was required. Now we’ve known each other a long time and she’s eaten many of my cakes and vice versa and since she shares my appreciation for cake, I thought something a little bit different was called for. So I asked my daughter if she had any ideas and her reply was “umm I think a cake with marshmallows would be a good idea", so I thought that sounded like a plan and suggested we make some rocky road cakes.  

Anyway, I got slightly carried away and made a few improvements on our first plan and here it is: a giant rocky road cupcake with a chocolate ganache filling, chocolate cheesecake icing, inside a chocolate case....plus coordinating extras of course!!  Perfect for celebrating with one of my favourite people!! J xx

Cupcakes to say goodbye

I’m currently on maternity leave but my boss was leaving so I thought I’d make the effort to go in to work (though I actually live on the same road as the charity I work for…so not exactly much effort!) and any excuse to make some cakes and I’m happy! So I enlisted the help of my 3yr old daughter and we set about making a couple of dozen cupcakes. My daughter loves baking and she’s actually very useful too, she pretty much knows all the ingredients we use, so if I ask her to get the baking powder or vanilla extract out of the cupboard for example she will very happily oblige and get it right.

We opted for coffee cupcakes topped with a mocha buttercream and vanilla cupcakes with an almond buttercream. I tried a new recipe for the coffee cupcakes from the primrose bakery book and was very pleased with results even though we changed it a bit according to the ingredients we had available to us.

Anyway, they were chuffed at work and even though the prospect of having to face the end of my maternity leave suddenly seemed very real, it was nice to see everyone......plus I was very happy for the excuse to buy some larger cupcake boxes!! haha

Fairy Toadstool Cake

For my daughter’s third birthday this year I let her look through all my cake books and choose which cake she would like. I wasn’t sure how well this would work out as she wasn’t even three yet; could I really expect her to pick a cake without her changing her mind a hundred times?? But after spending a long time studying all the pictures (and I didn’t even interfere by making helpful suggestions!!) she proudly announced she would like a fairy toadstool cake for her birthday! I then checked a couple of times a week that she still wanted the same cake and even though looking through my cake books had become her new favourite activity, the answer was always the same.

Ok, so now I only had to make the thing!! This was to be my second ever fondant cake…eek! I didn’t want to let my girl down so the hours of internet research began!! I spent considerable time googling images and watching you tube videos. After reading various techniques to construct the basic shape I decided on the bottom section of a giant cupcake mould turned upside down and trimmed for the house and a one litre Pyrex bowl for the roof. I was most nervous about the cake collapsing so rather than hollow out the roof I decided to support it on dowels instead! Then I had an idea that made my life so much easier. My daughter was having two parties, one for the family on her actual birthday and then another with her little friends. Seeing as this cake was going to take some time to make I didn’t really want to have to make another cake for the second party, so instead I made a second roof. So my family didn’t miss out and as soon as the roof had been eaten it was replaced by another one and voila good to go for the next party!!

Not much else to say really apart from my daughter was thrilled and after all the celebrating was over I let her play ‘fairy houses’ with the cake which she loved just as much as eating it!! Oh and we made cupcakes to coordinate with the cake too!! J