Melissa's Wedding Cupcake Tower

I was so excited to be creating a Wedding Cupcake Tower for Melissa's wedding at the Goodwood Hotel (www.goodwood.co.uk).  The bride was using beautiful red roses in her bouquet and the colour red was also included within the wedding colourscheme.  After talking to Melissa about what flavour cakes she wanted and what sort of look she was after, we decided on Vanilla Cupcakes with rich Chocolate Frosting.  To match the red roses in her bouquet I made handmade fondant roses, each with a small leaf to put on the top of each cupcake.

I had to make 80 roses for the large Cupcakes and 20 rosebuds for the mini Cupcakes, plus 100 leaves!  I worked out that if I made 12 roses per night, two weeks before the wedding I would have them finished before baking began!

Once I had baked the cupcakes, I had a dummy run to see how I would set up the cupcakes on the tower and then frosting began.  Now the day of baking and frosting was a really hot day and it was a real challenge getting the frosting on the cupcakes before the butter started separating from the chocolate! 

Phew, Cupcakes frosted and decorated and now just needed to be transported.  Myself and my lovely ma packed them up and drove very carefully to the hotel!  We set up the tower and arranged the cupcakes, which all looked beautiful.  I had taken some fresh red roses and arranged them on the top tier and then sprinkled red petals around the base of the tower.........

Et Voila!........

My New Neon Colours!

What a week...the Olympic Torch came to Chichester and it was my son's last week at school.  I can't believe it's been a whole year since he started and I just had to bake his teachers some Thank You Cupcakes.  I also made 30 Olympic Torch Cupcakes...one each for Rory and his classmates.  It was the perfect chance to use my new Betty Crocker Neon Food Colourings which I found on www.Americansweets.co.uk.  They have so many things I love from America including Neon Cake Sprinkles and Oreo Cookie Pieces which are in the shape of tiny cows!  Very delicious in my Chocolate Brownies...yum

The Neon Colours come in Green, Purple, Pink (my absolute favourite, it is like pink bubblegum!)and Orange.  They really look amazing on dark chocolate and with the leftover icing I make iced flowers and other decorations to use on other Cupcakes and Cakes....no waste in my kitchen!

I used them on Rory's teachers Thank You Cupcakes and I think you will agree they look pretty amazing!

All packaged and ready to go!

The Hungry Caterpillar

I absolutely loved making this Hungry Caterpillar Cake.  It was for a repeat client of mine for whom I have made several cakes for grandchildren and great grandchildren!  This cake was for Otto who was having his 1st birthday and loved the Hungry Caterpillar.  It is a vanilla No 1 cake and I split it in half and filled it with my homemade Strawberry Jam and Buttercream (not an easy task!). 

I made the Hungary Caterpillar out of fondant and made some fruit to go with him, a little cupcake and a slice of cheese.  They all looked really effective on top of the cake.  I used pale green buttercream to compliment the green in the Caterpillar and around the bottom of the cake I used the icing nozzle that makes grass (I'm sure it has a special name but I have no idea what it is!).  I cut out fondant flowers and leaves and decorated the base of the cake with them.  I also made some bigger leaves and piped Otto's name on them.  I got this idea from www.lucys-cakes.com she makes amazing toppers for birthday cakes, so please have a look if you need any ideas for childrens birthday cakes.

Happy Birthday Otto

Stunning Strawberry Cake

I found the idea for this cake from an article in one of the Sunday Supplements.  Peggy Porshen had a receipe for a Strawberry Layer Cake and it was decorated using a doilie and coca powder.  I bought some really pretty doilies from Waitrose and used them to display some of my cakes when I went to the Rarebrandsmarket. 

The idea is you put the doilie on top of the cake and sieve cocoa powder over the top and voila!  You can get different designs on your cake depending on the doilie pattern.  I have put strawberries in the middle and it photographs really well.  This has proved to be a really popular cake, it is simple, tasty and as my friend said "stunning"

I think I will be making lots more of these cakes, at least for as long as the Strawberry season lasts!

The RarebrandsMarket

I had a fantastic time at the RarebrandsMarket last Thursday....here is a picture of some of the cakes I was selling.  I made Oreo Cookie Brownies, Strawberry Layer Cake and Cupcakes, Rocky Road Cupcakes, Melting Moments, Raspberry Fondants and Lemon Cake.  Everything sold really well, and people were very happy to see the Melting Moments.  It is a biscuit that was considered a bit old fashioned but is definitely making a happy comeback.

The Raspberry Fondants were courtesy of a recipe I found on www.iheartkatiecakes.blogspot.com ...Katies blog is one of my favourite cake blogs and I love trying her receipes and hearing about her baking experiences.  The fondants went down a storm with many people taking them home to have later, warmed up with cream or icecream. 

I met some lovely people at the market and was able to talk about what I did and hopefully some of them will be future customers.  I met two lovely ladies who both have blogs and their own websites www.olivehomeware.co.uk and www.lavenderloops.co.uk and they both mentioned me in their blogs...so lovely to be recognised as a good cake maker!  The photo below is courtesy of lavenderloops who also has a lovely facebook page........

Next event... Tarts For Troops www.tartsfortroops.org.uk on Friday 22 June at Bosham Village Hall.  This is an event I am actually organising myself...will let you know how it goes!

Happy Birthday Leah

My Sister-in-law Catherine asked if I would make her niece a birthday cake for 13th birthday.  A very important birthday for Leah as she had become a teenager.  A word to strike terror into every parent...I know I definitely went through the terrible teens.  Although my memories of my teenage years are a bit hazy, my mother seems to have a stock of stories recalling my worst moments.  Anyway,  Catherine has many talents but baking is not one of them and I am often asked to bake various cakes for all sorts of events.  This cake I was very happy to bake and I was able to use up the flowers and butterflies left over from the cakes I made for the Rarebrandsmarket....more of that later!

This is yet another Vanilla Sponge and Strawberry Buttercream Layer Cake, it seems people can't get enough of my Strawberry Buttercream...the flavour is intense due to my homemade Strawberry Jam but I won't wax lyrical again about the beauty of it....unless people insist!

The finished Cake!

The Joy of Jam!

Last year I made Plum Jam and I don't remember really enjoying making it...maybe it was because you have to remove the stone from every plum!  But Strawberry Jam is really easy and so delicious.  I found a brilliant receipe in my River Cottage Preserves Book by Pam Corbin.  She is the queen of Preserves and Jams and gives great advice etc when talking you through her recipes.

This is the first part of the Jam making process, where you put a couple of hundred grams of strawberries and sugar in the pan and then mash the fruit to pulp. 

The receipe suggests you use small fruit as if the strawberries are too big they will disintergrate and I have to say my jam is full of gorgeous whole strawberries.  I found the best Strawberries at Chichester Market, small and perfectly sweet.

And here are my lovely jars full of Strawberry Jam.  I just had to make some scones to see if the Jam was as good as it looked and guess what...its delicious.  So delicious I am going to take some with me to www.therarebrandmarket.co.uk on Thursday and share it with the general public.  I am also going to use it in my Strawberry Buttercream Layer Cake.