Looking back at 2014

I've decided to do a little look back at the last year as we're approaching the new one. I'm not sure I can remember back to January 2014 but with the help of photos I intend on having a go!! 

So I think what I'd like to do is go through each month, show the cakes I've created and also put in any news from this month (what I can remembered!!). 

January 2014

January was the first time I really attempted to make any sugar flowers. I spent days practicing the navy roses and still wasn't happy with them. Gary's birthday saw 2 cakes this year as I made one for work and one for home. 

February 2014

In February my parents moved house down to Ashford. This move meant that we were also looking for a new house and I was beginning to think about becoming a business. I made my first tiered cake using a design from a magazine and it remained standing!! 

March 2014

March brought the usual birthday flurry and I made a cake for my sister, brother and myself. I attempted my first wonky cake and my last, haven't yet tried that again but I wasn't too happy with it. March also saw us find our 3rd house (2 had fallen through by this point) which was to eventually become our home. 

April 2014

April saw my just make one cake as we were nearing moving most of my tools were in boxes. 

May 2014

In May we moved house, this meant more space but also it meant that I could finally start seriously thinking about becoming a business. Mini M turned 1 and we were able to have all the family and friends over to celebrate. 

At the end of April/beginning of May I also started my first PME Diploma in Sugar flowers. This was to be the start of my masters, my love of sugar flowers but also the start of cake club and courses at CP. This has become a very useful and almost vital part of my cake decorating. 

June 2014

June I spent most of my time making sugar flowers. I came home each week from my diploma and I practiced and practiced.  Finally I felt that my flowers were looking realistic and reaching a standard I could be proud of. 

July 2014

In July we had our garage converted so I'd have more space to make my cakes. This is officially our dining room but most of the time it's rather over taken with all my cake bits. I completed my sugar flowers diploma and also started an intensive Sugar paste diploma. I spent a lot of time in Maidstone doing lots of courses and barely seeing my husband!! 

August 2014

August was a very busy month. My sister got married so I made a little cake and some cupcakes for her. I was also asked to make a few birthday cakes and finally I finished up the month making some display cakes for wedding fairs that I'd decided to sign up for. 

September 2014

So September was the big month when I officially became a business. I registered to open at the beginning of September because I had another very important first, my first wedding cake!! I attended several wedding fairs in order to get my name out very early on in my business and to attempt to get some orders up for the future. I learnt a lot in this first month of business and I hope to continue to build on this. 

October 2014

 I completed my PME Masters in October my doing the final diploma, Royal icing and piping. I made a couple more display cakes and was honoured to be offered a space in W E Clarke amongst their wedding jewellery. As this years wedding fairs concluded I started to plan and design the cakes for the next year. 

November 2014

As Christmas started to get closer I started to prepare cakes, lovely rich fruit cakes that needed time to mature. I also had a few birthdays including my mum's and nephews. 

December 2014

I attended some Christmas fairs in December partly to advertise but also to try and sell a few bits and pieces. I also joined the Stone Cross market which I'll be attending every other week for the same purpose. I enjoyed making a few different bits at Christmas and next year intend to build on this and get hampers, cakes and puddings out to those that request them. 

Looking at all these photos makes me realise just how busy this year has been on the cake front. I've been in business just 4 months now and I feel like it's starting to spread around. I'd ideally like to get more wedding cakes booked in but I think it'll take time for my name to get around. Please keep spreading it if you have enjoyed my custom and help me to continue in my business venture. I'd love to have a thriving business. I hope you've enjoyed this little trip over the last year and seen how far I've come. I'm looking forward to what next year brings!! 

More Christmas Cakes

I was asked to make a victoria sandwich cake decorated as a Christmas cake. Because of it being a sponge cake I needed to make this last minute so it couldn't be made with the previous batch. I was asked to decorated it with robins and trees, I also added snowmen and presents.

I filled the cake with jam and vanilla butter icing and then covered it in white sugar paste. I then modelled the trees, snowman, robin and presents out of icing. I first marked out where the Christmas message was going to go so I could place the models around the edge of this and fit it on.

Close up of the top

Finished Cake

 I also finished one of our Christmas cakes this weekend. It is a rich fruit cake and I decided to decorate it with trees and a snowman, I used this as a practice for the above cake. I don't think the white trees worked very well and is probably not something I'd do again. I prefer the green cone shaped trees, these worked much better.

Close up of Snowmen

Full Cake

I have one more Christmas cake to make this year and again that's for my own family. I've decided to do something quite different for that one but I won't be doing it till next week so you'll have to wait!!

Nerf Gun Cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake that would be suitable for a Nerf party. After doing some research I discovered this was a toy gun and I suggested having a cake in the appopriate colours, a model on top and edged with bullets.

They requested a 10" chocolate cake so I made my rich chocolate cake and filled it with chocolate butter icing. I used a different brand of sugar paste for this cake, the Beau sugarpaste, as I'm trying to explore a few different brands. I like this one because it's not as soft as Renshaws and therefore holds it shape better giving cleaner edges. It also gives a smoother finish as I find it doesn't mark so easily. It comes ready coloured so I iced the cake in a nice bright yellow.

Finished Cake

I made "bullets" out of blue and orange paste and stuck these all around the edge of the cake. I then modelled a gun for the top. I based this on a Nerf Rampage and carefully copied it off a photo. It's quite hard converting a 2D picture to 3D as I've never seen on in real life, however, I hope I got the detailing.

Nerf Gun

All that was left was to pipe the message on the cake and prepare it for delivery.

Overall I was quite pleased with the cake and I got some lovely comments about it. It was lovely getting a message from the birthday boy himself (and his parents) and to see a video of him receiving the cake.

Full Cake

Vintage Lace Cake

I recently purchased some cake lace mats and cake lace to try out on some cakes and to practice for an order. I also needed to create a display cake for the lovely Annabelle Jane Cake school. So I decided to combine these 2 things and create a 3 tiered cake with lace. 

I used the Claire Bowman lace and mixed it up to the instructions, filled the mats and dried it in the oven. I found the cake really easy to use and it cake out beautifully, it's a simple way of creating really intricate detailing. 

Lace

I covered the dummies in blue icing, piled the cakes up and placed them on the board. Using water I stuck the lace around each layer of the cake. I carefully joined the lace together to form a a smooth join and the pattern matches up on the edges. 

To decorate the cake I made some 5 petal flowers, in white, and stuck these on the cake. I would have liked the flowers to have more shape to them but I'm having a bit of a trouble getting my flowers to dry at the moment, the dining room is too cold, so I just used them as is. I used some royal icing to stick them on and to fill the centres. 

Finished cake

Overall I'd say this isn't one of my most detailed cakes or most intricate, however, I think the effect is simple and elegant. It gives a good example of the lace and I'm pleased with how it turned out. This cake will be going up to Maidstone on Tuesday for their window display. I'm really pleased to have been given this opportunity to display at the Annabelle Jane Cake School, I've done all my courses at this shop and have learnt so much from their expertise. I'm honoured to be able to display these skills there. 

Christmas Cakes

I was asked to make a couple of Christmas cakes, lovely rich fruit cakes. I was given free reign with the decoration so I thought I'd make one with poinsetta and one with Christmas roses. I made the fruit cakes in advance so they had plenty of time to mature. I covered them in marzipan and then sugar paste. I tried out some new sugar paste with this cake, I usually use Reinshaws but I thought I'd try Beau and Satin Ice. Both of these are stiffer than Reinshaws and went on to the cake very smoothly. Satin Ice is a marshmallow icing and smells lovely, however, I found that my cake marked really easily and was also very full of air bubbles. Beau went on very well and created a smooth finish. I was very impressed with it and liked the feel and use of it, however, it is much harder to get hold of so I'm currently trying to source it so I can more of a play with it and compare prices. 

Anyway back to the cakes. I made a few Poinsettias for the centre of the cake and then edge it with holly and berries. I trimmed the cake with ribbon and also placed it on an iced board. 

Poinsetia Christmas Cake

For the other cake I made some Christmas Roses with holly leaves. I also piped a message on to the cake. I liked the effect of the cake but decided that it was a little bare. 

Part Finished Cake

With some help from my mum for inspiration I added some piping around the edge and the board. 

Finished Christmas Roses Cake

I was pleased with these cakes and looking forward to making a couple more cakes this year. 

Nan's Autumn Colours Cake

I was asked to make a cake which had autumn colours on it with roses and freesias. I decided to make a white cake with some piped details, which my mum tells me makes the cake more elegant, with strong bold colours in the flowers. I spent several days making orange, red and yellow Gerberas, Roses and freesias. I also made several autumn leaves to go in the bunch. 

Roses

Gerberas

Collection of flowers and autumn leaves

The cakes themselves were carrot cake, on the top an 8", and a light fruit cake 10" on the bottom. The fruit cake was covered in marzipan and then white sugar paste, I made this a few days in advance as fruit cake last so beautifully. Carrot cake is much more tricky, it needs to be made very fresh and is also very fragile so much more difficult to decorate. I double coated it in icing in order to give it a better finish. 

Covered cakes

I then dowelled the bottom tier for support and piped detailing on both layers.

Piped details on the cake

The final step was to put it all together. I used the roses to make a large bunch on the top of the cake, this was trimmed with autumn leaves and had freesias for height effect. 

Roses, leaves and freesias on the top

I stuck the Gerberas on the side of the cake for colour throughout the sides. 

Overall I was very pleased with this cake and thought the colours were beautiful.