Cherry Blossom Cake

I was asked to make some unusual cakes for a local coffee shop and one idea I found was a cherry blossom cake. I wasn't happy with the original recipe so I adapted it until I came up with something I was happy with, and here is the result. 

Ingredients: 

285g Self Raising Flour

70g Plain Flour

285g Stork

285g Caster Sugar

5 Large Eggs

1 tsp Orange blossom water

Grated rind of 1 Orange

100g Cherries, stoned and chopped up

Preheat your oven to 180oC and line an 8" round cake tin. 

Cream together the stork and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add in the blossom water and orange rind. Gradually beat in the eggs one at a time. 

Add in the flour and mix together slowly until combined. Be careful not to over beat at this point and only use the slowest speed on the mixer. Stir in the chopped cherries. 

Pour into the cake tin and bake until the cake is springy to touch and a skewer comes out clean. Mine takes around 1hour30mins but check it before this point. 

Leave the cake to cool completely then decorate. 

I filled this cake with a vanilla buttericing and cherries stirred in: 

250g Softened Butter

500g Icing Sugar

100g Chopped cherries

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until soft and then stir in the cherries. 

Ready to go to the coffee shop

If you try this cake please let me know how you get on. I'm very interested in photos and stories. 

To order this cake direct from me for wholesale or one off purchases please just get in touch.

Ice cream Cone Cakes

For a little girls birthday I was asked to make this ice cream cone cakes for the party bags. It's not something I'd seen before but after some research I discovered it's a very simple idea and concept. 

Inside each of the cones is a vanilla cupcake, this is actually baked inside the cone as the cone is totally unharmed by the baking process. 

Ice cream cone cakes

Using my standard vanilla cake receipt I filled the cones and baked them. I wasn't sure how much mixture to put in the cones but worked out that around 3/4 full was the right amount to not over flow the cases. 

I made some vanilla butter icing and piped this on the top of the cakes. I then put sprinkles on the cakes and put in chocolate fingers for the flakes. 

I was quite pleased with these cakes and thought they look effective. It was a challenge wrapping each one individually in cellophane but I hope the birthday girl and her guests liked them. 

Close up

Frozen Dome Cake

I was asked to make a frozen cake for a little girl's birthday. I was sent a picture they had seen and used this as my inspiration. 

I have seen online that there is a trend for having glass bowl on the top of the cake, especially on frozen cakes. I purchased the characters online and sold these on at price therefore not making a profit and not breaching copyright. 

Characters in a bowl

The cake was a vanilla sponge filled with vanilla butter icing and raspberry jam. I covered the cake in blue sugar paste and then topped this with a smaller piece of white sugar paste. 

She wanted a little bit of sparkle on the cake so I sprayed it with lustre to give it a slight shimmer to it. I also sprayed the piece that I put on top of the bowl. 

The snowflakes were made using the Claire Bowman Crystal lace mat and lustre white cake lace. These are so effective and look great. They can easily be stuck on with water. 

Cake Lace

I stacked the cake together and the final step was to pipe the message onto the board. 

I've been told the birthday girl was really happy when she saw that cake, which is lovely. I hope she had a fantastic party and it's always nice to receive positive feedback. What do you think of this one? 

Finished Cake

I've been dropping hints recently that might be getting some work done in our house, we're still trying to sort out all the details but we're getting there. I thought I'd tell you a little about what we have planned. 

Currently I have a small kitchen for my baking and I do all my decorating in our dining room. I've completely taken over the dining room with all my equipment and it isn't ideal having to go between the two rooms. I've always dreamed of a large kitchen and we bought this house with that in mind. We are going to put a new extension on the rear of the house to create a whole new room for a kitchen. 

Before we decided on size and layout of the kitchen we decided to spray paint it in our garden and have a walk around to see what we thought of it all.

Spray painting the garden

Once we had this we decided to go and get a kitchen designed and priced up at Wickes. This isn't perfect but it gave us a nice idea of what it would look like. The idea is to have a kitchen area and a decorating area which will be carried out on my large island on the right. 

Wickes Design

We have picked the tiles and the style of the kitchen and I'm aiming to go for a country kitchen style. 

Floor tiles

Wall tiles

We're still deciding on wall colours etc to match these tiles.

The other things that we've been deciding on is the appliances. We're going to have to purchase new ovens, as they'll be no gas in the extension, and new fridge etc. We've spent some time picking the new range, which is vital in my kitchen. It's exciting to be getting a brand new room and have everything sparkly and new.

We have just commissioned the architect to do the plans, this will take several weeks. We will submit these for building regs, neighbour checking etc and hopefully won't run into any problems. The next step after that is raising the finances and checking we can afford everything. We're currently aiming for a September start so that it's done by Christmas but I'm secretly hoping we can start a little before this.

Just as a side notice for any worried people out there, this won't effect my cake orders as my kitchen and dining room are self contained on the front of the house. I will be able to fulfil orders throughout the building work process without compromising health and safety or quality.

I'm sure I'll be keeping you all updated as I'm so excited about the whole process. I hope that by Christmas I'll be showing you pictures of the new kitchen. 

Mini Wedding Cupcakes

As a quick last minute order I was asked to make something to go in some bags for a bride's hens. I suggested some mini cupcakes and she likes that idea. I made some rich chocolate cupcakes and topped them with sugar paste. I put an impression on the sugar paste to give it a bit of texture. 

Mini Cupcakes

Finally to finish off the cake I made some little white flowers and put pearls in their centre. 

As these were going in bags individually I wrapped each in a cellophane bag. This was probably the most challenging part of the job!! My bride was happy with the cakes and I'm very much looking forward to making her wedding cake in a few months. 

Cake in a cellophane bag. 

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Patchwork Quilt Cake

For my younger sister's birthday I made a patchwork quilt cake. She doesn't like sponge cake so I made her a rich fruit cake which I covered in marzipan and sugar paste. 

My first job was to create the quilt. I used little circles and rolled these into the paste so it was a smooth finish, you have to be careful to roll in both directions in order to maintain the circular shape. I then used a quilting tool to create stitch lines along the cake. 

Top view of the cake

Added to this some buttons which I made using a mould. To finish up I put some yellow ribbon around the cake. 

Side of the Cake

I hope she liked the cake and enjoyed eating it. I hope it was a simple but effective idea. 

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Giant Ice Cream Cupcake

For my older brother's birthday I made a giant cupcake which I decorated as an icecream cone. I made the bottom of the cake as a chocolate cake and the top half was vanilla sponge. 

The bottom of the cake was covered in vanilla butter icing and then covered in chocolate fingers. 

Side view showing the chocolate fingers

The top has swirls all over the cake to imitate the swirl from an ice cream machine. I then decorated it with chocolate sprinkles, chocolate sauce and flake. 

Top view showing the "icecream"

I think overall the effect was good but there's still practice required on both making giant cupcakes and decorating them. I hope my brother liked the cake and enjoyed eating it. 

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Wedding Anniversary Cake

For a couple's wedding anniversary I was asked to recreate the top tier of their wedding cake. I made a square rich fruit cake and covered it with marzipan and then several layers of royal icing. This process takes a while as each layer needs to dry before another is spread onto the cake. 

I next made the sugar flowers for the top of the cake. I made these to match the original bouquet so they were carnations, freesias and lily of the valley, all in white. 

Flowers on the top of the cake

My next task was to create the swags on the side of the cake. I first marked these along the edge of the cake making sure everything is even and neat. I then piped on top of these with royal icing. Each swag is 4 layers thick, so piped along it once, left it to dry and then piped again until each had 4 layers. This builds it up and brings it out from the side of the cake. 

I then piped shells along each of the edges of the cake and down the corners. 

Finished Cake

I hope the couple and their family liked the cake. I was pleased with how it turned out and considering it was royal icing I'm even more pleased. 

If you like a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Brush Embroidery Cake

For my sister's birthday, my mum suggested I tried out a new technique called brush embroidery. I made a lemon cake which I filled with lemon butter icing and lemon curd. I then covered it in sugarpaste and set about designing the cake. I imprinted some flowers on to the cake and created the design. Using royal icing I piped a little at a time and used a brush to drag the icing down and create the effect. This is the first time I've done this technique on the cake and is certainly something I'd like to practice again. The effect on the cake was nice but I feel that it could have been a little neater. 

Top View of the Cake

Do you like this cake? 

Overall View of the cake

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Digger Cake

I was asked to make a digger cake for someone's 35th birthday. It was a 6" rich chocolate cake covered in sugar paste. I covered the cake in a pale green sugar paste and made some hills around the edge. 

For the digger I made this out of modelling paste and allowed it to dry so everything set in place. I used some of the chocolate cake crumbs to make some soil, that the digger was digging up. 

Close up of the Digger

I used tappits to create the message on the board and my final task was to make some little cones. 

Finished cake

I hope they liked the cake. If you're ever in need of a cake please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Naked Wedding Cake

For my first wedding cake of the year I was asked to create a "naked" cake. This is a cake that isn't covered in sugarpaste so you can see the sponge layers underneath. It's typically decorated with fresh fruit and flowers. This style of cake produces a perfect rustic cake and in this case it was just perfect for the beautiful barn location. 

After the usual cake tasting the couple decided to go with vanilla, chocolate, lemon and red velvet, from the bottom up. As the cake isn't covered it's essential to have the sponge as fresh as possible to prevent them being dry. Usually the sugar paste will seal the cake in and you have a week, in this case I baked the sponge the day before. In some ways this is nice as the cake is done over a short time, however, I describe it as high stress over 2 days rather than medium stress over a week!! 

The day before I went out and purchased all the red fruit I could find, this was strawberries, raspberries, cherries, red grapes and blueberries. My first task was to wash all the fruit and leave it to dry. I didn't have much!! 

All my fruit drying

Once my sponge was made and cooled I sliced and filled each layer with butter icing. I also cut a small dip out the top so that each layer sat flush on each other, otherwise you'd see a silver board between each layer which I didn't want. I also dowelled each layer making sure that it would support the cake above.

Vanilla cake, sliced and filled with butter icing and jam. 

Remaining 3 cakes ready to go. 

Once I got to the venue my task was to assemble it all. I was relieved that the cakes all slotted on to each other beautifully and flat. I then set about putting all the fruit around the cake. I used cocktail sticks to support the larger fruits and balanced the smaller ones around. I had also previously made some sugar roses to put on the cake. So I slotted these around as well. 

Finished Cake at the venue

View of the top of the cake

I was really pleased with this cake and it turned out the best I could imagine. I drove away from the venue feeling great pride. I also got a lovely thank you card from the couple and some really lovely comments. I couldn't have asked for any more. 

If you're looking for a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Anniversary Cupcakes

I was asked to create some cupcakes for a 60th wedding anniversary. I was asked to make red and white roses and to use edible lace in the design. I drew up a few designs and after some discussions we agreed in 4 main designs and 3 different flavours. 

So I created 20 cupcakes which were flavoured lemon, chocolate and vanilla. 

Using edible lace mats I made up various designs and used these to decorate the cupcakes. I piped along the edges of some to add more definition. I had made the roses out of flower paste, this was more of a challenge than usual as they were so small but after a few practices I got it sorted. I made red and white roses. 

Those cakes with roses I piped in the opposite colour in a "birdcage" effect. 2 of the cupcakes I decorated with edible diamonds to represent the diamond anniversary. 

Vintage Cupcakes

I was pleased with how these cupcakes came out and I hope my customer enjoyed them. I believe they fit the brief. I'm pleased to have this order so I can show that I can make cupcakes too. 

If you're looking for cakes, for any occasion including weddings to birthdays, please get in touch to discuss your requirements. 

Edible Lace and Roses

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!! 

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. 

Bows and Swags

For my 3rd display cake I wanted to introduce some colour so I decided to go for a yellow/orange cake. I used 2 dummies, 8" and 10", and covered them in coloured sugar paste. 

To trim the cake I first decided to try with a shell pattern along the bottom of the cake, but I didn't like it so off that cake and I replaced with with some ribbon. I actually used 2 ribbons on this cake, a cream underneath and then a white ribbon on top. 

To decorate the cake I decided to make some swags out of modelling paste. I marked up the cake to ensure they would be even, marking the bottom with 8 swags and the top with just 6. I wanted the top layer to not be lined up with the bottom so I shifted the pattern around slightly on that one. Once the lines were marked I stuck the swags on top and left them to dry. 

Swags with a button

To cover up the joining of the swags I made some buttons using a mould. I then sprayed this silver and stuck them on top of the joins. 

For the top of the cake I decided to make a large bow. I used my ribbon cutter to make strips of icing with a stitching line down the edges. I then stuck and shaped on the top of the cake. 

Bow with a button

This cake is relatively easy to make but I think the design is very effective and not something I'd normally do. What do you think? 

Finished Cake

Finished Cake

Finished Cake