Flower Topper

I was asked to make a flower topper for someone to use on a cake they were making themselves. She wanted it really colourful and asked for mainly roses with a few filler flowers. 

Cream Rose

To fit this brief I made roses in blue, pink, purple and cream. I also made some white jasmine and some rose leaves. I felt that any more flower varieties would overwhelm the bunch and make it look too fussy. 

I arranged these in a line bunch in order to decorate the middle of the cake and create a nice centre piece. 

Finished Flowers

Along with these flowers I also made a few extra so they could use some on the edge of the cake and balance out the cake. 

Smaller bunch for the edge

What do you think? 

Finished Bunch

Top View

Don't forget that I can make just the topper if you'd like to make the cake yourself or have a cake that you want to add something else to. I make the flowers to your specification and size. 

Pink Rose

Chocolate Eclairs

I wanted to learn how to make choux pastry, which can be found here.  With this I decided to make chocolate eclairs. I found this recipe in the Mary Berry complete cookbook. 

Once the pastry was ready it was piped into long tubes. I don't have a large plain piping nozzle so mine have a little extra shaping! I also could do with a larger nozzle as these seem quite small. 

These were then cooked in the oven, starting at a higher temperature and then being reduced for the final few minutes. These were then left to cool on a rack. 

I then whipped up some double cream until it was thick. Sliced the eclairs in to and filled with the cream. 

Sliced and filled with cream

Warmed up some double cream until just under boiling point, I then added plain chocolate to this and stirred until melted. I left this to cool until it was thicker and then spooned on top of the eclairs. 

Eclairs smothered in chocolate

The eclairs were then left in the fridge overnight to set. 

My fridge is full!!

The verdict: I found this recipe fairly easy to follow but then there isn't much involved in the processes listed above. It was a very simple thing to make. I don't really like pastry or cream so I didn't really enjoy these. Apparently they are popular at Gary's work and people think they taste good. I wouldn't make these again but there is nothing wrong with the combinations itself. 

Outside view

A view inside, filled with cream.