A great start

My first cake of 2015 has shot to the top 3 on cakes decor.

It's made my day. What a great start to the year :)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year. Better late than never.

Ive been reflecting on 2014 and my first year in business was busier than expected. Wedding season was quiet but I had so many celebration cakes to keep me busy instead. I'm about to start work on my first order of 2015 so I thought Id share with you some of my favourites from last year. A lot of challenges, a lot of new skills and lessons learned and lots of achievements including entering Cake International and coming away with some certificates.

It was a brilliant year and I can only hope that 2015 will bring more of the same. I'll be diversifying to suit the hanging market, Im going to be offering some new products to suit smaller budgets and hopefully starting to teach some classes from my home. I'm excited to see what my collage will look like this time next year but for now, here's what my 2014 looked like.

Catch up

I have been utterly awful and keeping this blog updated.

So much has happened this year. The business was a lot busier than expected, I left my job and I finally had the guts to enter Cake International this year and was awarded 2 silvers :) Big achievement.

I also managed to have a holiday this year. I went to Berlin and Paris visiting lots of chocolatiers, kondetorei and patisseries. I had a great time.

Ive had so many great orders this year and I already have some booked in for next year.

I'm just winding down for Christmas now but my new years resolution is to make more of an effort with the blog.

Have a great Christmas everyone.

Im starting to feel a little bit Frozen.

Autumn has settled in quickly. Its certainly become very cold so this Frozen inspired cake has come along just at the right time.

Why choose cupcakes?

Cupcakes aren't a new thing, they've been around since the early 19th century (or so we think as that's the earliest recorded recipe for a cup-sized cake). Dont worry, this isn't turning into a history blog, but in recent years the cupcake has made a comeback. And why not? They're cute, they offer a controlled portion, they are portable (if boxed), they make a great gift, there are never ending possibilities for decoration and they are tasty. Whilst they're not my favourite thing to eat (I feel like I'm committing a crime just typing this) I do enjoy making them and experimenting with flavours, colours and decoration.

Now we move onto the controversial topic of wedding cupcakes. They do have their place, but where is that place and why pay so much (my prices start from £2 each) for such a small, simple cupcake?

Wedding cupcake towers have become a huge trend. Ive had couples who tell me "I dont really like cake but my guests should still have some" and some couples just LOVE cupcakes in which case a cupcake tower is perfect. Each guests gets to have a cupcake, there is usually a cutting cake on the top which is mostly for photos of the cake cutting ceremony and is usually divided between guests at the top table. Cupcakes provide perfect little portions of cake to satisfy each guest and at £2 per portion, its cheaper than any of my tiered cakes.

I personally wouldnt want a cupcake tower, Im all for the big, beautifully decorated, jaw dropping cakes that guests will talk about for years afterwards, but cupcakes would still have their place. I think they make great favours and even place settings for guests. Individually boxed cupcakes start at £2.50 each and can be easily customised and personalised. I wouldnt hesitate to put my guests names on the boxes or even a lovely quote about love of life on the back of the box for my guests to read in between courses. But thats just me planning my own imaginary wedding again.

So what do you think about cupcakes at weddings?

Zebra cake topper tutorial

After last weeks jungle cake I decided to make a tutorial for the zebra cake topper.

I havent made many tutorials before but I hope to make more.

Feel free to follow my tutorial and post your results over on my Facebook page.

I look forward to seeing them. Here is is, Zeb the zebra. I think he was my favourite topper on the cake.

zebra cake topper tutorial

Stay tuned as I'll be sharing a tutorial for Chunk the monkey soon too.

Jungle cake

Last week I got to make a 3 tier jungle themed cake for a little boys 1st birthday. I loved working on the jungle cake.

First off here is The influence behind the design

And here is my design.

Jungle cake design.

This cake was rainbow vanilla cake on the inside with vanilla buttercream. Here are the progress shots (my favourite) from the crumbcoat stage to the finished cake.

Progress on the jungle cake.

A few tweaks along the way and the addition of a cute giraffe but I was really pleased with the final cake.

The finished jungle cake.

Little Henry was turning 1 and has quite a lot of food intolerances and couldnt enjoy any of his birthday cake so I made him 6 of his very own special cupcakes which were gluten, nut, soya and dairy free coconut and lime flavour with a diary free coconut buttercream. Delicious!

Allergy friendly coconut and lime cupcakes