Vrooooom!

What is it with me and vehicles? The brief for this order was either a Volkswagon Golf (Argh!!!) or something Formula 1 - neither of which particularly float my boat (oh god, another vehicle) but in the end we decided on F1.

Chris is a lad from our local church whose Nan/Gran/Mother (it's a St Helens thing!) knows my Mum - He has overcome the most horrendous health problems over the past few years but it is now looking great - I saw him on Sunday and he is MASSIVE (tall).

I'm having a phase of enjoying piping so tried to include some tiny details on the car - most of which don't show up on the pic - particularly as I took it on my phone! I love the effect on the board of the checks too!

Love Bakery - Book Review

I am on a mission to own AND USE 200 baking and cooking books by the time I am 40 which is just under 3 years years away (Argh!) These must be books that are useful and don't just sit on the shelf collecting dust. I am already up to at least 120 with just a couple that I need to get rid of as they are not that good.

The Love Bakery book is my latest acquisition and I LOVE it! There are hundreds of cupcake books on the market but this has loads of recipes that I will make. I have only owned the book for a week but have already made the Toffee Apple cupcakes and the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with plenty more on my 'to bake' list. I attended a charity event last Friday for Halloween where I took loads of cupcakes and the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes were the first to sell out, so they will definately be made again! The recipes do not have loads of ingredients in them or even worse really obscure ingredients that will be impossible to find here in St Helens.

I enjoyed reading the introduction about how the bakery came about and it really struck a chord as it is similar to how my business has started. I paid £12.99 for this book in Chesters (The Coffee shop by the River in Ambleside - I will tell you more about this coffee shop another time) but last night I discovered the book is being sold by The Book People for £4.99 - so fill your boots!

All-in-all a great book and a recommended one for anyone interested in baking.

Christening Cakes - the return!

After a long absence from the blog, I am back with loads of new stuff to post. Millions (well nearly) of cakey and baking books to review (its a serious addiction of mine and all part of the plan to own and use 200 good baking/cook books by the time I'm 40). I have been really busy with weddings but sadly have been very lax with the photos. Still lots to post about though, so lets get on shall we?

I've included for this post 2 of my favourite and most popular christening cake designs - The girly one is just so girly without being too frilly for me - the little kitten is edible and is placed in an icing box (which is a pain to make but worth it in the end). The design comes from Marian Frost and I first saw it at the Sugarcraft exhibition at the NEC a couple of years ago - that exhibition is on this weekend but sadly I am not attending this year. There is a cake tweet-up happening there on the Saturday which sounds brill but will have to wait until next year for me - Have a great time guys!

The 'George' cake can be changed for a girl - in fact I've done a pink and lemon version which was lovely. I like the bold colours and of course the little baby can have blond hair and blue eyes and even freckles! The idea for this cake was given to me by George's Mum but sadly I cannot find who the original design belongs to - Please feel free to tell me if you know as I would love to credit them.

Coming soon Love Bakery - The review and Wedding Cake Madness - Some of the summer of fun!

I'm always on the lookout

Cath Kidston meets Peppa Pig

I cannot believe my daughter's birthday has come around again so quickly - This time she is the big 4 - although for months now she has been refusing to admit she is 4 and says she is '3 again!'. On her actual birthday we asked her how old she is now and she said 5! As they say here in St Helens - She is having us on!

I have wanted to do Cath Kidston colours for ages and what better excuse than your daughter's cake? All she said she wanted on it was Peppa Pig (again!) - as the weeks went on though she started adding more characters that she wanted - maybe next year...

I plan on doing more Cath Kidston inspired cakes as I think they can be suited to all manner of occasions - I even plan on doing the rose pattern painted on - will have to have a steady hand for that day!

Bird Cage

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again - I love a challenge and a new design of cake. This order was completely by chance as my Mum had happened to meet the Grandma of the recipient a couple of weeks earlier and got talking about cakes - as you do round here!

I had a moment of panic when they told me what they wanted and drew a picture of a similar design that they had seen somewhere but couldn't remember where but decided to be brave.

The cake is made of 3 tiers of vanilla sponge all iced individually and then all together (that was a scary moment!) My favourite bit is the royal iced details and the sparkly pink butterfly of course!

A dad in his armchair and a lovely chat!

A cake from last week - My brief was a Dad sat in a cream chair reading the Daily Telegraph. From speaking to one of his daughters it turned out that he was way more interesting than just that!

Also included was a cup of tea (what self respecting person from the north is ever without one!), a teacher's old fashioned hat, wooden walking stick, a roast dinner (complete with mini peas and mini julienne carrots), a book and a bottle of cabernet sauvignon! What a guy!

Most of the people I deal with are just lovely but every now and again I will really click with a customer and we will have loads to chat about. This man's daughter was one of them - We chatted about daughters (we both have 2) and French music (She is married to a French man and I have French music on my website) and so much more. A hidden side to my job that I just didn't anticipate enjoying so much when I started this business -Long may I enjoy these random chats!

Number 18 Cake

The time has come! I have to admit a little secret... Whenever people ring and ask for number shaped cakes I tend to try and put them off for a different style! Well, no longer - I am a new fan.

I have always really struggled to get the convering clean and tidy on number shaped cakes and hate presenting a cake if it is not perfect (or as near to perfect as poss!) So practice I did and I seem to have found a method of covering that 'will do' for now...

The cake pictured was for the son of a client of my husband's - A man that he has spoken about several times as what a nice man he is - no pressue there then to do a good cake! When I spoke to the birthday boy's mum she asked for a baby green as this is the colour he has always had his room decorated in and number cakes - Oh how was I going to make this what she wanted but yet suitable for an 18 year old? We came up with the combination of green and balck with good old star explosions and I have to admit I was quite pleased with the end result - The good news...So were they!

Coming up next...I have no idea!