Pookie Birthday Cake

It's my mum's birthday this weekend and for her birthday I made her a coconut cake with an edible photo of our very cute dog Pookie. 

I have been asked a couple of times if I make cakes with edible photos on and had never been able to say yes as I've never tried before so I thought that this was a perfect time to try it out. I went on-line to see who does edible printing and to check prices. There are plenty who do the printing so it came down to price and found one that was reasonable for both product and packaging. 

I was really pleased with the photo but the only thing I thought would be useful to have was instructions I had to go on-line again to watch a video on how to remove an edible print from the backing sheet. Once I realised you have to cut around the picture and wiggle it over the counter edge it came away from the plastic and stuck to the cake with some water.

The next problem was cutting into Pookie's face while he was stood next to me, so I told mum to cut the cake instead :-)

Shoofly Pie

Every weekend we get the newspaper and I grab the glossy magazine as that's my favourite bit. After flicking through the home style section I came to the food pages and this week it was 'Kooky Crumbles', yum.

I'm a huge fan of fruit crumbles with my favourite being apple and now I have another to add to that list, a Shoofly pie. It's a treacle and syrup pie with a crumble topping, it also defies gravity due to the treacle and syrup being watered down with 175 ml of boiling water and an egg and a teaspoon of baking powder to thicken it which before cooking didn't look very thick! 

For the pastry I made a sweet shortcrust which I sweetened with icing sugar. I blind baked it for 15 mins and then for a further 5 without the baking beans making sure I didn't end up with a soggy bottom, although I was worried when the liquid went in as I imagined the mixture spilling out everywhere. 

For the last 10 mins of baking time I added the crumble mixture and breathed a sigh of relief to see the mixture sitting happily in the pastry case, YEAH!  

More Cakes For Bakery

This week I've been extremely busy making more fakes for the bakery display case. So far I've put two wedding cakes and a Valentines cake on display but I need to show a wider variety which is why I've made three birthday cakes - one is more for boys, another for girls and the last one is for more traditionalists. I thought I should also make a Mothers day cake as that is creeping up on us.

All the insides are polystyrene and the fondant should last for a while unless sunlight hits it but I don't have to worry about that at the moment. :-) 

For the rest of the week I'm going to make an Easter Cake and a Reveal Cake, if anyone has any ideas for the Reveal Cake I would love to hear them, always nice to hear for you. Anyways back to work.

Cakes in a Shop Window :-)

Last week I got the best news ever, the bakery over the road from where I live needed a cake maker for special occasion cakes and asked me if I would be interested in the job and of course I jumped at the opportunity. 

All they asked for was a photo album with a price list and some fake cakes (or Fakes) for the display cabinet.

Yesterday the photos arrived so I got to work making the catalogue with prices on each photo so people can get an idea of the price range and also finished of a Valentine Fake (as its coming up to that time already). I already have 6 wedding Fakes prepared from last years wedding fair so I took the Bunny Fake and the Monochrome Fake over with me. The cake on top is one they make but it will be replaced with my version of it by the end of the week.

Its super exciting and I can't quite believe its happening its one of those dreams I had since a young girl to have my work on display and for it to be happening is well... super exciting.

Mr Tumble Birthday Cake

On New Years Eve I got a phone call from a mum whose son would be turning one the following weekend and needed a cake to celebrate. She told me his favourite character was Mr Tumble and me being a child of the 80's thought she meant the Mr Men however it was a bloke dressed up as a clown. I did my usual when it comes to something new and hit the internet to find out who Mr Tumble is and printed off some picture of him and his bag and got to work.

The cake was a Victoria sponge with the raspberry jam and vanilla butter cream filling covered in light jade fondant and blue, orange, red, yellow and green spots with Mr Tumble and his bag on top. The figure is made out of a mixture of fondant and sugar paste.

Along with the cake were 20 vanilla cupcakes decorated with vanilla butter cream and a fondant disc and balloon on top.