Cupcakes

I'd been asked to make a batch of cupcakes for a kids party last weekend coinciding with the Queen's Jubilee so I knew some of the cupcakes had to be patriotic. 

Another requirement was to make a handful of gluten free cupcakes which I was happy to do but had no specific recipe for so I was a little worried. In the end I used the same recipe as the other cupcakes but substituted self raising flour for gluten free and instead of margarine I used the liquid flora so a 100ml of that is the equivalent of 100g of margarine (or there abouts). 

The none gluten free cupcakes were a mixture of vanilla, chocolate and marbled. The decorations varied from Union Jacks with a cherry on top to jelly gems and stars and flowers. I wanted the decorations to be kid friendly and not to frou-frou. 

The gluten free were vanilla with chocolate icing and gluten free chocolate drops halved to make the cake look like hedgehogs.

Peppa Pig Birthday Cake

My next door neighbours youngest turned 2 the other day and asked me to make a birthday cake, I had the choice of Peppa Pig and Postman Pat (I think that was the second option) anyway I went with Peppa Pig.

My first idea was to carve the cake into a Peppa Pig shape but after looking through lots of pictures on the Internet I found a backpack with Peppa Pig at the fairground holding a panda she had just won so I had to do that, anything with pandas and I'm happy. 

The cake was chocolate sponge (the same recipe I used for the wedding cake) and then I filled and dirty iced it with chocolate butter cream. The cake is covered in leaf green fondant and bright blue fondant that I toned down by adding some white fondant as it was a bit garish. 

Peppa Pig was a free hand cut out of light pink fondant and the dress in cerise coloured fondant. It took a couple of attempts to get the head right I think it was because after I added the teeth it looked a little weird so I tried to make the teeth smaller. Outlining the face made a big difference to the finished look.

I used a patchwork cutter for the panda, I've been desperate to use the cutter as I got it last year for my birthday as part of the Teddy Bears Picnic Set, so that was straight forward. The fair ground hut, clouds and balloons are also free hand and the flowers are small blossom flowers. 

Ivory Rose Wedding Cake

This is my second wedding cake but the first one where I've made it all from scratch. 

The first stage was to make the bottom tier which was a fruit cake. I trawled the internet looking for a recipe that would make a moist and tasty fruit cake as I felt the recipe I'd been using wasn't good enough. I then came across a recipe called 'nans boiled fruit cake' which I obviously had to test to see if it was as yummy as it looked... It was :-) After making the wedding fruit cake I feed it occasionally with Havana Club Rum which had been specified by the bride. 

As the other two tiers were sponge I couldn't really do anything with them till nearer the time so I worked for hours on the roses. In the end I'd made 10 large open roses (some for backup in case of breakages on journey over) and 5 small roses and 5 buds. The roses were all non-edible but can be kept as a remembrance of the day. The tiny flowers that sit around the front of the cake were made the day before the wedding out of fondant so they would be edible. I thought once the ribbon and roses had been removed it would be quite a plain cake so I added them. 

About a week and half before the wedding I made the top two tiers so that I could freeze them and then get them out on the Tuesday, ice and marzipan them on the Wednesday and then on the Friday I covered them in the Ivory fondant. 

The middle tier is a chocolate cake that I found in one of the many recipe books I own, its called 'rich chocolate cake' and as before with the fruit cake it needed to be tested. All I can say is it tasted like brownies, Yummy.

The top tier I used the old favourite vanilla Madeira cake and I didn't need to quality check this recipe as I have tried it in the past.

Overall I am really pleased with this wedding cake as I had no idea how it was going to look or fit together until I got to the venue. I thought it best to keep all the parts separate to minimise the breakages. The only thing I was upset with was the fondant on the top two tiers was still a little bit soft so when I placed the roses on top it made a couple of little dints but other than that I was happy with it.

Professional Photo Shoot

Yesterday I took a fake two tier wedding cake, a fake spring birthday cake and lots of real cupcakes to Angelfish Photographic for a professional photo shoot and it was so much fun. It took an hour to do and was edited and delivered to me by the end of the day which meant I didn't have to wait as I can be quite impatient sometimes especially when it comes to my little business. So here are the photos:

First Wedding Cake

Since learning how to work with sugar paste I have wanted the chance to make a wedding cake. Its not the floral number that I was picturing but I still got to make one, the floral wedding cake is the next project.

On this cake its the drunken couple with a dismayed child looking on in the background. The bride figure was the most technical due to her hair, it took three maybe even four attempts to get it right. I was originally going to have her hair down but it looked like dreadlocks so I made the strands shorter and started working it in to a side bun with a diamante placed in the bun to add a bit of sparkle.

The little boy was a surprise for the couple as the picture they were shown of the cake had only the couple on, I have yet to hear how it went down but I'm sure they would have liked him. He was definitely my favourite purely for the size, he was very cute. 

The cakes themselves were fruit cakes provided by the lady who ordered the decorations. I covered the two cakes in marzipan and white icing and the pearls are made with the remaining icing. The ribbon is purple satin with an black organza ribbon sewn over the top to get the same look as the brides maids dresses.