Laura's Finished Cake

Just a little micro blog to show you Laura's Cake, will post again tomorrow to let you know if any issues occur from the coloured icing (see post on SuperNatural Food Colouring)...

Laura's Ballerina Cake in progress

After a very late start to the evening's work, I'm amazed by the progress I've made on Laura's cake, it's very nearly finished. I have taken some step by step photos to give you an insight how it has been put together. I'll number the comments to correspond with the photos as I still can't work out how to comment next to the pictures.

1. The chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream is covered in white fondant.
2. The gumpaste strips to make swags, rolled using the pasta machine and cut with the ribbon cutter pictured.
3. Pleating the swags using dowels.
4. The swags with added bow detail.
5. The name detail, made using extruded gumpaste shaped into the letters.
6. The nearly finished cake :-)

It just needs a ribbon trim now and it's ready for the birthday girl. All I need now is for her little sister to be able to walk (she dropped a heavy tub of cream on her big toe tonight, hence the late start) and we're off for Pizza and to the Cinema on Saturday.

Ruby Red Cosmetics

I am a huge fan of Ruby Red Cosmetics, they make gorgeous lotions and potions which are organic and girly and smell divine... and I think I might just have a place on the panel of testers for new products! Finger crossed it all comes off, I can't wait! I'm also very happy with Martine's comment on the email that they are 'Lovin' your cakes', I am doing my happy dance as I type... I'm such a compliment junkie!http://www.rubyredcosmetics.co.uk

Finished Ballerina

As promised here is the finished Ballerina, the cake will be ready for Saturday so more pictures to follow then.

Laura's Ballerina... a work in progress

As I was setting up to make this ballerina and take step by step photos, my home economics teacher's words echoed in my head.... "she needs to work more methodically and keep her workspace tidy!" My teacher would be disappointed to hear that although I'm thoroughly hygienic I tend to get lost in a fog of corn flour and icing sugar and my work is anything but methodical and tidy, but hopefully the results compensate?

People often see my models and comment HOW??? So this is a kind of behind the scenes peek to see how they evolve...

I can't seem to post wording next to the photos so I'll list the points here in the order of the photos above:

Photo 1

This is the basic body shape and legs, crossed to resemble a sitting ballerina. At this stage the only detail are the edges of the ballet pumps. There is a cocktail stick through the body to help with the structure and support the head. The head is also very basic at this stage, with a nose and ears but only white cut outs for the eyes and a marked out mouth.

Photo 2

Here I am cutting the highlights for the eyes with a tiny number two icing tip, these will be left to harden and will be stuck onto the black pupils tomorrow.

Photo 3

The eyes have been given their first coat of food colouring and the eye lashes and eye brows have been painted on using a food colouring pen.

Photo 4

The ballerina now has a tutu and sparkly ballet pumps with criss cross elastic.

Both the body and head will be completed tomorrow and I will post finished pictures. I hope this gives a little insight into how these models are created and how much work goes into them.

Supernatural food colouring put to the test....

I was so excited about using my new Supernatural Food Colour by Sugarflair... and I'm pleased with the results but nothing is ever as simple as you think it will be...

Firstly I was under the impression it was an entirely natural product, however, there are still three e-numbers lurking in the pot. I am not overly concerned as, my girls only tend to react to colours and flavours, but it is disappointing.

The pot is so much bigger than my usual colours (350g compared to 25g) and much more expensive but I thought the size compensated the price.... then I used it and realised how much I would have to use. There is very little strength to the pigment and therefore I had to use about a tablespoon to achieve the pale pink in the photo, where as normally that would only need a tiny pin prick. This then has an effect on the icing, but it was still useable.

So far it seems a pretty negative review, but I am happy with the results I just think it's necessary to have fair appraisal of the product. The main point of using this product was that it means people who have a reaction to artificial colours and flavours can eat coloured icing without any worries ... the cake will be eaten on saturday, I will let you know.

So much fun!

What an excellent night, Jo and Kelly have just left and I'm now sitting here typing this looking way to glamorous to be going to bed. Jo of http://www.jobilham.co.uk/ has just spent the evening turning Kelly and I into much more glamorous versions of ourselves and teaching us how to recreate the look.

I can't recommend Jo enough, she's so lovely and amazingly talented, her work speaks for itself, but what you should know is how much fun we had. We had full make overs including false eyelashes and both now feel confident in recreating the look oursleves. It's a great way to spend an evening, even better if you have somewhere to go afterwards and show off. Iwill post some pictures, but when Jo sends me her copies I'll put them up too as my camera doesnt' really do them justice.

Jo charges £20 for a full makeover with eyelashes being a little extra and £8 for mini makeovers, you can find more details http://www.jobilham.co.uk/ or catch Jo on her own blog http://www.makeupmummy.blogspot.com/.

Graceful Lace

The inspiration for this wedding cake came from a photo I found on http://www.cakecentral.com/, by 'Lavender Lace'. My bride fell in love with the design as her dress was covered in lace and it seemed to fit the theme perfectly. The lace on the cake was created by using lots of different petal and leaf cutters and then cutting smaller holes and shapes from them, creating what I hope can be recognised as a lace effect. It was very labour intensive but so rewarding, I was very pleased with the results.

The bride and groom are as close to the real thing as I could create using gumpaste. To make the lace effect on Liz's dress I used a technique I borrowed from Ron Ben Israel, I passed a thin sheet of gumpaste with a layer of real lace on top through my pasta machine and the lace imprints onto the gumpaste. Such a clever technique, thank you Ron!

Congratulations to Liz and Peter, and all the best for a wonderful future together xxx

No artifical colours

With both my daughters having exteme reactions to any kind of artificial colours or flavours, often know as e-numbers, I find myself in a bit of a quandry as a cake designer. All the colours and lustres I use are choc full of evil nasties, which I regularly dispatch to children's parties. I know not all children react the same but I do hate the effect that my cakes could have on the children. So you can imagine my excitement when I discovered some colour pastes that do not contain any artifical colours at all, they are more expensive, but in my opinion worth every penny.

My stock arrived the other day and I cannot wait to use them on Laura's birthday cake next month. For the first time in six years she can eat the icing on her cake without worrying about extreme emotional rollercoaster e numbers send her on. I'm not sure who is more excited her or me!

If anyone else is interested in these you can get them online from www.surbitonart.co.uk they are called Sugarflaire Super-Natural Food Colours.

Support Network

Being a mum is fabulous, I wouldn't change it for the world! However, trying to run a business from home with a 5 and 2 year old is pretty tough and I know I couldn't do it without my amazing support network of family and friends. My husband has been incredibly understanding about my reluctance to return to a 'proper job' after having the girls and I couldn't have got this far without him. Mark works full time and shift work at that so it takes a lot of organisation to organise childcare on a tiny budget... this is where my amazing friends come in and I just want to say a huge thank you to all of you, but especially Kate (above) and Adele (pictured with me), you are huge stars!

Unfortunately we live some distance from both sets of Grandparents but this hasn't stopped them from being fantastic, my inlaws regularly look after the girls when I get really busy and my parents who live abroad are great with advice and support. Mum and Dad won't know what's hit them when they come back home later this year... how often do you want the girls????

So this blog post is basically a great big thank you to all my friends and family for their support and help and also to all those friends who help support my business in other ways, you are all great and one day I hope I can make it up to you all... cupcake anyone?

Just Darling Cakes in Vogue!!!!

I had a very exciting call a few weeks ago, it was the last day of March I remember it well as firstly if it had been a day later I would not have believed it was true and secondly I was sitting in a local play gym at the time surrounded by screaming children and it was all too sureal to contemplate! I actually missed the call and had to spend ages setting up my voicemail so I could even access the message (bit of a technical luddite I'm afraid), but eventually I got the message from Sarah Sach at Vogue and my jaw hit the floor. Sarah had seen one of my cakes on my website and thought it would be ideal for the editorial advertisment she was doing called Truly Scrumptious, focusing on the growing cupcake trend. It's only a small photo and and about 60 words of copy but it's sooooooo exciting I can't believe one of my cakes and not only that one I designed from scratch to be my logo, is going to appear in one of the most iconic magazines of all time! It will appear in the June issue which is on sale from 6th May! This is the cake that caught Sarah's eye:

(image courtesy of Mark Skeet Photography)

How it started

I have been baking since I could walk, under the tuition of my Margie, my Gran and my Mum (there was no way in our family that I wouldn't be able to bake)! However the decorating and designing only started about 6 years ago when my best friend got married. Jane decided not to have a cake, and suddenly I got this urge to make one for her, cutting the cake is such a big memory of anyones wedding and I didn't want her to miss out. However, with absolutely no experience I aimed low and went simple creating a cupcake tower, at that stage I didn't even know stands existed and I made my own...

... and the rest is history, I caught the bug, did a quick course at a local college where we learnt to ice a Christmas cake and the rest I taught myself as I went along. For many years it was just a hobby, but when after my second baby I was looking to return to work, I decided I had to follow my dream. I was very fortunate and inherited a huge amount of equipment at that time, from a lovely lady called Hazel and without that equipment and the help of http://www.cakecentral.com/, I'm not sure I could have even entertained a business. At the moment it is small and only in it's second year, but I have big ideas and one day I hope Just Darling Cakes is the name on everyones lips when they think of fabulous wedding and celebration cakes... watch out cake world here I come!