Who said romance was dead????

http://www.harrogateadvertiser.net/harrogatenews/The-proposal--she-said.6311792.jp

The link will take you to an article in the Harrogate Advertiser which shows a video proposal made from one of our soldiers in Afghanistan to his partner who is a Police Officer in North Yorkshire. As Stephen will be serving in Afghanistan until August and could not propose in person, he organised for the ring and a beautiful bouquet to be delievered to Harrogate Police station to surprise Lynsey when she thought she was simply attending the morning briefing :-) What a lovely start to her working day!

I'm also very pleased to say I'll be making Lynsey and Stephen's wedding cake, keep an eye out later in the year for pictures.

I love a good love story, it's even better when it's real life and not on the pages of the trashy novels i'm addicted to!

Just Darling Cakes in Vogue

You may have heard me mention it once or twice but Just Darling Cakes is lucky enough to be seen in Vogue this month :-)

Lili's Cake and Roller Blading :-)

It's great fun when I actually know the recipient of a cake I'm making and this weekend was a special one for Lili, who I've known since she was tiny and who turned six on sunday. It's doubly great when the recipient is having a roller blading party and I'm invited :-) Well I should clarify my daughters were invited but they needed some help with their roller blades and naturally the best way to teach them was by skating myself. they soon got the hang of it and I spent the next two hours whizzing around with the kids... so much fun! I am seriously considering getting myself a pair as a fitness thing!

Naturally Lili's cake had a roller blading theme and the little girl on top is meant to resemble her. I'll let you know about the roller blades :-)

Cascading Blossoms

This wedding cake has been a labour of love and I am so proud of the results. I love this design which I would love to take credit for but which was inspired by a picture given to me by the bride. As Jennifer wanted the wow factor without needing several hundred portions of cake the top two tiers are dummy cakes, the bottom tier is traditional fruit cake laced (generously) with brandy, the next tier spicy carrot cake and the next vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream.

The cakes were stacked and the ribbon added, and then came the flowers, my hand is ready to drop off with all the piping, each one required a tiny blob of royal icing and then the centres needed to be piped and all the surrounding dots and stems... but it was all worth it. Even if I do say so myself it certainly has wow factor :-)

I sometimes wonder why....?

It's usually around five or so on an evening, when I've still got a couple of hours before the girls go to bed and after an already long day, that I wonder WHY? Why am I trying so hard to build a business when I've got a good Degree and a Post Grad (nothing relevant, French, Politics and Law) and before I had Laura I had a really well paid job... I could go back to doing something like that and then about five I would be looking forward to an evening of chillin.. probably a bit of cleaning and ironing but no stress, no back ache oh and a nice salary every month... On paper I'm probably certifiably mad!

The thing is I hated my well paid job, it was boring beyond belief and I had absolutely no intention of returning after my maternity leave, I had always wanted to do something creative and work for myself and I figured that at some point once my babies were big enough I'd get round to it.

However, the reality at the moment is so far removed from the dream that when I'm not physically there in the kitchen working on a cake, I do think I am crazy. But about 7.30 when both girls are tucked up in bed and I am cleaning down the kitchen ready for a nights work, ipod switched as loud as I can without waking them, I'm in my happy place... I feel centred and that anything is possible. I start to remember the dream and want to make it work and I really believe I can.

I was working on 100 of tiny flowers tonight, and covering the bottom tier of the wedding cake, which is fruit and therefore can be worked on in advance and it just felt so right.... Nothing really exciting or ground breaking but it reassured me that despite all the madness I'm on the right track.

SuperNatural Food Colour... the results

Well no ill effects!!! The girls devoured the pink bows on the cake and remained their usual selves (and the effect is dramatic when they do have aritificial colours), so despite the light pigment and huge expense, the colour paste is definitely a sucess :-)

Laura's birthday bash went off really well, we caused absolute chaos in Pizza Hut but had a very understanding waitress who was studying to become a teacher so if we haven't put her off it can't have been that bad. After Pizza we went to see Nanny McPhee - the Big Bang... which meant taking my youngest who is two to the cinema for the first time.... despite seeing more of the loos (7 trips) than the film, we all really enjoyed it!

It's not actually Laura's Birthday until Thursday, so I have to churn out another 30 odd cupcakes to take into school for her Birthday and make enough tiny ivory flowers to cover a 5 tier wedding cake for Saturday... it's a good job I love it... but am thinking I need to get premises soon and work during the day rather than into the night every night or I'll burn out before I reach 35!