The floral language of love

The whole world seems to be caught up in the romance of Prince William's impending marriage to Catherine Middleton. It was an article about their wedding cake in the Telegraph, which inspired me to research this topic. Apparently Kate (I really can't get used to referring to her as Catherine... ) has requested flowers to play a part in the decoration of her cake by the amazing Fiona Cairns, not only for their beauty but also for their meaning. The daffodil, rose, thistle and shamrock will represent the four nations and other blooms will convey messages of love and luck for the marriage.

Flowers are probably the most popular decoration on wedding cakes, they change with trends but are generally present in one form or another. Using the meaning of flowers to convey a message dates back to the Victorian era, and it is one that now fascinates me. It can also be a minefield as there are many that should perhaps be avoided on your wedding day. Striped carnations (not my favourite flower it has to be said) mean "No, refusal, sorry I can't be with you" and Anenomes (which are so pretty and do feature on my cakes - see above) mean forsaken... oops!

Roses are always a popular choice and the classic red rose symbolises love but avoid the deepest crimson which is more appropriate as a funeral bloom. I'm slightly perturbed by this as I had very deep roses on my wedding day and I wouldn't like to say which side of the crimson/red line they were on.

The meaning of many flowers is simply love, loveliness, pleasure, lasting affection etc... but others have longer messages and the idea of combining two or three of these on a cake in the form of a floral love letter is truly romantic and something I will be using when I redo the display cakes in my window in the next few weeks. The following are some of my favourites:

Lily of the valley - you've made my life complete

Stock - you'll always be beautiful to me

Blue violet - I'll always be true

White rose - you're heavenly

Primrose - I can't live without you

Orange Blossom - Eternal love

White Camelia - You're adorable

White Heather - Wishes will come true

I will keep you posted as I design and make my love letter cake... will it be fit for a princess?

Hula Ella

I love all my orders but some are extra precious, especially when they are for someone special. I met Alex 10 years ago on our mutual honeymoons and we've been firm friends since despite the distance... she lives in France. So when she asked me to make a special topper for her daughter's 8th Birthday cake I was so pleased... it turns out though it was an even bigger deal as the topper was then going to be put into a time capsule for Ella's 18th Birthday too :-) I was so excited and couldn't wait to get started.... the small problem of getting it to France? ... well I'd cope with that later :-)

Ella wanted a Hula themed party and already had her costume at the planning stage so Alex sent me a photo and I got to work. Hula Ella all completed I packed her up super carefully and we crossed all our fingers and hoped for the best. Unfortunately when she got to France she was headless, but thanks to Alex's new found cake decorating skills she was put back together and you would never have known:-)

Above are a few pictures throughout the process and the finished cake made and expertly decorated by Alex, can you believe she's only being doing this a few months???? :-)

Thank you Alex, was a pleasure to be involved in such a special project, not to wish your daughter's childhood away but, I can't wait for Ella's 18th now, hopefully I'll be able to get to you for that one :-) xxx

Fighting Feathers!

I read this expression the other day and it just struck home... In context it wasn't relevant at all (describing the political intrigue of the jacobite uprising of 1745) but the words "I feel as though I'm fighting feathers" really sums up the stresses of starting your own business. The hard work is a given when you embark on this kind of adventure, you know it will be all consuming but the frustration lies in what is out of your control....you really do feel like your fighting against something as wispy and almost intangible as feathers!

I'm a complete control freak so it's not surprising I get stressed by the things I can't either can't control or where I've been wrong and am learning as I go along, but I'm guessing this applies to lots of new ventures too. I think the two main areas for me are advertising and revenue.

Advertising or more specifically getting your message to the right market is harder than it seems and boy have I learnt the hard way, I've been seduced by glamour (see Vogue add above.. expensive and effectively useless) swayed by wedding fairs (an obvious choice you may think, but not that effective either) and found the most productive advertising to be word of mouth and internet searches.... You have to think like your customer, where do I look for anything these days.... erm GOOGLE. If you don't show up on an internet search you're not going to get very far.... this is something I'm in the process of remedying with a brand new website that acually shows up on search engines! The second marketing tool I'm finding incredibly helpful in terms of getting my name out there is networking. Not expensive BNI type affairs but twitter and tweet meets collaborations with fellow wedding professionals. By mutually promoting each other, we will hopefully increase all our profiles and have a lot of fun along the way.

The advantages of having a presence on the high street are huge, especially as well placed as my studio is above a beautiful florists and bridal boutique http://www.lafleurfloralandbridal.co.uk/. I am lucky to have a ground floor window display too, I love it when people come in and say it's the cakes on display that have drawn them in :-) Obviously this needs to be weighed against the cost of running the studio but I'm convinced it will pay for itself in time.

The frustration with revenue is fairly obvious, more needed now not six months down the line when the wedding happens. In the wedding industry cakes are normally booked with a deposit and the balance paid a month or so before the wedding... so the first few months are pretty hairy, I know it will balance out eventually but this bit is literally robbing Peter to pay Paul. You always hear that it's the first year where businesses are fighting for every penny and it's sooo true. I'm learning not to count a booking unless I actually have hold of the deposit as people can be very 'relaxed' about getting round to handing it over but at the same time am amazed by the amount of bookings that have been taken since the studio opened, I can see a light somewhere far away in the distant future when I might actually be able to come home and present my salary to the family :-) I'm afraid I'm guilty of telling my girls that mummy has to work so I'll have lots of money to buy nice things for them.... well one day girls I promise :-)

All this said, I wouldn't change it for the world nobody said starting your own business would be easy but it's a hell of an achievement and worth every tear and every late night...I have big plans for Just Darling Cakes! The studio is looking fabulous, I've got lots of exciting projects coming up with Hello Vintage, Caterpilar Dreams and I am Nat and I can honestly say I love it ... and the feathers.... well that's just character building :-)

I am Nat

I want to share with you the wonders of I am Nat! Natalie Ramsell is a designer, and she creates the most beautiful stationary, wedding invites, business cards, save the dates, you name it and Nat creates it in her own unique way.

I had the pleasure of having afternoon tea with Nat in my Studio last week and she brought along a goody box filled with samples of her work. She's currently working on an Alice in Wonderland themed wedding and there are some examples of the stationary above... how gorgeous? I love the 'open me', 'eat me', drink me', labels and can't wait for Nat to design some similar ones to put on my boxes of cupcakes and cookies.

I will be displaying examples of Nat's work in my studio and you can see more by visiting her website wwwiamnat.co.uk. Mark my words she is destined for big things :-)

My proposal

As I've invited you to tell me romantic or funny stories about your proposals I thought I'd better start you off with mine, which falls into both catergories :-)

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago... in 2000 Mark decided it was time and dreamt up a really romantic proposal, which he managed to execute (pretty much... but we'll come to that in a bit) to the letter.

In keeping with tradition and unbeknownst to me he asked my Dad's permission, how I missed the sweaty palms and stress leading up to this I don't know and luckily he said yes, so hard part over :-) He then picked out a ring and ordered it in my size and then started to panic how on earth he was going to get the ring to Barbados without customs wanting him to take it out his pocket or something similar... so he hid it in a trainer in the bottom of the suitcase... urgh! How nervous was he waiting for the cases to come through in baggage reclaim :-D

He wanted to propose at sunrise and the first few days were really foggy so on the third day he dragged me out of bed and down to the beach... we wandered along... all very romantic at this point, except for being pestered to death by a guy selling Aloe Vera! Then he chose his spot got down on one knee and proposed, lots of tears and yesses later, we recovered and continued to wander along the beach, where Mark promptly fell over the only rock in sight and ripped off his little toe nail....

... cue lots of blood and a nasty trail of the stuff back to the hotel room, where I woke his parents up in the next room for a bit of help (hubby not good with blood) and hastily hiding the ring behind my back (seemed like the wrong moment to tell them) we sorted Mark out before going out for a celebratory breakfast. What a day and it was only about 8.00am by this point :-)

Share your stories too and get a 20% discount off your wedding cake when booked at The Just Darling Cake Studio!

Photos and Makeup

Saturday was so much fun :-) The lovely Jo Bilham of http://www.jobilham.co.uk/ did a fabulous job of doing my makeup and Kev of http://www.image-i-nation.co.uk/ took some amazing shots of my work. I've only seen a selection of the photos and can't wait to see the whole disc next week but here's a few tasters :-)

I'm finding half the fun of having my own business and working in the wedding industry is the lovely people I get to meet and work with. Thanks to social networks, like facebook and twitter and events such as wedding fairs, I regularly meet new people many whom I will feature in my blog over the next few weeks. I used to work in the oil industry and whenever I had to 'network' would clam up as I didn't have a clue what I was talking about, but now you can't stop me nattering away :-) I'm very lucky to be able to do what I love everyday and hopefully one day might even make some money out of it ;-)

Thanks so much for your time Jo and Kev!

Valentines Day

Valentine's Day is just around the corner, surprise the love of your life with a beautiful basket of delicious handmade butter cookies, decorated with romantic quotations and messages, a cookie lollipop or a box of scrumptious cupcakes...

Cookie Basket £20

A dozen cellophane wrapped cookies in a wicker basket. Cookies can be iced with personal messages.

Cookie Lollipop £2.00

Individual cellophane wrapped cookies on a lollipop stick, iced with a pesonal message, what will yours say?

Box of 4 cupcakes £10

Beautifully giftwrapped red velvet cupcakes, iced with personal messages.

The messages can be individually personalise and even take the form of a question... any proposals made with a cookie or cupcake will receive a 20% discount on ordering their wedding cake at the Just Darling Cake Studio.

Pictures of the products will be posted shortly.

My poor neglected Blog!

I'd almost forgotten I even had a blog, December passed in a whirlwind of madness and my brain is just adjusting back into work mode after the Christmas/New Year excesses :-) I'm back in the studio though now and loving it, despite it being sooooo cold I can hardly type. New heaters arriving soon and I'd better get a dehumidifier too, the gumpaste flowers do not like the atmosphere in here :-(

It's time to get cracking on the rest of my display cakes and I'm full of design ideas. I got lots of cake design books for Christmas and now I've got so many ideas I don't know where to start. I also need to finish the display cakes for the Ruby Bloom collection. The picture above is the first in the collection. Then at the end of January I'm taking part in a wedding fair at the Crown Hotel in Harrogate. It's organised in aid of Benevolent Brides (http://www.benevolentbrides.co.uk/) with the proceeds going to charity. So it's a busy start to the year.

As promised, here are the pictutres of my window.. in progress :-)

Studio Window

I dropped my cakes off this evening at the Just Darling Cake Studio, in preparation for dressing the window tomorrow afternoon... I'm a nervous wreck! All of a sudden I'm really nervous about putting the cakes in the window. Although the studio will not be open until next tuesday 30th November I thought the window being dressed may provoke people's interest for the actual opening.

I'm patially nervous because Alisa who owns La Fleur floral and bridal who I lease my studio and the window space off has done an amazing job with her window and mine is going to look a lot less festive. However, the decision not to go too festive was a conscious one and as I can't see many Christmas brides having left their cake ordering until now :-) I'm hoping to appeal to 2011's brides and wanted to showcase what I can do for them. Initially I will display one of my own creations and one from the Ruby Bloom collection and depending on how much space is left, a cupcake stand and a Christmas cake. There will also be at least 6 more cakes on display in the Studio upstairs.

I will post pictures of the dressed window tomorrow evening, fingers crossed it will be as eye catching as I hope.

Cake International

I'm a little hyper after today's expedition to Birmingham :-) Cake International at the NEC is heaven for Cake geeks like me! I have definitely made a dent in my budget but have bought some absolutely gorgeous things and I can't believe it but I actually got an airbrush! It's been on my wish list for ages but was nervous about buying something I have no idea how to use. After a quick demo at the NEC I'm ready to go and the effects are so cool.

I also bought some beautiful lustres in colours that are to die for, can't wait to use them, will be experimenting tomorrow night when the girls are safely tucked up in bed... I'm such a spoil sport their eyes lit up when they saw all my goodies :-) I have got lots of pretty stencils and impression mats to try too, I'm not going to know when to start. Now all I need is for my flaming dummy cakes to arrive so I can get to work on my display cakes for the shop... they've only been on order for TWO weeks!

Thanks to Jayne Walsh of The Little Fairy Cakery in Newcastle for the lift and lovely company... did we stop talking at all today??? :-)

Classically trained versus self taught ?

I've never made a secret of the fact that I did not go to college to learn how to decorate cakes. Apart from a term at night school to learn how to decorate a Christmas cake I've had no 'training' at all. I have however, wondered if this would be a handicap in the professional world where qualifications are so important. As I'm on the verge of moving into that professional arena it's been on my mind more often but thanks to an eye opening conversation with Craig my new baker I'm feeling a lot more confident that my work will speak for itself.

Craig is both a baker and decorator, he is classically trained to ice cakes through Thomas Danby College and his piping is amazing, he's fast and accurate and the results are fabulous. My piping stinks, it's something I'm working on but to be honest I hardly ever need to do it and that's where I've realised the distinction is. I'm not trying to be classically trained my cakes are vastly different in style from the traditional piped creations. It's almost like two entirely different products, people who want one of Craig's cakes would not look twice at mine and vice versa.

Craig was shocked at how long I spend icing a cake, he looks at decorating from a completely different perspective, he pipes the borders, the names etc... applies ready made models and hey presto his cake is done. A typical cake would cost in the region of £27 whereas my basic is £70 and the difference is not training it's time. My details are painstakingly created to the clients specific requirements. The models are hand made and details such as wedding dressing can reflect those worn by the brides themselves. I absolutely revel in the detail, I guess it's where my passion lies.

It was fascinating to swop methods and ideas about how things can be achieved and I think we both learnt a lot. I'm really looking forward to working with Craig and his team at Hoffmans. The cakes I tasted were absolutely delicious and the range of flavours fabulous, I'll be updating my website with these shortly.

I think I can safely say that although I do not have certificates with my qualifications emblazoned across them to hang on my wall, I will have stunning (if I do say so myself :-)) examples of my work for everyone to see and hopefully those cakes will tell you more than any qualifications can.

The pretty things

When I open Just Darling Cakes I want the room to be fabulous and really showcase the cakes and also the Just Darling Brand. It's really important to me to get all the little details right, so with that in mind I've been having lots of fun sourcing all sorts of pretty things to help create the effect I'm after.

The top picture is just the cutest thing, it's a cupcake door stop from Laura Ashley and it literally jumped into my arms... I just couldn't say no! :-) I've also bought some lovely seat pads for the chairs from there and a gorgeous 3 tier cake stand to display my cupcakes on.

From the Range in Halifax, I found these adorable tea/coffee/sugar canisters... I'd actually given up hope when I found these. They are perfect and a snip at £3.99 each :-)

I've also been sourcing some flat topped cake stands to display the wedding cakes on, especially the new Ruby Bloom Range which will be launched shortly. Jane Campy of Ruby Bloom in Wakefield is designing an exclusive range of wedding cakes for me which will be displayed at both our premises. More news about this soon...

Progress Report

It's been a busy few days in the new home of Just Darling Cakes. Mark and my Dad have been busy stripping wallpaper and applying the new much prettier paper and getting started on the painting. We've only got one day left with my Dad helping so I've been drafted in to help with the painting tomorrow as well.

The top picture shows the gorgeous Laura Ashley wallpaper on the feature wall. I will be displaying my white and ivory wedding cakes against this wall. The next picture is of my hard working Dad who flew in from Hungary last week with a few days notice to kick start the decorating process. Apparently he's painting some bits of wood to edge the wall or something like that... am leaving the technical stuff to him.

The last picture is Mark who is really pleased with his paint spattered trousers... proof he's been hard at it... apparently!

While they've been busy decorating I've been busy spending, but more of that in the next post :-)

'THE STRESS'

It's been a hell of a few weeks and it's not over yet, but thought I'd better get it all off my chest before I explode.... I have found some premises to turn into a cake design studio and showroom... that's the good news... the bad news is the bank still can't make their mind up whether they are giving me a loan or not.... GRRRRR

About three weeks ago when I was working on a wedding cake and chatting to the bride about a few last minute details, she told me she was vacating the room she rents in Huddersfield where she runs her beauticians... and that it might be suitable for me. I had been looking around for some time but the rents are incredible round here. So the next day I checked the venue out... it's fabulous! Location wise I couldn't ask for more, it's central Huddersfield and above a florist and bridal wear shop :-) The rent is doable and the room just needs redecorating and kitting out with work surfaces etc...

I have spent the last few weeks in a whirlwind of sourcing cupboards, plumbers (am currently on number 4... don't ask!), flooring, a baker and goodness knows what else which I've loved and then the bit I'm struggling with which has taken up the most time and given me the most grey hairs... the bank! To be fair the individuals I've dealt with have been fabulous and really helpful, it's just the system I'm up against, I'm not asking for the world but in today's climate they are really making me jump through hoops and tonight at 4.45 I find out I've got to wait until some point on Monday for an answer :-(

I'm sure it will all be worth it though I'm sooooo excited about this and I know it's the right time/venue etc... so I've just got to keep everything crossed that the bank pulls through. I'll keep you posted.... but for now I'll pop some pictures up of the building itself... Just Darling Cakes will be located above the bridal shop and will also have a ground floor window to display cakes.

The Baker

Personalised cakes are great fun to make and so special for the recipient. I was asked to replicate a cake made last year for an Italian great grandma (see above) but this time it was for the 70th birthday of a lady who bakes pies, who often wears a navy blue fleece and always wears rubber gloves when baking!!! Apparently she also ends up covered in a lot of flour (I with her on that one, I always end up wearing twice as much as goes into the cake).

The pies in question were corned beef ones, so I thought a representation of the ingredients along with a finished pie would look good on the table in front of Irene in her baking gear. I had great fun trying to make the bowl for the mashed up corned beef and the pie dish... you have to get pretty inventive. All in all I'm really pleased with how this turned out, it was a welcome distraction from all the mad stresses this week has brought... but more about that in my next blog with hopefully some good news too!

Musical Notes and Plain but not Simple

Again two very different cakes this week. The first a 40th Birthday cake for a music lover who plays the trombone. I have to admit when I took this order I said to the lady ordering it 'musical notes no problem, what instrument does he play?' and then 'ahhh' when she said trombone and I'm thinking how the hell am I going to do that? I'm fairly pleased with the result, I think it passes a resemblance to a trombone if not completely technically correct :-)

The second is the most plain cake I have ever done and is testimony to how much I've learnt in the last year or two. I know plain sounds simple but it's so not, there is literally nowhere to hide. Every millimetre of icing has to be flawless and smooth... no mean feat, you even hear professionals on the tv talking about how they cover small faults with detail. So although it didn't excite my creative process it made me realise how much I've improved :-)

I need to apologise for the quality of the pictures though, they were taken on my mobile... not that my camera is much better!

Two very different cakes and a very happy cake designer (that's me!)

I have thoroughly enjoyed this week's orders. So different and challenging in different ways but I enjoyed them so much.

The top cake is a four tier cake with two layers of spicy carrot cake and two of chocolate for Lauren and Martin who married at Bagden Hall today. Lauren saw a cake similar to this in a bridal magazine and requested a version for their own wedding. The background is ivory to match Lauren's dress and the accent colour to coordinate with the bridesmaids.

The challenge was two fold with this cake the stacking with separators and the edible images. The stacking turned out to be fairly easy (yep I know the top tier is wonky on this pic but I changed it before I left :-) and very effective, it's definitely something I will look to incorporate into future designs. The edible images were great fun but nearly gave me a heart attack. Murphy's law says that the more fragile something is the more you will shake when handling it. However, I love the finished effect and thanks again to http://www.eatyourphoto.co.uk/ for their great service and speedy turnaround.

The second cake is a version of one of my designs I did for a photo shoot at the beginning of the year. This time though the accent colour was Merlot rather than being entirely white. I'm quite surprised how one colour can change the look of a cake so much, it's definitely more dramatic this way! The merlot colour was a challenge in itself. Icing is white and to colour something this deeply takes an awful lot of colour which is turn makes the icing a sticky mess, even great quantities of tylo made this quite hard to handle. When I first put the drapes on I felt the colour was still too flat, so I applied a coat of burgundy petal dust and snowflake lustre dust mixed with a little vodka to give the effect of the organza in the bridesmaids dresses... I love the way it turned out.

DJ Decks

This was a wedding cake and gift in one, from Rachel to her husband as he's a DJ and she wanted a really cool cake to represent that at their wedding. I love these cakes where it's both a challenge to me and a really special message to the recipient :-)

Everything is edible there are two 10" sponges one vanilla and one chocolate, a 6" chocoate square and two 8" half height round vanilla cakes. All the details are made from sugarpaste strengthened with tylo and the shiny effect comes from spraying with lustre spray in lieu of an airbursh, which sadly remains on my wish list. The lustre spray is lethal, although perfectly food safe and edible it gets EVERYWHERE, my kitchen will never be the same and I was high as a kite for 24 hours after spraying :-)

I used edible images for the Technics discs to get a realistic look. It's the first time I've used them but I'm really pleased with the results and I can't fault the website I got them from http://www.eatyourphoto.co.uk/ their customer service is fabulous... as I found out with my second order this week, definitely a case of nothing being too much trouble so THANK YOU :-)

I'll be posting more pictures tomorrow of this weeks wedding cakes, two very different cakes but both great fun to make.

Buddy's Roses

I'm a huge fan of Buddy Valastro of Cake Boss fame (top picture), despite all the 'created' drama in his shows I find them addictive and it's great when I can pass my addiction off as research by actually learning something from it.

I find rose making fiddly and the results less than satisfying so I thought i'd attempt to teach myself Buddy's way of making roses. He uses a five petal cutter, rather than individual petal cutters (the way I was taught at college). I kind of bodged my way through it and the photos above are first attempt and could definitely do with a little improvement but I like the method :-)

I have put the pictues above so will talk through them in order:

The first picture after Buddy is the flowerpaste on the pad ready to be thinned. You can see the cutter alongside, the letters and numbers on the cutter are guidance for the order to wrap the petals around the flower.

The second is my improvised drying rack. Buddy dries his roses upside down from what I guess are special racks, but I found the tins and cooling rack did the trick, although I would like to source a real one as this wasn't too stable, I'd hate to knock a full one over...

I noticed Buddy uses a thin foam pad under the bud while he attaches the petals, I had to improvise again and the black cup shaped thing is an indent from an apple tray, but it needs to be flexible so will have to try again with some foam. Something is definitely needed to stop the warmth of my hands making the flower paste sticky. The third photo shows one row of petals attached and one flat ready to be attached.

The final photo is the finished rose, it's so far from perfect but on the right track :-) Practice makes perfect and all that!