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!

The Wow Factor

More and more brides come to me asking for something 'simple'... and I'm making an educated guess in thinking it has more to do with the economic climate than personal taste. However, as somebody who is creative I would much rather design a cake with wow factor than recreate a lack lustre chainstore/supermarket design and unless there is some painstaking and particularly time consuming detail the price is not going to shoot up astronomically.

Cake design is very hard to price, it's an expensive product to create if you use the best ingredients, and it's very time consuming, so cake designers generally price the raw ingredients, the utilities/overheads, and then decide how long the cake will take to create and charge an hourly fee. Once I have this price, I'm my own worst enemy in agreeing to do all sorts of extras to give the client the cake of their dreams to the detriment of my profit margin. However, I would much, much rather do this and deliver a cake which goes beyond expectations than give the client a cake that nobody remembers.

So I was incredibly excited by this evening's phonecall asking me to recreate my logo cake above for a 17th Birthday, the client was emphatic that she wanted a cake with real wow factor, something her daughter and her friends can oooh and ahhh over and that everyone will remember. I love it when my clients are really enthusiastic about their cakes and want something really special and different, there is nothing I love better than working on these kind of cakes.

So I guess what I'm saying is be demanding, test me see what you can get for your money Give me your ideas and your budget and see what I can do. I would much rather create the cake of your dreams that the one you assume you can afford.

Jemima's Baptism

I loved making this cake and recreating Jemima Puddleduck from the much loved Beatrix Potter's Tales as a gift to baby Jemima on her baptism. Photos are from her Daddy Mark of http://www.markskeetphotography.co.uk/.

Pre-School Fair

On Saturday it was a local pre-school's summer fair and I was asked to provide a cupcake stall. It was great fun, from planning the cupcake cases and boxes to spending a lovely afternoon at the fair. This was the first time I'd done a stall like this and it definitely will not be the last. It has really spurred me on too, in the pursuit of my own cupcake cafe one day.

I have posted some pictures above to give an idea of the stall. We had the following flavours for sale and I'm glad to say that the table was empty by the end of the fair :-):

Vanilla with vanilla buttercream

Carrot with cinnamon buttercream

Chocolate with peanut butter buttercream

White Chocolate with Raspberry Coulis and Vanilla Buttercream

Chocolate with Chocolate buttercream

Thanks to Kate for all her help, writing labels, icing cupcakes and helping at the fair, you're a star! Photos are courtesy of Jo Bilham who is actually a make up artist but her photography rocks too. Check out her blog at http://www.makeupmummy.blogspot.com/.

Ruby Red

A little while ago I signed up to test Ruby Red Cosmetics, I love Ruby Red so it seemed like a bit of a no brainer... well I've had my first lot of samples and I'm so excited :-)

It's been a stressful few weeks and I seem to be meeting myself coming back so my skin has definitely been suffering, so I was over the moon that the first products I get to test are a new cleanser and moisuriser.

The cleanser is a 'Natural Oil Face Cleanser' and is suitable for all types of skin. It removes dirt and makeup from your skin without stripping the natural oils away. It contains gorgeous ingredients such as Jojoba oil, shea butter, lavender, clary sage... need I go on? The aroma itself is delicious and instantly relaxing thanks to the last two ingredients above. You spread the cleanser on your face and massage in. Then take off with a warm, damp flannel. My skin felt really deeply cleansed but without the squeaky dryness you get with normal cleansers it was left amazingly soft.

The moisturiser for want of a better word is a 'Natural Face Oil', which plumps up the skin and can be used under another moisturiser or on its own. It contains a nourishing blend of Wheatgerm, Safflower, Evening Primrose and Clary sage to name a few of the ingredients. Again I found this really relaxing to use and felt instantly calmed. Even my 6 year old commented how nice I smelt when she had a hug!

I can't wait until these products are available to buy as I've nearly used up all my samples and my skin is not going to be happy at going back to basics until I can get hold of some more!

Other Ruby Red products that I can recommend from personal use are:

Natural Solid Perfume - Frangipani and Orange Blossom... Jo Whiley raves about these and I know why, gorgeous feminine sents that last.

Organic Honey and Vanilla Lip Balm - this is bliss for lips, I love it. Mine goes everywhere with me :-)