Nevie-Pie Cakes at Selfridges...

I know I've not posted as much as I normally do in the last month or so, but I've been working hard on a secret project and I can now finally reveal what it is - I'm very excited and pleased to announce that I have been asked to create a Nevie-Pie Cakes Christmas range exclusively for Selfridges. This happened quite out of the blue, and a lot of thanks is due to Miss Cakehead, with a smaller amount of thanks to Snoop Dogg, at least in his biscuit form...

I have created three ranges for them: gingerbread houses, cookies and mini Christmas cakes. You can see sneak peeks of some of them in the pictures on this page... the themes are vintage, woodland and birds. It's a lot of hard work, and I'm very nervous! I'll be hand painting everything myself...

The mini Christmas cakes will be in all three of their their stores (London, Manchester and Birmingham) from mid-October, and the other goodies available (again, in all 3 stores) from mid-November - of course I will let you know when they are on sale. I'm sure I won't be able to resist a trip myself, and take a furtive picture on my phone, just to make sure I'm not really dreaming! There's also a small possibility that I'll be doing an in-store painting demo in the London branch in the run-up to Christmas, so if that happens I'll let you all know...

xxx

Character cakes

I do get asked to do a fair amount of character cakes, which I don't normally post. But I was rather pleased with these ones and thought you may like to see a Nevie-Pie Cakes take on...Spiderman...

...and my very favourite Cap'n Jack.

xxx

ps I draw everything free hand.

How much do I love my camera?

The answer is lots and lots!

(The Midland Hotel Morcambe)

I discovered a super new function whilst on my holiday (I haven't really read the manual, so I'm always being surprised) it's a pin hole camera!  How cool is that?

Here is the with pinhole function and without.

(Williamson Park Memorial, Lancaster)

I hold my hand up to a touch of post editing too.

My camera is a Panasonic Lumix FZ38 and I use it multiple times a day.

If you have one and have never discovered the joys of pinholeing for yourself go to SCN (scene) mode and on page 2 second image along you'll find it.

(Williamson Park Lancaster)

(The Jetty, Morcambe Bay)

(Morcambe Bay)

Happy snapping!

xxx

Book Club Cake of the Month....July

Oh dear, oh dear oh dear! The last few books have been something of a disappointment and this month's was no exception. Even though I did post here that I was going to love July's book. I was in tears by page 17, unfortunately it all went down hill from there.

I'm sure I've explained before but each host picks three books and we have a vote on which one to read.  This month I was the host and I wanted something lighter and less philosophical.  I  tweeted a request for recommendations, and, from them picked The Help ( which I've since read and was fantastic) and The Guersney Literary and Potato Peel Society (which I intend to read). However the third choice (which everyone went for) was all my own. I'd heard fascinating discussions on the radio about it and read dazzling reviews.

The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson, was the winner of  last years Booker Prize.

It was very disappointing!

We decided that if you are a self obsessed aging male academic you may enjoy it...unfortunately none of my book group are. (One of us is cake obsessed, but mention no names.)

Julian Treslove, the protagonist, is not Jewish but is very concerned with Jewishness and thinks, for no real discernible reason he may be a Jew. To begin with it is an interesting premise, but by the end really tedious. A few of the group didn't even bother finishing it.  We gave it a collective four out of ten.

I toyed with baking  a traditional Jewish dish (loshken pudding maybe) but I ran out of time so I whipped up some muffins.

At one point in the book Treslove is watching a small child eat mashed bananas and drained peaches.  I added mashed bananas and chopped peaches to the muffins and put a peach slice on the top of each one before baking.

The cakes were recieved much better than the book!

Next month (well September) is Trespass by Rose Tremain. Let's just wait and see!
xxx
ps, I know it's nectarines in the photo but it's all I had!

Previous book club cake of the month

June

April

March

February

November

October

September

Lets Go Fly A Kite

What a miserable rainy day it's been here in the UK.  So what better to cheer yourself up than a look back at holiday snaps?

We were in Morcambe last week for a lovely relaxing holiday in my parent's seaside house (pictures here)

The first day of our hols it was the annual Morcambe "Catch the Wind" kite festival.

We have somehow managed to miss this event every year which is a shame, as it is really fantastic to see all the kites together. I think I like the diver best!

I hope it's warm and breezy with you.

xxx

ps are you singing this now?

Some old favourites

I had some commissions (before I went on holiday) for new versions of old favorites.

I thought I would compare and contrast.

Another teacup cake for another 90 year old, I have done quite a few 90th cakes, I suppose it's really something to celebrate.  No 100th yet, but hopefully one day! The new one is in blue, I loved the colourway.

Then a wedding cake version of my 30th Cake.  This is the most viewed cake on my flickr site but I've never been asked for another one, until now.  The bride was having a shabby chic themed wedding and had made so many of her own decorations, They were fabulous. The cake table was covered with a vintage lace shawl and she had made her own topper. It all looked great!

xxx

Twisted-Fete cookies

Hello lovely people!

I'm afraid that once again I must apologize for neglecting you.  I have just come back from a lovely week away with Mr LD and the kidlets, and before that things were going a little crazy!

So it's time, now that things have calmed down, to catch up.

First is a batch of cookies I made for a 40th Birthday. The theme was a Twisted-Fete.  So I decided to paint some old fashioned fayre freak shows.  They still needed to be be beautiful and women.

I made entrance tickets for the tags.

I think the bearded lady was my favourite, although I do like the strong woman's frilly leotard!

xxx