Amelie's House

Whoo's your Valentine?

2012-02-01T05:51:00.000-08:00

Some cookies that flew off to new homes this week.

xxx

Ladies lunch

2012-01-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

I had a delightful day yesterday, when it was my great pleasure to host a ladies lunch, in honour of a good friend's fortieth birthday.

It was very refined (as we are ladies), with a glass of champagne for everyone.

We started with a spicy butternut squash soup and homemade focacia.

Then onto a very ladylike salad of king prawns, grapefruit and avocado.

And of course, no ladies lunch is the same without a gooey chocolate cake and a big dollop of cream.

A lovely time was had by all and especially the birthday girl.

xxx

Gold cake

2012-01-27T06:48:00.000-08:00

I was given free rein for a birthday cake and have been thinking about something gold for a while. so I put on my experimental hat and started spraying!

xxx

Painting classes

2012-01-25T01:46:00.000-08:00

I have been very bad at not posting the pictures from my last two painting classes. They were full of lovely ladies, and I had a great time with both groups. Everyone was very pleased with their results. I have seen quite a lot ex-pupils bringing some painted elements into their designs, which is very exciting.

I will be organising some dates for more classes soon. If you would like to come along you can sign up for my newsletter here which will have all the details. You don't need to have any painting experience the classes are for all abilities.

xxx

Happy Birthday Cake.

2012-01-19T23:47:00.000-08:00

Are you a baker? Do you make your own birthday cake? Is it a pleasure, or a pain?

Well I make my own cake, I suspect only until the kidlets are old enough to be let loose on the kitchen by themselves though. Mr Lemon Drizzle has never, to my knowledge, made a so much as a muffin! Although he swears that if he did it would be fabulous! (Because it's "really easy"!)

However, I really enjoy making my cake, as I can make the kind of cake I really enjoy. Although the fondant covered cakes are beautiful and I love the decoration, you can't beat a gooey, squidgy, chocolaty, caramely cake covered in sprinkles.

So this is what I have made. I baked this cake for a past book club and decided to recreate it just for myself! It is a mash up of a Nigella recipe and a Dan Lepard cake, with a little Nevie-Pie thrown in for good measure. So here it is!

Happy Birthday Cake Recipe

Dissolve the sugar in the water over a low heat. When it is totally dissolved turn the heat up and boil without stirring until it reaches the caramel stage (174C, 345F). Take the pan off the heat and stir in the cream (be careful it can spit). Return to the heat and stir until smooth. Then take off the heat and leave to cool.

Take out two tablespoons of the caramel sauce and leave to on side. Place the remaining sauce in a frying pan with the banana. Heat it all up until the banana is mushed up and combining with the sauce. Take off the heat and cool.

Beat together the sugar, oil, vanilla extract and eggs until thick. Add the yogurt and banana caramel and beat again. Sieve the flour, spice, baking powder and bicarbonate together. Whisk until combined. Pour into two lined seven inch cake tins and cook for 30-35 mins in the oven (180C fan). When they are cooked through and springy to the touch take them out. Leave for five minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack.

Boil the cream and then add the chocolate. Beat until smooth and leave to cool.

Beat the cream cheese with the remaining caramel and leave it in the fridge to harden.

Then assemble the cake. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the flat end of one of the cakes and sandwich the other cake on top. Drizzle the ganache over the top and liberally cover with sprinkles of your choice.

Then make a cup of tea, sit back and congratulate yourself on making another year and a fabulous cake!

xxx

ps you can download a printable version here.

Sunrise

2012-01-19T11:13:00.000-08:00

We had a really beautiful sunrise a few mornings ago, so I thought I would share.

xxx

Book Club Cake of the Month...January

2012-01-18T12:57:00.000-08:00

Now don't fall off your chairs in amazement! But I have managed to post the book club cake only one (yes one!) day after our meeting. Hurrah, let's start the year as we mean to go on, efficient and organised,neat and tidy, a place for everything and everything in it's place, photo's loaded and edited as taken, slimmer and fitter! Alright enough self congratulations (lying) and on to the book.

We read 'The Silent Land' by Graham Joyce.

Zoe and Jake are skiing when they get swept away, and buried by an avalanche. They manage to dig themselves out, but when they get back to the slopes, they are empty. They ski down to their hotel which is also deserted. Assuming there has been an evacuation, because of the avalanche, they make themselves at home for the night. The next day, however, their escape is foiled, and they realise they are trapped, together, alone in the village.

There is a real eeriness and a genuine spooky atmosphere to the book, which was great, and the descriptive sections are lovely. However, this was not a winner with the group and only scored 5.5. The reason? The characters are really annoying (punchable annoying), and the dialogue is, frankly, appalling. The writing never soars. That said, we did enjoy the book, mainly because it is an easy read and a page turner. And over the holidays we got to read it in a couple of sittings. So, if you want a good holiday read take it with you...but not if you are going skiing!

I made some snowball cookies for the group, which were just my normal vanilla cookie recipe laced with Toblerone (very apt for skiing I thought).

I shaped them into balls and rolled them in icing sugar, which totally melted in the oven, so I rolled them again, after they had cooked and cooled.

xxx

Previous book club cake of the month

November
September
October
November
February
March
April
July

June

Felt Cake

2012-01-17T04:58:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post with last week's cake.

This is a cake I made last weekend for a friend's little girl. She was having a 'fun felt party', so I wanted the cake to look like it was made from felt. As I don't pipe I had to hand roll all the tiny fondant stitches.

It is a cake pretending to be felt, pretending to be a cake!

xxx

Elementary my dear cookie maker!

2012-01-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

This weekend is just leading up to one thing...Sherlock! It is the best thing on Television at the moment, and the only programme I make time to watch. Sadly, though, it is the last episode of the series on Sunday, as they only make three. (Apologies to those of you who don't get BBC, but you should search it out if you can!) So, at the very end of the weekend you will find me curled up on the sofa, phone off the hook, a glass of wine and these cookies I made in homage!

I love the tie the costume department gave Moriarty. It is Alexander McQueen and has skulls on...how appropriate!

xxx

Cakes that time forgot 2

2012-01-06T08:34:00.000-08:00

OK, I'm lying, the first two are from December but the third is from the summer (doesn't that seem soo long ago?)

Enjoy!

This was for a lady who loves to buy handbags but they have to have a long strap! I really enjoyed this as I was given free reign (apart from the strap specifications). I used a limited palate which I was really pleased with.

The next is a new version of an old favourite for a 60th birthday. The lucky ladies daughter was eight months pregnant, but still made a two hour round trip to pick the cake up, I'm always so flattered when people go the extra mile for one of my cakes. (I know that in larger countries this is like a trip to the park but I find it hard to go the 5 minutes into town for a packet of biscuits!)

And finally a commission from Miss Cakehead, for the lady who owns Prangsta, a fabulous costumiers. Her studio is covered with vintage fabrics and amazing costumes. So it needed to reflect that, I was especially pleased with the pin cushion!

xxx

Goodbye to Christmas

2012-01-05T01:52:00.000-08:00

I have never been able to wait until Twelfth Night to take down the Christmas decorations. I start to get twitchy on New Years day and by the 2nd they are gone. I do feel sad though saying goodbye to Christmas, so I thought I would take one last opportunity to indulge in some memories.

Happy New Year 2012

2012-01-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

Hello lovelies!

I hope that your New Year has kicked off to a great start!

It's always nice to take a little time and review the past year. So this is what I've done. I've chosen some of my favourite pictures from the last twelve months.

See you all soon.

xxx

Snowball cake pops

2011-12-31T08:13:00.000-08:00

As promised, here is the second part of my New Year's Eve recipe.

Over the past few years, I have been on a nostalgia trip during the Christmas period, by indulging myself with snowballs. I mean the drink not the real ones. It is a mixture of Advocaat, lime, lemonade and a cocktail cherry, and is like an alcoholic cream soda....delicious! So as a little treat I decided to make my favourite drink into a confection.

You will need the cake recipe from yesterday. Fortunately for today I have lost the rabbit!

Slice off any brown bits from the sheet cake. Crumble it into a bowl.

Pour in about three tablespoons of advocaat and squidge the mixture together with your fingers.

Measure out 30g of the mixture and roll into a ball between your hands. For some balls measure out 25g and flatten the ball, then place a cocktail cherry in the middle.

Then squidge (this is a very squidgy recipe!) the cake around the cherry and roll into a ball.

Take 400g of good quality dark chocolate and melt. Add a teaspoon of Trex. Dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate and swirl until covered.

Let the excess chocolate drip off and place the balls on baking paper to dry. I sprinkled these with gold lustre dust.

Enjoy your New Year celebrations and I hope 2012 is happy and full of cake!

xxx

Mystery cake recipe

2011-12-30T01:43:00.000-08:00

Hello all, is your Christmas going well? Here at Amelie's House we have been having a super time. I have put on a stone, mostly in chocolate and paprika crisps! But the New Year is just around the corner with all it's resolutions and diets. Before we get there though I thought I would try and quickly whip up a recipe for a New Year's Eve treat. It's still a mystery what I am making so you have to trust me. This is the first stage, a simple sponge cake.

As it is the holidays, I have little people helping me, I don't normally put up photo's of them but this one insisted on joining in!

Here he is buttering the baking tray and adding 200g of sugar and butter into the bowl.

Then he kindly creamed the butter and sugar together and added four large eggs.

Being careful of his paws he grated the zest of a lime into the mix and beat it all together.

He sifted 200g of self raising flour into the bowl and folded it in with a large spoon.

He got a little camera shy at this point, you can't see the photo, but he added three tablespoons of lemonade and mixed that in well. Then, regaining his composure, he poured the cake mix into a lined baking tray and cooked at 170C (with the fan), 200C without, for 25 mins. Then left the cake to cool on a cooling tray.

Of course you have to sample the cake to make sure the taste is good....and it was.

I shall be back soon with the second part of the recipe (hopefully I can loose the bunny!)

xxx

Book Club Cake of the Month...November

2011-12-27T14:37:00.000-08:00

Due to an extreme workload, I had to miss two book clubs, and the last one I did attend, (True Grit) I never got round to writing up (an average of 8.5, I made cheesy corn balls), so apologies for the lack of book club cakes recently. Hopefully I can make it up to you with this post.

This month (well I mean November) we read "The Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys. As with many books we tend to read, it was the story of a woman's 'descent into madness' (say this in your head in a movie trailer voice). It is written as a prequel to Jane Eyre, focusing on the mad woman in the attic, and turning Mr Rochester into a most dislikeable character (not that he is attractive to begin with).

I found reading the novel like reading someone's dream, which swiftly turns into a nightmare. We all enjoyed it and some even went on to re-read Jane Eyre, which I am tempted to do. We gave it an average of 8.5.

I made a Jamaican ginger cake, which went down a storm. I used the recipe I found here. I then made a syrup with 100ml of dark rum and 100g of sugar. I heated the two ingredients in a pan until the sugar dissolved, then cut up a pack of mixed tropical fruit, (pineapples, mango and passion fruit) and steeped the fruit in the syrup for a hour. Then before serving I tipped the boozey fruit and sauce over the cake. I also whipped some cream with sugar and rum, for some extra fun. It was delicious!

Hopefully I will be able to attend more book clubs in the New Year.

xxx

Previous book club cake of the month

Happy Christmas

2011-12-24T02:35:00.000-08:00

I hope you have a lovely Christmas with lots of cakey goodness!

xxx

Gingerbread men 2011

2011-12-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

Here is a little post about this years gingerbread men.

They made a brief appearance in November's Country Life for a Christmas shoot, and were very well behaved. Some demure ladies joined them this year, for the first time, and what lovely couples they make!

xxx

Christmas confections

2011-12-22T00:56:00.000-08:00

Remember I said I was thinking of a Christmas version of the mushrooms?

Well here they are, magic toadstools. They were one element to go into my package of Christmas confections this year.

Would you like to see more?...Ok here you go!

Joyful cookies.

Christmas cake baubles.

Gingerbread pocky (a very delicious way to use up gingerbread house offcuts!)
xxx

More gingerbread houses

2011-12-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

I have made a few bespoke gingerbread houses in the last few weeks and here are a couple of the designs.

This gingerbread house was ordered especially by someone very close to my heart. Big kidlet wanted to do a stall at the school fair and came up with a 'guess how many Pokemon are in the box' competition. So I was commissioned to create a Pokemon themed gingerbread house as the prize.

Of course, I didn't get to pick the Pokemon used, I was just handed a list .

Evee (I've watched too much Pokemon!)is the all time favourite and had to make a special appearance.

Then another special commission from Miss Cakehead, for gingerbread houses with her beautiful (but often naughty) cats. As they are so mysterious looking I wanted to create an enchanted christmas cottage where magic fills the air.

xxx

Feeling Christmassy

2011-12-20T15:13:00.000-08:00

Most of the decorations are up ( I am still trying to get the kidlets and Mr LD to make a lego display). I have laid (or should that be lain) down my paintbrush until the New Year. The Christmas baking is finished and the snowballs are being poured...it's Christmas!

xxx

Gingerbread Inspiration

2011-12-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

I thought I would share some inspiration form one of my Pinterest boards.

I love this sweet Valentines house from With Love and Confection. It's so pretty and girly.

One for my geek side from Anna-Maria. I love this and I'm sure the Doctor would too.

How sweet are these houses? From Sweet Pudgy Panda. (Look at the tiny candy canes!)

This is, of course, for tiny kidlet, and the owl obsession we are still subject to. Josh Lathem has created a free e-book with fabulous gingerbread house instructions, you can find it here.

Finally, my favourite, I love Where The Wild Things Are, and I love gingerbread...perfect! There is something really magical about this from A Table For Two.

You can check out the rest of my gingerbread board here.

xxx

Magic mushrooms

2011-12-14T04:31:00.000-08:00

Now you may find this hard to believe but sometimes I can obsessed by the little things! It may be one rose or a butterfly or a cookie mushroom.

Last week I took part in a big project, with seven dessert tables, five big cakes to make, and various other sundries. However I became obsessed with making these mushroom cookies! I got very excited with the thought of them and spent a week working on them.

I was so happy with the finished product that I decided to give them their own photo shoot.

(The magic is a little bit of popping candy in the middle.)

Stay tuned because I am now obsessed with a Christmas version.

xxx

Cakes lost in the mist of time!

2011-12-12T03:44:00.000-08:00

I am trying to sort out my photos before my computer stops working, and I have found lots of cakes that I never posted. So I thought I'd give them an airing!

There's no logical link to them, except that they have been wallowing in my 'photos to edit' folder for various amounts of time.

This is a 1st birthday/christening cake with the little boy's favourite toy as a sugar topper.

This is a 40th birthday cake for a friend. His wife was taking him on a surprise trip to Finland and wanted a cake to reflect that.

This was a simple cake for an Alice In Wonderland party.

There are more but I don't want to overwhelm you!
xxx

Poke London's 10th birthday

2011-12-09T02:07:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week I was involved in the fabulous celebrations for Poke London's 10th birthday. Miss Cakehead and I came up with seven (yes seven!) different dessert tables to represent some of their campaigns, including Orange ( an infinite rainbow cake and balloonacy), Sykpe (two cakes skyping each other)and the Global Rich List (bling your cupcake). It was great fun as Poke are amazingly creative, so we could let our imaginations go wild.

I baked all the cakes. There were about 150 eggs, 10000g butter and enough icing sugar to cover my house! (Kooky Bakes made the macarons and Crumbs and Doilies the cupcakes, well I couldn't quite manage everything!) I also made a 10 pinata but forgot to take pictures of it.

(And yes, it is supposed to be a cow pat!)

xxx

Giveaway winner

2011-12-01T06:45:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Love Those Cupcakes who has won the giveaway.
Thankyou for all your lovely comments, I hope you all get the empires you wish for!

I had my own random Org generator (a hat!) to find the lucky winner.

If you contact me I can arrange posting!

xxx

A very personal painted wedding cake

2011-11-28T06:19:00.000-08:00

This was a last minute cake for a couple who wanted to get married before moving away for work.

They had got engaged whilst skiing so wanted to incorporate that with some country flowers.

I suggested adding the Swiss chalet to the top of the cake rather than just the two figures, and I added some 3D butterflies for extra interest. The tiers were fruit, chocolate and vanilla.

xxx

Giveaway time!

2011-11-23T10:26:00.000-08:00

Hello lovely people. I'm so grateful for all the encouragement and support that you give me and would love to give you something in return. Unfortunately until the cake empire has grown I can't afford to send you each a present but I can deliver Christmas cheer to one of you.

I have a box of four vintage girl gingerbread cookies waiting to post next week to the lucky winner of this giveaway. (There may be some other goodies tucked in too.) I will post anywhere in the world!

All you have to do is leave a comment at the end of the post telling me what your empire will be built from!

Let me know if you are a follower and you can have an extra chance. I will also give you extra chances for blogging, facebooking or tweeting about the giveaway, just leave me a comment letting me know what you have done.

I will pull a name from the hat next Wednesday 30th.

If you don't want to leave it to chance you can visit my Etsy shop here, but be quick there are only a few up for grabs and the last date for international postage is December 9th .

Thankyou for your comments! This giveaway is now closed.

Painting in Selfridges

2011-11-21T14:35:00.000-08:00

I was in Selfridges again last week personalizing Christmas cakes, which was great fun. It's lovely meeting lots of interesting people and having great chats.

It was also massively exciting to see all my products in their own display, and I even amazed myself.

Here is my little painting station.

And here is the sign they had made for me, which I thought was hilarious! Last time I was 'internationally renowned', and I'll be disappointed if I'm not an 'interstellar paint artist' the next time I visit.

I shall be doing my last painting session on December 1st in the evening from 5pm-8pm. If you are around please pop in and say hello.

xxx

Gingerbread Houses

2011-11-18T01:30:00.000-08:00

This is the scene on my table last week!

Fortunately I managed to get them all finished in time and delivered to three stores for the beginning of this week.

Today I am in the London store on Oxford Street from 1.30pm personalising some mini Christmas cakes. If you are around pop in and say 'Hi'!

xxx

Geek cake pop-up shop

2011-11-04T05:41:00.000-07:00

Miss Cakehead is opening a pop up geek cake shop next Wednesday somewhere in London.

Here's what she has to say;

"We've been asked to do a GEEK CAKE POP UP SHOP in Central London *next Thursday* as part of Internet Week Europe. I am looking for cake makers of ALL levels to contribute to this activity. You WILL of course be paid for all of your cakes and it will be great PR :-) I have some concepts I will need people to make, but also there is an open brief if you have your own ideas.

If you are interested please email me, emmylou.cakehead@gmail.com. I am only going to do this is there is enough interest from you lovely talented bakers so please do consider getting involved and share with your contacts!

Any profit to Steve Jobs charity (details TBC but it will be a non profit making exercise)

Bad cookies

2011-11-03T07:22:00.000-07:00

Alright, when I say bad I mean Michael Jackson cookies!

Oh yeah I'm bad I'm bad you know it!

Sorry too many cookies have made me go strange..normal service will be resumed soon.

(Also I had to take this in really bad light, no pun intended!)

xxx

Moustache Cookies

2011-11-02T00:34:00.000-07:00

Do I need to say more? What's not to like about a fake moustache?

These were for the lovely Marie (Heartfelt Handmade) who is fond of a moustache herself.

I was going to photograph myself with the moustaches but then had a flash of inspiration to use illustrations. I found a lovely 70's children's book in a charity shop last year which was the basis for the drawings.

Watch out for more cookies soon!

xxx

Cookie Week

2011-10-31T02:46:00.000-07:00

I have decided that this will be cookie week, as I have a few photos that I haven't shared with you yet.

So first up a topical one.

I made this a little time ago for Miss Cakehead's birthday as I knew she would appreciate the twisted beauty. She decided to frame it rather than eat it!

xxx

Monster snot and bogies...eugh!!!!

2011-10-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Bleurghhh!

The kidlets have persuaded me to come up with a frightful recipe for trick or treaters. It is with great personal sacrifice that I post this, as I have a major aversion to bogies, stemming from a childhood trauma...I really can't go into it!

Anyway I haven't given any quantities as it's just basic meringue and we didn't put enough sugar in, so they tasted fairly foul too. I would suggest using your own tried and tested meringue if you want to create some monstrous bogies!

We used powder egg whites, we added water and beat them until stiff.

Then we added sugar and beat again until nice and glossy. We separated the mixture into three bowls.

We then added food colouring, there were two greens and a yellow and layered the colours in a piping tube.

The kidlets had a tray each to create drips of bogie. Which went into the oven until crisp.

The bogies were then packaged and labelled. Big kidlet helped come up with the monster image which we printed onto snot green card.

But look at these poor little monsters with terribly bad colds! Atchoo!

This one has the right idea though and has used a handkerchief to catch the oozing snot.

If you want to download a pdf of the label go here or right click on the image for the jpeg.

And don't forget kids "Catch it, Kill it, Bin it!"

xxx

Baking Mad with Eric Lanlard

2011-10-26T14:55:00.000-07:00

Just so you know, this isn't a sponsored post infact I never have any sponsored posts on my blog. Maybe it's something I might think about in the future but for now it's all me!

Anyway I received an email from Baking Mad about a new show with Eric Lanlard asking if I would mention it on my blog incase any of my lovely followers fancy having a go and I don't mind giving them a little publicity if it's any interest to you.

Here's what they have to say;

"Are you passionate about baking? Have you got some impressive dessert recipes up your sleeve that could wow even a master baker?

Baking Mad are looking for passionate bakers to compete in a mini bake off for the chance to have a 1-1 lesson with master patissier and baker to the stars Eric Lanlard!

Twice winner of the prestigious Continental Patissier of the Year at the British Baking Awards, Eric has earned himself an international reputation for show stopping cakes.

Do you think you’ve got what it takes to impress Eric with your culinary skills? Then please drop us an email at bakingmad@infinite-media.tv where you will be prompted to fill in one of our application forms telling us why you would like to take part.

We will be filming throughout December and January.

Successful applicants will be needed for one filming day only."

I would love to know if any of you enter, it would be very exciting.

Also do you have strong opinions on sponsored posts? For, or against I'd be very interested.

xxx

Lardy cake recipe

2011-10-18T23:55:00.000-07:00

OK, not so much of a recipe, more a collection of things that you can throw together and create yumminess!

This is my family's recipe, handed down from generation to generation, but I can pretty much guarantee that most baking families will have a version of this in their arsenal.

It's not a recipe you make especially, it's more a delicious way to use up leftover pastry. You can use any pastry you have, sweet, savoury, puff, flaky, it's all good. (I must admit to making extra pastry though, just so there is enough over for lardy cake).

My Dad is a bit of a pie maker, given any stressful family situation you can find my parents fighting it out for kitchen space, my Mum to make jam and my Dad to bake a pie. this is how they chill!

My Gran was a fabulous pastry maker too, I only cracked the technique while in my forth decade, and I still get a flush of pride (and surprise) when my pies come out airy and crisp.

You will need; pastry, butter, dried fruit (whatever is in your store cupboard), granulated sugar, dark brown sugar and milk.

Roll out the pastry, don't worry about making a perfect circle or having smooth edges, this is rustic!

Butter a baking tray and place the pastry on top.

Scatter the fruit brown sugar and knobs of butter over one side of the pastry.

Brush milk around the edge of the pastry and fold the unadorned side over the fruit.

Press down with your fingers to seal the edge. Make two cuts in the top.

Brush the top with milk and scatter over some sugar.

I bake at 200 c for about 15mins but it will depend on your oven. It's ready when the pastry is cooked and a lovely golden brown.

Wait as long as you can bear for it to cool before you cut it up and taste. This is a dish that never makes it off the tray onto a plate...it never lasts that long. Every time you enter the kitchen you have to have a little slice, sometimes with a bit of butter spread onto the top.

What did your Granny make with her left over pastry? Something just as delicious I'm sure!

xxx

Maple leaf wedding cake

2011-10-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

This is the wedding cake and cupcakes I made for a lovely couple at the weekend. They had various Canadian links and wanted to reflect that in their cake. Although they also wanted it to be very simple.

They had come up with the idea of maple leaves, so we decided to make the cupcakes maple syrup flavour. The cake was chocolate mud and they had plans to whisk it away to share between them!

xxx

How-to-make an owl pinata

2011-10-17T00:20:00.000-07:00

I'm doing well on catching up with my lost blog posts, I hope you agree. Unfortunately this may prove to be a rather unsatisfactory how-to as I didn't take as many pictures as I should have of the process. However I know that my readers are very intelligent and will quickly figure out what you need to do. If you do have any questions please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.

Blow up a massive balloon (bigger than your head) and cover it with three layers of paper mache. You can find the recipe here.

Cut off one of the smaller end.

Let kidlets fill the pinata with sweets.

I have cunningly missed out a stage here for added confusion. Reattach the end with plenty of packing tape but reverse it so it is con-caving into the balloon (this is so the pinata can stand up).

Then allow kidlets to paint the pinata with acrylic paint.

Cut two hole in the top and thread ribbon through, see here also.

Cut up strips of crepe paper and fringe them. Attach with a glue gun starting on the base and working your way up to the top of his head.

Add a beak and eyes with a glue gun.

Admire your creation.

Then let ten 5 year olds batter it with a stick until all that is left is dust!

xxx

The Owl and ladybird party

2011-10-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

(Finally! It has only taken me a month to get these pictures together for you.)

So, at the beginning of September, my littlest kidlet turned five and requested a party full of owls and ladybirds. I wanted to steer clear of red ladybirds and brown owls, so I went for a white and pastel colour scheme.

Obviously the kidlets wanted to be as involved as possible, though I am always torn between being a good Mummy and letting them help, and my creative side, which wants to do it all myself. They have started to get a little bit bossy though and one morning, before I awoke, came up with a party invite design themselves. While I admire their initiative I had to put my foot down, as their concept didn't fit in with the grand scheme, so I produced a design the kidlets could stick together for me, and was acceptable.

I had them cut out the leaves for the banners and help as I sewed them together on the sewing machine, they paper mached the pinata and ladybirds, and decorated the party bags (under close supervision!)

We spent a few months buying up any owl knick-knacks we found in charity shops and then sprayed them white.

Fortuitously the week before the party the council cut down a tree outside our house and we managed to snag a gorgeous log for decoration.

Of course the cake had to be an owl, although it was very simple as I didn't have too much time to spare.

We also had ladybird cupcakes and cake pops, and my old party favourite, iced gems.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, so I sent the party guests outside for much of the time with mini bug catchers and bubbles. Then there were owl and ladybird masks to colour in. We also had pass-the-parcel and musical bumps and statues.

The party bags included a fabulous felt owl from Heartfelt Handmade, a mini bug catcher, ladybird rubbers and a painted owl cookie, (you can see the how-to paint your own here.)

And not forgetting an owl pinata, I will post the how-to soon.

Little kidlet had a fabulous party and big kidlet would like it to be known that she was the helper (and she was very helpful too)!

Mr LD also chipped in and raided the kidlet's bedroom for toy owls (there are alot... it took some time, although I suspect he was hiding form the party planners!). We hid them around the room for the party guests to spot.

I really love planning parties for my little ones, but I can see the day coming soon when they will want trips to the cinema or bowling alley instead.

Until then I shall keep on planning, two 2012 parties are already in their early stages, hurray!

xxx

Cakes for Selfridges

2011-10-11T01:29:00.000-07:00

Ladies and gentlemen it is my great pleasure to introduce to you Nevie-Pie. This is my new logo, I drew her myself and with lots of help from Mr LD created a tag for my goodies.

She has recently made an appearance on some mini Christmas cakes that I took to Selfridges last week.

It was very exciting to finally be delivering, but I was nervous too. It went really well. although next time I need to take a high-vis jacket for the loading area, how glamourous!

They are just in the London store at the moment but by mid November my range of cakes, cookies and gingerbread houses will be in all three stores.

As it is their Christmas launch this Friday I will in the store painting some cakes in the food department and personalising them. Please stop and say hello if you are passing.

xxx

How-to-make an owl invitation

2011-10-09T23:36:00.000-07:00

Or more accurately an owl and ladybird invitation!

Download the template as a jpeg by right clicking on the image below or click here for a pdf. Then choose your card and make some invites! There is no template for the ladybird (sorry).

Back soon with loads more owly goodness!

xxx

Wedding cakes

2011-10-04T00:11:00.000-07:00

I have been so busy recently, and feel that I have been neglecting you all, so I thought I should catch up and post some wedding cakes.

This cake was based on a design used for the lovely couples invitations. It was a repeated pattern of one rose. We decided to add a little extra interest with the border of roses.

For this next cake I never actually met the bride, we just communicated via e-mails and phone. It was ordered by a mutual friend as a wedding present and managed to survive a five hour journey to Cornwall.

The design is based on the flowers in the brides bouquet including Old Dutch roses, lavender, astrantia and ferns.

Finally, not a wedding cake but a fiftieth wedding anniversary cake. Daisy's are the ladies favourite flowers and she wanted a fairly simple design.

I have plenty more to show you when I get my archives sorted out (probably some time in March!)!

xxx

Miss Cakehead's tasty Bridge of Cake

2011-10-02T23:26:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I was very excited to finally be making Miss Cakehead's tasty bridge of cake. There had been alot of preparation and much concern over the weather as it was an outside event. Fortunately it was a beautiful S~~ummers~~ Autumn day, just perfect!

I arrived early on Sunday morning with my friend Lizz, who is my right hand woman whenever I need help, to a gorgeous but eerily deserted Westgate Shopping Centre. We felt like we were in a post apocolyptic movie, but we soon found our way to the plaza where we were to build our bridge.

We began by laying our multi coloured blocks of cake onto the bridge structure and Lizz glued (with royal icing) the struts made from biscuits.

Then, the fun bit, adding details of butter cream icing, cupcakes, cookie pops and meringues.

I was really delighted with the result, and so were the crowds!

There were other bridges being built out of Lego, books, plants and textiles.

There were also the fabulous Tea Ladies who were marvelous fun!

At the end of the event Lizz and I cut up the bridge to be eaten. With so many people wanting a sample we had to put barriers around the bridge. I thought we would probably have to dispose of some of the items (especially the shop bought biscuits) but every last crumb was consumed. It was a massively successful day for everyone involved and I'm certain we brought a lot of cheer to the shoppers.

I'm not sure what crazy event Miss Cakehead is likely to lead me into next but I'm certain it will be great fun!

xxx

A bridge made of cake!

2011-09-24T06:54:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I will be building a giant bridge of cake! What's that you ask? 'Why?' Well, I'm not really sure how it happened but I appear to have agreed to attempt a 2m cake bridge, (Can you detect Miss Cakehead's involvement though!)

My house has been taken over by eggs and butter and flour and sprinkles.

The event is organised by Westfield Stratford to celebrate the opening of a fabulous bridge linking the shopping area with Stratford. There will be a plant, textile and Lego bridges too.

There are community groups involved too, so last week I did a cake workshop with some children, obviously whenever kids are involved more is more!

The event starts at 11am at Chestnut Plaza and at 4pm all the cake must be eaten, so come on down, please introduce yourself and have some cake. You can find more details here.

xxx

I need to get more work done today

2011-09-19T23:48:00.000-07:00

Apple pinning

2011-09-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

Work is a little quieter this week, I'm hoping to be able to catch up with alot of things I have not had time for recently, ie; paperwork, cleaning the house and dying my hair!

But more free time means more pinning. I wanted to create a seasonal mood board for September, and a good proportion of the pictures I was finding were apples, so I went with the theme.

Apples in Trug by White On Rice Couple

Apple Hanging by Tradgards Garden Flow

Apples by Samantha Nason

Apple Tree by Kasey Buick

Twig Candy Apples by The Ardent Sparrow

Spectrum of App les by Jon Wason

If you are lucky enough to have an apple tree in your garden you may need some recipes.

You can find my apple pie cupcake recipe here.

xxx

Cakes for radio.

2011-09-16T23:12:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of recording a radio programme last week with Nick Coffer (My Daddy Cooks) and Edd Kimber (The Boy Who Bakes).

Nick's show on Three Counties radio is a cooking show, but the one I am in was specially dedicated to baking.

He normally has a wine expert in also, but this week it was tea expert Damien Cauldwell from Halsey's Deli in Hitchen.

It was a lovely fun show to do and I was very lucky to be able to sample some of Edd's goodies made from recipes in his book, out now!.

I took some flapjack, you can find the recipe here, and a Victoria sponge which I filled with homemade blackberry jam. Nick requested that I paint it, so I came up with a pretty floral design.

You can listen to me on the show here at 12pm today.

I was also very privileged to be included in a fabulous article about alternative wedding cakes in this month's issue of Wedding Magasine.

Kat who wrote the article also writes the fabulous RocknRoll Bride blog.

I shall be back next week with more owly goodness!

Have a smashing weekend.

xxx

How to paint an owl cookie.

2011-09-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Rise up this mornin', Smiled with the risin' sun, Three little birds pitch by my doorstep

We are having a very special owl and ladybird party soon and preparations are well underway. In the party bags there has to be a cookie, and I thought I'd share with you how to paint a happy (or should that be funny?) owl.

We had a lovely week in Cornwall during the Summer, and one of our trips was to the Screech Owl Sanctuary. It was fabulous, the kidlets got to stroke lots of owls and even have a go at flying them. We took lots of pictures , including this gorgeous chap (sorry I can't remember his name or breed).

A few of their owls were used as models for the film Legend of the Guardians, so we got to see Movie stars too.

Anyway now we have our model we are ready to begin.

Leave your fondant to dry over night.

I used Sugarflair dark brown and liquorice and Wilton cornflower blue, a dark brown food colouring pen, and size 4 and 1 brushes. I use water to paint with.

The trick is to keep your brush as dry as possible, don't overload it with water and make you strokes as light as you can so they don't etch into the fondant.

If you have a go I'd love to see your creations and do let me know if you have any painting issues.

I still have a few places on my next course 29th September, (e-mail me nevie-pie@hotmail.co.uk) but you'll have to get in soon if you want to come.

xxx

Happy National Cupcake Week!

2011-09-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

I received a last minute commission at the weekend for some very special cupcakes.

Daybreak (a TV show in the UK) wanted to present some portrait cupcakes as part of National Cupcake week.

(Unfortunately if you don't live in the UK you will have no idea of who these people are! Sorry.)

As one of the Daybreak presenters is appearing in Strictly Come Dancing they wanted a sparkly/blingy version of him, and then the two hosts, Brucie and Tess.
(Miss Cakehead had the perfect title; 'Nice to see you, to see you iced!')

The final one was of James Blunt which was harder to do as he has chopped his trade mark curls, so I gave them two versions and let them decide.

I thought you may also like to see some of my favourite cupcakes to help celebrate cupcake week.

Because you can never have too many cupcakes, can you?

What is your favourite cupcake flavour? I like apple of toffee and always chocolate!

xxx

A Special Birthday Cake

2011-09-09T01:41:00.000-07:00

It was Mr LD's birthday recently, a very special one.

We had our party in May but how could I let this day go by without a special birthday cake.

He is quite the Japanophile having visited that country on numerous occasions. His love for all things Japanese has been handed down to his offspring, we all love the film MY Neighbour Totoro and I bought him a Totoro film poster (not an original I'm afraid) as one of his presents.

He had requested a Totoro cake last year but I never got round to it so I decided this was the year to try.

This is the most carved cake I have made, his arms, legs and ears were squished rice crispie bars, but I was fairly pleased with the final effect.

The kidlets wanted to join in too, so big kidlet made a figure and the blue Totoro, and little kidlet made the mini Totoro's. The birthday boy was very pleased with it all...oh and of course it was lemon flavour!

(You can see more of our Totoro obsession in this post)

(And if you want to see some really amazing carved cakes have a look here.)

xxxx

2011-09-02T04:35:00.000-07:00

Do you pin?

I recently started and it has quickly become my new obsession! I love it, and if I'm ever feeling a bit stressed a quick scroll through some gorgeous pins calms me down!

It has proved very useful for some of the various projects I'm working on as I can keep the image plus the link.

The kidlets have both started their own boards, so any Pokemon pinned are theirs!

We are hosting a very special party next week as my baby turns 5. The theme of ladybirds and owls has been in place since the last party. I thought you may like to see some of the inspiration we found on Pinterest.

1.Martha Stewart 2.Martha Stewart 3.Foodcraft 4. I Do It Myself 5.Craftjuice 6.Sundries and Plunder 7.Attilladesign

You can see the rest of the board here and follow me on Pinterest here.

Happy pinning!

xxx

Nevie-Pie Cakes at Selfridges...

2011-08-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

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?

2011-08-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

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

Lets Go Fly A Kite

2011-08-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-03T05:08:00.000-07:00

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

2011-08-01T08:49:00.000-07:00

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

Cakey Perry

2011-07-23T02:06:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

It's only a week before the amazing Cakey Perry high tea experience, and I have been spending this week with Miss Cakehead, making and crafting and sticking an awful lot of sweets onto various different surfaces.

You can keep up with progress on the event here, but I thoughtyou might like to see some of the things I've been up to...

I have made two dummy cakes to be used as centrepieces, and I'm hoping that the press night doesn't get too out of hand and people try to eat it...

The tickets are selling fast, so if you want to share in the sweet fest, get you tickets from here now!

xxx

When Good Cakes Go Bad!

2011-07-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Warning!!!! Contains images that may shock!

If you are a blogger I'm sure you can sympathise with my plight. I've had a crazy few weeks recently and when I look at the pictures on my camera I can see at least nine or ten blog posts that are stuck in there waiting to get out. There are many more in my head that haven't even reached the 'ready to be photographed' stage. so while things are a little calm I will rectify the situation. Some of these may stretch back into the mists of time but I'm sure they are still relevant. (I refuse to give up on a good post!)

So first out of the camera, a horror story...cue scary music and upsetting images.

Sometimes when I'm making sweet treats they need to harden over night. As you know fondant doesn't cope too well in an air tight box so my solution is to leave them in the oven...can you see where this is going?

I had a last minute order for fairy wand cookies that needed to be posted with next day delivery. I only had time to make them the day before and leave them to harden over night ready for posting.

I got up early and put on the oven to cook small kidlet's pizza for her lunch box. After half an hour of checking my e-mails I wondered what the smell of burning sugar was. Honestly it took me some time to remember.

Do you ever do something so stupid that you want to hit yourself? This is how I felt, I think I may actually have tried to hit myself over and over again.

I started panicking, I didn't think I would have time to make the cookies again, decorate them, let them harden and package them up in time for the 11.30am deadline for next day posting.

So, after dropping off the kidlets at school, I raced to the post office to find out about timings. Fortunately my information was wrong and the deadline was 4.30pm, phew.

However next problem, I had used my last little bit of royal icing on the first batch and for some reason both the supermarkets in my town had sold out, (was everyone starting their Christmas cakes early?)

Time was pressing and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get to the next town's shops.

So I called in on a friend who is also a baker...sure that she would have some she could lend me.

Unfortunately she didn't...she had stopped using royal icing and her new type of icing didn't harden...nice for cakes but very squishy for posted cookies.

As I was about to leave though she remembered a tub of merriwhite tucked away at the back of a shelf. So I clutched the small bag of powdered egg white like it was gold dust and raced (within the speed limit ) home!

Three hours later, and with a wave of a magic fairy wand the cookies had dried sufficiently and were sent on their merry way.

The client was really pleased and I was very relieved.

I also went out and bought a pack of post-it notes to stick on the oven to prevent future cake trauma..

Birds and roses wedding cake

2011-07-11T15:21:00.000-07:00

Things are going a little crazy around here at the moment but I've managed to find a few minutes to show you last weekends wedding cake.

The bride had a picture of a cake for reference (I think it was by Mich Turner). It had tropical flowers and birds painted on. But she wanted a more shabby chic English version, which is what she got!.

I hope you like it.

xxx

ps hopefully when things settle down we can catch up and I can share the exciting things that are happening.

Painting on cake class

2011-07-04T15:12:00.000-07:00

Just over a week ago I had the pleasure of teaching a group of lovely cake makers how to paint on fondant.

The class took place in my local arts and crafts shop, but they came from near and far, with one person even travelling down from Scotland.

I eased them in to the technique by starting small. They each had four fondant discs to paint a spray of roses.

Then straight into the deep end with a dummy cake.

I gave them a demonstration of how I do it first and then armed with crib sheets they began painting themselves.

Most of them had never attempted this before but they were all very pleased with their cakes and hopefully we'll be seeing some of their own soon.
I will be teaching this same class again on the 27th September and also a gingerbread house painting class on the 26th November please e-mail me if you would like details; nevie-pie@hotmail.co.uk.

More Painted Cookies

2011-07-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

I have been on a painted cookie roll this week after my marathon Snoop Dogg session.

Here is a quick peek of what I've been up to.

A picture of Brighton Pier as part of a 40th birthday present.

Captain Jack Sparrow, for a birthdaycake.

xxx

Greetings, Loved Ones

2011-06-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

I met the awesome Miss Cakehead today for an afternoon tea at The Sanderson Hotel in London.

We were discussing Cakey Perry and I was delivering some Snoop Dogg cookies for the press release.

She very kindly treated me to this gorgeous array of treats.

Their theme was Alice in Wonderland "down the rabbit hole" which we felt was a bit lack lustre and they could have made more off. (We were being critics as we wanted to compare with the Cakey Perry experience.) I loved the little bottle, but the toffee, lemon meringue and apple pie flavoured cream inside was too sickly. However the scones were a triumph. The pink lollipop (raspberry I think) was delicious and the chocolate pop contained ice cream and popping candy. Gorgeous! The other pastries were delicious too. And a lovely day was topped off by a glimpse of Trevor Eve (sorry all you not in UK but he is very gorgeous).

I had also made some cookie bling rings as a present for Miss CH.

If you are in London and fancy an amazing high tea experience you have three days left before the Cakey Perry tickets go up. There is information here.

xxx

Mad Hatter's Tea Party 2011

2011-06-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

She felt a twinge in her back as she pegged out the sheets. From inside the house she could hear shrieks of laughter as the children were playing a game: based on previous experience it sounded like there would be much to clean up later. The wind brushed against her cheek and sent a lock of hair over her eye, and as she flicked it away the sheet fell. Fortunately there had been no rain recently, and the dry earth didn't stain the fresh laundry.

Although hanging out the washing took much longer than shoving it all into the tumbledrier, she always preferred to do it as it gave her a few minutes to herself among the flowers .The garden wasn't perfect, she could see clumps of weeds in every aspect, but it was pretty and slightly wild. There was always an air of magic out here, and today was no exception with birds singing and bees buzzing...in fact there was a very loud buzz just near her ear.

She flicked it away but it came back even louder.

"Shoo" she said.

The bees were insistent, it almost seemed as if they were talking to her.

"Come and play with uzzzz...come and play..."

Was it the bees? Or the echo of her children running in the garden.

"You never have time to play with uzzzz..!"

It must be her children, that was their constant refrain. She impatiently swiped at the bees - rather too violently, and hit herself in the face. "Idiot!" she labeled herself, and then felt a bit woozy: had she clouted herself that hard? She slumped onto the grass and closed her eyes...and suddenly it went silent.
Ahhh...peace! she thought.

As quick as that thought ran through her mind the peace was broken. There was an even louder buzzing, almost as if hundreds of little raspy voices were shouting at her

"Open your eyes!"
She did, and gasped.

Instead of her garden she was sitting in what could only be described as a bee hive! She was surrounded by hundreds of bees. And opposite her...not a bee, but a man. A man in a hat.

"Felicitations, and cavalcades of joy!" he exclaimed.

"Pardon?"

"Salutations"

"Sorry, but where am I?"

"Oh, for goodness sake, lady, just go with the whimsy! No questions: only fun and merriment."

"I don't just go with things, I meticulously plan and consider situations. I have a checklist of things I need to do before I can even leave the house. I never consider whimsy, and I certainly do not act spontaneously !"

A bee appeared with a bowl of small cakes.

"Madeleine.." it buzzed.

"Go on!" said the behatted man. "They're very good!"

The impossible magic of the situation persuaded her to take a cake from a stranger. She placed the whole little treat in her mouth.

"Mmmm!" It tasted of rosebuds and Summer. She imagined she were growing very tiny, or maybe getting bigger, or was she just melting away? She ate four more!

As she grinned a whole table full of cakes and dainties appeared in front of her.

"Dive in" suggested the man.

She looked at the delicious array in front of her. "Well, why ever not?" she said, and closed her eyes, grabbing the first thing her fingers touched: a lemon and raspberry muffin. It was quite delicious!

"I know!" The man in the hat said, as if he could read her mind. "The best you have ever tasted?"

She nodded in agreement while her eyes settled on a honey cake.

"It's a little known secret, but the bees are the best bakers in the world!"

And they certainly were - she tried each and every pastry, pie and sweet treat laid out in front of her, without ever feeling full.

Eventually the table was empty, and she lay back and sighed. The hum of the buzzing was sending her to sleep, and as she drifted away it seemed to take on a different tone...they were singing a lullaby for her.

Awaking with a start she found herself on the lawn, the children still raucously screaming, the birds still singing, and the bees still buzzing.

"Ah well!" she sighed "Whimsy can't last for ever. Back to work!"

As she passed the dining room table, her arms full of sheets now dry, her eyes fell on an object that certainly hadn't been there when she went outside:

She retraced her steps to the back door, peeped out and whispered: "Thank you bees, until next year" and blew them a kiss.
xxx

You can spy on last years Mad Hatter's Tea Party here.

PS: There seems to be an awful lot of Mad Hatter's Tea Parties about today - you can find out why if you head over to A Fanciful Twist.

Cakey Perry

2011-06-23T05:18:00.000-07:00

(Cakepops and photograph by MollyBakes)

Greetings loved ones!

I am very excited (can't you tell?) to be taking part in Cakey Perry, the next event from the fabulous Miss Cakehead.

This event is a pop-up high tea extravaganza inspired by the video to Katy Perry's 'California Gurls', and the paintings of Will Cotton who was the art director on the video.

I even have an official title! How cool is that? I am the Art Director.

We will be styling the room so it's a candy land adventure. As well as a cake stand full of goodies for each table there will be a dessert table (but would you expect anything less?).

There will be fun and surprises and games to play. We may keep you waiting at the door until you can throw a six!

If you can catch a flying meringue you can add it to your stash and why not have a go at a cupcake decorating balloon?

The high teas run over three days from 29th - 31st July in London (the destination is secret until you've booked). They are £20 each at the moment but hurry as they go up to £25 in July.

You can get your tickets here.

xxx

Painted roses

2011-06-22T09:12:00.000-07:00

This is a wedding cake I made last week for a lovely bride.

She really wanted something different for her cake so was delighted to be able to have a painted cake.

It is quite a simple design growing smaller at the top so as not to distract from the topper. (The bride had ordered this from elsewhere, it's ceramic so she can keep it as a souvenir of their special day)

Book club cake of the month...June

2011-06-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

(Please don't worry about May's book club cake, it's just temporarily lost!)

This month we read Blindness by Jose Saramago.

It is about an unnamed city which has a mass outbreak of blindness. The story centers on a group of people, including, the first man to go blind and his eye doctor.

Initially they are put in quarantine, but, after a fire, they break out to discover everyone is blind. Fortunately, for the reader, the doctor's wife is never blinded, so we can see the chaos and devastation through her eyes (and most of what she sees is pretty grim).

Jose Saramago was a Noble prize winning author, so obviously it is a fantastically written book, reflected in the score of 8 out of 10 by everybody.

OK, everyone apart from me...I gave it 6.

I am a big fan of end-of-the-world movies and apocalyptic scenarios. However I like people to be more gun-ho and less...philosophical when facing the end of the world as they have known it. I want the survivors to commandeer trucks and move to the country, not wander around aimlessly.

Don't take my opinion though, as the other members of my book group are much more literary and intelligent.

(If you're more like me, go and see 2012).

I was pushed for time and inspiration when coming up with a cake, so I made a large biscuit version of the cover of my book.

The people infected with the blindness see only white, hence it is called 'The White Evil'. So I added some white chocolate. The front figure is the Doctor's wife, who never experiences the whiteness.

The next book is my choice. We always give three titles and let the majority choose. I decided to go for three more uplifting or funny books, than some of our recent choices. The group choose 'The Finkler Question'

By page thirteen I was crying!

Previous Book club cake of the month

Father's Day Download

2011-06-17T12:58:00.000-07:00

This Sunday is Father's Day, a day to celebrate the (other) special man in your life. He's a real man, he can fix a plug, put up shelves and make a fine chilli (not all at the same time of course!)

So what special treat to bake this man?

Not a cupcake or a macaroon, not even a whoopie pie.

No!

This is a man who needs...flapjack!

Fortunately you can look here at yesterday's post where you will find a lovely recipe for one.

"Wait!" I hear you cry. "How can I make this sweet treat even more special?"

"I have just the thing" I reply. "Why not get the kidlets (or yourself) to colour in a lovely flapjack bar label?"

"Brilliant idea! You exclaim. "Why didn't I think of that first?"

So you first need to make the flapjack.

Butter and line your baking tray.

Put your ingredients to melt in the saucepan.

Heat them up until melted.

Add the oats and stir well.

Place the mixture in a tin and pat down with a spoon or your hands.

If the mood takes you why not add smarties?

Clear up by eating anything that has spilled, then get bored and leave it all to your mother.

Colour in the labels, and cut out. Wrap the flapjack bars in grease proof paper and stick the label on the top.

And easy peasy lemon squeezey, a thoughtful gift for that wonderful Dad.

Right click on the picture above and save for a jpeg version.

Or you can download a pdf version here.

Enjoy your father's day treat with a nice cup of tea!

Flapjack Recipe

2011-06-16T05:33:00.000-07:00

This is a recipe handed down to me by my Mum.

You can download an easy to read and follow pdf version of the recipe here. (please let me know if you have any problems with this, you shouldn't be charged.)

Come back tomorrow when I will have another free download for Father's Day!

xxx

Super Squirrel

2011-06-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

Look at this cheeky chap we spied from our window trying to steal nuts!

I wish I could do that.

He is using his super strength squirrel powers and knows we're watching!

Kerrang!...keepin' it real!

2011-06-10T02:42:00.000-07:00

Today I did something very different. I helped create a dessert table for the Kerrang! awards!

Miss Cakehead asked me only a few weeks ago if I could help and I couldn't say no.

The Kerrang! Awards were celebrating their 30th birthday and wanted to have a birthday theme, but with a twist, obviously. We came up with the concept of a dessert table after the party had finished. They went for the pitch and two weeks later, hey presto...one 'party aftermath' dessert table. For inspiration I just imagined my house after one of the kidlet's parties!

I didn't make all the cakes as Miss Cakehead has a lot of cake contacts, and I physically couldn't get a whole tables worth of cakes into London. (Well I could if I wasn't such a wuss at driving in the city!)

Anyway I made cigarette butt cookies and ash, I was very pleased with these.

Jelly to look like wine and squash (it was wine, raspberry and passionfruit flavour)

Cheese on sticks (marzipan).

And melted ice cream cones.

Laura from Mamma Jamma Cakes made the fabulous/freaky clown,s head, along with glowing eyes and flashing candy floss hair.

Other cake makers included MollyBakes, sausages on sticks (cakepops) and cupcakes. Love to Cake made the 'K' cakes and Black Cherry Bakery made cupcakes too.

Here I am with Laura and Miss CakeHead going all 'rock chick chicky rock!'

It was a really fun table to do which I hope you can tell from the pictures!

xxx

Inspiration part two

2011-06-08T00:17:00.000-07:00

So, in the same week as yesterday's cake, I was given this card by a friend.

She wanted a cutting cake and cupcake tower based on the design. She also wanted some bunting, a '40' and a birthday message.

I love the thrill of thinking up ideas to fit into a brief. It's great to be free to go my own way but I also like having limitations set on me, it actually can make me more creative and stops lazy thinking. (I could have said 'it makes me think outside the box', but I'm not taking part in "The Apprentice")

When I was a textile designer I painted lots of ditsy prints and so I was excited to be given this reference. The joy of ditsys is that they don't have to match perfectly, it's fun to have different styles and colours.

They also don't have to be all over designs, I painted some bunches for the cupcake toppers and also sprigs. I liked the cherry too so I incorporated that.

Having snippets of the prints on the bunting and bunting on some of the cupcake toppers helped tie the whole theme together.

This is another cake I really enjoyed making...I hope that you are enjoying sharing them with me too!

Inspiration.

2011-06-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

Inspiration constantly comes to me from so many different places, I can never find enough time to see to fruition even half the projects and designs I dream up.

However it is great to be given a client's inspiration and find it really sparks my imagination.

So I thought I would share two recent cakes, (very different ones but both enjoyable to make) where the client had specific reference for me to work from.

The first is for a 21st birthday cake. this was a bit of a last minute cake as the lady had been let down by her first cake maker. Over the phone she said that the birthday girl didn't like bright colours but preferred pastels.

I asked if she could send me some reference as I needed a bit more to go on, thinking I would see some pretty pastely florals, I really wasn't expecting romantic vintage.

The heart with buttons is by kbaxterpackwood.

The other three images are by Kimberly Ann Ryan.

However I was delighted as I knew I would be pushed to try something a bit different. I have seen some beautiful cakes using button and lace moulds, and I had just enough time to order some over the internet.

I wanted the cake to have a patchwork feel but with no hard edges, so I embossed some areas with the lace and then brushed pearl lustre dust over it.

She didn't want the cake and flowers to be too pinky which is why I tried to make them as vintage as I could. I also dabbed off some of the painting to give an aged look.

I then added sugar buttons and lace over the cake for an extra dimension.

It would have been a shame to finish this cake off with a plain ribbon so I mixed and matched various ribbons round the cake board with some other embellishment.

I was really pleased with the result and am hoping to create a tiered wedding cake like this soon.

I shall post the next cake tomorrow.

Giveaway winner

2011-06-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

A big congratulations to Karenm who has won the giveaway!

E-mail me your details and we can discuss you party themes!

Thankyou to all who took part and hopefully I will have another soon.

xxx

Giveaway

2011-06-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to enter the party in a box giveaway.

It ends on Monday!

Enter here.

xxx

Half Term Craft Projects

2011-06-02T05:26:00.000-07:00

Today we are mostly making marzipan bunnies!

Silver and Green 40th Birthday

2011-05-31T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well, after nine months planning our party has come....and gone. It all happened so quickly but fortunately I did manage to have a brilliant time!

When I do projects and parties for myself I tend to make it up as I go along. I like to let ideas flow and not be tied to an idea too much. Until last week I wasn't even sure if I would make a cake. I knew I wanted a dessert table but realised with a few days to spare that it would look much better with a focal point. However I didn't want a big tiered cake so I went for three separate ones. I made a baby one to tie in with the invitatons. I intended to decorate the middle cake like my butterfly cake but with graduated colour, however I recently bought some lace moulds and decided to give them a go. I kept the graduated colour though which I love.

I knew I wanted to paint the final cake somehow, but I also included lace to compliment the middle cake. Real flowers on top also nodded to the decorating scheme... (ok, I was running out of time.)

They were all coconut and lime, soaked with rum. (Mmmm)

Here is the dessert buffet, as well as the three main cakes I made cakepops, lemon poppyseed biscuits, chocolate espresso biscuits, macaroons, elderflower and gooseberry mini cupcakes with painted discs and mini Key Lime pies.

I went for 'green' flavours if you know what I mean! I found the edible stars on the macaroons in my local cake craft shop, how cute are they?

The rest of the decorations were a mix of different plants and pots and a huge amount of moss Unless you have the budget of Amy Atlas sometimes it's good to embrace difference. So I collected various containers in keeping with the colours I had picked. I used old tin cans, white and cream pots, glass jars and I covered empty cocoa tins with silver serviettes.
I was very pleased with my stash and had it all boxed up to take to the venue. I thought to myself that instead of two boxes of decorations to share around ten tables I needed a box for each. But once we had added candles, olives ,dips, a platter of cheese and bags of cookies for guests to take away it was perfect. A local baker friend made bread, sausage rolls and cheese straws which went down a storm.

I had quite a few invitations left so the kidlets helped me make them into bunting, because you can't have a party without bunting! We strung them across the hall with the help of some tall friends.

As the invitation suggested it was a sedate affair, with lots of chats and my Mum singing some jazz for us.
It was a lovely chilled evening to catch up with many pals who we haven't seen in years.

I think I'll start planning our 50th now!
xxx