1920's cake

How is your New Year going so far? have you made any resolutions...have you broken any yet! I am still in holiday mode as my kids are not yet back at school and I have visitors.  But I though that I would share my last cake of 2013 with you.

It was a birthday cake with a 1920's feel.

I really enjoyed creating this cake, I love the pattern on the back of the cake, and you can't go wrong with a bit of gold paint.

Forty and Free

I had the greatest pleasure of putting together a dessert table for a very close friend last week. She had not only turned forty but had also managed to shake herself free from some very hideous shackles. We decided on a butterfly theme to symbolise a new life and as she is a lady with expensive tastes we added some gold too.

As she is a special friend I wanted to create something fabulous for her cake. Only the top two layers are actual cake but I kept on adding more dummy layers until the cake was suitably spectacular! There are forty butterflies (I counted three times but I still may have got it wrong so don't check!)

On the dessert table there are lemon drizzle cupcakes with fondant butterflies decorated with real gold leaf, sloe gin truffles, salted lavender caramel sharing pots with gilded cookie spoons, chocolate pots with chocolate dipped cookie spoons and gold splattered meringues.

The early evening light was just perfect while I was taking my photographs!

After setting up I raced home, put on my dancing shoes, and partied the night away to an Abba tribute band. It was a fabulous night, and I must admit to getting a little tearful and emotional with so many good friends there to help the birthday girl celebrate.

xxx

Princess castle cake

This was a remake of one of my very first designs, but the client wanted a five layer rainbow cake inside, hence the height. The little girl was turning 4 so we added the door number as a small nod to her age.

xxx

The Owl And The Pussy Cat

The Owl and ladybird party

(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

A Special Birthday Cake

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

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

Silver and Green 40th Birthday

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

BOOK CLUB CAKE OF THE MONTH.

You may recall that I'm in a book club and endeavour to produce baked goods for the gathering, relevant to the book we are reading.  See here for last months offering.

This month book was 'Room' by Emma Donoghue.

It was inspired (the author says 'triggered') by the notorious Fritzel case which makes it sound a lot more morbid than you would think.  Although I have to admit the begining was a difficult read and at one point I wasn't sure if I could read on but I was glad I did. For me it was more of a novel about motherhood than something more salacious.  If you have read Lionel Shriver's "We Need To Talk About Kevin" it was reminiscent of that.

As a group we gave it our highest mark out of ten so far.

I was hard pushed to find a cake in such dark material but at one point there is talk of a banana chocolate birthday cake.  So this is what I made and it was very gooey moist and delicious!

Next month is Freedom by Johnathan Franzen.

I'm two thirds the way through and somewhat at a loss!  If you've read it I'd be grateful for hints.

RAINBOWS AND BIRDIES

As promised in my sneak peak here is the finished cake for Marie.  I was really pleased with how it turned out and I think the birthday girl was too (and the birthday girl's Mum).

  

 

As the cake was to be rainbow themed Marie requested that the inside be a rainbow too.  This was my first time at coloured cake so I made a cupcake to check out how it would look and this portion was a perfect rainbow! You can see the actual cake innards here.

 

Take a look at Marie's blog to see all her fabulous party ideas, I love the banners and bunting. She has definately raised the party stakes in our town!

THE PAINTED CAKE

While I was training (many years ago) as an illustrator (alongside the fabulous Gretel) I had a holiday project.  I can't remember what the brief was, but I do remember that I painted a watercolour of a vase of flowers.  It probably also had a large amount of gold ink splattered all the picture, as I pretty much did that to whatever I was painting at the time.  I vividly remember having a tutorial and my tutor  looked at it with totally lack of interest and said, "It's nice but do you really want to have a career painting flowers?"

Well reader, that is exactly what I did!

And I loved it!

I have painted flowers and teddy bears for years, and now that I have children and not a 'career' the flowers and bears refuse to let me go.

I have tried in the last few years many little businessess to fulfill my creative urges none of which amounted to anything.
However I immediately knew that making and decorating cakes would be a winner. 
Never having had any formal cake decorating training I have no traditional skills to draw upon which is why pretty much immediately played to my strengths and began painting on cakes.

Actually when I say cake I mean cookies. These butterfly biscuits were my first attempt, but within minutes I was planning my first full size cake.

Fortunately I have many friends who need cakes (well who doesn't) and give me the dream brief  "Do what you think best!" I prefer to take this as a great compliment rather than a lack of care on their part.

I have been painting alot this last week and all for friends, so my imagination could go where it wanted.  I hope you enjoy them more than my ex-tutor will!

 This is a cake a friend asked me to make for a nurse who was leaving her practice to go and live in France.

An e-mail was sent round asking for suggestions for a cake with replies including a speculum, motorbike gears and condoms.  My friend suggested however I could come up with my own idea, so I  decided on something prettier..

I have another friend (how popular am I?) who teaches NCT classes and at the end of every class she has me make a little treat for her pupils (see also this post).  Her latest class coincided with Easter so I went for a duckling theme.

Finally a friends Nana was turning 90, the lady in question had been a ballroom dancer in the 1930's.  I used a 30's illustration and found some original textile designs. 

As you can see I am still painting flowers.  And hope to continue for a very long time!