A cake for a VIP

A few weeks ago, when it was still Summer (doesn't it seem so long ago?) I made a very, very special special VIP birthday cake. It was for my Mum who turned seventy (if you could all please leave comments saying you can't believe it, and that she looks so young, you will make her giddy with happiness!). I had planned a Frida Kahlo inspired cake, but then I received directions (via my Dad) that she wanted a cake that would make reference to various times of her life. Mmm... I thought, a fussy client! 

So I decided to paint some vignettes of her garden, which has been transformed from a literal wilderness to a beautiful, peaceful haven by both my parents. 

My Mum's early career was as a jazz and blues singer, she had a couple of albums released and still loves to sing at any opportunity to this day. So I incorporated some lyrics from one of her songs, fittingly enough they are about a garden. She has since trained and worked as a fine artist, so I copied one of her paintings onto the cake.

Just as she was born a butterfly flew into the room and my Nana always called my Mum her 'butterfly', so I had to include that in the cake.

(My Mum's photos from her Facebook page that I used to create the design)

Finally, on the reverse, I created a slightly unusual family tree made made up of penguins, my Dad is a potter and these are one of his best sellers, every member of the family has received one of these beauties at some time or other. 

She was delighted with her cake, and as all three tiers were made from fruit cake my parents are still eating it!

xxx

Floral wedding cake

Last weekend was something of a blur as I was demonstrating at the Cake and Bake Show in London, I also had a dessert table on display and two wedding cakes as part of Squires Kitchen Wedding Cake of the Future exhibition. As if this wasn't enough I had a hen party to attend and a wedding cake to deliver.

This is the wedding cake, it was ordered by the very sweet groom, who I discovered pacing the hotel lobby when I delivered the cake. We had never met, discussing the design over emails and the phone. He asked for the design to match in style the bridesmaids dresses, which were made from a quite expressionistic fabric.

 I really enjoyed creating this design as it was a little bit different to what I would normally paint, it was very bright and fresh and the groom seemed thrilled.

xxx

Conversations with friends

Friday 27th September is the date for the world's biggest coffee morning and hopefully it will held at your house! Don't worry I haven't suddenly invited hundreds of people over to your house for cake, there will be thousands of separate events all over the UK. You can hold a coffee morning anywhere you like and then ask your guests to donate money to Macmillan Cancer Support, who are hoping to raise over £15 million this year. You can join in by visiting the Macmillan website or by calling 0845 602 246 or you can text COFFEE to 88080 and they will send you your Coffee Morning Kit.  

Just in case you need some inspiration for a delicious cake to serve to your guests.I have the perfect little coffee time dainty for you to make. These are dinky almond pastries with a topping of icing that is baked on top of the tartlet, turning plain icing into a delicious toffee meringue. The recipe is from an old Marks and Spencer cookbook that I had when I was a teenager. I used to bake one recipe from the book every Sunday for the family tea. Conversations (the name of given to the tarts) were always one of my favourites, and I hope that you will like them too. ( I had left a plate of the tartlets so I could take some more photographs when the light was better, but Mr Lemon Drizzle polished them off, so it would seem that conversations are a winner with him too!)

The recipe had it's own version of  flaky pastry, but after I had attempted making some, I deemed it was lumpy pastry rather than flaky, so I used this recipe instead which was much more successful and ten times easier (of course you could make it really easy for yourself and use ready made). I have, in the past, made conversations with normal sweet shortcrust pastry and they work equally well.

Grease a 12 portion bun tin (you don't want to use a muffin tin as the sides are too high) Preheat the oven to 190C 375F 150Fan.

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the egg, a little at a time and beat well. Then stir in the ground almonds and lemon juice.

Put the egg white into a bowl and add half the icing sugar and stir well. Blend in the flour and then add enough of the remaining icing sugar to give a thick consistency.

Roll out the pastry thinly and cut into twelve circles.

Place the circles into the bun tin and prick each one well with a fork.

Then spread a spoonful of the almond mixture around each pastry case.

Spread a layer of the icing mixture on the top of each tartlet.

Roll out the pastry trimmings and cut them into 5mm strips. Lay two across the top of each pastry. Then put the tin in the oven and bake for 17-20 mins until the pastry is cooked and the icing has turned a fawn brown colour.

 Leave them to cool in the tin. They will keep for up to three days if stored in an airtight container.

These are such gorgeous little mouthfuls with their buttery flaky pastry and moist almond filling all topped off with delicious crispy chewy icing. You can pop them in your mouth like sweets and you probably won't even notice that you've eaten three or four...or maybe seven!

I really hope that you feel encouraged to dig out your best china, invite some friends over and raise some money for a truly fabulous cause, all while enjoying some conversations!

xxx

Cake and Bake Show giveaway

  I am very excited to be involved with The Cake and Bake Show again this year.

I will be demonstrating again at 4pm on both the Friday 13th and Saturday 14th September.

Also this year I am taking part in the Squires Kitchen wedding cake of the future exhibition. I have come up with two design that I feel are futurishy (I know it's a made up word, but I like the way it sounds!)

If all that wasn't enough I am also creating a dessert table as part of the main show.

I have two sets of two tickets to giveaway for the show, One set has been donated by Squires Kitchen and one set by The Cake and Bake show. You will be able to choose which of the days you want to attend, and you can come and say hello to me!

How can I win? You ask.

Let me know in the comment section how you would them a dessert table for the show, please leave an email address with your comment too.

Leave a separate comment if you follow me, if you link to this post via Facebook, Twitter or your own blog. So you could have up to five chances of winning. Please leave a separate comments for each entry

The competition will close on Saturday 31st August at 12pm.  The winner will be drawn using random.org.

Good luck.

(I haven't received any payment or products for hosting this giveaway)

xxx