Tuesday 16 April 2013

A labour of love!

















































The seed of the idea for this cake came to me about a year ago after flicking through a fashion magazine  but it has taken me this long to get round to making it. It is very hard to paint onto dark colours so I covered the cake with black fondant, painted the flowers onto white gum paste and then cut them out. It took me ages!
And by-the-way how fabulous is my new cake stand?
I made this cake in particular for a fabulous wedding fair I shall be attending on Sunday. You can see all the fabulous vendors here. I will be doing a mini cookie painting class where you can paint your own!

Photo: What are you doing this Sunday 21st April between 10am and 4pm??...Are you getting married, planning a party or just love all things pretty? Well......pop along to the amazing Tie The Knot Wedding Carnival. Its free entry and full of loads of inspiration. See you there!

xxx
ps make sure to say hello if you're there.

Thursday 11 April 2013

Celebrating everyday life









































Some time ago I received a request to be involved in a very exciting project. Jennifer Carroll
is a blogger and online magasine editor and she wanted to create her first print version. She asked if I would like to participate and I jumped at the chance. She hooked me up with Sussie Bell a really fabulous photographer in the UK who came to take the pictures. We had a lovely day playing and Sussie came up with some really gorgeous shots. Anyway the magasine is now available...yeah!

Here is the info Jennifer has sent to me:


The magazine is 206 pages in length and is available digitally for the iPad in the Apple Store for $5.99 for a single issue, $12 for a 6 month subscription (which is 3 issues), or $22 for a 12 month subscription (which is 6 issues). The 12 month subscription brings the price per issue down to $3.67 each which is obviously the best value!

At this time we only offer iPad versions and a "Collector's Edition" print version. Online ordering for the print edition will be available a little later this week. The price for the print version is $44.99 each. 

An Android version is in the works for other tablets (like the Nook, Kindle, Samsung Galaxy, etc...) and I hope to be offering this by the time of our July/August release.


You can get a sneak preview or make your purchase of the magasine here.
xxx






Monday 8 April 2013

Mulling it over



I thought you may like a little insight into my creative workings!
I am making some dummy cakes for a fabulous wedding show in a few weeks here. (Tie the knot at Hexton Manor, Hertfordshire, Sunday 21st April). One of my fellow exhibitors is a lovely lady from my town who I first met years ago in antenatal classes. She has since set up a fabulous business writing poems for wedding, birthdays and special occasions. Her company is called Bespoke Verse and is well worth checking out if you need a very personal present for someone special.
Anyway I rashly suggested we collaborate and I paint one of her poems onto a cake! I have been mulling over how to do this for some time now as there are some lovely poem cakes out there but I wanted to do something different and think I have found the solution.
So here are some beautiful pins that have helped me get there. 
I keep a design Pinterest board for things I see that aren't necessarily cakes but really inspire me, or spark something that I may be able to turn into a cake design. You can follow my design board here and try and guess what I'm up to!




I can't find the source of this picture I'm afraid.


Then I remembered this book which I won for an art prize when I was at school.
You are probably looking at these images and wondering where I am going with it, well don't worry there is a plan and if it all goes horribly wrong, a plan B.
xx

Tuesday 2 April 2013

Mad science party cookies





















Some time ago I was asked to make cookies for a mad science party. It was for six year old boys and the brief was to impress them! This was quite tough as I only have girl children, and I know how hard they are to impress. So I started with flavours, chocolate, as a given and then some popping candy thrown into the mix.
I thought about creating a jigsaw of beakers and Bunsen burners and then decided to make test tubes. But I didn't stop there, oh no, if there is a rod to make for my back I go all out. So, I also made the test tube racks.


















With two layers of cookie, a filling of ganache and popping candy and then a fondant cover, these cookies became beasts. I hope the boys were impressed by the size if nothing else!
xxx