Naming cake and Birthday rose

Just a quickie, to show you the naming cake and Birthday cake I have made this week, they are the last celebration cakes of 2009 for me!

enjoy x

How to make a teapot cake

I love teapots, its a very big obsession of mine, so big that sometimes I feel like taking one out with me just because they are so pretty but you would look very silly holding a chintzy teapot on a night out, but then I suppose it could be passed off as a bag...mmm, that's something to think about for the future! anyway! so I loved making this cake and was so glad when I got the order, I was planning it in my head immediately. I wanted to share how to make it as its too lovely not to made again by someone!

The sponges.

I used 2 1.1 litre bowl cakes using this recipe:

225g butter or Stork
275g self raising flour
225g caster sugar
5 eggs
1 tablespoon of whole milk

half the mixture between the two oven proof bowls and bake at 170c or 150c if you have a fan oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until its firm and springy to the touch and a cocktail stick comes out clean.

The buttercream part.

When these are baked and cooled, leave them for a day as they are better to work with the next day. Then level off the tops of each cake and sandwich together with lovely light fluffy buttercream, making sure you fill in the gaps with sugarpaste so you create a round shape, cover the round cake shape completely with buttercream and smooth. Place in the fridge to form a 'crust' for 20 minutes.

The icing part

Then take the cake out of the fridge and using a palette knife and boiling water, smooth the cake again to get that final finish ready for your icing.

Measure out your cake and board so you know how much you will need to completely cover it, then roll out your sugarpaste and cover your cake, very much easier said than done, but you can do it!!! smooth it down with cake smoothers and your hands, then comes the fun part... the decoration!

The decoration part

The handle and spout are obviously very important and I would make these with flowerpaste the day before so they can set, just model the shapes (the more ornate the better) you want and then push 3 small pieces of spaghetti into the base of the spout so you can insert this into your cake and it will hold better, make sure you do this when they are still soft though as flowerpaste dries rock hard! You can use cocktail sticks to do this but if you use spaghetti it makes it completely edible which is better I think. Then use some edible glue to stick on your handle, you might have to use something to hold it whilst it dries, once its dry though it will be very secure.

I decorated mine with pink dots and flowers but you can of course do whatever you fancy, hearts, a pattern whatever really. Using a doily on your cake drum looks lovely and very vintagey which is quite frankly right up my street, anything vintagey and I am there!

You can get different shaped teapots of course so you could try 2 round 6 inch sponges sandwiched together to get another shape, I think next time I will go for this shape rather than round, just for some variety.

The eating part

Then cut the cake.. you know what to do here but it will so nice you just can't cut it!!

I hope you will make one yourself and if you do please send me a photo. x

Vintage and Cake wedding cakes

I thought I would share with you the latest wedding cake I have done. I delivered and assembled it to Donnington Park Farmhouse, which is a lovely venue for a wedding.

80 vanilla cupcakes with an 8 inch chocolate top tier, the sugarpaste people are on laptops as the couple met on the internet.

The next cake I am doing is for a 60th, and its a teapot cake so I will be sharing photos about that soon, I have baked the cakes ready so now need to ice the thing! I cant wait actually, I am planning it all in my head, just hope it actually turns out ok!

Then its a naming cake and 12 Birthday cupcakes for a lovely lady with 2 young boys, Timmy the sheep will make an appearance!

I have lots of weddings already booked for next year, lots of cakes and afternoon teas. Its mainly cupcakes and a top tier that people want these days, but they do look so lovely don't they!

Hope you enjoy the photos x

Christmas cakes - exploding crackers, glitter and pink

This week and last week I have been finishing off all of my Christmas cakes for delivery next week and the week after, as Christmas is round the corner, yey! I love Christmas, its just so lovely although I do tend to peak at around this time and then dont feel excited at all on the actual day!!! The cracker cake is one that I have been working on within my sugarcraft course that I do every week, it took a while and is very elaborate, not my usual style but it certainly tested my sugarcraft skills, it was so detailed. The rest of the cakes are for orders and will be delivered next week.

I am spending my 1st Christmas away from home this year so that will be weird, I am going to my boyfriends mums and we will be surrounded by all his nieces and little brother so it will be ace being with kids on Christmas eve and Christmas morning!!

Back to the Christmas cakes... they are all made from fresh ingredients and local where possible, the eggs being very local (our back garden) the flour is from Caudwell Mill and Heage Mill in Derbyshire. I make the cakes 3 months in advance so they have plenty of time to mature and be fed with lots and lots of brandy.

I love making and decorating Christmas cakes its my favourite thing to do, as the smell is amazing, I dont really eat much cake but I will definitely be eating lots of Christmas cake this year. I'm also very excited about the eggnog cocktails that my boyfriend makes!