Blooming Great Tea Party!

Come and join us for 'A Blooming Great Tea party' in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

A quintessentially British tea party! Heavenly homemade delights, fine teas, vintage crockery & fabulous shopping.

Hope to see you there! x

Canal boat cake

This is my latest creation! I actually live right opposite the canal in Willington so I was able to peek out of my kitchen window whilst I was creating this cake. It is for a 40th Birthday and the man receiving it loves his canal boat dearly. It is named 'ESIO TROT' which is a Roald Dahl book and spells Tortoise backwards! The lady who ordered the cake told me they thought it was relevant to name their boat after the book as they go so slow, lovely!


The original boat

As you can see its not exactly like the original but as close as I could get it. I thoroughly enjoyed making this as it was a challenge to get the shape and details right.

Afternoon Tea Dance

Well, who would have thought in the 16th Century, when the Portuguese and Dutch traders brought the first tea from China into Europe, Britain would adopt the drink as its national beverage?

Who could have anticipated the changes this drink would make to our society?

At the beginning of the 20th Century, Tea Dances became popular for the 'Young Set' The eligible ladies and gentleman of the wealthy and aristocratic families used to entertain their friends by dancing in each others homes.

A new sensational dance arrived in London in 1910. The Argentine Tango soon became all the rage. The Waldorf Hotel began offering Latin dance classes, soon Tea Dances were being held on a daily or weekly basis at the Waldorf, Savoy and other London hotels. Gradually the tea dances went nationwide as popularity increased. The fashionable set continued to patronise the Tea Dances until 1920...



...and now in 2010 the Tea Dance is back! on the 17th July the Donington Manor hotel will be holding a truly vintage afternoon tea dance, with vintage crockery, tea and many many cakes! Please do come along and celebrate this wonderful tradition, there will be a dance workshop so you can learn the moves and dance the afternoon away.

Tickets are only £12.95 per person, to book your ticket please email enquiries@doningtonmanorhotel.co.uk or call 01332 810253.

Winners of the May newsletter competition

Thank you to all that entered my little competition from my monthly newsletter. Here are the lucky winners below, there are two this time!

Mandy Hibbert from Shug Toscana
Haylee Green

Well done! you two both win one of these gorgeous teacups and tea lights from the Kate Aspen UK range.



If you would like to subscribe to my newsletter then please go to my website to be added to the mailing list. There are lots of competitions, offers, exciting updates and news, and it would be great if you were in the know too!

x

How to make a Ferrari cake

I thought I would write this how to as I found this one quite a challenge and couldn't find any advice or how tos out there, so now there is!

Firstly, bake a 10 inch square sponge, mine was vanilla. I find it is best to then leave this over night in an airtight container as the sponge is a lot easier to work with the next day.

Take the sponge and carve it into the shape of a Ferrari, I took a picture of an actual Ferrari and tried to copy this, this is the tricky bit but absolute crucial part so take your time over it, getting your desired shape. Once you have achieved the shape you want, slice the cake in half horizontally, ready to buttercream. I use a bread knife to make the cut definition in the sponge, then take some cotton thread and use this as a cheese wire, if you know what I mean; you get a really even cut then.


This is the sponge, carved and waiting for the final coat of buttercream


Even out the fondant icing by using a pallet knife and smoother





Sandwich your cake with buttercream, then buttercream the whole of the outside, make sure its very smooth and even as this is the base for your fondant. Leave the buttercream to form a 'crumb crust' then take a pallet knife dipped in boiling water and smooth over the whole cake, this then makes it super, super even and smooth.

Next comes the fondant icing... the key part and the part that I find the most nerve wracking when icing any cake never mind a novelty shaped one like this. Take your red icing and knead until it is nice and pliable, then roll it out to the size you need to cover the cake in its entirety and a little bit more. Place the icing over your rolling pin and lay over the sponge, then using your hands smooth it down around the shape of your cake, really getting the icing stuck down firmly. Now take your pallet knife and chop the excess icing away. Smooth the icing down with a plastic smoother. Just keep repeating this until you get the icing as you want it.

Now its time for the decoration and final touches, I wont go into too much detail here as this is the fun part and something you can do to the minute detail or not, its up to you. I will let the pictures do the talking from now on!



Ball tools are ace!




The car now has wing mirrors, front and back grill plus front lights


The finished cake, complete with man driving it, I seem to have made him a wee bit smarmy...!



Hope that helps anyone out there wanting to make this.

Vintage and Cake

Hello, I felt inspired last night by all things vintage, flowers and cake, no surprise there then! So my lovely boyfriend took some photos of one of my vintage teapots filled with Peonies, I felt inspired by Kerry at The Blossom Tree as she arranged some gorgeous flowers for me to display at the summer fete by Fabulous Places. I obviously cant arrange them as well as Kerry but they do look lovely in this teapot, which is purely for flower decoration now.





I bought the bird from a fantastic company called Kitty and Dude, they make such beautiful vintage inspired pieces, my friend and I came across them at an arts and crafts fair in Nottingham last year. I was completely inspired by what they do, I also bought the Keep Calm and Eat Cake vintage plate too, love it!

On the feeling inspired note I am very excited to start making Elderflower champagne this year, we are just waiting for our kit to arrive and the flowers to bloom and then we are off! I will be serving it in pretty teacups at Vintage and Cake's Birthday party in June.

An ode to SATC and shoes!

I made this cake for someone and thought it was very apt as this week sees the release of the new Sex and the city film. I can not even express how much I cant wait to see this film, I am a huge, huge fan!

Hope you enjoy the pics x