Aardvark Cakes

Casa Costello has a new home

2011-05-18T13:43:00.003+01:00

Hi there! Just to let you know Aardvark Cakes has moved - I have merged my 2 blogs to make one Family and Cake blog over at http://casacostello.com

I would love it if you would follow me over there! Thanks so much for reading and all your lovely comments while I have been here.

Tutorial - How to make an Edible Gruffalo

2011-05-06T23:33:00.000+01:00

Earlier this week I posted a picture of my Gruffalo Cake and the response was incredible. I had many a discussion on Twitter about people making cakes for their children's birthdays and decided to post some tutorials of popular ideas for children's cakes.

The first being a Creme Egg Gruffalo: My cake had to travel from St Helens to Leeds and I knew the Gruffalo was not going to be eaten so was safe to insert a cocktail stick to keep the head on - normally I would use a piece of pasta to stick the head onto or even just make it a few days in advance so the head will just stick. I used sugar glue to stick everything together - make your own or just use cooled boiled water.

I used Chocolate Flavoured Fondant Icing. Roll out a piece of fondant, paint the creme egg with sugar glue and cover with the fondant. Make the seam at the back and smooth down the joint with your finger. Mark the 'body' with either a veining tool or a knife. Attach a small ball of icing for the neck. At this point insert the cocktail stick/pasta if you are using one.

Next get a ball on fondant slightly smaller than the body and roll the ends until it is an oval shape. Cut a mouth and open it - the gruffulo has a BIG mouth! Make the same marks for fur as on the body and make 2 holes for eyes - I use the end of a small pointy rolling pin (if you haven't got one, you could use the end of a clean paintbrush)

Stick the head on top of the body. Get 2 small balls of orange fondant icing - make one end of each pointy and stick into the eye sockets. You shouldn't need glue for this but if you do only use a tiny bit. Add a tiny black dot of icing to each orange eye.
Make 2 small sausages of brown for ears and attach to each side of the head. Put a tiny bit of pink icing over the front of each ear. Roll little grey sausages for teeth and attach some to the top lip and some to the bottom lip. 2 slightly larger grey sausages, pointy at one end make the horns on top of the head. A thin sausage of brown icing makes the nose with a small pale pink ball. He also needs a teeny weeny ball of green on top of the pink ball for the wart on his nose. He also needs 2 VERY thin black sausages for his eyebrows.

Make his legs and feet all-in-one with a long sausage folded just past the middle for his foot. Flatten down the foot bit and try to make some more markings again for his fur on the legs. The legs and feet will help him keep upright. 2 more brown sausages for his arms - cut into fingers at the end and try to round off the edges (back of a knife will do this) and attach to the body.

Tiny grey sausages made really pointy at the ends are attached to his hands and feet for claws. Loads of spikes are then attached to his back (the ones in the book were brown so I did them brown but my 4yo is convinced they should be purple - its up to you!)

And he's done and so is my first tutorial. How was it? I think The Gruffalo is quite a hard cake topper to do so maybe next time I'll go for something a little easier - any requests?

Could you be paid a visit by the Fairy Hobmother?

2011-05-03T22:18:00.002+01:00

I have had a visitor... A very welcome visitor ... The Fairy Hobmother. There is a secret person hopping from blog to blog leaving presents as he goes.

There are rumours that the Fairy Hobmother lives at Appliances Online - Pay them a visit to see what they offer. They are very friendly people!

All I had to do is leave a comment on Sonia from Mummy Loves blog and I was showered with a gift. If you leave a comment here you could be a winner too. I was lucky enough to receive Amazon vouchers which I will have great fun spending - I wonder what you could win? You might even like to leave a hint with your comment what you could do with?! Give it a go!

Book Review - Annabel Karmel - Annabel's Kitchen

2011-04-26T23:45:00.004+01:00

I was lucky enough to be sent the new Annabel Karmel cookery book recently which accompanies her new's ITV children's cookery series. I already own a couple of Annabel's books so was eager to test out her new recipes. I have no idea how she does it, but her recipes make my children want to eat their meals - Annabel's Pot Noodle is a real favourite in our house!

As soon as the book arrived my 8 year old grabbed it exclaiming that she had seen adverts for the show and it looked really good. She wanted to look through the book and see which recipes we could cook - we will still be working our way through them at Christmas - there are loads!

I chose 2 of the recipes to test: Chicken Burgers and Breakfast Pancakes.

Both of the recipes are well explained, use easily accessible ingredients and have lovely pictures to accompany them (I wish I looked half as glamorous as Annabel when I cook!)

The breakfast pancakes did not have a strong taste but we topped our with ice-cream and raspberry sauce and they were just lovely.

The chicken burgers were gorgeous! I have never made my own burgers before and I thought starting with a children's recipe was a good place to start. They were really tasty and suitable for both adults and children. A definite make-again!

This book also contributes toward reaching my goal of owning and using 200 cooking/baking books before I'm 40 - see the rest of the list here

This is not a sponsored post - I did not receive any payment for this review but enjoyed using the book very much - Thank you!

Annabel’s Kitchen by Annabel Karmel (Ebury) £12.99

Hotel Chocolat Review

2011-03-08T22:29:00.004+00:00

It has been a while since I did any product reviews on this particular blog, but when I got invited to review Easter Gifts from Hotel Chocolat - I nearly bit their hand off - who wouldn't?

When the chocolate arrived, I was so tempted to nibble all to myself but being the good mummy/wife that I am, I saved it until we were all together.

My package was The Easter Pick Me Up Gift Set which can be bought from the Hotel Chocolat website for £11.00 - This is slightly more than I would normally pay for an Easter Gift but when we tasted the chocolate we all agreed that it was top quality. The Gift Set contains a Doodle Chick set - which is 2 milk chocolate slabs (one with a caramel chocolate chick), Caramel Egglets - which are 6 milk and white chocolate Eggs with really gooey, liquidy caramel inside and a Tiddly Pot - which contains 10 chocolate chicks and bunnies.

So what did we think?
The Tiddly Pot was the favourite of my girls (aged 4 & 8) and we were pleasantly suprised how much chocolate could be squeezed into such a diddy pot.
The Caramel Egglets were very rich and filling - these were perhaps more suited to adults - but that's ok! ;-)
The Doodle Chick slabs were great for a handbag snack and very yummy too!

The Hotel Chocolat website is great for drooling over and if you want to send someone a special treat, there is plenty of choice.
If you are after a slightly cheaper Easter Child's gift, I would highly recommend the Tiddly Pot which you can buy here with an egg for £7.

This is a review - I was not paid for doing this review but enjoyed my free sample very much. Thank you!

Baby Girl Christening

2011-01-21T16:56:00.003+00:00

Going through some archived pictures - This is a Christening Cake from 2010 for a couple whose wedding cake I made a couple of years ago. I have to admit this cake seemed to take forever as there were loads of little bits - The topper includes building blocks, a teddy and an abacus type of toy - The first tier houses a rattle and stacking rings - all essential items for a baby. LIttle Olivia is absolutely gorgeous and Mum has said she has ordered a glass presentation box to house the sugar Olivia in - praise indeed.

A whole new meaning to Cup Cake!

2011-01-06T23:42:00.003+00:00

I know I have said it a million times but I love this cake! One of my last cakes before going on maternity leave for a good chunk of 2011 (don't worry I still have loads of cakes to post and I'm sure the cakes my family get me doing are more than enough blog fodder!)

This cake is for the lady who was retiring from her job in Marks & Spencer as the bra-fitting expert. She was really nervous about the party that was being held for her as she had never had a party solely in her honour before. When we dropped the cake off, the room looked fabulous and it was lovely to see everyone getting stuck in helping her decorate it. I was talking to my sister-in-law's Mother-in-law (work that out if you can!) last night and she said she happened to be at the party and that everyone was talking about how fabulous the cake was (and she didn't even know it was one of mine) and that the party was a huge success.

Both tiers were vanilla sponge and the M&S label and the bra were edible with the addition of a couple of diamontes - because everyone's underwear should have bling. The only brief (get it?) I had was to to include a tape measure which was great as I had bought the tape measure ribbon years ago and was desperate for an excuse to use it...only one problem, I couldn't find the blasted thing for a week and a half! Luckily it turned up exactly where I thought it was going to be the day before the cake was due!

11 Pipers Piping

2010-11-29T21:51:00.002+00:00

Yay its nearly Christmas! I love it - I'm constantly humming the Twelve Days of Christmas which reminded me of this winter wedding cake from a couple of weeks ago. I love the simple design of the ribbon with the blingy brooch but what really makes this cake special to me is the piping. I love white piping on the white cake and love doing it even more.

The bride was a delight to cater for and her feedback was lovely - They had a fabulous day which they really deserved. Congratulations to them!

Vrooooom!

2010-11-08T20:44:00.002+00:00

What is it with me and vehicles? The brief for this order was either a Volkswagon Golf (Argh!!!) or something Formula 1 - neither of which particularly float my boat (oh god, another vehicle) but in the end we decided on F1.

Chris is a lad from our local church whose Nan/Gran/Mother (it's a St Helens thing!) knows my Mum - He has overcome the most horrendous health problems over the past few years but it is now looking great - I saw him on Sunday and he is MASSIVE (tall).

I'm having a phase of enjoying piping so tried to include some tiny details on the car - most of which don't show up on the pic - particularly as I took it on my phone! I love the effect on the board of the checks too!

Love Bakery - Book Review

2010-11-02T10:59:00.000+00:00

I am on a mission to own AND USE 200 baking and cooking books by the time I am 40 which is just under 3 years years away (Argh!) These must be books that are useful and don't just sit on the shelf collecting dust. I am already up to at least 120 with just a couple that I need to get rid of as they are not that good.

The Love Bakery book is my latest acquisition and I LOVE it! There are hundreds of cupcake books on the market but this has loads of recipes that I will make. I have only owned the book for a week but have already made the Toffee Apple cupcakes and the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes with plenty more on my 'to bake' list. I attended a charity event last Friday for Halloween where I took loads of cupcakes and the Chocolate Orange Cupcakes were the first to sell out, so they will definately be made again! The recipes do not have loads of ingredients in them or even worse really obscure ingredients that will be impossible to find here in St Helens.

I enjoyed reading the introduction about how the bakery came about and it really struck a chord as it is similar to how my business has started. I paid £12.99 for this book in Chesters (The Coffee shop by the River in Ambleside - I will tell you more about this coffee shop another time) but last night I discovered the book is being sold by The Book People for £4.99 - so fill your boots!

All-in-all a great book and a recommended one for anyone interested in baking.

Christening Cakes - the return!

2010-11-02T10:39:00.000+00:00

After a long absence from the blog, I am back with loads of new stuff to post. Millions (well nearly) of cakey and baking books to review (its a serious addiction of mine and all part of the plan to own and use 200 good baking/cook books by the time I'm 40). I have been really busy with weddings but sadly have been very lax with the photos. Still lots to post about though, so lets get on shall we?

I've included for this post 2 of my favourite and most popular christening cake designs - The girly one is just so girly without being too frilly for me - the little kitten is edible and is placed in an icing box (which is a pain to make but worth it in the end). The design comes from Marian Frost and I first saw it at the Sugarcraft exhibition at the NEC a couple of years ago - that exhibition is on this weekend but sadly I am not attending this year. There is a cake tweet-up happening there on the Saturday which sounds brill but will have to wait until next year for me - Have a great time guys!

The 'George' cake can be changed for a girl - in fact I've done a pink and lemon version which was lovely. I like the bold colours and of course the little baby can have blond hair and blue eyes and even freckles! The idea for this cake was given to me by George's Mum but sadly I cannot find who the original design belongs to - Please feel free to tell me if you know as I would love to credit them.

Coming soon Love Bakery - The review and Wedding Cake Madness - Some of the summer of fun!

I'm always on the lookout

Cath Kidston meets Peppa Pig

2010-06-07T00:10:00.000+01:00

I cannot believe my daughter's birthday has come around again so quickly - This time she is the big 4 - although for months now she has been refusing to admit she is 4 and says she is '3 again!'. On her actual birthday we asked her how old she is now and she said 5! As they say here in St Helens - She is having us on!

I have wanted to do Cath Kidston colours for ages and what better excuse than your daughter's cake? All she said she wanted on it was Peppa Pig (again!) - as the weeks went on though she started adding more characters that she wanted - maybe next year...

I plan on doing more Cath Kidston inspired cakes as I think they can be suited to all manner of occasions - I even plan on doing the rose pattern painted on - will have to have a steady hand for that day!

Bird Cage

2010-05-25T12:29:00.000+01:00

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again - I love a challenge and a new design of cake. This order was completely by chance as my Mum had happened to meet the Grandma of the recipient a couple of weeks earlier and got talking about cakes - as you do round here!

I had a moment of panic when they told me what they wanted and drew a picture of a similar design that they had seen somewhere but couldn't remember where but decided to be brave.

The cake is made of 3 tiers of vanilla sponge all iced individually and then all together (that was a scary moment!) My favourite bit is the royal iced details and the sparkly pink butterfly of course!

A dad in his armchair and a lovely chat!

2010-04-14T13:32:00.000+01:00

A cake from last week - My brief was a Dad sat in a cream chair reading the Daily Telegraph. From speaking to one of his daughters it turned out that he was way more interesting than just that!

Also included was a cup of tea (what self respecting person from the north is ever without one!), a teacher's old fashioned hat, wooden walking stick, a roast dinner (complete with mini peas and mini julienne carrots), a book and a bottle of cabernet sauvignon! What a guy!

Most of the people I deal with are just lovely but every now and again I will really click with a customer and we will have loads to chat about. This man's daughter was one of them - We chatted about daughters (we both have 2) and French music (She is married to a French man and I have French music on my website) and so much more. A hidden side to my job that I just didn't anticipate enjoying so much when I started this business -Long may I enjoy these random chats!

Number 18 Cake

2010-04-05T23:39:00.000+01:00

The time has come! I have to admit a little secret... Whenever people ring and ask for number shaped cakes I tend to try and put them off for a different style! Well, no longer - I am a new fan.

I have always really struggled to get the convering clean and tidy on number shaped cakes and hate presenting a cake if it is not perfect (or as near to perfect as poss!) So practice I did and I seem to have found a method of covering that 'will do' for now...

The cake pictured was for the son of a client of my husband's - A man that he has spoken about several times as what a nice man he is - no pressue there then to do a good cake! When I spoke to the birthday boy's mum she asked for a baby green as this is the colour he has always had his room decorated in and number cakes - Oh how was I going to make this what she wanted but yet suitable for an 18 year old? We came up with the combination of green and balck with good old star explosions and I have to admit I was quite pleased with the end result - The good news...So were they!

Coming up next...I have no idea!

The football cake and the Thank You

2010-03-28T21:15:00.000+01:00

As you can probably imagine, I get asked to make a LOT of football cakes - It is always a challenge to make them that little bit individual and different than the last. This was for a man whose wife I have met at a trade show that I regularly attend (More about trade shows at a later date!) - The husband in question was having the mother of all suprise parties and they wanted a BIG cake.

The lady (another Helen) was delighted with her cake when she came to collect but was a little disappointed for my husband who was celebrating his birthday on the same day - with an ASDA cake - The joys of being married to a busy cake decorator!

A few days after the party I received this lovely thank you message...

Hi Helen

I just wanted to drop you a line to thank you for Neil's Birthday Cake. He loved the football design and it was absolutely delicious. There was plenty for all our guests, plus we really enjoyed sharing the football afterwards!

Hope your Husband enjoyed his Birthday too and that you will be back at Shop Direct some time soon.

Thanks again,

Helen

I don't 'do' cakes for the glory or the Thank Yous but they are really lovely when they come.

Coming soon ...Christening Cake

My Life is so Rock 'n' Roll!

2010-03-16T14:44:00.000+00:00

This jukebox cake was massive!! This was a bunch of people who went all out to arrange a party for their friend. Everything was co-ordinated to a Rock and Roll theme and the outfits they wore for the party were AMAZING! I believe the cake went down a storm aswell as the cupcakes which all had either musical notes, treble clefs or 'records' all with different song titles. I know Dolly Parton isnt exactly Rock and Roll but Moira (the birthday lady) is a massive Dolly fan and wanted her incorporated. The records were completely edible and varnished with edible varnish. I was slightly depressed though when my 7 year old daughter asked what a record was - how old do I feel?

Coming soon ... Football Cake

www.aardvarkcakes.co.uk

Princess Castle Cake

2010-02-17T19:37:00.000+00:00

One of 'our' favourite programmes has recently become Ben & Holly's Magic Kingdom. (When I say 'our' every parent knows that you lose control of the tv until the little ones are in bed!) For a kids programme it is really quite funny - especially the Queen with her accent and sarcastic remarks. I always picture them when I make this cake which is quite a popular one. This was for a little girl that has ordered some of the most amazing cakes I have done so far - Her Mum has the best ideas! Everything except the princesses tiara and the number 4 is edible. Enjoy!

Lucky Me! Happy Valentines!

2010-02-13T10:51:00.000+00:00

Once again, I believe I have one of the best jobs around - as a result of this blog I received an email asking if I would be willing to receive a bouquet of Interflora flowers and describe my thoughts here. Well, hell yes!

They arrived on a boring mundane Tuesday afternoon and immediatedly brightened up my day - even the box was special!

The bouquet I was lucky enough to receive was the 'Me to You' collection along with a super soft teddy - I have to say my girls were so much more excited with the teddy than the flowers! Even the cellophane was Me to you!

I thought roses were just roses but these were gorgeous and lasted really well - 5+ days!

If you are a bit last minute and wanting a really special Valentines gift then these will win you a million brownie points!

Thank you Interflora!
Coming soon ... the castle cake as promised earlier and a MASSIVE juke box cake!

Crash Bang Whallop!

2010-01-30T19:33:00.000+00:00

This week's offering is for a very musical chap - Board designed with paino keys and I had great fun making the drums and the guitar. I used lolly sticks to put the higher drums on which could then be put straight into the cake. The symbols are my favourite - I painted cocktail sticks silver and put these into the drums as they can't go straight into the cake.

Next up...Princess Castle Cake

Naked Ladies Cake

2010-01-25T20:03:00.000+00:00

Look away if you are easily offended! This cake contains nudity - of the marzipan variety.
This is a popular design (not sure where the original idea came from) but it seems to be a popular choice for 40th birthdays.
The ladies' bits are covered up by sparkly stars and legs are strategically placed - This is the rudest cake I do as I have to let my little girls see them - Its by far not the rudest cake I have been asked to do though!! My 7YO thinks its hilarious that anyone would want ladies showing their boobs on a cake but who am I to ask?

Coming soon...Wedding Stationery - the start of 2010 collection and Drum Kits/Guitars and Pianos

Wake me up before you GoGo!

2010-01-20T15:29:00.000+00:00

Ha! This post is nothing to do with the delectable George Michael but the children's toy craze that frequently has me mithering newsagents up and down the land.

For non-kiddy people, Gogos are a massive range of tiny plastic creatures that all have something individual about them - My latest cake recipient is a young man named Sam who by all accounts is even more obsessed with Gogos than my 2! His favourite is the guy on top of the cake names Rein-W whose 'superpower' is to zap people with blue water - therefore why he is shiny blue too! To get the shimmery blue colour I painted on Ice Blue Dusting powder which transformed him. Thankfully Sam recognised him straightaway and I got a lovely message from his mum later on saying how overwhelmed but delighted he was with his cake and they kept sneaking a peek! Aw!

The other creatures around the side are gogos too from the other Series (es) - what is the plural for series? There are 4 series with about 60 gogos in each - If my girls think they are collecting them all they've had it!

The delivery of this cake was probably one of the most traumatic I have ever had - and there have been many traumas! It coincided with the worst snow and ice that this country has seen for nearly 30 years and the birthday boy lives in a quiet road that had obviously had the right amount of walking traffic to make the pavement lethal - to make it even worse I was on my own with my 3 year old who had spent more time on her bottom than on her feet that day - we skidded and slided to the front door though and happily the cake was delivered in one piece - I will never forget it!

Hope you like! Next time...Naked Ladies!

Peppa Pig Cake

2010-01-15T10:54:00.001+00:00

Well I promised a Peppa Cake next but then I forgot to take a proper picture before I delivered it (I actually have done 2 recently but forgot to take a picture of either) - I don't think a quick snap whilst travelling in the car counts but I will post it anyway. I wasn't driving BTW!

I have also posted a picture of an older Peppa Pig cake - I love doing them. I have recently started making the Peppas using a walnut whip (From M&S as they are a bit smaller than the normal ones - and a lot cheaper!) I would prefer to eat a walnut whip than solid icing anyday.

Peppa is in the news today - Her and George have been spotted in the car without seatbelts - how horrendous - because us parents would automatically think that if Peppa doesn't have to wear a belt then our children don't either wouldn't we!!??**!

I intend on making Easter Peppa Pig figures and hope to post soon.

Coming next - Gogo Cake and the delivery from hell!

Arum Lilies and Pearls

2009-12-30T12:00:00.000+00:00

Thought I would finish off the year with a classic - the brief was Arum Lilies and Pearls (the couple have a daughter named Pearl!) - Based loosely on a M&S cake that seems to be very popular. All sponge tiers to be eaten on the night.
the pearsl were dusted with lustre dust and looked lovely and shimmery - if only every cake was so simple!

Happy New Year to everyone ...coming soon...Peppa Pig!

NaBloPoMo Post 5 Lazytown Birthday Cake

2009-11-12T11:13:00.001+00:00

Anyone with a child under the age of 8 will know and 'love' Lazytown characters well - This was one of last week's challenges - Sportacus (the fella in blue!) is the superhero who is sports mad and has bad reactions to sugar (what a terrible life that would be!) - His mate is the very cute Stephanie who all little girls spend a time wanting to be - and here they are in sugar form!

It's normally boys that want a Lazytown cake so it made a change to make it girly - Hopefully little Emma loved it - I got a lovely message from her Mum saying she did anyway!