tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18010279622967539662026-05-28T11:52:32.887+01:00A blog about cake decorating and home bakingKate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-75261553021629913952017-12-30T14:09:00.001+00:002017-12-30T14:09:37.076+00:00

"Oi FROG! Sit on a log!" said the cat. "But I don't want to sit on a log," said the frog. "Logs are all knobbly and uncomfortable and they can give you splinters in your bottom".  So opens my little boy's favourite book - it may be his favourite possession in the world. I've lost count of how many times he's brought it to me to read just this morning. When it came to his first birthday I

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-77950412459829372302017-02-06T18:14:00.000+00:002017-04-23T09:13:40.350+01:00

I've recently given birth to our first baby and whilst breastfeeding is going reasonably well I've been keen to increase my supply to give us the flexibility of his dad feeding him expressed breastmilk from a bottle. This allows dad and baby to bond and gives and me a little independence. Anecdotally one of the ways to increase breastmilk supply is to eat 'lactation cookies'. Their ingredients

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-36563354805309362732016-08-01T15:07:00.003+01:002016-08-01T15:07:50.965+01:00

My dad's favourite hobby is cycling, and when it came time to make a cake for his birthday we knew that it needed to have a cycling theme. I've unsuccessfully tried to make bicycles from sugar before so quickly ruled out designs that needed any kind of bicycle. In the end I settled on this more achievable jersey\t-shirt shape. This cake was very much a family affair - made in collaboration

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-74615632855900331792016-06-13T20:54:00.002+01:002016-06-13T20:54:47.500+01:00

I'm a big fan of so many things about Japanese culture and one of my favourites is the idea of a 'hanami' party to welcome spring and celebrate the blossoming of the trees. Cherry blossom (sakura) and plum blossom (ume) are just so pretty! I really hope to visit Japan in the spring and enjoy a hanami party and drink sake under the blossoms some day. Until then you may find me in the

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-59546377202489631942015-05-17T20:49:00.000+01:002015-05-17T20:49:16.034+01:00

This cake was a christening gift for our friends' baby Alexander. His mum had asked for a two tier blue and white cake with rocking horses, bunting and baby blocks with his name.  I considered making a 5" and a 7" tier but that didn't seem substantial enough for the big party so I settled on a 6" and 8" tier for a truly massive cake. This is the first two tier cake that I've made

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-82282283850455766632014-03-30T18:57:00.002+01:002014-03-30T18:57:59.755+01:00

Two of my girlfriends came around today for a cake decorating lesson. We had great fun and I was really pleased with how well their icing and decorations turned out. I said I'd write down some key points and recipes for them which I may as well share with you all. All quantities for a 6"/15cm round cake. As am aside here's a picture of the first cake decoration I tried to do before I went to

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-58955747116125983332014-01-26T18:31:00.001+00:002014-01-26T18:31:50.054+00:00

I was very pleased to make a cake for a friend's baby shower this week. The brief was to make a blue cake to fit with a book and alphabet themed shower. Searching for book cakes returns loads of gorgeous examples but I was quite pushed for time this weekend so settled for something I knew I could do well and quickly. Often cakes as simple as this can be harder to make than the more complex

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-18413850832676689662014-01-05T19:47:00.000+00:002014-01-05T19:47:26.864+00:00

I've been meaning to make this cake for ages but it's a complex one so I needed a really good reason to bake it. This week was my dear Mum's birthday so I thought it would be the perfect occasion. The cake is based on this Peggy Porschen design from her Cake Chic book. Peggy's version is a Wedgewood blue but I've done it, more properly in my opinion, in Tiffany green by mixing some Holly

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com4Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, UK51.752725 -0.3394359999999778751.674077 -0.5007974999999778 51.831373 -0.17807449999997788tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-52460978015826950782014-01-03T09:36:00.000+00:002014-01-03T09:36:10.296+00:00

This is a cake I iced a few years ago for my Nanna's birthday. I was studying cake decorating at an evening class at the time and was keen to practice my skills with royal icing and this was certainly a big test! The design is from Peggy Porschen's Pretty Party Cakes book. I made the flowers well in advance as they keep indefinitely. The pink flowers were the simplest to make. I used a petal

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-63000449297117756362013-07-17T20:54:00.006+01:002013-07-17T20:54:50.676+01:00

I'm often asked how I manage to achieve particular features of my cakes and my answer is invariably that there is a tool for the job! Here's my top items in my cake decorators toolkit: 1) Icing smoothers I absolutely couldn't get by without these! They help hide a multitude of sins. After applying marzipan to the cake I use these to push the sponge into as regular shape as

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-9774242525502452892013-07-14T18:24:00.003+01:002013-07-14T18:24:30.834+01:00

Nothing says "summer party!" quite like bunting. Well except maybe Pimms. And a barbecue. But that still makes it the first, second, third most important part of a summer party so I thought it would be a fabulous theme for a cake I was baking for a family summer party this weekend. Our young cousins from New Zealand were visiting the family and everyone would be getting together so I

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-50180507010945839022013-05-19T19:28:00.001+01:002013-05-19T19:28:40.090+01:00

I've been wanting to make a this cake for a while so when a slightly accident prone friend, with a thing for Mr Bump celebrated his birthday I jumped at the chance to give it a go! At its heart this is a simple 6" sponge cake but the difficult part was making the limbs which were carved out of another cake. The trick was to chill the cake down to make it more solid before carving.

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-46358714006143417562013-03-10T15:40:00.001+00:002014-01-26T18:32:07.718+00:00

Can you keep a secret? Sssshh. Come closer and I'll tell you; the Wee Greenwich Bakery isn't in Greenwich anymore!  Much as we loved our wee Greenwich flat we had outgrown it and longed for outside space and more room to keep all our cookbooks and cake tins. Mr. M wanted a piano and a vegetable garden and I wanted a rabbit so we moved out of London and into a little house last year. Well

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-86083634651106811172013-02-14T21:04:00.000+00:002013-02-16T17:36:25.646+00:00

Happy Valentine's Day from the Wee Greenwich Bakery! These Blueberry Muffins from the Bouchon Bakery book made an excellent dessert served hot with some vanilla ice cream.  The recipe recommends the batter is made the night before and it does seem that it made them extra-moist. The blueberries were frozen and coated in flour before being mixed into the batter which successfully kept

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-74157203395406835012013-02-10T19:23:00.001+00:002013-02-16T17:40:40.298+00:00

I was proud to be asked to bake a cake for our friends' baby's christening. They knew how they wanted the cake to look and gave me a couple of pictures to work from. This is the first time I've made something based on a design someone else has chosen and it was a nice challenge to work on something I wouldn't normally choose myself. I was tricky to just work from pictures without any

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-63382328752200826602013-01-13T18:33:00.002+00:002013-02-16T17:37:25.663+00:00

Since I had an amazingly tasty bread roll that had crispy bacon bits in it at Le Manoir a few years ago I've been pretty obsessed with putting bacon in stuff to make it more delicious. Of course adding bacon will make something more delicious! You'll often hear me say "Ooooh, we should put the bacon IN the <insert name of baked goods here>!" So when we stumbled into the Bouchon

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-91981896968140712252012-12-26T15:54:00.000+00:002013-02-16T17:37:53.820+00:00

I made these Marzipan fruits on the same weekend as the fabulous Penguin Party- it was a serious sugar modelling weekend and my hands were stained all kinds of colours from all the food colouring! They look like my own little market stall :) This fruit salad consists of bananas, apples, limes, clementines, lemons, cherries and peaches. They're not exactly to scale! I think it's really

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-78310128314501807072012-12-23T21:24:00.003+00:002013-02-16T17:45:49.983+00:00

The original Penguin Party cake has always been my most popular cake. Whenever friends mention my blog it's always this cake that they find the most memorable. This year's Christmas cake, therefore, had a lot to live up to. I think I've managed to match the original festive fun! My dear Nanna had kindly baked my two Christmas cakes a while ago and they have been left to mature (with

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-58856564690201327952012-12-09T16:40:00.003+00:002013-02-16T17:48:05.128+00:00

Ok, these are a bit 'home style'. I was a bit preoccupied with mulling wine and singing along to Christmas tunes instead of concentrating on baking the impressive biscuits that these really deserved to be. A couple of them are a little burned high bake - but on the bright side the mulled wine was delicious! I first saw these houses on my favourite blog Domestic Sluttery and had to

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-76310479748747001072012-10-21T15:55:00.002+01:002013-02-16T17:51:39.860+00:00

Last time my husband went away on business I did the shopping all by myself - never a good idea. That week the internet grocery shopping delivery consisted of bell peppers, padron peppers, roquito peppers, a jar of caramel and not much else. So I've had this caramel in the fridge for a while now and other than using as an amazing ice cream topping I haven't know what to do with it - until

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-6174713703573072562012-10-14T20:59:00.000+01:002013-02-16T17:53:07.605+00:00

I baked this cake for my very good friend Matt's recent birthday. I really need to buy another round 15cm cake tin as I keep having to bake the two layers in two separate batches! That's probably the reason I often bake a square cake instead of a round one! This cake was made with a four egg mixture (200g butter, 200g sugar, 4 eggs and 200g flour) so came out very tall at 10cm. I really

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-15058735610968265372012-09-02T11:12:00.001+01:002013-02-16T17:54:15.004+00:00

It's been a busy year and I haven't had the chance to bake many cakes. I'm very rusty! Happily it was my friend Anna's birthday this week so I was able to dig out all my cake decorating equipment and bake a cake. It was to be a big birthday barbecue so I needed to bake a large cake but unfortunately only had 6" cake boards available. Not a problem though - since we couldn't go wider - we

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-77950405398049652512012-04-22T19:30:00.000+01:002013-02-16T17:56:18.264+00:00

I've recently been admiring the spring cherry blossoms in Greenwich which inspired me to upload this photo. I'm a big fan of Japanese style and really enjoyed designing this cake for my assessment in cake decorating (NCFE Certificate in Creative Craft, level 1).  For the assessment I used a cake dummy - a cake shaped block of polystyrene - which gave me time to work on the design

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-70318821778581177262012-04-10T21:30:00.002+01:002013-02-16T17:57:14.580+00:00

  This is one of my very favourite designs. It's a cake that I iced for a Christmas party a couple of years ago. I can't take credit for the cake itself as my Nanna kindly bakes our family Christmas cakes each year. The cheeky penguins are all mine though! The fruit cake was matured with the occasional splash of cognac for a number of weeks. A couple of days before the party I added a

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801027962296753966.post-26884440105154326162012-04-08T16:44:00.000+01:002013-02-16T17:58:33.811+00:00

Happy Easter from the Wee Greenwich Bakery. Here's a quick and easy 4" cake from a couple of years ago. I really like to make models - I spent a lot of time playing with FIMO modelling clay as a child and I think sugarpaste is a very similar, but more delicious, medium!

Kate Macdonaldhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11312983414229849232noreply@blogger.com0