Baking for the Mini Manley

Why are we trying to raise money? What is the journey we've been on?

2015-09-23T20:43:00.002+01:00

I have recently been talking a lot about our personal story and saying we’ve had a journey to get to this point. So for those that don’t know us here is a little insight into why I say this.

Gary and I got married 4 years ago, at that time Gary was in huge amounts of pain and unable to walk without a stick. The future looked bleak for him, he was unable to walk around to the local shops. I was driving him everywhere and for every journey I was considering how close I could park, minimise the walking and help him as much as possible. He was unable to do the things he loved and was rapidly gaining weight due to lack of exercise and low moods. As a result of his foot condition, Ledderhose Disease, he decided to stop his PhD and find a job which was less active where he could sit down each day. There was no suitable treatment available to him on the NHS so, due to family and friends, we raised the money for him to have radiotherapy privately. Amazingly this treatment was effective and over the last 4 years the pain has gone and the lump significantly reduced in size.

Gary has gone from barely being able to walk to being able to run.. pain free.. He’s had a significant amount of weight to lose, he has now lost 100lbs! He has worked hard on his training and is doing really well with his running. He has now signed up for a half marathon for next year and is targeting a marathon in the future. It is so hard to describe the massive change that has occurred in the last 4 years. To describe just how bad the situation was with him and how it’s gone from all we think about to barely even passing my mind at all.

Shortly after Gary’s radiotherapy finished we found out I was pregnant. we barely had time to absorb the joy of the positive test result before the sickness overtook me and I ended up in hospital for the first time. I ended up needing to spend the whole pregnancy resting and on the sofa, fighting to eat and drink enough to sustain my body. I was on anti sickness meds the whole time and in a constant battle with the medical professionals to get the help I required. After this I ended up having a horrid labour, blood loss and an infection. The short story is that I ended up with Post Natal Depression and scars from the whole situation. Anyone that’s had depression knows how hard it is to do anything, I had to continue to look after our daughter but the rest of the time passed in a blur really. Due to this, my body entering starvation mode during pregnancy and the general stresses of life I ended up gaining several stone of weight. Again I feel like I can’t really explain why I think it’s been such a journey and I know some of you won’t understand this at all.. but I’ve picked myself up and carried on. I’ve lost 5 stone now and am regularly running 3 times a week. I have run and exercised in my life previously but I have now achieve new personal bests on my 5 Km times and am aiming for a 10Km best.

So why this run?

Gary’s Nan died last year from Pancreatic Cancer. It was a very short battle and it was spotted too late for there to be any treatment. It was a complete shock to the family as she was the youngest and healthiest of his grandparents. We chose this run because firstly it’s in Worthing, this is where Gary’s Nan lived and it will be passing very close to her house. Secondly we chose this run because it’ll be around the year anniversary of her death. We are doing this run in her memory and with much love and emotion. This is not just a 10Km to us, this is an important run, it’s a run for her, it’s a run for us and it’s a run for her family.

If you'd like to donate to our cause the link is here:
https://www.justgiving.com/Gary-Manley

Manley Family

Pistachio, Praline and Vanilla Cake

2015-09-17T16:00:00.003+01:00

I was asked to make a Pistachio, Praline and Vanilla Cake for a local coffee shop. They had had this cake in the past and it had proved popular so they wanted me to try it out.

I tried a few different recipes and adjusted them. In the end this is the recipe I came up with that has worked each time:

Ingredients:

125g Pistachios

250g Butter

250g Caster Sugar

5 Large Free Range Eggs

70g Plain Flour

285g Self Raising Flour

Preheat the oven at 140oC (this may vary from oven to oven so you may need to experiment). Line an 8" cake tin with greaseproof paper.

Grind up the pistachio nuts in a food processor until they are small crumbs. Add in the sugar and whiz it up to combine everything.

Place the butter and the sugar mixture into a mixer and mix until really light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one egg at a time until fully combined.

Sift in the flours and mix on a low speed until just combined, be careful not to over work the mixture as this results in a flat and fragile cake.

Place the mixture in the tin and into the preheated oven. I initially check the cakes after 1 hour but they usually require closer to 2. My oven is very temperamental so this will vary depending on your oven. I cook on a low temperature, due to the oven, and for longer so use your usual cake settings if you are used to making cakes.

Once a skewer comes out of the cake clean leave it to cool.

For the vanilla butter icing I mix:

250g Butter - I do find that the quality of the butter makes a difference and my preference is Anchor

500g Icing Sugar

Vanilla Essence

Mix together the butter and icing sugar until fully combined. Pour in the vanilla essence, depending on taste, but I usually start with 2 teaspoons.

I then use this to spread between the layers of the cake and on the top.

For the praline element I firstly caramelise some sugar in a saucepan. After experimenting I've found that a larger surface area at a high heat is the best way to achieve a caramel rather than crystals. Once this is ready I then add in chopped pistachios and leave it to cool.

Once solid I crush it up in a pestle and mortar and sprinkle it on the top of the cake.

Praline Sprinkling

I sell these cakes individually so if you'd like to order one then please just drop me an email. I usually have availability for these cakes.

Finished Cake

Gingerbread Pound Cake

2015-08-25T09:55:00.000+01:00

I was asked to come up with a gingerbread pound cake for the local coffee shop so after some research I came up with this recipe:

Ingredients:

285g Stork

285g Caster Sugar

285g Self Raising Flour

70g Plain Flour

4 tbsp Black Treacle

4 tsp Ground Ginger

5 Eggs

Preheat the oven to 180oC and grease a round bundt tin.

Cream together the stork and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the black treacle. Slowly add the eggs, one at a time, until all is well combined and light.

Sieve in the flour and ginger then mix together slowly being careful not to over work it.

Pour into the bundt tin and cook until the cake is spongy and a skewer comes out clean. Mine took around 1hour30mins. Leave to cool.

I decorated it with a simple water icing which was made by mixing icing sugar and water together. This was then poured over the top of the cake.

Gingerbread Pound Cake

Please let me know how you get on if you try this recipe. I love to hear stories and see photos.

If you'd like to order a cake for wholesale or individual orders please get in touch for details.

Cherry Blossom Cake

2015-08-25T09:28:00.000+01:00

I was asked to make some unusual cakes for a local coffee shop and one idea I found was a cherry blossom cake. I wasn't happy with the original recipe so I adapted it until I came up with something I was happy with, and here is the result.

Ingredients:

285g Self Raising Flour

70g Plain Flour

285g Stork

285g Caster Sugar

5 Large Eggs

1 tsp Orange blossom water

Grated rind of 1 Orange

100g Cherries, stoned and chopped up

Preheat your oven to 180oC and line an 8" round cake tin.

Cream together the stork and sugar until very light and fluffy. Add in the blossom water and orange rind. Gradually beat in the eggs one at a time.

Add in the flour and mix together slowly until combined. Be careful not to over beat at this point and only use the slowest speed on the mixer. Stir in the chopped cherries.

Pour into the cake tin and bake until the cake is springy to touch and a skewer comes out clean. Mine takes around 1hour30mins but check it before this point.

Leave the cake to cool completely then decorate.

I filled this cake with a vanilla buttericing and cherries stirred in:

250g Softened Butter

500g Icing Sugar

100g Chopped cherries

Beat together the butter and icing sugar until soft and then stir in the cherries.

Ready to go to the coffee shop

If you try this cake please let me know how you get on. I'm very interested in photos and stories.

To order this cake direct from me for wholesale or one off purchases please just get in touch.

90th Birthday Cake

2015-06-25T20:54:00.004+01:00

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a 90th birthday lady. My brief was nothing too fancy so I kept it simple with this design.

To give the cake a little design I crimped around the edge of the cake and board.

The sugar flowers are carnations, sweet peas, and roses. This is just a simple little bunch to give the cake something a little special. Sugar flowers always lift a cake.

Sugar Flowers

To finish off the cake I piped a message and used ribbon to create a bow on the front.

I hope the family liked the cake and enjoyed it.

Finished Cake

Shortbread

2015-06-25T20:47:00.003+01:00

I added a few new items to my collection and shortbread was one of them. These are part of my wholesale/tea rooms range.

Shortbread is an incredibly simple recipe and very quick to make. This is the recipe that I used:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/shortbread_1290

In order to get the shortbread uniform I made these in a loaf tin which gave a lovely shape to each of them.

These were enjoyed by my work colleagues and I received lots of compliments so I'm sure they were tasty. :).

Shortbread

Ice cream Cone Cakes

2015-06-25T20:33:00.001+01:00

For a little girls birthday I was asked to make this ice cream cone cakes for the party bags. It's not something I'd seen before but after some research I discovered it's a very simple idea and concept.

Inside each of the cones is a vanilla cupcake, this is actually baked inside the cone as the cone is totally unharmed by the baking process.

Ice cream cone cakes

Using my standard vanilla cake receipt I filled the cones and baked them. I wasn't sure how much mixture to put in the cones but worked out that around 3/4 full was the right amount to not over flow the cases.

I made some vanilla butter icing and piped this on the top of the cakes. I then put sprinkles on the cakes and put in chocolate fingers for the flakes.

I was quite pleased with these cakes and thought they look effective. It was a challenge wrapping each one individually in cellophane but I hope the birthday girl and her guests liked them.

Close up

Frozen Dome Cake

2015-06-08T14:51:00.000+01:00

I was asked to make a frozen cake for a little girl's birthday. I was sent a picture they had seen and used this as my inspiration.

I have seen online that there is a trend for having glass bowl on the top of the cake, especially on frozen cakes. I purchased the characters online and sold these on at price therefore not making a profit and not breaching copyright.

Characters in a bowl

The cake was a vanilla sponge filled with vanilla butter icing and raspberry jam. I covered the cake in blue sugar paste and then topped this with a smaller piece of white sugar paste.

She wanted a little bit of sparkle on the cake so I sprayed it with lustre to give it a slight shimmer to it. I also sprayed the piece that I put on top of the bowl.

The snowflakes were made using the Claire Bowman Crystal lace mat and lustre white cake lace. These are so effective and look great. They can easily be stuck on with water.

Cake Lace

I stacked the cake together and the final step was to pipe the message onto the board.

I've been told the birthday girl was really happy when she saw that cake, which is lovely. I hope she had a fantastic party and it's always nice to receive positive feedback. What do you think of this one?

Finished Cake

Macaroons

2015-06-07T15:15:00.000+01:00

I made these French Macaroons for my recent photo sesssion. I decided to make these just filled with whipped cream but in future I would make a nice chocolate ganache to compliment them.

I used the following recipe for these:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1369639/chocolate-and-raspberry-macaroons

which was very easy to follow and I feel worked very well. I'll briefly run through it and what I did.

First step is to grind up the almonds and icing sugar in a food processor. I think the idea is to break them down and make the mixture really smooth, however, I struggled with this and found that my mix was still quite bitty. It says to run it through a sieve but mine wouldn't go through so I just poured it in as it was.

Into that mixture I poured in half of the egg whtie. For convienence I actually used the liquid egg white you can buy and so I could pour and measure the exact amount. I found this quite useful and if I was making them again I would probably do the same thing rather than using actual eggs and splitting them.

I heated the sugar with water as directed and kept a close eye on the thermometer. I then beat up the egg whites and added it slowly. I certainly find steps like this are much easier with a thermometer and a food mixer.

Mix it all together by carefully folding it. You want to make sure you aren't losing all the air in the mixture so take your time on this step.

I piped out the mixture and left it out to form a nice skin. As my kitchen was REALLY warm when I made these it didn't take long at all.

I added mine to a too hot oven so in future I'll turn the temperature down a little. They took exactly the 14 minutes it stated and they only came off the paper when they were ready. I use the reusable non stick stuff for these as I fine it much better.

I was please with how these formed the properly little feet and they seemed to work very well. I whipped up some cream and filled them and then it was all about the staging for the photos. I think they came together very well, what do you think?

French Macaroons

These were certainly fun to make and something I'd like to try again in the future. Maybe with more colours and more varieties. For this purpose they worked well.

2015-04-16T11:03:00.001+01:00

I've been dropping hints recently that might be getting some work done in our house, we're still trying to sort out all the details but we're getting there. I thought I'd tell you a little about what we have planned.

Currently I have a small kitchen for my baking and I do all my decorating in our dining room. I've completely taken over the dining room with all my equipment and it isn't ideal having to go between the two rooms. I've always dreamed of a large kitchen and we bought this house with that in mind. We are going to put a new extension on the rear of the house to create a whole new room for a kitchen.

Before we decided on size and layout of the kitchen we decided to spray paint it in our garden and have a walk around to see what we thought of it all.

Spray painting the garden

Once we had this we decided to go and get a kitchen designed and priced up at Wickes. This isn't perfect but it gave us a nice idea of what it would look like. The idea is to have a kitchen area and a decorating area which will be carried out on my large island on the right.

Wickes Design

We have picked the tiles and the style of the kitchen and I'm aiming to go for a country kitchen style.

Floor tiles

Wall tiles

We're still deciding on wall colours etc to match these tiles.

The other things that we've been deciding on is the appliances. We're going to have to purchase new ovens, as they'll be no gas in the extension, and new fridge etc. We've spent some time picking the new range, which is vital in my kitchen. It's exciting to be getting a brand new room and have everything sparkly and new.

We have just commissioned the architect to do the plans, this will take several weeks. We will submit these for building regs, neighbour checking etc and hopefully won't run into any problems. The next step after that is raising the finances and checking we can afford everything. We're currently aiming for a September start so that it's done by Christmas but I'm secretly hoping we can start a little before this.

Just as a side notice for any worried people out there, this won't effect my cake orders as my kitchen and dining room are self contained on the front of the house. I will be able to fulfil orders throughout the building work process without compromising health and safety or quality.

I'm sure I'll be keeping you all updated as I'm so excited about the whole process. I hope that by Christmas I'll be showing you pictures of the new kitchen.

3 Way Celebration Cake

2015-04-16T10:47:00.003+01:00

I was asked to make a cake to celebrate 3 different occasions so we decided to split the cake into 3 and do a different theme in each.

The first section, the brief I was given was cello so I put some musical notes and made a little cello.

Music side of the cake

The second second I was asked for minions. I purchased the models for this (due to copyright) sprayed the cake yellow and stuck these on.

Minion Side

The final section was lego friends, I sprayed it pink and the models would be added at a later stage.

Lego Friends Cake

I had to be careful on copyright on this one but with the models I avoided that problem and was still able to provide my clients with a cake they wanted. This was their much loved chocolate cake.

I had some lovely photos showing that they enjoyed the cake and I was lucky enough to be there when the cake was revealed. That was lovely for me and to hear their compliments was lovely.

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Mini Wedding Cupcakes

2015-04-16T10:37:00.004+01:00

As a quick last minute order I was asked to make something to go in some bags for a bride's hens. I suggested some mini cupcakes and she likes that idea. I made some rich chocolate cupcakes and topped them with sugar paste. I put an impression on the sugar paste to give it a bit of texture.

Mini Cupcakes

Finally to finish off the cake I made some little white flowers and put pearls in their centre.

As these were going in bags individually I wrapped each in a cellophane bag. This was probably the most challenging part of the job!! My bride was happy with the cakes and I'm very much looking forward to making her wedding cake in a few months.

Cake in a cellophane bag.

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Patchwork Quilt Cake

2015-04-16T10:25:00.002+01:00

For my younger sister's birthday I made a patchwork quilt cake. She doesn't like sponge cake so I made her a rich fruit cake which I covered in marzipan and sugar paste.

My first job was to create the quilt. I used little circles and rolled these into the paste so it was a smooth finish, you have to be careful to roll in both directions in order to maintain the circular shape. I then used a quilting tool to create stitch lines along the cake.

Top view of the cake

Added to this some buttons which I made using a mould. To finish up I put some yellow ribbon around the cake.

Side of the Cake

I hope she liked the cake and enjoyed eating it. I hope it was a simple but effective idea.

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Giant Ice Cream Cupcake

2015-04-16T10:14:00.003+01:00

For my older brother's birthday I made a giant cupcake which I decorated as an icecream cone. I made the bottom of the cake as a chocolate cake and the top half was vanilla sponge.

The bottom of the cake was covered in vanilla butter icing and then covered in chocolate fingers.

Side view showing the chocolate fingers

The top has swirls all over the cake to imitate the swirl from an ice cream machine. I then decorated it with chocolate sprinkles, chocolate sauce and flake.

Top view showing the "icecream"

I think overall the effect was good but there's still practice required on both making giant cupcakes and decorating them. I hope my brother liked the cake and enjoyed eating it.

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Wedding Anniversary Cake

2015-04-16T10:01:00.000+01:00

For a couple's wedding anniversary I was asked to recreate the top tier of their wedding cake. I made a square rich fruit cake and covered it with marzipan and then several layers of royal icing. This process takes a while as each layer needs to dry before another is spread onto the cake.

I next made the sugar flowers for the top of the cake. I made these to match the original bouquet so they were carnations, freesias and lily of the valley, all in white.

Flowers on the top of the cake

My next task was to create the swags on the side of the cake. I first marked these along the edge of the cake making sure everything is even and neat. I then piped on top of these with royal icing. Each swag is 4 layers thick, so piped along it once, left it to dry and then piped again until each had 4 layers. This builds it up and brings it out from the side of the cake.

I then piped shells along each of the edges of the cake and down the corners.

Finished Cake

I hope the couple and their family liked the cake. I was pleased with how it turned out and considering it was royal icing I'm even more pleased.

If you like a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Brush Embroidery Cake

2015-04-14T11:56:00.000+01:00

For my sister's birthday, my mum suggested I tried out a new technique called brush embroidery. I made a lemon cake which I filled with lemon butter icing and lemon curd. I then covered it in sugarpaste and set about designing the cake. I imprinted some flowers on to the cake and created the design. Using royal icing I piped a little at a time and used a brush to drag the icing down and create the effect. This is the first time I've done this technique on the cake and is certainly something I'd like to practice again. The effect on the cake was nice but I feel that it could have been a little neater.

Top View of the Cake

Do you like this cake?

Overall View of the cake

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Digger Cake

2015-04-13T14:22:00.004+01:00

I was asked to make a digger cake for someone's 35th birthday. It was a 6" rich chocolate cake covered in sugar paste. I covered the cake in a pale green sugar paste and made some hills around the edge.

For the digger I made this out of modelling paste and allowed it to dry so everything set in place. I used some of the chocolate cake crumbs to make some soil, that the digger was digging up.

Close up of the Digger

I used tappits to create the message on the board and my final task was to make some little cones.

Finished cake

I hope they liked the cake. If you're ever in need of a cake please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Naked Wedding Cake

2015-04-13T14:14:00.000+01:00

For my first wedding cake of the year I was asked to create a "naked" cake. This is a cake that isn't covered in sugarpaste so you can see the sponge layers underneath. It's typically decorated with fresh fruit and flowers. This style of cake produces a perfect rustic cake and in this case it was just perfect for the beautiful barn location.

After the usual cake tasting the couple decided to go with vanilla, chocolate, lemon and red velvet, from the bottom up. As the cake isn't covered it's essential to have the sponge as fresh as possible to prevent them being dry. Usually the sugar paste will seal the cake in and you have a week, in this case I baked the sponge the day before. In some ways this is nice as the cake is done over a short time, however, I describe it as high stress over 2 days rather than medium stress over a week!!

The day before I went out and purchased all the red fruit I could find, this was strawberries, raspberries, cherries, red grapes and blueberries. My first task was to wash all the fruit and leave it to dry. I didn't have much!!

All my fruit drying

Once my sponge was made and cooled I sliced and filled each layer with butter icing. I also cut a small dip out the top so that each layer sat flush on each other, otherwise you'd see a silver board between each layer which I didn't want. I also dowelled each layer making sure that it would support the cake above.

Vanilla cake, sliced and filled with butter icing and jam.

Remaining 3 cakes ready to go.

Once I got to the venue my task was to assemble it all. I was relieved that the cakes all slotted on to each other beautifully and flat. I then set about putting all the fruit around the cake. I used cocktail sticks to support the larger fruits and balanced the smaller ones around. I had also previously made some sugar roses to put on the cake. So I slotted these around as well.

Finished Cake at the venue

View of the top of the cake

I was really pleased with this cake and it turned out the best I could imagine. I drove away from the venue feeling great pride. I also got a lovely thank you card from the couple and some really lovely comments. I couldn't have asked for any more.

If you're looking for a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Flower Topper

2015-04-07T08:05:00.000+01:00

I was asked to make a flower topper for someone to use on a cake they were making themselves. She wanted it really colourful and asked for mainly roses with a few filler flowers.

Cream Rose

To fit this brief I made roses in blue, pink, purple and cream. I also made some white jasmine and some rose leaves. I felt that any more flower varieties would overwhelm the bunch and make it look too fussy.

I arranged these in a line bunch in order to decorate the middle of the cake and create a nice centre piece.

Finished Flowers

Along with these flowers I also made a few extra so they could use some on the edge of the cake and balance out the cake.

Smaller bunch for the edge

What do you think?

Finished Bunch

Top View

Don't forget that I can make just the topper if you'd like to make the cake yourself or have a cake that you want to add something else to. I make the flowers to your specification and size.

Pink Rose

Flower topped cake

2015-04-04T11:39:00.001+01:00

For one of my display wedding cakes I decided to have a go at something I'd been wanting to do for ages, a cake topped with large flowers.

Finished Cake

For this cake I made a large peony, some English roses, Heritage roses, Freesias and filler flowers. These were all wired flowers and taped together through a posy in the centre. I decided to stick with mainly purples and pinks for the cake so it created a neutral look with hints of colour.

Flowers on Top

At the bottom of the cake I put a little Heritage flower to balance out the bunch at the top.

Flowers on Top

I was pleased with how this cake looked and it's one of my favourites to date. I would still like to experiment with the flower arrangement at the top of the cake but I think this works very well.

Flowers on Top

For this cake I also decided to try using a different backdrop. I found some wallpaper and placed this behind the cake. I think the balance works really well and suits the cake very well. What do you think?

If you like this or any other cakes in my collection and require a cake, for any occasion, please get in touch.

16 number cake with red Roses

2015-02-02T14:35:00.000+00:00

I was asked to make a 16 number cake decorated with red Roses and red edges.

First job was to make the numbers, I didn't use templates or special tins for these I just made them out of standard circles and square. For the number 1 I used a 6" square, cut it into 3 placing one along the bottom, one for the stem and then the last is cut off to form the tip. For the 6 I used 2 6" round tins. The first formed the circle on the 6 and then last was cut in half to form the stalk.

I covered these cakes in 2 parts. The edges they wanted red so I coloured a strip of icing and stuck this around the sides. I then cut a white piece to put on the top of the cake.

I made lots of Roses from buds to full flowers along with leaves. These were then bunched together and placed in flower picks for the cake.

Sugar Roses with leaves

I made some butterflies and allowed these to dry in shape before placing them on the cake.

Top of cake

Finally I made some blossoms for the edges of the cake to add a little texture and I piped the message on the top of the cake.

Front view

Overall this isn't my favourite cake. I had issues making the cake as numbers are tough to cover. I don't particularly like the colours but it isn't my cake. I hope the birthday girl enjoyed the cake, I know the cake inside was good.

Black and White Wedding Cake

2015-02-02T14:17:00.004+00:00

I was asked a few times about black and white cakes over the autumn so I decided to create a cake suiting this style to give the brides some idea. I used a square cake dummy stacked at a slight twist so it creates a different effect.

I purchased some black cake lace and made it by the instructions. I then stuck these on each tier.

Cake lace

I used some feathers in the top of the cake and finally I made a blossom flower and stuck this on the edge of the cake.

Blossom Flower

I personally wouldn't choose this cake but I know that some people would like it and it would suit some themes. It was fun to make and I like the idea of the feathers on the cake and it's easy to get these in different colours. I hope this inspires some people and makes them think a little outside the box.

Finished cake

Number 1 Blue Cake

2015-02-02T14:00:00.002+00:00

I was asked to make a number 1 cake covered in powder blue icing for a little boy's first birthday. This cake was riddled with difficulties, the first was the cake itself. The young birthday boy was unable to eat eggs or milk so I had to find a recipe that was suitable for him to eat. I found one online that used oil and golden syrup to make it suitable. The cake seemed to be runnier than normal mixture but it came out looking like it was a nice texture.

I cut the cake into 3 (it was a square cake) and shaped it into a 1 shape. I then covered it in butter icing and coated it in blue sugar paste. This was challenge 2 on the cake. the shape has lots of sharp edges and the icing is so easily torn as you try and shape it.

I covered the shape in white stars to give it some contrast and also made some icing blocks with the birthday boy's name on them. Finally I made a little teddy to go on the cake.

Ready for piping

My final task was putting it on a board and piping the message. I was a little stupid and put the cake on the left and piped on the right. Being left handed this made my life much more difficult with the piping, in future I'll remember this and put the cake on the other side!!

I was pleased with how this little cake came out and I hope it was perfect for the birthday boy making his first very special.

Finished cake

Final Christmas Cake of 2014

2015-02-02T13:49:00.000+00:00

The final Christmas cake I created this year was for my own family gathering. I made a rich fruit cake, covered it in marzipan and coated it in royal icing. I used several coats spread over several weeks to produce a reasonable covering.

I made up some stringwork icing and piped these along the top edge of the cake. I turned the cake upside down and piped the top edge of the cake in the same way. I piped shell detailing around the bottom edge of the cake.

Finally I made some sugar roses, freesia and leaves and bunch these together for the centre of the cake.

Sugar Roses and Freesias

I was very pleased with how this cake came out. I think it looks beautiful but it's not particularly Christmassy. I'm sure my family won't mind though. This cake would make a beautiful anniversary or celebration cake. The piping is very fragile though so I would like to do too large cake in this design but I do like the stringwork and think it's very effective.

Finished cake

Gary's Tiger Lily Cake

2015-02-02T13:48:00.001+00:00

For my husband's birthday this year he gave me the brief of making him an impressive cake with flowers. His favourite of those I've made so far is the Tiger Lily. So of course I used these on his cake. I decided to make a 2 tiered square cake in white decorated with piped detailing.

My first job was to make the lilies. I made several so I could cover the cake with them.

Tiger Lilies

Gary asked for a chocolate cake and a lemon cake, so I made these, filled them and covered them in sugarpaste and left them to settle a little.

Covered cake and placing lilies

For the piping detailing I found a design we liked on the internet and traced this on to the cake. I them piped over these. I wasn't 100% happy with the piping but it wasn't bad for a first attempt in this style. I'll continue to practice.

Once the cake was all dried I placed ribbons around each tier and put the lilies on the cake.

Finished Cake

I was really pleased with the effect of this cake and thought the lilies looked stunning. I got lots of lovely compliments and will certainly be adding it to my wedding portfolio.

Close up of side lily

Close up of top liliess