I did these for my own wedding and everyone loved them. I made the ones below last weekend along with cupcakes for a wedding with a thistle theme.

It gets more difficult to take good photos as the light fades earlier and now sometimes the days are so grey there is no light at all. These are some of the cakes and cupcakes I have made lately, with varying degrees of photo quality!

As part of Chocolate Week (12 – 18 October), all chocolate cupcakes made during the week  by The Lavender Bakery will contain Fairtrade Divine chocolate. Gold decorations optional! Order yours now and have them delivered by courier anywhere in London.

Top chocolatiers and chocolate companies are creating a programme of total chocolate indulgence, and Divine, along with a host of lovely partners, has some really special experiences lined up and exclusive new recipes to share. For news of Divine’s new products out this autumn, and a continually updated list of Chocolate Week events and promotions visit www.divinechocolate.com.

This year Divine has asked celebrities, top chefs and restaurateurs to come up with their perfect Divine chocolate pudding recipe exclusively for Chocolate Week. The list so far includes two-Michelin star chef Michael Caines; TV chef Alan Coxon who recently presented the BBC2 series Ever Wondered About Food; Ireland’s best known chef and food writer Clodagh McKenna; renowned baking & chocolate expert Linda Collister; young chef Sam Stern who’s fifth cookery book for students is due out early next year; Michelin-starred chef Rob Rees MBE; and bestselling children’s author Anne Fine.

These cupcakes with the very cute logo were for Kids First to take to Tenterden primary school who won £5k in last year’s Playground Partnerships scheme. You can read more about what they do on their website and on their blog.

Kids First Trust, formerly the charitable-arm of high street retailer Woolworths, is set to relaunch
its Playground Partnerships scheme to benefit primary schools for the academic year
2009/10. The scheme has £20,000 to donate to primary schools which will be awarded to those
schools submitting the most creative and interesting child-led application and will launch at a
winning school in Kent.

In its previous six years, Playground Partnerships has donated over £2 million to UK primary
and special schools. The money has improved facilities at over 500 playgrounds and a further
40,000 pupils have benefited from taking part in the scheme and its curriculum based resource
materials.

But Playground Partnerships is far more than just a chance for the children to take an active
part in the design. It’s also a chance for children to get hands on, while at the same time
building essential key skills such as effective teamwork, leadership and project planning.
Playground Partnerships is open to all UK primary schools from 8th September 2009 with the
deadline for the submission of completed design portfolio’s being in March 2010.
As in previous years, Kids First Trust expects a high volume of entries, easy to understand for a
scheme which not only puts children at its centre but also encourages creativity and
independent thinking. For further information, schools should register at
http://kidsfirsttrust.org/playgroundpartnerships.

Thought I would give these cupcakes a bit of a swirl rather than their usual smooth finish. What do you think?

Some of the cakes for this order were made with only maple sugar for a bride who does not eat processed sugar. It was a delicious, if expensive product with a really mellow, lovely flavour. Cupcakes were carrot cake and raspberry coconut cake decorated with chopped walnuts and toasted coconut flakes.

Dairy free chocolate orange cake.

Peppa Pig is such a popular character amongst little girls! She does have a certain charm