Life in Black and White

A really interesting commission from Cath, who is studying Surface Pattern Design and wanted 12 black and white cakes topped with her own designs to complement her degree show stand.

I researched where Cath could have her toppers printed, and then made 12 dark, dark chocolate Guinness cakes and topped them with buttercream, but this time using vegetable fat instead of butter, so that the icing would be pure white.

The toppers were a new experience for me. They were fine to use if you got them right the first time, but once placed on the icing, they tore if I tried to move them. Luckily Cath had printed a few spares...

If you like Cath's work, you can see more of it here.


12 Black and White cakes with 12 toppers.




Cath's work in situ.

Mini Mix

Bob ordered 24 mini cakes to take into work for her 30th birthday. She couldn't decide on a theme, so I suggested a mix of designs in an assortment of icing flavours.
I'm always happy to have the chance to practice my icing techniques (and this order also gave me the chance to finally work out the pricing for a box of mini cakes!)

Happy 30th birthday Bob!


24 mini chocolate Guinness cakes with assorted toppings:


cream cheese frosting;


raspberry buttercream with hundreds and thousands;


and a red buttercream rose.
(the cakes with the roses also had a fresh raspberry baked into the middle)


Top view



pretty.

Space Cakes!

A lovely order from Clare for Stephen's birthday: both a fun commission of 12 space-themed cakes AND the invitation to go round and help them eat them!

I made chocolate Guinness cakes (because that's all I seem to bake at the moment!) with cream cheese frosting. The toppers were made from fondant icing, and some hundreds and thousands to represent the asteroids!

(there's nothing I love more than geeking out about a subject- so not only did I do my best to recreate the look of the planets, I also wanted them in the right order. Between creating them, I spent my time online, checking the placement of the asteroid belt and the Kuiper belt. I also felt a little "not to scale" proviso was in order!)

Happy Birthday Stephen!


12 Solar system cakes: Sun, Mercury, Venus, (a rocket), Earth, Mars, asteroid belt, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Venus and some stars (or the Kuiper belt, as I like to think of them)


"Not to Scale"


Asteroids


Side view



Some astronaut candles


ready for blast off to Stephen's.

Moustache Cakes A-Go-Go!

Camilla ordered 12 cakes with moustaches on for her friend's hen do!

The complicating factor was that she needed to have them delivered to her in Manchester on Wednesday evening, but would be serving them in London on Friday evening - with a detour to Norwich on the way!

I made 12 chocolate Guinness cakes with a raspberry inside each one, trying to go for maximum moistness - if they started out really moist, then they would have a chance of not being quite bone dry by Friday tea time.

We decided to top the cakes with raspberry buttercream to make sure the pink colour gave the cakes a bit of femininity too. And I matched the cake cases with the chocolate brown moustache shapes.

I guess they survived ok, because the feedback I got was:

"They tasted amazzzzing! Omg better than I could ever imagine- there were lots of happy hens definitely! (butter icing slightly melty after 8 hours on a sweaty train, but no-one noticed!) thanks so much xxxx"

:-{D


I made the chocolate Guinness cakes, as they are the moistest recipe I have, and they would have to survive at least 2 days from baking to eating. I put a fresh raspberry inside each one, in the hope of making them even more moist and juicy!


The moustache toppers.
I had imagined making lots of different shapes in lots of different colours, but I thought that since the cakes had a long journey ahead of them, simplicity was key.
The dark brown colour matches the chocolate cakes and their cases, and the simple moustache shapes would (hopefully) travel well.


A rejected complicated moustache shape.


Cakes baked and iced. This is what they would look like until Camilla assembled them on Friday, so I wanted to make them as pretty as possible, even without their toppers.


A close-up of the raspberry buttercream.


Moustaches were packaged in layers.


Protected by greaseproof paper and kitchen towel layers.


And a bit of desiccant to make sure they didn't get soggy en route.


Ready for the journey.


The lovely Camilla modeling the lovely finished product.

:-{D

Danny's 4th Birthday

This weekend is a real anniversary for me, because not only is it my son Danny's 4th birthday, but it was Googling cake ideas for his birthday last year, and thinking, "I could do that!" that gave me the inspiration for my little business.

For months now Danny's been telling me that he wanted Spiderman and Cookie Monster cakes, but at the last minute he also added Elmo to the mix. Good because I wanted to work a bit more on my Elmo design- his mouth is different to Cookie Monster's, and this time I put some white icing on the cake first, so that his rugby ball-shaped head is more obvious.

I also baked some of Nigella Lawson's Butter Cut-Out Biscuits (from her Domestic Goddess book), and Danny and I iced them so that he could take them into school and share them with his nursery friends.

Chocolate Guinness cakes with vanilla or chocolate buttercream and fondant decorations






Blowing out the candles.


Look out, it's SpiderDan!


Ruby chose Cookie Monster and got a bright blue mouth!


Icing the number 4-shaped biscuits for Danny to take to nursery.


You can probably tell which he did and which I did.


Unbelievably, Danny is 4!

Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Valentine's Day:
I had originally thought that I'd like to try out a Red Velvet Cupcakes recipe. But I just couldn't seem to get enthused about what is essentially a chocolate cake with lots and lots of food colouring in.

Instead I thought I would make some chocolate and Guinness cakes, decorated with a cream cheese icing that also has a splash of Guinness in!

I adapted Nigella Lawson's Guinness Cake recipe, but ended up with a massive amount of mixture! Next time I'll halve the recipe, but this time I made 12 normal sized cakes and lots and lots of mini ones. Hope my Kung Fu comrades will be hungry after tonight's class...

I can't swear that they really taste of Guinness, but they certainly taste delicious!

Have a sweet Valentine's Day everyone.



It kind of looks like a pint of Guinness from the top... kind of.


A sort of heart. This is the idea I was trying to copy.


The opposite version worked a lot better.


Lots and lots of left-overs = lots and lots of mini cakes.