...On my way to where the air is (cakes are) sweet

12 Sesame Street cakes for Lilly's birthday. She wanted Cookie Monster cakes but her little brother likes Elmo, so she ordered one for him too!

Chocolate cakes with vanilla buttercream and fondant icing decorations.




Cookie




Elmo
(I think I should have done some white icing underneath his face, so that his 'rugby ball' shaped head stood out more. Otherwise the red icing blends into the chocolate cake too much)




Really like the fact there's just one different face in the box (though it was a bit fiddly to ice just one in a different colour, rinsing the icing nozzle etc.)

Martha's 4th Birthday

Since there were lots of boys and girls were going to Martha's 4th birthday party, her mum, Claire, didn't want to have an overly girly theme.
It was fun to get all the bright colours out and make some really vibrant cake decorations. I know Martha likes Hello Kitty, so I couldn't resist doing a couple of Kitty faces for her too.

Chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream and fondant icing decorations.


I don't normally take photos of the cakes before they're baked, but I just thought they looked so cheerful in their colourful jackets, waiting to go into the oven.


The finished decorations, in the right order.


And the finished, iced and decorated cakes, though not quite in the right order :-)


Kitties, flowers, butterflies, hearts, stars... these are a few of my favourite things.


...all adding up to a sea of colour.


Side view.


Boxed up and ready to go to the party!

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.

Bears!

Julie ordered 24 cakes for her son's birthday party at Build A Bear, so of course they had to be bear themed!

Vanilla cakes with chocolate buttercream and fondant icing decorations.



Panda


Brown Bear


(Lighter) Brown Bear


Side view


24 Bears off to the party

Max's Fireman Cakes

Max's mum asked for 12 Firefighter-themed cakes for his birthday. Her brief was also, "Nothing to do with Fireman Sam though!" I was happy to comply.

6 Chocolate and 6 vanilla cakes with vanilla buttercream.


12 firefighter-themed cakes.


I know we don't have this type of firefighter helmet in the UK, but it's such an iconic image.


Sometimes the flames round the edge look like fire, and sometimes they look like flower petals!


Hose


Top view - with the number 4 inside


Fire truck with wobbly ladder and edible gold lustre stripe.


Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Max!

Mr Potato Head

June asked me to make 6 cakes for Ambrose's birthday. He collects different Mr Potato Head characters and she sent me photos of them.

She had seen the Lego men cakes I'd made and liked the 3D look of them, but it would have been very expensive and time consuming to make 6 characters like that, so we compromised and I made two 3D versions from Ambrose's collection, and four flat designs- making different faces reflecting the fact that the original Mr Potato Head is a customisable toy.

It was really fun delivering the cakes (despite the rain), as Ambrose had no idea they were coming. How nice to be part of someone's birthday surprise!

Chocolate cakes with chocolate buttercream and fondant decorations.


Who knew such things existed? I certainly didn't.


The six finished cakes.


Darth Tater.


Side view.


Spider Spud
(I'm not making these names up!)


With big feet!


The classic Mr Potato Head faces.


This one looks a bit angry.


The Toy Story one.


Glasses.


Chocolate cakes and chocolate buttercream.