Floral Birthday Cupcakes

I love making sugar roses and it's a good job! They are by far the most requested decoration, daisies coming a close second. I can see why, they're my personal favourite too and I love the fact that they're ageless, these cakes are for a four year old's birthday party. The barbie pink and lilac colour scheme is so girly and of course I couldn't resist a little (lol) glitter, well four year old girls love glitter.
The frangipani flowers are a new edition, I think they work quite well with the roses and daisies. My next cake will also include roses, but with a new decorating style for me to try out. I'm really excited and hope I get some good photos to add to my blog.

Baking with Mum

My little girl is as baking crazy as I am. We bake cakes together every week, I try to introduce a little variety but week in week out her favourite recipe is vanilla cupcakes. For a girl who used to turn her nose up at frosting she certainly makes up for that now! We don't get much variation in the colour scheme either but I suppose I should embrace her love of all things pink and pretty before she grows out of this lovely phase.
When baking with the kids, I try to let them do all aspects of the cooking. This normally means ditching the stand mixer or processor and going back to a large bowl and wooden spoon. They (my little boy joins in too) sit up on the work top along side a bowl that is nearly as big as them and armed with their favourite wooden spoons they get stuck in.
For these cakes we made a victoria sponge mix covered in a cream cheese frosting. The piping of the icing is the trickiest bit for a four year old so we both do it together. The decoration is left completely up to the kids. My daughter is surprisingly neat and very artistic. I think she's going to make a fantastic baker, my son on the other hand is definitely going to be more of a taster!

A busy month of baking

It's been far too long since I last blogged. The reason is that I've been busy baking and selling cakes. After lots and lots of requests I finally decided to make cakes for friends and friends of friends. I still want to keep it small, fearing that I'll lose my love of baking if it becomes a chore. What's emerging from these orders is an unexpected ability to create sugarpaste models and decorations. Who knew! I started by buying ready coloured sugarpaste but have since moved on to colouring my own. I'm going to venture into making my own marshmallow fondant in the coming weeks, keep an eye out for a post showing the outcome- fingers and toes crossed!
Here are a few pictures of my creations. As ever there's work to be done and skills to be learned, but this is me now.

Vanilla Cupcakes

I think I've gone cupcake crazy! I can't stop thinking about how to flavour and decorate these gorgeous little treats.

Growing up, cupcakes were just for the kids, something our mums whipped up for a birthday party, topped with some water and icing sugar paste and a sprinkle of hundreds and thousands if you were lucky. Until recently it was still quite daring to use cupcakes solely as your celebration centre piece (especially for weddings). How times change, a wedding today that doesn't include beautifully iced cupcakes is a rare and less adorned event.

This was a fun project without instruction, it's like play time to have freedom of design. These cakes are for a 6 year old's birthday party, I think they'll look really pretty in their cake stand and daringly there will be no main birthday cake!

'Oh So Sweet' ladybug cake

This cake is for my niece's first birthday. I offered to make a cake for her birthday a few months ago, so this one has been a long time in the planning. My sister in law bought some party items in the 'Oh So Sweet' range, importing them in from the states. She really wanted a cake to match the theme especially using the barbie pink, black and mint green colour scheme. This is my interpretation, I hope they like it when I deliver it later on ready for the party tomorrow.

Fairy Princess Cake

After seeing the Tinkerbell cake, a good friend of mine asked me to make a birthday cake for her daughter's 3rd birthday. My instructions were pink and princessy. These are my favourite kind of cakes to make and I was really pleased with how this cake turned out. The cake again was marbled with pink and white vanilla sponge.

Tinkerbell Cake

This cake was made for a very special 4 year old. A simple cake with lots of fun decorations, that was also really enjoyable to make. The inside cake was vanilla and I marbled the mix with pink coloured swirls, this was a lovely surprise for the party guests when it was cut.