Hi! Welcome to my blog. I am a major foodie, with a haphazard cooking philosophy, currently making that transition from cooking and baking for friends and family to 'wonder if I could make this my career'. Follow me for recipes, the outcomes of a few experiments, and general lovely foodiness. Opinions, reviews and recommendations are all my own.

Sunday 18 August 2013

What I've Been Up To Lately...

I've been a little absent from my keyboard for the last few weeks, so I thought I'd write a little post to show you what I've been up to lately. As you know, cake decorating is kind of my baby. I have a business idea and plan in the back of my mind, and I'm hopeful that within the next 18 months to 2 years I will be in a position to get the wheels in motion. 

I've always known that it's going to take a little while to get a professional cake business off the ground. The main issue I have at the moment is that we live in a rented property that's not ideal to run a business from. Rather then forcing the issue, my plan is to spend a couple of years building a portfolio of designs, getting plenty of practice, and learning from my mistakes, whilst at the same time saving towards our own place that will of course be cake business perfect! 

It's a solid plan - each cake teaches me a few new lessons in how to (or not to) do things. My rule is that I will make cakes for friends and family, at the cost of ingredients. I get to develop my skills and portfolio, they get a cake. The hard part now seems to be being strong enough to stay firmly on the right path. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, and it would be very easy to get carried away on people's enthusiasm, however until I am ready to deal with Environmental Health and the Tax Man I have to keep things strictly to friends and family. 

Anyway, here is a little round up of the projects that have kept me away from my blog the last few weeks...


This little fella had a back story. The recipient of the cake is apparently very proud of his lawn, but has to battle with the kid's rabbit who likes to run around eating the flower beds! 

I made this cake right in the middle of the big heatwave, and learned a very important lesson - fondant melts quickly in the heat, and buttercream melts even quicker! Getting the grass stripes to stay put whilst I positioned the next was nigh on impossible, but we got there in the end. In the absence of an air conditioned kitchen, I very much learned that when it's hot, do cake decorating in the middle of the night! 


Next up was this remake of the classic Sex Pistols album cover 'Never Mind The Bo****ks'. A few changes in wording to make it kid friendly, and we have a birthday cake for an old school punk fan! 


This was a last minute creation for a friend who lives a great distance away, and came about 2 months after her birthday, hence the belated message! Wicked the Musical has a lot of significance for her so it was nice to work the theme into this cake. We went for an overall theme of Elphaba, the wicked witch, but added a little sparkle with stars and pink glitter to capture a little of the essence of Glinda! 


This Hello Kitty cake was one of my favourites to make, maybe something to do with my inner ballerina princess? Re-creating such a recognisable character was a little daunting as there is no real room for error, and children are of course the most discerning of judges, so some careful planning and stencilling was needed to make sure that Kitty came out just right! 


I loved everything about making this Skittles cake, including all the extra Skittles that just had to be eaten (I may have been slightly buzzing on e-numbers by the end). My facebook page went wild for this design when I posted it - by far one of the most popular to date I think! 


This weekend I've made a serious amount of cakes, seven to be exact! Four were little samplers for my brother's oldest friends for their wedding next year. This was the first of the other three, a simple white chocolate and strawberry cake for my friend's birthday (her favourite) after which we went for Chinese food and beers! I decorated this one with some simple fondant roses in bright colours and a little gift tag. 


Peppa Pig was a last minute request from my brother for a kids party he was going to with his girlfriend. As I reside in a kid free house I don't have much knowledge of Peppa and her friends if I'm honest, but trusty google led the way on this one, and I had a message telling me she was a big hit!


And last but by no means least, this Sheffield United cake has just been picked up by an old friend for her partner's birthday this week. 

So there we are! Another eight cakes to add to my growing picture gallery, and hopefully you can see why I have had to neglect you all recently! I promise however that there is a recipe coming soon for an epic Amaretto Cheesecake that will make all things right again! Happy Sunday one and all, I'm off to find some wine! xx

6 comments:

  1. I think you have done exceedingly well, your cakes are superb! I love your lettering , it looks so professional. I must admit I am rubbish at decorating cakes, I like making them but have no expertise at all with decorating unfortunately. I wish you luck with your plans to start your own business, you are going about it the right way , in my opinion. All the best! Jeannette

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    1. Jeanette, thank you so much for your lovely comment! I'm pretty new to decorating, been doing it about a year. The best thing I find is that there is so much inspiration now on the internet you can google images for inspiration, and then search for tutorials on how to make things. I'm so pleased that you like them, can't wait to share more as I go! x

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  2. These look great. I particularly like the Sex Pistols cake - album cover cakes is such a fine idea. I very rarely try decorating cakes in any serious way but the last time I tried was for friend's birthday in the south of France some years ago and so I can definitely sympathise over the problem of heat and cake decorating not mixing. Good luck with Environmental Health and the Tax Man when you meet them.

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    1. Thank you so much Phil! I love the idea of album cover cakes too, I might have to expand the range! Maybe Dark Side of the Moon would be an easy place to start!

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  3. Wow you have been busy! All of those cakes are fabulous and I think it's a great idea to get a portfolio together in advance of starting the business. I'm sure people will be queuing up for your cakes once you get officially started. Good luck with the planning :)

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    1. Thanks Jen! It's so frustrating when I'm so naturally impatient, but I know deep down that slow and steady is best! I'm just lucky to have so many people around me to bake for! :-)

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