My Christmas Cake

Now normally for my Christmas Cake I normally like the the old fashioned snow effect cake with lots of little decoration such as snowballs, and trees with presents under, and a little twist of  maybe the odd penguin surfing around it, but this year I thought  I would try something a little different. I had bought during the summer in a sale a flower cutter which also could double up as a poinsettia flower, so I thought I would try it out, and was quite pleased with the result, although I did stray from the normal red that everyone associates with the poinsettia, and decided to go with the blue one that not so many people know instead.

 I still kept the snow effect, but liberally dusted it with sparkle, and popped a few blue sugar dragees into the middle of the flowers. I also added a few light blue rice paper snowflakes I had picked up on my travels, and added a few of those too.
I never know whether to wrap a ribbon around a cake or not, but I thought I would this year, I had some silver sparkle wired ribbon in my ribbon box, so I added that as a final flourish.

Mother In Law's Boot- Birthday Cake

 My Mother-In-Law had a fantastic cowboy/cowgirl themed party and she had bought some gorgeous cowgirl boots to wear and she sent me a photo of them, as we live about 200 miles away.  I wanted to make her a surprise cake, and thought I would copy her boots. I did want to make them standing up in 3D, but realised the getting them there with the family, and a rather loopy dog, might make this a bit more of a challenge than what I was up for . So I made a white chocolate sponge with white chocolate ganache, only to find at the party she didn't like white chocolate! Oh my gosh, why didn't I ask somebody first? Still although she never ate it, the guests seemed to love it.

 I tried to copy the detailing faithfully, and think I managed it quite well. I am still very much a novice at this, so was quite proud of myself.

I dusted the cake all over with some luster dust, just for a little sparkle.

Pirate Ship

This cake was for my son's 5th birthday. He wanted a pirate ship, but I left myself very little time to make it, and so from the fondant covered all singing, all dancing confection I had originally planned I ended up making the abridged version.

The cake itself was a chocolate mud cake recipe from my copy of Planet Cake. The cake is very moist, very chocolatey, and very very moreish.  I covered the cake in milk chocolate ganache, and used ice-cream wafers for the windows and door. The crows nest was an ice-cream cornet chopped up, filled with cake offcuts, and  wooden kebab skewers used to make the masts.

I printed out the skull and crossbones on paper for the sails, as my idea of edible ink on rice paper sails soon evaporated when I realised I had about a day to make and decorate the cake.

It's not the tidiest cake I have made, but it was fun to do, and disappeared as quickly as it was made.

Hello Kitty Cake

This cake was great fun to make!. It was a strawberry sponge cake, covered in rolled fondant icing, and sprinkled with lots of lovely pink glitter.

I printed off a picture of what I wanted the cake to look like, and followed the design by placing the template over the cake and cutting the outline first, then once that was how I wanted it, I then covered the cake with the fondant and traced the outlines of Kitty onto the cake, using a wooden skewer.

I was very pleased with how the cake turned out, and the birthday girl loved it, which is all you can ask for really.

Football Shirt Cake

 This cake was for a friends 40th. He is a football fanatic, and so a personalised team shirt it had to be. I was a little short on time, so the cake was not quite as sharp as I would have liked it to be, but on the whole for the first shirt cake I have made I was quite pleased. The cake was a Madeira filled with jam and buttercream. I tinted the fondant red myself using a Christmas Red paste colour, and used my fondant extruder to make the piping rolls and the sleeve edges. 

Fairy Tale Princess Castle Cake

Apologies again. I did not take any photos of the making of this cake, only this one after it was made. But, I will explain how I made it.

The turrets were made with Gumpaste, rolled around tins, and left to set. I then dusted them with pink and snowflake sparkle dust, and using ice cream cones covered in royal icing, and sprinkled with edible glitter and coloured sugar and coloured sugar balls to make the roofs.

The cake itself was a vanilla madeira covered in piped buttercream, with the letters made using the curly letters shapes.

Peppa Pig Cake

This cake I made for my friends daughters 2nd birthday. She is a huge Peppa Pig fan, and loved her cake.

The cake is made with a vanilla madeira cake with fondant icing and decoration, and although it doesn't show up very well on the photographs I dusted the whole thing with edible glitter.

Fifi Flowertot Cake

This cake was for my friends daughter who adores Fifi. I made a few glaring mistakes such as not cutting out under her dungarees, so she looks a little odd along the chest area, but hey, first time making her so I will know if I ever make her again.

I love doing all of the cutouts and learning new techniques it all adds to the fun ands sometimes stress of it all.

Again, I never snapped any photos of the cake in progress, just the finished article. Sorry, but I get so carried away, and completely forget the camera. I need to have it out on the worktop before I start, so that it is staring at me all the time. Then I might manage to show you a few more interesting items.

Coffee & Walnut Sponge Cake

I love coffee and walnut cake. There is something so traditional about it, it's just a classic. I made this on a whim the other day, and true to form forgot to take photos until too late again.

The cake came out light fluffy, and incredibly moist, so I will definately be making this again.

Lots of walnuts! I put more in than stated in the recipe as I am a sucker for them. They are one of the best nuts around, and I love the crunch followed by the creaminess of them, especially in a cake like this. I don't chop them up too finely either, they have got to have a bit of substance. Yum!

Everything about this cake came out great. The icing was soft and smooth with a lovely coffee aroma, and set with a nice little crisp casing which sticks to your lip when you take a bite. mmm....

This is all that's left of the cake too. It went in a flash with a cup of tea and visitors, and this sad little lonely piece is all that's left. Not for long though, as I think hubby has his eye on it.

Ladybird Cake

So, this is the Ladybird (or bug) cake that I made for a friends daughters 1st birthday. My friend wanted it pink, so I duly obliged, and liberally sprinkled gorgeous pink glitter with gay abandonment as, a) it makes me very happy, and, b) makes the cake look soooo cute.

I can only give you different shots of the cake, as when I was making it I got so carried away, I completely forgot to take photos of the process. Sorry!

I am very happy to say though, that the cake went down very well, and the recipient would have eaten all of it had she been allowed.

The cake was a very moist and rather gorgeous chocolate all in one. The recipe is very easy to do, and the cake comes out so well, that if left for a day to settle, it can be carved into shape.

I used my new cake decorating tools to help me make the grass, and shape the mouth etc, but as I hadn't used them before I can see I will need to practise.

I love making theme cakes, and really enjoyed doing this one, it took a little time, but was fun to do.