Birthday Cake and Eeyore!

Last week I made a birthday cake for my sister in law, Kirsten, who requested a cake that looked the same as one I'd made for a work colleague earlier in the year. I like it when people ask me this, it's so much easier than trying to think of a design myself as that's not really my strong point!!

Anyway I made a 9" victoria sponge cake, filled with buttercream and jam, covered in white icing and decorated with lots of sugarpaste flowers in a variety of colours, with painted vines intertwining everything.



I still need to perfect cutting the cake in half and remembering to put it back together at the exact same point. This cake did have a little slant to it, but I managed to avoid using those photos haha. To be honest, it wasn't that obvious, I didn't even notice it until I looked at the photographs. But it's all a learning curve and I'm sure it's something I'll improve on (fingers crossed!).

Also just wanted to give a quick update on the cake class. We did cartoon modelling the other week and we made an Eeyore figure! I was so excited when I knew we'd be doing Eeyore - he's such a cute character that I feel sorry for, he just needs a hug. We also learned all about copyright and how when copying a character we need to change some small detail on it so that the owners of the character won't sue us! Good to know! Lol. We didn't have to change anything in the class though as it wasn't being sold. but i changed the colour of the inside bit of his ears to lilac from pink just to be sure! lol. He was quite difficult to make but hopefully should I make another one or another character, I've at least got a grounding in it now.

Cake decorating update

 I have been rushed off my feet for the last couple of weeks with barely any time to breathe, let alone update my blogs :-( But on the upside, all this rushing around has been because of cake-y things which I suppose can never be bad.


My last post stated that I had 11 orders for those Easter egg novelties with 10 to do over that weekend. Well between that blog post and Easter itself, the number shot up to 26! How amazing is that? Not sure how, but I managed to get them all done and dusted for when everyone needed them (luckily a couple weren't needed until after Easter).

Once they had been completed, I had a fruit cake to decorate which I'd made in February for Easter. I covered the cake in marzipan and yellow icing (a nice Easterish colour) and then decorated it with marzipan flowers and a chick - oh and some mini eggs! Yum!


I have also been lucky enough to have had more cake requests - the first one I received was for a 21st birthday cake for a work colleague's daughter, which luckily will involve copying a cake rather than designing one! This cake isn't needed until July however. Another work colleague who sits next to me then asked me if I could do her a 2 tier mock up of a wedding cake as she was having a Royal Wedding party at her house. I was shocked that she asked me and it sounded extremely daunting, especially as we hadn't done anything in class yet on tiers - but it just so happened that our class the following day was going to be about assembling tiered cakes!



Once I'd been along and had seen how it was done, I felt a bit better and she found a picture of a cake she wanted me to do, which had a nice simple design of white daisies on it - but she wanted red, white and blue patriotic daisies :) She also wanted the bottom layer to be chocolate cake and the top layer to be a victoria sponge cake.

I spent much time beforehand gathering all the supplies I needed (and even took a jaunt to Windsors cake shop in Warrington, which has everything you could want! Quite dangerous to shop there lol. http://www.windsorcakecraft.co.uk/) and then I spent all of Tuesday baking and decorating (with a viewing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 while the cakes cooled!). I'm pretty happy with how the cakes turned out and even happier that it was my first paid cake job! In honour of my excitement regarding this, I have created a Facebook page called Catherine's Cakes - just do a search on there and you should find me.

My next task is a birthday cake for my sister in law who liked a previous design I have done, and this is needed for next Saturday. Following on from that I've been asked to do 12 cupcakes (6 lemon and 6 vanilla) for my friend's daughter's communion on 14th May, and then I have another one to do which I won't mention on here in case the recipient reads it, followed then by a request for a retirement/60th birthday cake for October. It's all very exciting.

Easter novelties

Hello

I started on my mammoth task last night of making a number of Easter novelties requested by my work colleagues for friends and family members as a bit of a different Easter gift. I only made one last night as this one is for a work mate who's last day before Easter is tomorrow - I will hopefully complete the rest over the weekend. I have a total of 11 orders plus an additional one I'll be making for my niece Ella. All of these customers are paying me as well so that's very exciting!

I offered everyone the choice of the decoration being made of icing or marzipan, choice of a duck or a rabbit, choice of sweets to go into the egg (something small like buttons, dolly mixtures, maltesers etc), choice of colours for the 'duvet and pillow' (usually pink for a girl and blue for a boy if they're for children) and whether you want the recipients name put on it. The finished product will then be wrapped in cellophane to make it look more of a present.

I'm not very good at asking people for money for what I make so two of my friends at work decided the pricing for me and they are £4 for 1,

£7 for 2 and £10 for 3. I have a huge task ahead of me this weekend to get 10 done, but I'm sure I will succeed. I'm just really nervous that it will all go wrong or I'll write someone's name incorrectly or mix up sweets and colours and even worse, break bits off it as I try and wrap it up!

:-( Please all have your fingers crossed for me :-)

Here is a picture of the first of many I have completed:

Ella's 3rd Birthday

Hello everybody

Iggle Piggle and Upsy Daisy

Wow it's been quite a while since my last post - cannot believe how fast time is going - it's just slipping past me! I've been very busy lately and haven't had a chance to update either of my blogs. I will start this post then with a big Happy 3rd Birthday to my niece Ella. Her birthday was just over a week ago now but we only had her party on Saturday just gone.

Upsy Daisy 

It wasn't a big party, it was a nice celebration meal with the family - there was Mike and Kirsten with Ella and Isabelle, my mum and dad and Kirsten's dad, step mum, grandma and sister so there was a good crowd of us at the Carvery in Widnes.

Ella looked very pretty in her red dress with white spots on (I'm sure it belonged to Minnie Mouse lol) and she even had sparkly shoes (I was jealous) and a tiara - no mistaking the birthday girl!

In honour of Ella's birthday and also my newfound skills in cake decorating - skills might be taking it too far, maybe let's say because I have been attending cake decorating classes, I thought I should try and be a little adventurous.

The finished cake

We had learned how to make teddy bears out of marzipan and I had originally decided to make use of this new knowledge and attempt a teddy bear's picnic birthday cake. I'd drawn it out and everything - do 2 teddy bears on a picnic rug with a variety of picnic goodies. The icing would be green - for grass of course and there's be lots of nice flowers etc surrounding them. Then Michael started sending me pictures of really difficult cakes, mostly In the Night Garden, saying how much Ella would like them. At first I was very much against trying - far too advanced for me - but I slowly started to come around to the idea of giving it a go. It wasn't so much Iggle Piggle (apologies for those who don't speak child) that was worrying me, it was Upsy Daisy. Now those of you who have seen the programme (I sympathise) then you will realise just how colourful she is with stripes everywhere and all sorts of interesting clashing colours and stupid things sticking out of her head!

In the Night Garden

I did my best on this cake and I think it came out ok (though I am still of the opinion that In the Night Garden is too advanced for me lol) and Ella recognised who the characters were so I was happy about that and that was all that really mattered anyway. Half the cake was devoured by the time we left the carvery so I'm hoping that means they enjoyed the taste of it! All the characters were made of marzipan and the cake was covered in sparkles so that's not surprising really :p I do feel there are still plenty of things I need a lot of practice at such as symmetrical writing, making characters sit up properly on the cake without looking like they're about to topple off and also I can see some issues with how I covered the cake, but all in all I was happy with the overall look of the cake.

So anyway, I hope you like the look of this cake and take a good long look at Upsy Daisy as I don't intend on making her again!

The finished article!

Cake Decorating Class update

Hello all

I can't actually remember what my last post was on this and whether I'll miss any weeks out but I'm going to tell you about the last 2 weeks.

The week before last we made a little novelty, ideal for Mother's Day or as a little gift to give someone for their birthday. This didn't actually involve cake in any way. We made a Pot of Primula's. I had to google what Primula's were - I mean I guessed they were flowers but I'd not heard of them before. Apparently they are from the same family as primroses and come in all kinds of colours.

This little novelty was quite simple to make and looked pretty effective. We were instructed to bring a walnut whip and sugarpaste, along with a bright colour, green colour and terracotta colour. I could do the first 3 things but I don't have the colours to make terracotta but the teacher had these available on the night.

Here are a couple of pictures of the finished product.




Last week we made an Easter novelty - a duck in bed :)

For this we were required to bring in an Easter egg, a creme egg, some buttons and plenty of sugarpaste with yellow and green colours and also another colour for the duvet cover. I really enjoyed making this novelty gift and feel there was much scope for differing the design.
It did take a fair while to make this but there was quite a long session where we sat and watched the teacher make it and then we had to go and follow her instructions. We used one half of the Easter egg for the 'bed' and the creme egg was used as the duck's 'body' beneath the duvet. The egg was filled up with buttons and then the duvet cover was placed over most of the egg and covered the creme egg and buttons. A pillow was also made to place the duck's head on, all of which were created with sugarpaste. Although I imagine should someone prefer, marzipan could be used in place of this.

I decorated my (too large) cake board with the moon and stars but there's so much more that could be done - slippers, book, anything really. Also I think a rabbit would be a cute change to make and also Easter-y.
I took my novelty into work and gave it to Karen for her daughter Emily and used this "prototype" to send an email around work to ask if anyone would like one for any friends or family etc and to date I have 7 to make for Easter, for 3 orders and I also have one to make for Ella also! Lots to do, I'll be busy that weekend before Easter. To do this though, I still have a few bits to buy - I need the smaller cake boards and also a roll of cellophane, both of which I've sourced on Ebay, I'm just waiting for pay day now lol.

Next week we'll be making another Easter novelty, possibly two so that'll be fun :)

R.I.P Jay

Told you he wasn't one for cuddles!

Jay, the best dog in the world, had to be put to sleep yesterday. He hadn't been well for a good few weeks now with trips back and forth to the vet every few days. They'd initially thought he had bronchitis but he'd get better on the antibiotics for a few days and then he'd dip back down again. They had thought they would X-Ray him yesterday to investigate his liver and lungs but it was decided that it wouldn't be kind to put him through all that, especially if there was nothing they could do.

I was at work when my mum phoned me to tell me and my lovely manager was kind enough to let me leave so I hopped a taxi to the vet and was so glad that he wasn't gone when I arrived, they'd waited for me to get there. I got to say goodbye to him and we were all there when the time came, talking to him, stroking him and he went peacefully. The staff at the Ark Veterinary Centre were amazing and so kind, they let us spend as much time with him as we wanted, both before and after. It was so hard to leave him and come home without him; the house just isn't the same.

We have had Jay since he was 7 weeks old - we got him from Freshfield Animal Rescue in August 1999 and we gave him his birthday as 29th June. Along with his brothers and sisters, he had been abandoned outside the rescue centre at 3 and a half weeks old. The day we went to visit the Centre, looking for a puppy, they were all in a big cage, tiny little things, all making pathetic whimpering noises. Although it took me a long time to actually decide which puppy to have, I think I wanted Jay from the moment I saw him, stuck behind the litter tray where he couldn't get out. As soon as I'd decided on Jay, he gave me a kiss under my chin, further clinching the deal.

I'm bored of all these photo's now!

Jay loved his dad and would follow him everywhere - at least until he took him to the park, and once there he loved nothing more than playing with his frisbee. Everyone knew him in the park because of this. He was very good at jumping and catching it in mid air. Everyone thought he was a beautiful dog, and he was - he was a lovely black and tan colour and looked much like a german shepherd, which we are convinced he was, at least in part.

However, Jay wasn't the most affectionate of dogs and I don't believe he really thought he was a dog. In most households with a dog, I'm sure common phrases heard are 'get off the couch', 'get off the bed' etc etc, well Jay wanted to be different and despite numerous attempts to get him to jump on the couch or bed for cuddles, he refused to, the only exception being when there were fireworks and we were trying to get him to go outside before bed.

Jay was a very intelligent dog and in addition to learning sit and lie down etc, we taught him to close the door. but Jay being the contrary dog he was, he would often just look at you as if to say 'do it yourself'. I always found the fact that he knew exactly what you were saying and what you wanted him to do, yet chose not to do it, quite amusing at times and frustrating at others, but I loved this quirk in his character.

Jay would bark at everyone who came to the door, postman, milkman, hairdresser, friends and family, and continued to do so despite the fact that they came to the house everyday or every week. He was a good protector in the case of making a deterrent noise but I reckon if someone retalliated, he'd run the other way, he was such a scaredy cat! He hated the wind and the thunder and didn't like being laughed at :-) As I said, Jay would bark at everyone and it took him a while to make friends with you, but once he did, he'd love you forever and you'd get big hugs and kisses whenever you came to visit and he'd never forget you. It was a nice welcome home after a long day at work.

Until the last few months Jay had been a boisterous ball of fun, always wanting to play, he loved the pudding ball and the Santa ball, and it's been so sad to see the decline in him.

Jay was 11 years and 9 months old when he died. I'm sure he's now somewhere in doggie heaven, barking at everyone, telling them what's what. And although I know it was the best thing for him, as he was in a lot of pain, I still wish he was here with me.

Birthday cake - a commission!

Wow, I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted - time has gone by so quickly and so much has happened! But I'll save that for another post.

I just wanted to post some pictures of the birthday cake I have made for a colleague of mine who asked if I would make it for her for which she bought me a little baking tray with teddy bear moulds on for me which was really lovely of her.
Anyway despite it being such a busy weekend, I managed to fit in making this cake - somehow! I made the cake on Friday night and then on Saturday I added the jam and buttercream and covered the cake in white sugarpaste and then today (Sunday) I finally decorated it.

I wasn't entirely sure how to go about decorating it at first but I decided to use the applique technique we'd learned in cake class this past week (I'll do another post on that!) but in order to do this, I had to go shopping - such a shame :p I'd heard in cake class about this place in Warrington - not far from Gemini retail park - but on the other side of the motorway and it's a very well stocked shop - I walked in and was like 'Wow' and spent the best part of an hour there. I needed to buy leaf cutters and veiner and also some flower cutters and some green dusting powder so I could paint on the vines.

One mistake I made when decorating, which I won't be making again, was that I cut out loads of flowers and leaves in a variety of colours but just didn't think about the sugarpaste going hard, so I had to be very careful when adding to the cake as they were no longer pliable, which unfortunately meant the decoration lost some of its 3D effect. I also made too many flowers and leaves so ended up throwing the remainder away which is a shame.

I'm also disappointed with how the writing turned out - getting things straight and symmetrical is not a strong skill of mine. I feel I am mastering the actual writing itself and the lettering is fine (well not bad anyway) but I'm struggling with the placement of the words and I'm not entirely sure how to rectify this. As you can see in the picture below, the top line needs to be shifted to the left a bit lol. Maybe it'll just be practice...


 Anyway I really hope Geraldine likes the cake, which is the main concern overall. Hope you all enjoy the photos as well.