Sweet Nothings

Wednesday, 31 October 2012

So many people have asked me the question. So what was your cake like?? I guess it is a pertinent one as I am a baker and cake creator, so what would a cake me like that is made for me by someone else. Someone I have never met or briefed in any way. The cake was not that important to me really. I wanted a cake, yes. I wanted a nice tasting cake, certainly. But as for sugarpaste, decorations, and pearl spray... not really. Leave the sugar paste, give me something Italian, something traditional. Something I will never have seen or tasted before. And boy did they deliver. Out of a list of cake options (most of which I had never heard of before) we chose Mimosa Cake. A good choice methinks, and everyone ate the cake (after they had been begging for a break from the feasting) and everybody said how amazing it was. And it was amazing. Light as air. Like eating a sweet, fragrant cloud. heaven. I have to try to make one. Watch this space.

Orignal From:

Tuesday, 30 October 2012

My Wedding Cake

Orignal From: My Wedding Cake

Saturday, 27 October 2012

Halloween, Roses & Sunshine

I had the pleasure this week of making a halloween pumpkin birthday cake. It was a carved cake which is such fun to do. I made a double-height 8" round madeira cake to start with. Madeira is really tasty, as its made with real (merveilleux françaises) butter and loads of real vanilla extract. A match made in heaven to my mind. Madeira is also nice and firm (without being dry) so it holds up to carving really well and does not sink under the weight of sugarpaste, which is important when doing taller cakes. Regular sponge, when stacked up tall and covered with sugarpaste, will compress over a time, leaving ripples in your initially perfect sugarpaste finish. So go for madeira. Its yummy.

I also made a wedding cake this week. Unfortunately I do not have a pic of the fully assembled cake yet, but here is a photoshopped version to give you the basic idea. It was a cake that was a bit of a race against the clock, which is how it sometimes is when making lots of handmade flowers. They are very, very time-consuming but worth it once finished I think. One of the decorators on the Food Network's Planet Cake which was on this morning said that making a cake can be like childbirth. Hurts like hell at the time but as soon as you have the result in front of you (cake/baby) you forget the pain and smile at the sight of your creation. I like it. Its right.

The finish to my working week, at the close of this Saturday, was the run. Up at The Edge. In the sunshine. With Toby the dog. Up the long, steep hill, in one go. A big triumph for me, but sadly nobody there to grin at or giggle with. Just a quiet, breathless trot up to the final lookout point. Elation inside, sweaty panting outside, but nobody knows. It was gorgeous today. Sunshine but cold.

Orignal From: Halloween, Roses & Sunshine

Sunday, 21 October 2012

All things for a Scottish Birthday

So this week I had to make a birthday cake for a lady's 50th birthday. Her partner ordered it as a surprise for her party which was to be held up in Scotland which is where she's from. The brief from the gentleman was that the cake was to be 'All things Scottish', as the birthday girl is apparently 'very Scottish'. I did not know there were different levels of Scottishness, but thats fine with me.

Its hard to sum up a person, and all that they are Nationality-wise, in a cake. I did not want to be too stereotypical but I also wanted to stick to the brief which was for a humorous Scottish theme. OK, I can do that. I ran it past my dear friend and neighbour who is Scottish herself, and she mostly agreed with what I'd been thinking, which was the Saltire (Scottish flag), thistles, highland cows, nessie, bagpipes, men in kilts and tartan. Now its not generally a good idea to put EVERYTHING on a cake. It can look cluttered and messy which is not the look I am going for. So I chose a couple of those elements, which I was able to do in the tight time frame provided. And I have to say I was pleased with the result. I love the highland cow. The extruder is great for long hair like that and gives a finish that is much finer and neater than piping with royal icing could be.

I do hope that the customer and the birthday-lady liked it. I certainly liked making it :)

Orignal From: All things for a Scottish Birthday

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Boozy cake, I like it :)

I think that I do work well under pressure. So as long as my plate is not already full to the brim, I don't mind the occasional last minute order. Especially when its a cool cake for a cool friend. So this led to me doing a Jagermeister bottle cake this week. I do confess that I think I may have been able to do a better job if I'd had more time, but I like how it turned out. I think its pretty cool.

I also worked on harry Potter Cake this week, which although it looks a little empty without the message, and the photo quality is iPhone 3 poor quality, you get the general idea. I was worried about Harry not looking like Harry, as people and especially faces of specific characters are rather hard to do unless you are a bona-fide artist, but I think all things considered, you can kind of see its meant to be Harry Potter, and I LOVE the scarf. its my favourite bit i think :)

And last but not least, the anniversary cupcakes. Young love, especially only 6 month old young love is just so cute, if not a little gooey. But hey, if you love someone enough to put a condom on a cupcake, thats got to be true love right? I am sure that the couple involved know the story behind the representative image for each month, and as I don;t they are a little lost on me, but I can certainly appreciate the thought behind them, and go "Aaahhh sweet". Even at a banana condom ;)

Orignal From: Boozy cake, I like it :)

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Kind of Celebrity Cupcakes

So, I got an email yesterday, at like 2am. When I was awake and reading it at 6am, I didn't quite believe it. I had to convince myself that it was not a hoax. But its true, this week I have made cupcakes for someone who is on the production team of Mythbusters! For those of you who do not know the show, this will not mean anything, but for those of you who do, I hope you agree with me that its SUPER COOL! So a nice lady on the production team of Mythbusters, based in Sydney Australia of all places, ordered 2 boxes of cupcakes for a guy who is on their team and is based just up the road in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Of all the places and all the cupcake people to order from. Its made my week :)

Orignal From: Kind of Celebrity Cupcakes

Monday, 16 July 2012

Almost, with cake on the side

So, things have been hectic. Every time I tell myself that I need to do a blog post (a thought which normally occurs to me when I'm in the shower, or running through muddy puddles in the woods, or trying to find a delivery location in a part of Manchester I've never seen before). Even now, I'm looking at the clock thinking I have to go deliver a cake in half an hour, but I'm gonna try squeeze this in before I go, as afterwards I'll be tired, hungry and desperate to relax after a busy day.

So, it was my hen party a couple of weeks ago. Which means I'm almost married. And it was awesome. It still doesn't seem real, MY hen party. I was the HEN. Weird, even now. It was organised by a dear friend who did an AWESOME job, and a fun evening was had my all. I think I would have another one if it didn't mean I'd have to cancel this wedding and find someone else to marry. Honey, if you're reading this, I am not being serious.

So, the engagement figurine cake. Theres a story there. One I still can't really believe and I shake my head every time I think about it. The customer called up wanting an engagement for a family member, but only had not-much-money to spend, and wanting a 12" cake with figurines. So i explain politely that a cake that size, with figurines that take a few days to make, costs a lot more than that. So after some discussion, and discovering that she only needed the cake to feed 20 people (when a 12" cake feeds like 60 people), she opted for a 10" cake, with figures, for a VERY good price.

Later that day she text me to ask to put the order on hold as it 'may need to be cancelled', which I agreed to. The following day the order was re-instated, but for a 12" cake, at also a very very good price. So I made the cake, made the figures, and on the collection day at the collection time of 5pm, waited for the customer to collect. By 6:45 there was no news, so I called the lady to check she was still coming. She was not he way but a bit lost. When she arrived I discovered that she had been walking. To pick up a HEAVY, LARGE cake. She'd taken the train from where she lived into Manchester, and then the bus from Manchester to me, and then walked from the bus station. So I could not let her walk with this cake so I offered to drop her off at the bus station with the cake. So with the lady and the cake loaded into my car, we drove to the bus station, and on the way there, she asks me for a discount. While in MY car, driving with MY petrol. She wants money off an already very cheap cake. Holy moly I almost drove into a tree.

Needless to say I would not budge on the price, and after telling me that I'm a hard lady to deal with, I left her with the large heavy cake at the bus station. Knowing full well the cake and particularly the figurines would probably not make it all the way back in one piece. It was sad for me knowing my work was in danger of being dropped. But I have never been so affronted in my life before. The blatant disrespect for my work and my skill and my fair pricing was appalling to me. But it happens all too often in the cake business, it seems to be commonplace rather than rare, which is disappointing. Good cake isn't cheap, and cheap cake isn't good. How do I explain that??

Also in the last couple of weeks have been some other cake projects, both for me and for the shop,in various shapes, sizes and flavours. I also enjoyed the revelation which was peanut butter buttercream that I made for an order last week. Paired with Coca-Cola cake and salted peanuts, it was pretty much my idea of heaven on a plate. Nyum! The only problem is that I don't get to try a slice, and it would just be weird to deliver a cake, and then buy a slice. Couldn't do it, it'd be wrong. So I just lick the icing bowl and that does me fine.