Spider-man birthday cake

My son's 3rd birthday cake- finally! This is the first cake I have made for him as I am always back at work after half term and snowed under. Definitely the first of many (even though there has been a very late night and very early morning rush involved to get it finished.  :)

Lego head birthday cake

It's been such a long time! Almost 1 year since I baked and decorated a celebration cake. I was a little nervous about this one turning out as it should and thought it may result in a last minute dash to the supermarket for a caterpillar cake!!! I enjoyed every minute and it turns out that working with sugar paste is like riding a bike. Although I did buy extra just in case!

I will try not to leave it so late next time, especially as I have been bitten by the baking bug yet again!

Cake: Chocolate Madeira with chocolate buttercream filling

2 tier leopard print birthday cake

Happy New Year and a very happy birthday to my big sister. 

I have been very busy in the kitchen this week, what with Christmas, my birthday 3 days later and my Sister's 3 days after that! Many cakes have been baked and eaten! 

My 8 year old niece drew me a picture of a cake and what she thought mummy would like, so I took my inspiration from her and a little help from the web of course. 

Here's to an exciting, creative and enjoyable 2014 - Cheers! xxx

Ombre Daisy Cake

Very self indulgent I know, but I decided to make myself a birthday cake this year.  It's my first attempt at an ombre cake, which simply means shaded or graduated in tone.  I used daisy cutters to cut the flower shapes and pink icing gel to tint the sugar paste. 

peppa pig birthday cake

well, its almost been a year since I last blogged, just 2 days before giving birth to my beautiful son.

I cant believe where the time has gone and how hard it is to find time these days!

After waiting a year for a new oven as mine had lost the will to live, I finally had my new smeg oven delivered this week.  What better way to celebrate then by baking my niece her birthday cake.

I found inspiration on-line for the cake design and used a Tana Ramsay chocolate fudge cake recipe, which went down a treat.

Chocolate Fudge Cake Recipe

• 175g Unsalted Butter, Softened
• 150g self-raising flour, sifted
• 30g cocoa powder, sifted
• 1 teaspoon Baking powder
• 175g soft dark brown sugar
• 3 free range eggs, large
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 55g plain dark chocolate roughly chopped

CAKE TOPPING 

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 200g icing sugar, sifted
• 200g plain, dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids, melted)

I only used 50g of dark chocolate as I wanted to make buttercream to fill and crumb the cake before covering it with fondant. 

made with love nursery wall art

Here's a photo of my completed wall art I made for the nursery.

The first one consists of painted, laser cut, wooden typography, (which already features on my blog).

 I never got round to photographing the other two until now. 

The second piece was constructed using buttons, which I attached in the heart formation using a hot glue gun. The last creation was created from a template, which I made from butterfly vectors that I found online. I copied and pasted them to a word document - cropped, arranged and printed them when I was happy with the layout. I then used my light box to lightly trace the outline on card using a pencil and cut the around the outside of the wings with a craft knife. I mounted some patterned card stock behind the butterflies. 

All ready for baby arriving in 2 days time! x

handmade christmas cards continued...

Here are a couple more new christmas card designs that I have been working on this week.

I have used parcel paper to create a border behind the red patterned paper. I bought mini gift tags from Wilkos (£1.00 for 8) but they were too dark to print on, so I decided to make my own instead. I pinched the dark brown disc and string from the original though to give it an authentic look. 

I used my clear acrylic stamps to create the labels, printing the words twice (in red and gold ink), slightly off-set to create a drop shadow effect. 

I attached some self adhesive foam underneath the gift tag to raise it and create more of a feature and used a hot glue gun to attach the button. 

I wanted to keep the messages simple as the typography is so beautiful on the christmas paper.