All completed

Thank you all so much for your comments and support. I think I have loved every minute of it and am quite proud of what I have done, even though I have had no formal lessons yet, a lot of it has been trial and error and reading a lot of books and magazines for inspiration. I finally made it with all my orders completed here are the last photo's.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and New Year lots of love Sue x

Somemore to show off

Well, I have been busy again. I was stressing on Monday at the amount of work I still had left to do with regard to my cake projects, but Tuesday night I got home from work and just everything fell into place. I finished some more and took them in to work today and I think they were pleased with my efforts. I came home tonight and completed another one, one of the girls at work wanted a reindeer on hers and my other friend Jenny kindly lent me one of her Cricut catridges that had one on. It took some doing getting it to cut how I wanted but I think I succeeded, I added some holly as well. Hubby reckons it is the best one I have done so far (it takes a lot for him to say things like that, so I think he was impressed) and I think so to. I have one more cake left to do and I have three small ones that just need putting in their wrapping and I think that's it. Will update you soon on the final one, now I am off for a little relax and some tea!

Snow for Christmas ?

Well, Warrington has snow, we usually miss out compared to most areas in the UK, but I think over the years this could be changing. this is what it looked like last night at about teatime and Kaara just had to go out and check her garden. We still have snow today and it is very cold,luckily I was nice and warm in my kitchen doing the things I love best as you will see from my earlier post. Wonder what tomorrow will bring! Sorry about the state of the garden bu we have been rather busy in the house and it has been sadly neglected.

Still Busy

Well, here we are again and Christmas is fast approaching, I am frantically working in my kitchen to get things finished, here is another one cake I completed this afternoon. I had tried to cut snowflakes out last week with my Cricut Cake , they cut perfectly but I could not then get them off the mat. A friend at work who has the Cricut for card making lent me a tool that is similar to one I already have but a lot thinner on the blade, i tried it today and was able to get the snowflake off in one piece. Another one finished and I have yet to make three sponge cakes that will be decorated in the Christmas theme also, I will be making these tomorrow but will be using a slightly different recipe which allows the cake to keep longer and once it is covered in marzipan and iced they should be fine. See you all soon. Sue x

Two More

Well here we are and I am busy again in my kitchen, here are photo's of two more cakes I have made and decorated. I did try and do the snowflakes on my Cricut cake, they cut perfectly but I couldn't get them of the mat, I think I put too much lard on it which is what you have to coat the mat in to make the fondant not move around. I have mastered the thickness of the fondant need to master getting it off the mat. Anyway, I resorted to the more traditional method using a cutter that I have used before. I will not let it beat me and will be practising over the weekend. Anyway here are the photo's let me know what you think

Just for you Jenny

Well following on from my last post, I got home from work this evening, got tea started and then indulged in some more cake decorating, here is the latest one finished this evening. I have used my Cricut cake with a cartridge borrowed from my friend and have managed to do the polar bear. I think I have cracked it.
It has taken some time to master there is a technique to getting it as thin as possible, which I found out from the Cake Show I went to recently at the NEC. I am planning my next one, I had a total of fifteen orders and only now have 11 left to decorate. Well Jenny, what do you think, I think you may have guessed what I was going to do this evening. See you at work tomorrow Sue x

Getting ready for Christmas

Well as most of you know my main passion is baking, I am hoping to make a go of a small business with a couple of friends. I had a poster up at work advertising my cakes and offered Christmas cakes sponge and fruit. I have managed to get a really good response and have had to take my posters down as I had so many orders. Here is a picture of three that I have fully decorated. I am taking things slowly and not trying to over tax things by making the decorations complicated as I also need to get used to the Cricut cake machine that I have. I hope you like the result. See you all soon.

Well, hello everyone!

I am ashamed to say I have neglected my blog, but I have been busy, I have, thanks to support of my two best friends have received orders for 15 cakes for Christmas, these range from individual sized to large square fruit cakes and three sponges. I have marzipan the fruit cakes and have now started coating hem in the regal icing, I will do all of them and then decorate them. The sponges will be made nearer to Christmas as their shelf life is not as good as the fruit cakes. I will be posting some picture of the finished cakes soon.

Whilst I have been busy my handy man husband has also been busy, we have been working on the hall, stairs and landing here are some pictures I have included one from a previous posting to give you an idea of what the hall looked like and now we have banister's on the stairs both landing and bottom, i think they look fab and can't wait to put carpet on the stairs and finish everything off. Hopefully Kevin's mum and dad will brave coming round to see us now as before it wasn't really safe for them especially as we have two energetic dogs running around. As you can see Kyrie has managed to get into one of the photo's its very rare that she does as she is scared of the camera. Well I am afraid that's it for today i will try not to stay away too long. See you all soon. Sue x

Playing with my Cricut Cake

As you will see from earlier post, I am the proud owner of the new Cricut Cake, its just fab. I have been struggling with it a little as I have not yet mastered the technique of using the machine or even rolling out the Fondant properly yet. Have been doing some researching on the net and also speaking to my friends that visited yesterday it would seem that putting the sheet in the freezer for while before cutting anything out seems to help. Jenny is the card making wiz and she is also well used to the Cricut so she made it look so easy when we were playing last night. Here are a couple of pictures the blue sample has the cut outs I did last night not perfect but better than I had done before. The second picture shows what I have managed this afternoon and I am really pleased with the result, still a bit of a beginner but getting there.

Snowman or Yeti

This is what was happening yesterday thought I would share this monster with you, Snowman or yeti, I will leave it up to you! He is a love really and its great having a hubbie who is so handy.

This is the next stage in our DIY project, the hall stairs and landing. Oh what joy more dust and forever cleaning.

I shut myself away in the kitchen and did some baking have made another Christmas cake for my order list.

Fund Raising Event at Work

A group of us got together at work and decided we would have a fund raising event. We decided on a Pink Day in aid of Breast Cancer Awareness. It was an opportunity for the cooks among us to get baking and a couple of the girls made cards. Here are a couple of pictures of what was made. I purchased three of the cards and I think they are beautiful. Despite there not being many people in the office as there usually would be we managed to raise around £111.00, which we were all pleased with.

Iced Lemon Sponge Cake

As most of you know my main craft is baking. I am still trying to find my way with my new Cricut Cake, I have a lot to learn still! So recently in between trying to master this machine, i have gone back to making sponges and am taking orders for Christmas at the moment after having put a poster up at work designed by one of my friends there. I now have a number of orders for the traditional Christmas cake and some sponges all to be decorated. So, I think i am going to be fairly busy over the next few weeks. However another friend of mine celebrated her birthday this week at work and normally my work mates would go to the local supermarket and buy a selection. I was asked to make to sponge cakes once of which was the one in the picture which was a Lemon Iced sponge cake. I think it went down well and I have an order for a smaller one for another work friend who is buying it for her Gran who loves lemon sponge. I will also be making some more goodies over the next week as we are holding a fund raising event at work, so will tell you morenext weekend.

Eureka! Or perhaps not!

Well those of you who have been following my projects will know that I got a new toy a few weeks ago, since then I have been trying to get the hang of things. Have a look at the photo's, they are by no means perfect but I have managed to get some shapes cut out of the fondant from my Cricut Cake. There is still a long way to go but I am not as frustrated with it as I was at first. It seems to be a case of trial and error at the moment, but I am quite please with my afternoons work.

For my God Daughter

Well, apart from having my new toy, I have also been trying to finish off a few things, one in particular. This is a baby shawl for my niece and god daughter who is expecting her first baby at the end of the year. I am pleased with the way it has turned out and it was an easy pattern to do. Julie, I hope Jo will like it when she sees it.

Julie, I saw your comment on my last post and I am sure Mum would be proud and very interested in what we are doing, in fact she would probably join in.

Must dash off now, I need to get to grips with the Cricut Cake, it chewed up the last piece of icing I was cutting out, not quite got the hang of it yet.

Oh how lucky am I!

Today has been the best ever, since I have go back into crafting and concentrating more on my baking, a seed was sewn a while ago and now it has come to light. My friends are into card making and one in particular owns the Cricut for card making, and had shown me what was coming up. Both friends have encouraged me to go that bit further and with their encouragement and an understanding hubby I am now the proud owner of the new Cricut Cake, I can't wait to get stuck in tomorrow and play with it properly for now I am content to take a few pictures to share with you all.

Finally

Well, here we are, finally finished dressed and ready for action. I cooked a meal last night for four. It was a breeze. The menu was Carrot and Coriander soup with a black pepper sliced French stick. Slow roasted Lamb shoulder with roasted Butternut Squash, Sweet Potatoes, Sweet Red Peppers, Shallotts coated in olive oil and whole garlic bulbs and rosemary. I also made a mint and Greek yoghurt dressing (the mint was from my herb garden) to go with it. For afters I did a cheese platter with grapes and crackers and a few bottles of wine to wash it all down. I was in heaven, who would have thought that when we started my kitchen/diner and conservatory were an absolute tip and now we have this fantastic living space. Here are some pictures of when we started (some of you may have already seen them sorry for that).

We have been busy

Hi everyone its been a while since I updated my blog, but we have been busy. Hubby and I are on two weeks leave and we have used the time to get a few things done, mainly the jobs in the house. Here are a couple of pictures to keep you interested. I will be putting others on later once we have everything put away. The dresser is nearly "dressed", I have been able to get a couple of things out of the loft and I couldn't resist putting flowers in the vase which belonged to mum, but was her mums before that. Julie if you are looking do you recognise the set that I have placed on there? I am please to say that this dresser will not be moving again it is so heavy, but it had to be moved so we could decorate. We have just gone for the good old magnolia effect which I think has worked quite well and has given a bit of warmth to that side of the room as the other side where my kitchen is is as most of you know white and black theme. I just need to tidy the conservatory and hang a few of my pictures up and I thing we are all done in there. The next challenge is the rest of the house.

Ta Ta for now x.