Christmas Cakes 2012 Contd.../

The sizes range from big enough for a single person up to family size depending on how much you want to eat, I made smaller ones for my father and mother in law as an extra for their Christmas box, they say they don't need anything but they do such a lot for us that I thought it would be nice to do something that is homemade, it is the second year I have done this and they look forward to it, its something different. I will be adding an extra one next year for my sister in law as she has been eyeing up the one I made for my mother in law, so that will be a surprise for her.

Christmas Cakes 2012

Those of you who know me know that I also make Christmas Cakes, I have done these for about three years now maybe a bit longer, each year I have had repeat orders and this year i received some extra ones from others and an increase in orders from my regulars. I am hoping that in 2013 I will have orders for other celebration cakes. That is my aim so we shall see what 2013 brings. The majority of the cakes were fruit cakes and two were sponge. The theme this year was mainly silver and gold, I try and make them different each year it is hard but I think I managed it. I am feeling the urge to do some of my other crafts but am not sure which to do, whether it is crochet, knitting, cross stitch or dressmaking, I have just made some curtains for my husbands study at his request while I am off so I am thinking something along maybe patch working, I have a lot of fabric in my various cupboards that would be of use. I am off now to have a look!

Cakes for a Double Christening

My sister in law asked me to make a christening cake for her new grandson, at it turned out the order was for two as there was an elder sister of the grandson who has not been christened so they had decided to have a double christening. As the little girl was a little older she is two I think I thought it more appropriate to make two ad that is what I did. I wasn't able to go to the christening but the feedback i had was that they were very happy with what I had made as I had bot been given any idea of the design I was told to come up with my own. So, blue for a boy and pink for a girl, you can't go much wrong with that I thoughts. I had some ribbons in my stash and the rest you can see in the photo's. The cakes were my usual vanilla Victoria sponges decorated in fondant.

Greetings to you all

I hope you are all enjoying your Christmas Break and are looking to bringing in the New Year. I for one cannot wait for the New Year to start and i hope that for the Bridges Family and other family members it will be a much happier and prosperous one. My life has been so busy of late an it is only now I am coming up for air, I haven't had much time for my blog or visiting friends. But I have been busy ion my kitchen on the run up to Christmas, well no change there then you must all be saying. Here is an update.

Update

A good few weeks ago now I completed my first ever order for a wedding cake. The photo I posted of it was one of my own and I am no photographer. I asked my customer who is also a work colleague if possible could I have a photo from the actual wedding and finally I have one. I think it looks great even though I say so myself, they have dressed the table wonderfully and even though i did not know what shade of pink they were using I thing I matched the cake up very well.

A Wedding Anniversary and a Birthday

Hope you are all enjoying yourselves in bloggerland. I am so busy at the moment my days are running into each other. I am currently preparing fir my Christmas Cake orders and I have my list of request already. As well as preparing for that I have had my granddaughter or a couple of days whilst my son and his partner went to Alton Towers. Luna is walking now so I was on the go all the time, I had forgotten what it us like to have an active toddler in the house. I received two orders this month from the same person. He had asked me to make a cake for his parents Golden Wedding Anniversary and he wanted their wedding photo on it, which i was able to do as I have a printer which is set up for food use. It is really fun doing these and I hope to use this for some of my Christmas Cakes. Here is the finished result, it was one of my fruit cakes decorated in white with piped icing around the edge of the photo with painted gold lettering. I came across this paint in Hobby craft and it is edible so it is quite safe to use. There are other colours which I will buy at a later date.

The same person also at the last minute asked for a birthday cake for two of their relatives one was celebrating their 70th and the other her 40th hence him asking for me to combine their ages. He was taking this away on holiday with them as they were having a family gathering. I hope both parties go well.

Silver Wedding

One of our Site Managers celebrated his Silver Wedding Anniversary last week and he asked if I would make them a cake, it is a fruit cake with white fondant icing, roses, and lettering. The ribbon was white silk with a silver heart pattern along it. I hope he liked it, they came to collect and stayed for a chat and a cup of tea.

A Donation for a Coffee Morning

Hello to you all, I have been rather busy of late with baking working and genrally running the house but then aren't we all. I am now getting ready for Christmas (as in making Christmas Cakes) I have 17 orders already for my cakes and that does not include all of my previous customers. I am hoping I will have more. In between all that I have been receiving orders for other celebrations. I was asked by one of the managers at work if I would donate a cake for a Macmillan Coffee morning they were having one one of our developments, the choice was mine on what I made. I decided I would go for a chocolate hit and made my Chocolate Victoria sponge cake filled will strawberry jam and chocolate butter cream. I then covered it in chocolate fondant, this was something I had not used before and is quite difficult to work with. I think the chocolate content makes it easier to melt if worked too much, but I managed to cover the cake. I made some flowers with ivory coloured fondant and put a cream ribbon around it to finish it off. I think it looks the business and the coffee morning went down well raising around £500.

And finally "The Wedding Cake"

Yes, I did it I have made my fist ever official Wedding Cake and delivered it to the venue, sadly I did not get more photo's but I a hoping to get some from the actual bride and groom on their return from honeymoon. The cake had originally been ordered as a three tier but they wanted and extra one at the last minute. The big day was on the 1st September, so we came back from out two week break early so I could finish decorating it and also make the sponges for the other three tiers. I took the cake in four boxes and assembled it there, my hands were shaking when I put the finishing touches to it. But I was pleased with it and I hope they were too! The four tiers consisted of: Top - Chocolate sponge 6" Second - Lemon Sponge 8" Third - Vamilla Sponge 10" Fourth - Fruit Cake 12" All decorated (obviously) in the required colours and dowelled on the lower layers to give it strength when stacked. I hope this is finally the start of my little "empire". I am now thinking of the Christmas Cakes I will be making, I already have orders for these, so am getting planning now. In the meantime for next month I have a Silver Wedding Anniversary Cake and an Golden Wedding Anniversary Cake to make. These are both fruit cakes so these can be made now and stored away until I am ready to decorate them.

Holiday in Cornwall

We finally made it, we we had out holiday in Cornwall. This was a much needed holiday to re-charge our batteries. The year we have had so far has not been pleasant. Firstly there had been issues with our Son and his new family, but now this is sorted and they are busy settling into their new home. The next thing that hit us was hubby's dad was diagnosed with prostrate cancer, we received this news on the jubilee bank holiday weekend, things did not go very well especially what we were being told and we seemed to be working our way around the north west visiting him in the various hospitals that he was taken to. He is now safely home and although is still an invalid he is getting back to his old self, we had been lead to believe that he was going to die from the cancer and also that he had a very serious heart attack all of which was not true when hubby and his sister went to visit dad's doctor to find out exactly what had been going on, it was such a big relief to find that yes he had got prostrate cancer but it had been successfully treated and no he had not had a heart attack but an infection which had caused him problems with breathing. Dad is 83 and still has a lot of time left in him, like everyone we will all pass away eventually but his time is definitely not yet. He is home and doing well, there are carers that come in four times a day to help out and the physio was due to be started last week and the aim of this is to get him walking about on his own and ultimately to go upstairs to use the bathroom and sleep in his proper bed. At the moment he is sleeping in a hospital bed which is in the living room. A stair lift has already been installed for his use, so there should be no problem in him going upstairs when he wants to. Kevin's sister does most of the running around it is lucky that she doesn't work and lives quite close but it has been an immense help that she there. On top of everything else our dog Kaara was also diagnosed with cancer, unfortunately it is T-cell Lymphoma which cannot be cured but she is receiving chemo therapy at the Liverpool Small Animal Hospital this will last for 25 weeks and believe it or not she is in remission lets hope this lasts, although we are under no illusion that eventually this will get the better of her but at least she is receiving the best treatment. I know I had a bit of a rant there but had to get this of my chest. We travelled down to Cornwall and started out holiday at a cottage on a farm at a place called Goonhaven, this is about two miles or so from Penzance. Here are a couple of photo's for now, I will post some more in my next update I took quite a few and we are planning to go back next year.

A quick Birthday Cake

Before we went away my son rang me to ask me to make his partner a birthday cake, Donna's birthday is a few days after mine so it is easy for me to remember. I hadn't got much time to plan anything, but carried on with a theme that I had done for the Handbag Birthday Cake I had made previously, this cake was only a small one so I made some easy roses to go around the bottom and a smaller version of the purse I had made previously. He came and collected it and Donna was pleases with the surprise. I enjoyed making it to as I do all my cakes it is very good therapy doing these especially after completing a stressful day at work.

Return from a welcome break

Having now been back for a week and also back at work it seems a long time since our two week break. Before we started we spent a day out with our granddaughter and took her to the park which was a 10 minute walk away from our son's home. She is growing up fast now and is almost walking, here are a few pictures, we stopped at MacDonalds on the way for some lunch and at one point she looked as though she was having quite a serious conversation with her Granddad who was chatting away to her. She also had her very first go on the swings which I think she was a bit unsure of but by the time she finished she was really enjoying it. She also had a go on the slide with her dad but I did not manage to get a photo of that although her mum did. I will have to see if I can get that one. I think going to the park with your children gives grown ups especially dads the opportunity to be silly. We had a lovely afternoon out and Kaara joined us to.

Handbag Style Birthday Cake

Well here we are another week and this week I am looking forward to the weekend as we start our two week break. Can't wait. In the meantime, I have a busy time ahead what with getting things ready for our hols, to trying to tidy up the house and also complete some orders for cakes. Here is the one I have just finished this evening for collection tomorrow. This was for a handbag style, not done one of these before so tried to keep it quite simple till I know what I am doing. Again I used my ever faithful Victoria sponge cake and shaped it a little, the purse is made completely out of fondant just to give it a bit of extra decoration. See you all soon I am off to do the washing up now.

Our Granddaughter

And my last post for this evening, I just had to share some photos of our granddaughter trying out her baby walker. We bought this after her last visit together with a high chair and after this last weekend we bought a buggy for when she comes again. Us oldies are not used to the new prams they have now and we had a nightmare taking hers apart. So when we took Luna back home we told our son no way were we using theirs again!

Wedding Cake Order

I have received my first order for a wedding cake which is need for the wedding on the 1st September, this is what I have been aiming for and I hope I get many more. I have done two designs as the couple could not decide which they wanted. Although I have designed this around a three tier wedding cake, they have actually ordered a four tier one and it will comprise of a 12" fruit Cake, a 10" vanilla sponge cake, an 8" lemon sponge cake and a 6" chocolate sponge cake. I will be making the fruit cake this weekend as prior to the two weeks before the 1st of September I am actually on holiday but we are only away for the first week as I had already received the order, so I want to take my time and make this perfect. The happy couple have chosen the version where ribbon goes around the cake as opposed to over the the top.

Time to get back to blogging

A lot of things have gone on recently in our family and not all of it pleasant, I for one cannot wait for this year to finish. Despite that I am still baking and though I would share some of my creations with you. This was an order for a 30th birthday cake for one of the Site Managers I work with who wanted to surprise his partner at her birthday party. She was surprised and so was he as he did not see it until the party as he had been away for a few days.

Our Beautiful Granddaughter

A while ago now we had our Granddaughter to stay with us for a couple of nights so our Son and his partner could have some much needed them time. We went into overdrive and went out an bought some baby things as we had nothing, our son is 25 now so his baby things are long gone. We were going to look at a travel cot and I met hubby after work at our local Mothercare. I lost him somewhere in the store and when we found each other he said "come and look at these". I followed him and realized he had been looking at the proper thing. We didn't buy a travel cot in the end we walked out with a proper cot, mattress, changing mat, bedding bale, sterilizer and bottles, we also bought a high chair a baby walker and a musical toy for her cot. I think this is going to be one very much spoiled Granddaughter but hey why not, Granddad is enjoying himself, he chose most of it. Here are a couple of pics that we took when she was here, apologies for the quality but I am no photographer I am a cake maker! And lastly just had to share this one, she will probably never forgive me for sharing this but she looked so cute, this was her first taste of porridge.

Back in Blog Land

I have not visited blog land in a while in fact not since April 2012. A few things have happened in my life some not pleasant and some rather worrying and stressful for my immediate family and for my husbands family. Having said that I think there might be light at the end of the tunnel and we can all get back to some normality. I am still making cakes and this seems to help me through my problems. I have had orders for birthday cakes, baking for a charity event held at work and also made a cake for a baby shower. I loved doing the baby shower cake I did have an idea for decorating it with teddy bears but when it actually came to it I chose ducks, I think they turned out rather well. I also completed an order for a birthday cake which was ordered by our cleaner at work who wanted a cake for his partners birthday he wanted pink and girly and a heart shaped cake. Apart from making a big booby and putting the name of Anna on instead of Emma, which was easily resolved he was really pleased with the outcome and I have received an order from them to do their wedding cake for their wedding next year. A friend of ours has a daughter who is intending to get married also nest year and they have asked if I would like to do their wedding cake as well. I will also be completing my very first wedding cake order in September which is for our Assistant Site Manager at work whom I made sample vanilla sponge cake, chocolate sponge and a fruit cake for for his family to try. They want all three as a three tier wedding cake. I have just cleaned up my cake dummies so I can practice the design on them and so he can see what it will look like. Here are photo's of the baby shower cake and the birthday cake.

Just a quick note

Just popped on to let you all know that I am still around but seem to be struggling to fit everything in. I am still making cakes although things have gone a little quiet. I have had an enquiry for a wedding cake and made some samples over the weekend, they asked for a fruit cake, chocolate sponge and a vanilla sponge. These were collected today so will now need to see if they like them, if they do they will let me have some ideas on what decoration they want and how many tiers. I have some cake dummies as you know so can decorate them in the design they want so they can see it beforehand, that's if they go ahead. The Wedding is in September so that is a reasonable length of time as long as they don't leave it till last minute as I have to fit all this in around a full time job. So we shall see.
The weekend before we moved our son and his new family into a two up two down terrace away from the city centre and away from the horrible one bedroom apartment they were in. They have been in their new home for a week now and we saw them at the weekend. They needed help with curtains etc for the windows, so we went over. Hubby, son and daughter in law to be went out to see what they could get and guess what, little old me got to babysit. I had a wonderful time with our granddaughter and she wasn't phased at all about being left behind. She was a joy to keep an eye on. I managed to get a couple of pics in the bouncer that she has, I was told that when you put her in it and said bouncy bouncy, she did just that, she played in it for ages and then she had a nap in my arms while I watched TV. We took our dog with us to and she was very good around the little one in fact I think she was a little bit scared at seeing someone that is almost as small as her. Our granddaughter Luna is six months old this week and I think she is adorable.