3rd Lesson

Here we are and it is Thursday again, another week nearly over. Yesterday evening I had my third lesson in cake decorating and we were shown how to make a Monkey, Elephant and Teddy. The monkey was done flat on a board, I did not enjoy doing that one nor was I impressed with the result so I am not showing that to you. However I will share the other two with you I really enjoyed doing them although when I started I wasn't so sure but once the detail went on they soon came to life.

A special shawl for baby to be

Well I finally got around to finishing this, I have been rather busy with my baking as you will be able to see from earlier posts. I will soon be getting ready for my Christmas orders. I have used this crochet pattern before, it is rather simple but is quite effective. I added a shell edge in pink and added a couple of flowers to one corner,this has given it a totally different look.

Pink Flowers Birthday Cake

I was up early today, it was just as well as my son asked me yesterday to make a cake for his girlfriends sisters birthday. She is staying with them for a few days I believe. He said it had to have pink in it so did this one.

Cake Decorating 2

This Wednesday was the second of my lessons that I recently started with regard to learning cake decorating from someone who already has their own business working from home. This time we were shown how to make some flowers, she made it look so easy but you can really appreciate how much time and effort goes into making them. We were shown how to make roses, and a number of small flowers. The roses I made that night I was not happy with them so I have not taken a picture, however I think I have got the hang of making them as you would have seen on earlier posts in the year. A photo I have attached to this post shows the ones I am really pleased with and they look so pretty. They are very time consuming to make but we all agreed at the class it was very therapeutic. These types of flowers if done this way are used as in fills in bouquets but can also be put direct on to the cake without stamens or stems being added to them. Either way the effect is so pretty. Well that's all I have time for for now. Will see you all soon. Sue.

Cake Decorating

Last week I started cake decorating lessons, I have found a local lady who has her own business which she runs from home and she gives lessons to small groups. There are five of us so it is a nice small group. We were given a list of things we needed to take. One of them being a cake dummy, these are just a brilliant idea as they can be used time and time again to practice on. Our first lesson was to decorate the dummy and board in fondant, she showed us her techniques and some simple short cuts. Then we made stencil to create a scalloped edge, mine wasn't very even but I got the general idea. I then very finely drew a line around the shaped template on to the fondant with a tooth pick, so that it can be used as a guide to follow when using the Crimpers. We also had a little play with some patchwork cutters and food colouring which although my example is a little untidy, it gave the the general idea and that you don't really have to do complicated to make things look really impressive,. Here is a photo of the result of my first lesson, I am sure this will improve as the weeks go by. This week we will be making flowers so can't wait to see how that turns out.

Coffee cupcakes

As well as doing the orange and lemon cupcakes this last weekend, I also did some coffee flavoured ones, I finished off the decorating of these this morning before I went to work. I have some others in mind to do as well but will probably do these later in the week.

Orange Cupcakes

I seem to have got the bug for making cupcakes. Kevin asked if I would do some orange flavoured ones, so here they are, I wasn't sure what to put on top so as I had some chocolate decorations in the cupboard I used them. Hubby wanted to know why I hadn't made them, one day maybe its early days yet for my cake decorating. Enjoy. I have also made some coffee flavoured ones but these will be finished off later. Now I am off to chill out.

Lemon Cupcakes

Also this week my husband said we were visiting one of his work friends on Saturday and asked if I would make a cake to take for them (this was Thursday night when he informed me). So, yesterday after going shopping straight from work, I decided to make some cup cakes, I decided this because I found them easier to do rather than a large sponge cake. I made lemon sponge mixture and this morning when I got up around 7.30 am (I am always up early in a morning) I made a lemon flavoured butter cream and I had some yellow fondant left over from a previous cake I made so made some flowers and added white centres to them.

Busy in my Kitchen

I have been so busy of late, I have not had much time to post anything on my blog. As usual you will find me in my kitchen, and I am currently getting ready for my Christmas Cake Orders. I have 10 Christmas cakes to make and they are all fruit cakes so that makes it a lot easier to plan for as I can make these well in advance.

As well as preparing for Christmas I was asked by a friend at work to make a cake for her daughters school prom party. Apparently a few of the mums had got together to organize it and I was asked to make the cake for them. I made a 12" sponge cake and the colours were white fondant icing, I made glitter stars with blue fondant and edible glitter dust scattered over them and added the words Class of 2011, Good luck year 6. Here is a couple of photo's I am sorry my photography is not very good, I never seem to get the lighting quite right.