Anyone for tea?

I have been baking again this week,a colleague celebrated his 40th birthday I think he thought he could keep it quiet but we found out so when he came back of hols, us girlies got together and gave him a gift. I made a lemon flavoured sponge cake for him as a treat and we all clubbed together and got him a bottle of red wine and a card. I think he was quite taken aback, but I think he was pleased.

Anyway myself and two friends are pooling our resources in crafting and are working away at putting a small business together,I specialise in the baking side and Jenny and Alison specialise in the card making and photography, we are planning to offer wedding cards and invitations and celebration cakes. Jenny and Alison are currently branching out into card making classes and they are running their second class today. A few weeks ago Jenny kindly made me two cards and the deal was that I supply some cup cakes in return. So, I have made some lemon flavoured cupcakes for them to take to their class today and serve at their tea break. Here is a picture, I made a lemon sponge mixture then made a lemon butter cream topping which I piped on and made some little daisies, I cut out the basic flower using white fondant on my Cricut then shaped the petals so that they had a little more texture and added some small balls of yellow fondant for the centre. I thing they looked quite cute and I hope they go down well at their tea break. I will be adding cupcakes to my portfolio so will be making some more soon. Here are a couple of pictures.

30th Birthday Cake - Take 2

I think I ran out of room on my post here is the second part.

I thought I would have a go at making some that would be edible and for some time I have been trying to master my Cricut Cake machine and there is a butterfly cut out on it that I really wanted to do. I made the cake (my classic vanilla flavoured Victoria sponge - this is proving quite popular), covered it in almond paste the white fondant. Then wait for it I took some pink fondant rolled it out and chilled it for a while (this seems to be what other people do, and hey presto here is the result. I am so impressed that I finally managed to do this and I will be attempting some more, the centre was cut from a flower petal cutter and shaped and placed the diamonte "30" pick in the middle. I carefully drove into work yesterday and the butterflies stayed on (what a relief I did take dome food glue and a small brush just in case and a spare butterflies)

30th Birthday Cake

Hello everyone, I hope you had a good break despite the weather not being that brilliant in some areas. For myself whilst nursing a poorly hubby, I spent the time in my kitchen. I had received a request from a work colleague that her sister was to celebrate her 30th birthday and I was asked if I would do a cake. I do try and ask people what they would want decorative wise but mainly I am just told what colours they would like and the design is generally left up to me. However it was mentioned that they like the butterflies I had put on my pink circle cake.

A Friday Treat for my work mates

On my earlier post I mentioned I had been baking when I got home from work last night. I wanted to give a treat for my work mates as all the big bosses are at a meeting in Yorkshire today so hopefully it will be a fairly chilled out day. I made one of my classic sponge cakes I used a 60z vanilla sponge receipt divided it between two tins to give a thinner cake, filled it with raspberry jam, fresh whipped double cream and fresh raspberries, then sandwiched together and dusted with icing sugar. What a glorious way to finish off the week, I hope they like it.

Colour in my Conservatory

Well despite the recent wet weather we have had, yesterday turned out to be quite pleasant, I managed to grab a few minutes in the garden after doing some more baking when I got home from work. On the way to the garden I took a picture of the bougainvillea we have in our conservatory and thought I would share the wonderful flowers and colour it currently has. This was given to us by our next door neighbour who owns a florist shop and she and Kevin had been talking about his time in Australia (long before he met me)and that outside his Uncles house there was one of these plants growing. As you can imagine out there they would be quite big as they love the hot sunny weather, although I don't think ours has done too bad as we have had flowers on it each year since we have had it.

Some more news

Whilst I am updating you all with what has been happening in my life, I thought I would also share this with you. Our son recently moved out, the time had come really I realise that he could not stay at home any longer, two strapping men in the house was just too much and son and dad quite often clashed. Phillip moved out some weeks ago (officially) but previously had been spending his time between here and his girlfriends. They recently got engaged which was great news but a few weeks ago they hinted that they may be expecting. Well I can tell you it is now official they visited us the other day and presented us with a photo of the scan, I am so happy for them and I am now looking forward to being a Gran or a Nana I don't really mind which as long as they are happy and everything goes well for them. I am having fun at the moment calling Kevin Granddad. I finally caught up with my sister yesterday and gave her the news that she will now be a Great Auntie, as I am to her granddaughter Susie (who is doing really well). I think I will have a busy time ahead of me and will have to dust off my knitting needles and crochet hooks. See you all soon. Sue x

Well, where do I start!

Life has been so hectic lately I have just not had time to do anything on my blog since my last post which was where we were fitting a new kitchen for Kevin's parents. Since then we have gutted our son's room who has now left home. This is to be my play room for my other crafts as well as space for visitors, I will up date you on that another time. I have also been baking (well there's a surprise I here you say.) A friend at work celebrated a birthday this week (she thought she could keep it quiet by not saying anything, however we have our ways) so I though I would give her a gift of one of my decorated cakes. I made a 4" square sponge cake and decorated it in white and lilac fondant with a matching ribbon and presented it to her in a cake box together with a card. Just to see the expression on her face gave me a real buzz. Here is a couple of pictures that I took.

I also have another order coming up for a colleague at work whose sister is soon to celebrate her 30th birthday so I am planning for the design of that next, the brieft is white with pink and butterflies. I have a cricut cake and so I thought I would cut some out on that. I managed it however I think I was a bit rough with them when I left them to dry so when I came to decorate them they disintegrated but at least I managed to produce some, I need to make some more and see what happens. Here are the pictures of my efforts. I am not the best at taking photo's so I apologise for the quality.