Blog launch!

This is my 'official' first blog post, all the posts prior to this are back dated pictures and details. I decided I needed somewhere to note down the details of the cakes I've been making and decorating, and place to add any tips. This was mostly brought on by the fact I couldn't see any UK instructions for making the Wilton 3d bear cake, so thought I should 'put' this somewhere once I'd finished him!

Birthday cake #1

I'm making a special cake for my little ones party at the weekend, but couldn't let the day itself go by without a cake! She's a little chocoholic so it had to be a good time to try Jo Wheatley's chocolate birthday cake recipe from 'A Passion for Baking'.
And had a little practice of teddy bear fur ready for the main cake too.

The cake is really tasty but a little crumbly, but I did freeze it and this is really only noticeable when the little one eats it!

Wrapped present cake

Another Ruth Clemens inspired cake, for my mum this time. I found the marbling didn't work as well as I hoped, but it looked good once done.
The main thing I should have done is make sure I had plenty of fondant, as when you roll it too thin it's a nightmare to work with!

Daddy's Birthday cake

This cake was for my lovely husband's birthday while we were on holiday, so had to be 'manly' but also travel well! The cake itself was a fruit cake I made months earlier from a Delia kit which was reduced after Christmas, which turned out well despite my over cooking it (forgot all about it and went out!)

The design was from the book by Ruth Clemens "The Busy Girl's Guide to Cake Decorating", and worked out well.

Sugar free carrot and date cakes

I try to make some of my baking 'no added sugar' and this recipe for Carrot and Date cake is so good that I will definitely be using it again!

Christmas cake 2011

I decided to try a little fondant modelling on this cake, and followed some instructions online (I'm sorry I don't know where from) to create these cute little penguins. I made some cupcakes first as a practice run and loved how they turned out so made two big penguins for the cake.

Duplo first birthday cake

Creating my daughter's first birthday cake took a lot of thinking about. I wanted to use the top tier of our wedding cake I had kept (as we hadn't had a Christening) but also needed to have  fairly plain sponge cake so the birthday girl could eat some! 

So one of the bricks is the fruit cake, and two are layered sponge with buttercream and jam.

I'm fairly pleased with it, as it's the first time I've done anything much with fondant.