Fantasy flowers birthday cake

Did you see the Glastonbury coverage this weekend? Or even better were you there? (If you went I am eternally jealous!) Wasn't Beyonce amazing? I love, love, loved her Destiny's Child medley. If you haven't seen it go find it online and watch, she is so fabulous. What was Tricky doing up there though? That was all a bit bizarre, if anyone can enlighten me then please do!
It's my youngest girl's 4th Birthday today so I've spent the day making a 'mum cake'. It's so lovely to not have to worry about fondant and colourings. She just asked for a chocolate cake with a sweetie face & that's what she's got - it took me about 20 minutes, absolutely wonderful!!
I'm not going to be showing you that one though, I don't think it's pretty enough to be blog-worthy! Have this one instead.

It's only a quick, little one but I do love the fantasy flower cutters, they're from Patchwork & I've used them loads but this is the first time I've used them as the main feature of a cake & I'm so happy with them.

Ignore the dodgy piping on the bottom pic, I did say it was a quick cake!

I hope you had a fun weekend :)

Suitcase cake with purple accents

When I was asked to make this cake I was a bit uncertain, I'm not really into novelty wedding cakes but the bride & groom are both travel agents and he proposed while they were watching giraffes so this was meaningful to them and I like a challenge - it's my first suitcase cake.
The little giraffe toppers are hand made and I'm so happy with them

Too cute!

Note the long eyelashes on the lady giraffe, I love her. By the time I had finished I totally wanted to keep her & give her a name!

How to make confetti cones

Two of my oldest and closest friends are getting married this weekend, we've all known each other since primary school and they got together five years ago. I am so excited about this wedding, almost as much as I was about my own! Me and my girls are bridesmaids and my husband will be best man, so the whole family is a part of the wedding party - how amazing is that?!

I asked if I could do something to help & so I'm in charge of confetti. I thought as I'm too busy this week to fit in any baking related blog posts I'd do a quick tutorial on these. It's a lovely way to personalise your day & the confetti shot is always my favourite!

So I bought some Emma Bridgewater gift wrap as it's so pretty & also it's matt so doesn't look like gift wrap so much. I'm also using real petals as confetti - they smell amazing.

Each sheet is cut into eight, once lengthways down the centre and then each half into quarters.

Roll into a cone, I found I got a sharper point by laying it on the table. Use double sided tape at the bottom where I am holding that corner.

Fill with petals and fold over the top to keep them secure.

 

Ta-dah! - I can not wait to throw some on Saturday!

Golden Rose Cake

So, it's been a while... We've had chickenpox and been away for a large amount of the past couple of months, but the spots are gone & I'm back to the cakes.

This one was for a coeliac lady so it was all gluten free, lemon on the top and vanilla for the bottom tier.
She requested golden yellow roses - actually I think it was golden showers roses but googling that made all sorts of horrible things come up!

I hope the colour was OK for her, it's so difficult to get an exact replica in icing & there's a lot of shades of yellow!

I baked this cake the other day

With my girls, it was delicious - so dense and moist, I followed this recipe http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake You should totally try it - it was really fab. I won't bother with the recipe for the frosting, even my six year old wouldn't eat much of it, it was so sweet! Stick to a ganache instead.

What's your favourite cake recipe? I'm always looking for new ones to try!