Dreamcatcher Cake

Today is also the wonderful Alexia's birthday. Since our visit to Santa Fe she has liked dreamcatchers, and now they remind me of her. I used chocolate roll out icing and melted chocolate to pipe the strings. To make the feathers I borrowed my sister's feather necklace to make an imprint which I then cut around. Happy Birthday Alexia!

Happy Birthday Grandy

My Grandmother ('Grandy') works hard all year cooking us amazing food. And even though her cakes are amazing, you really can't make your own birthday cake. So I set about making her something special using white and yellow which is a colour combination I associate with her. I strangely have never made a Victoria Sponge cake and insist on going around trying different ones, but always find them quite dry. Therefore in this one I used seedless raspberry jam and fresh raspberries and used the Hummingbird Frosting as the buttercream. I had no choice but to use natural icing sugar so that's why the buttercream is a bit of a funny colour but it tastes the same. She thought the cake was great and I'm glad that I could do something nice for her.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Breakfast at Tiffany's has always been one of my favourite films so when I found out that Hampton Court were staging a screening I was beyond excited to have the opportunity to watch it under the stars. The idea is that you enjoy a picnic before the film starts, so I wanted to make something that was easy to take and that everyone could eat easily. I made individual Tiffany boxes which allowed me to use my new cake tin. It also meant that I now have learnt how to make bows. I used this wonderful tutorial from Katiecakes.

Astrid's Leaving BBQ

So just before the end of exams I decided to have a leaving BBQ for Astrid as she is moving to Manchester to do a new university course. I promised her some cakes before she left (she would have got a bigger whole cake if she had decided to stay). I chose these colours before they remind me of her, I think she had a turquoise cardigan or something at the start of university. I am going to miss her so much! University won't be the same without her.

Cupcake on Cupcake

When icing cupcakes I normally just pile it on with a palatte knife, but for these birthday cupcakes for a family friend I decided to have a proper go at piping. There are so many different kinds of piping bags and having previously used the disposable ones, on a brief encounter with piping (it was okish), this time I decided to test out a silicone bag which was supposed to be really good. I can tell you that it wasn't. The icing squeezed out around the nozzle, which eventually popped out. Despite the bag issues they turned out pretty cute, with pink spotty cases and topped with mini chocolate cupcakes.

Happy Birthday Astrid

Today is my friend Astrid's birthday. Since she is normally my cake partner in crime I thought I should make her a good one. I chose the colours for the cake once I fell in love with the ribbon. It was ambitious as I have never done a three tier cake before. A birthday cake isn't complete without candles so I added pink sparkly ones for her to blow out.

Cake for Grandy

So over the summer it was a special birthday for my Grandmother. Having been away for her actual day I wanted to make her something special when I got back. With my sister clearly having input in the colour choices I came up with this simple and pretty cake which she loved.

Story so far...

I have grown up with baking. So many memories include elaborate homemade birthday cakes and other family specialties like brownies and banana cake. Inspired by watching my mother bake since I was small, it is now a big part of my life. Here I will share endeavors from my favourite past time.