THE CAKE..the one where it all REALLY started!

Ok so this is the cake that caught the peoples eye! my brother in law asked if i could do darren a cake..of course i said yes! i was giving it to him as a present but i knew it had to be brilliant! there was a lot of ideas bouncing around but after discussing with jenny the 'caravan' cake was born! it had to be done! darren and alan had had 3 caravans that year alone and so was a major part of there life! we decided that the cake would be the caravan and that we could make people to go with it! i decided on fimo clay..i wanted them to have something to keep as a memory!
i made the caravan from 2 loaf tins pieced together and moulded into shape, i then covered in fondant and painted on the detail (unfortunately im no artiste! something to work on i feel!) .I have to thank my friend jenny as well ..if it werent for her mini darren and alan would be sitting on the floor! after searching hobbycraft for dolls house deckchairs she had the magical idea of making some with ribbon and matchsticks! no way i could pull that off so home she went and came up with the wonderfull deckchair creations! and awning of course! she's one clever bunny..speaking of which check out her own blog .... http://jenny-wrens.blogspot.com/ she makes the most gorgeous knitted animals!! anyway getting back to the cake...nevertheless things came together in the end and darren and alan loved it!! and so did others..they saw something in me and started to ask me to do their cakes! i made a group on facebook to 'showcase' my creations and lots of friends joined! it was the boost i needed!

my first 'paid for' cake!!

HA HA so it was only a tenner but hey! someone wanted to pay for a cake!

Our friend sean was turning 25 in november 2008 so his brother asked if i could make him a cake! as we know sean phill and i decided that the theme was beer! i wanted to try out cake sculpting (bravely!) so we decided upon stella! everyman loves stella and many of our fondest memories of sean were of him, parties and beer!

so i decided on a pint shape cake and a bottle shape cake. the pint was normal madeira sponge with jam and buttercream and the bottle was my famous galaxy chocolate cake! unfortunatley galaxy choccy cake doesnt hold up well for sculpting! but it stayed together enough for me to do and i was pretty pleased with the result. although i know i can do better!

practice cakes..HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL! October 2008

Ok so by now im getting some good reviews on facebook from my friends! (lol love u all thanks!) ive even got a couple of orders! one for my brother and one for our friend sean by his brother! so im thinking before them i must keep practising! i decided to make two cakes..one for my niece and one for her cousin! as high school musical 3 was coming out i thought it would be nice to celebrate there viewings with a couple of hsm themed cakes!!

i wanted to do the cheerleaders and decided that i would try out my first sugarpaste models! both girls were modeled on there prespective eaters!

i made both cakes chocolate..made with my own galaxy cake recipe which i have to say i was quite chuffed with as my baking was getting better!

well to be honest the girls were easy..it was the pom poms i had trouble with! at first i tried sugarpaste but this just dried out and split so instead i just iced the ribbons on!

all in all they were fun cakes to do and although we had a slight problem in getting bekkys to her in london ..(who knew u cant send food by parcelforce!) everything went well! i think bekkys words were..''thats the best cake i have ever seen'' if thats not paise enough to put a smile on your face i dont know what is!

The last minute Jack Daniels cake!

so after the disco cake my friend lauren asked if i was making her a cake! i hadnt thought about it but hey..practice practice! she didnt give me any ideas to aht she wanted and i litterally had 1 day to work on it! so i had a dig around my now bigger box of goodies and decided on jack daniels!! her favourite tipple! unfortunatley i didnt have alot going on in the box so i had to make do! i baked a normal sponge covered it in white sugar paste. i drew the bottle out in cardboard first then cit it out in sugar paste and covered it in chocolate buttercream! i then added the label and very painfully iced the writing on! very fiddly! but the end result was ok and she loved it! in all it took me about 5 hours..a bit rushed and i now know that u have to spend alot more time on a cake!

the sparkly disco diva cake!

Right so now came the one! this is the one that sparked everything off! i decided to really go for something different for my friend jennys cake!

she's such a girly girl..she loves pink, she loves bright and she loves disco! so there was only one type of cake i could make! a sparkly disco diva cake! i knew it still had to be simple because i was not great and knew NOTHING! but i wanted it to have wow factor!! i browsed through hundreds of pics on google image and knew that when i saw this one http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2736583670059975774cpZdqS

i had to come up with my own version! i didnt have a star pan so just rounded off the corners on a square cake! i wanted that bright pink and stupidly..(as i knew no better!) bought a liquid pink food colour! this is a no no..please note...DO NOT USE PINK LIQUID FOOD COLOUR! it gets every where..and its messy..very very messy!! however finally i had a colour i liked (which was also the colour of my hands, arms, ears..dont ask!) i got phill to trace a pic of disco dudes and then by hand cut out the pic in black flower paste. this was the first time i had used flower paste and unsuprisingly had no idea how to use it! i didnt knead it enough..i didnt roll it out enough and an hour later i had my people!! i learnt alot on this cake!

• first..dont use liquid colour..use colour pastes or dusts



• second..knead flower paste well and use trex to grease your hands up!



• third...you can never have enough silver balls with kids around!

Any way the result was this..and if im honest i loved it! and so did jenny(i think!..i hope!) and we loved eating it while sipping sex on the beach cocktails!!!

ronnie's cake october 2008

by now i was really getting into the swing of things! i wanted to get better and new the only way to do this was to keep making the cakes! so with phils son ronnies birthday coming up i decided another yet another football themed cake! now original thought was a shirt shaped cake..but as i was new to all this i didnt have any other pans other than round!! so we came up with this! phil drew the shirt shape and then with my trusty icing i traced around and added in the detail! i think this is where things started to get better for me and my confidence was buliding!!

lee's cake september 2008

right so then it was time for my eldest sons cake! he hadnt really suggested anything but i thought id give it a go anyway! i decided on a football as i thought it would be easy...WRONG!! i decided that i would bake this one! i did cheat and use a pre packet sponge mix! well thankfully the cake came out ok but as u can see my decorating was not all that! although lee was well impressed phill, my husband did point out that my hexagons were very squiffy and said it looked more like a cow! charming! but hey i can see his point.

as my cousin said to me though its all a learning curve and u get better with practice!!

Jodi's cake 2008

Ok so after liv's birthday in june..jodi decided that he wanted a home made cake too! I decided id get the same cake for liv but unfortunatley they only had chocolate cake..complete with brown icing! yuk..it looked hideous! but jodi was determined that he wanted to decorate his own cake! so we bought it ..i got out my very minimal supplys and discussed what he wanted to do on his cake! he said football..of course! so i let him loose with the icings and he created his very own cake! obviously i helped a little with writing and things! he was very impressed with his 'creation' and loved telling everyone that he made the cake himself!! if im truly honest i would have liked it to be a bit neater but hey he's 5 right!!!

livvy's birthday cake!

Ok so im skipping ahead a bit now! its june 2008 and i decided to make my daughters 2nd birthday cake..i wanted something pink and girly but none of the shops seemed to have what i was after so after browsing on ebay (which is something im very good at!) i decided that it shouldnt be too difficult to design her a cake!

now at this point baking still wasnt a strong point and i had decided it would be easier to buy a ready made cake..which i did from asda at about £8 ..i know! more money than a bloody pre-decorated one!! after looking at many many cake decorating shops, sites and blogs i ordered my bits and pieces! unfortunately though one box..the main box didnt arrive in time and i had to just ..'make do' with what i had!!! so anyway i got to work..basically i just covered the cake in pink shimmer dust...made my own cake topper from butterflys pink flowers and glittery things (technical terms i think!) and stuck livs favourite toys on the top..dora and boots! cant go wrong with dora and boots!!

well she loved it, my mum loved it..the other kids wanted me to make them one..but i hated it! it wasnt what i wanted at all!! as u will find out ..i am my biggest critic! anyway ive posted a pic of it for you to see! this was my first taste of the cake decorating life and i wanted more!!! bring on the cakes!