Cocktails and Cupcakes Part 2

I borrowed the idea of Cocktails and Cupcakes from my sisters hen do and spent a joint birthday evening with my fellow foody friend Katy, drinking Mojitos and decorating cupcakes. It was a glorious chance to play around and make things without any time pressures or work issues.

mmmm mojitos!

After the cocktails and cupcakes evening, I used the remainder of the icing and decorations to do a little masterclass with my children. I spent a blissful (not a word I often use when trying to occupy my children) Sunday morning teaching Elsie and Ted a few of my decorating tricks and techniques.

 Elsie was careful to limit her colour palette to reds and pinks, very stylish.

Ted started off quite conservatively but he steadily worked his way through every single decorating item available, finishing off with a flourish of edible glitter.  

Elsie having a go at piping swirls.

Medieval Birthday cake

Earlier this year I made a selection deserts for my good friend Dave’s medieval birthday weekend which was held in an incredible old mansion in Frome. I did my research into medieval deserts and used key ingredients to inspire my own selection of puds.

I also made his birthday cake which was a three tier almond cake with gilded marzipan decoration.

 

the birthday boy...he made his own costume, it looked amazing!



celebration cakes

I’ve been making cakes for my friends and family ever since I was able to use an oven and more recently I’ve remembered to photograph them. Here is a selection of my more recent cakes from the last few years.

I hate the expensive and mega ugly, specially designed cake dolls so I bought and butchered a Barbie doll to make these cakes for sisters; Ruby and Lucy. I didn’t use a pudding basin as the shape wasn’t quite right and I found it hard to cook evenly through to the middle. I baked four round sponges, sandwiched with butter cream and then carved them into the shape of the dresses.

Ted was obsessed with Fireman Sam for a while and for his 3^rd birthday I made this cake.

Elsie's 5th Birthday cake



Ted is a total superhero fan and loves dressing up and playing Spiderman, Batman and Iron Man. For his 4^th birthday party I found the Kapow and Thwack words from the original 60s Batman TV series and used them to adorn his cake.

 I used dark navy blue fondant for the base and the black batman sign was covered in black edible glitter. It looked great but I had several reports from parents the following day, saying that their children’s poo was green! Oops.

wonderwoman serving cake!

For Elsie’s 6^th birthday I decided to make some large decorated fairy cakes but I hadn’t considered the fact that they would need to be baked in muffin tins not a small jam tart-type bun tin. When I got them out of the oven, they had spread out and looked like flying saucers. I carried on and decorated them anyway and Elsie loved them despite their slightly odd shape. (I have now bought 2 muffin trays so I no longer have saucer shaped fairy cakes.)

Teds 1st Birthday cake

Elsie's 3rd Birthday cake

Neil loves cake and is particularly fond of Battenberg. For his birthday this year I made a dense almond cake, coloured half pink and then built this slightly wonky homemade Battenberg with natural marzipan. It tasted amazing, much nicer than the horrible, dry shop-bought ones he usually likes.

For Neil's 40th Birthday we had a spiderman party with where Neil, Ted and Elsie's friend Bailey all dressed up as Spiderman. We discovered that Elsie and Bailey's teacher was also born on the 6th of April so i added her name to the cake.

My sister's hamster cake (R.I.P Wolverine)