Lois and Dans Wedding

I mentioned in a previous entry about my sisters wedding in July. It was an absolutely fantastic day and every detail was gorgeous. Lois looked absolutely stunning, Dan looked great. The spectacular venue was designed by one of my absolute favourite architects; Charles Voysey and the house was full of lovely romantic details like this forged heart letterbox.

I have a small business making wedding stationary which has been placed on the back burner since I’ve been teaching again, but I was able to dig out my equipment to design and make all the stationary for Lois and Dan’s wedding. The design motif was taken from the wallpaper in my dining room which we discovered was an original Charles Voysey textile design. I photographed then redrew the motif on PhotoShop and used it to adorn all the stationary from invites, to menus, table plan, guest book etc. etc.

Lois is a whiz on the sewing machine and she made all the napkin rings using a gorgeous Cath Kidston floral fabric, finished with my name tags.

 

 The whole room looked amazing and for once it was great to be at a wedding to see the stationary I had designed, actually in place.

Mini Maple Pecan Nutcakes

I’ve seen cakes made using a square of greaseproof paper instead of a paper cake case, which look really nice. I have planned on making these myself but then I found some for sale in my local cake supply shop. These would be perfect for the mini versions of the caramelised nut housewarming cake mentioned earlier.

After the cakes were cooked and still warm from the oven, I added a delicious buttery caramel which was slightly different from my original version which used golden syrup, butter and brown sugar. This time, to marry with the pecans, I used some of the maple syrup left over from Ellie’s muffins in place of the golden syrup.

What a triumph! The maple butterscotch soaked into the cake giving it a deliciously moist texture and provided a lovely glaze to the pecans.

Girly Pink Cupcakes

I was testing to see if the pink paper cases I’d bought, would hold their colour when cooked (cheaper coloured cases tend to look greasy and are often a waste of money). I often use the metallic ones as they stay looking great after cooking. You do have to be careful when picking them out of the muffin tins as they stay really hot.

First Cupcake Order

Since putting up my cake photos on my little facebook group, I’ve had loads of comments from people encouraging me to set up a small business. It’s a nice idea but I don’t have much spare time with teaching and my children. I’d love to be able to combine the both and maybe when Ted is at school full time, I may have a few more hours. For now I’m happy to make things for my friends and family and to do the odd commission. My first cupcake commission was requested last week when I was asked to make 20 cupcakes in 4 designs chosen from my previous creations.

I started by making the two styles of butterfly using half Mexican paste and half fondant coloured light pink.

I used pearlescent spray on the small butterflies and used pearlescent powder colour to paint the larger butterflies.

I left them to dry on top of little folded cards. (In this case, freebie game cards from when Neil took the children to Bella Italia)

 3 days later... perfectly dry butterflies.

Making the cupcakes…

  

 Adding glitter and sparkle…

Boxed up and ready to go…well almost….I bought the box which is specially designed for transporting cupcakes safely but clearly not designed for fairly tall piped cakes. I realised that it was going to squash the butterfly cakes so I had to cut off the top and add wooden skewers in the corners to raise the lid and keep the cakes in perfect condition.

Caramelised Nutcake

This was a house warming cake that I invented when I realised that I didn’t have the right ingredients for the one I had originally planned to make. The sponge had almond running through it and the topping was a glossy buttery caramel with a splash of brandy added before I combined it with a selection of nuts. I pierced the top of the warm cake and poured on the caramelised nuts so it soaked into the sponge. The result was a deliciously moist, slightly alcoholic cake with a buttery caramel topping which glazed the nuts but wasn’t the kind to stick your teeth together. It was a very successful experiment and has inspired me to make miniature caramel nut cakes. I need an event to make them for though…