Done the tricky bit.

I've done the bottle bit of Steve's cake. It's ok. Nowhere near as good as the one I'm copying, but it's passable. You'll definitely get the gist.

However, I've already made a boo-boo. Although I've put a dowel through the middle of the bottle, I've put the bottle on a very small card (same diameter as the bottle). So that means that I've stupidly only made the dowel the same height as the bottle... it should have been much, much longer so that it can go into the cake to keep it stable and in place.

Now I'm not sure what to do. I can try and remove the card from the bottom of the bottle and try and remove the dowel. However, what I don't want to do is to crack the paste - or, more accurately, the glaze on the past. It has several coats of confectioner's varnish to give it a shine, like a glass bottle would have.

Hmmmm... I'll re-assess the situation in the morning and make a decision then.

Oh, one more thing. I smashed up the sugar/glucose that I boiled up earlier today. O.M.G. It shatters like glass and goes everywhere!!!!!!!!

One down, one to go!

I've finished the anniversary cake which is being picked up tomorrow afternoon. The brief was two hearts, joined and they also wanted a little green incorporated into it somewhere, because the family is Irish. I think it's turned out well. I'm going to photograph it properly later, then I'll put it on my other blog and also my proper website.

I now have to start Steve's cake.

I've begun by making the 'ice'. Good grief, that stuff gets HOT! I'm sure it would strip several layers of skin of you got it on you. Sugar boiling at 150c is serious stuff!!

Right. I think I'm going to clear down the kitchen, so it's nice and tidy to start on the cake. But before that - LUNCH! I'm starving.

Suzanne x

Cakes!

I've got a 50th wedding anniversary cake for Friday. Two hearts, joined. One heart has been baked and the other is in the oven, as I type!

I also have a birthday cake for Steve, this weekend. It's the big FOUR-OH. I'm doing this:

I saw this cake on the British Sugarcraft Guild forum. It was made by Kelly. She's been very kind with giving me help and tips on how to achieve it. Thank you, Kelly! For example, the 'ice' is made from liquid glucose and sugar. You use equal amounts, heat so the sugar disolves, and then boil until it reaches 150c (hard crack stage). I've actually bought edible gold leaf for the top of the bottle. It's not cheap! But, hey, he's worth it. I've only bought 2 sheets (at three quid each) and now I'm looking at the cake again, I'm not sure I've got enough. Hmmmm.... I'll re-assess once the cake is made and covered and if I don't have enough, I'll just use gold lustre instead.

That's it, for now.

Suzanne x

Hysterical!

Do you remember the 50th anniversary cake I did? The one that caused me to shed blood, sweat and tears? (well, ok, no blood was lost in the making, but sweat and tears aplenty!)

They emailed me today:

"this is a photo of the 0 of our cake incase you do not recognise it, 2nd time around!!!!"

and here's the picture they attached (click on it to enlarge!) :

I haven't laughed so much for ages!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year

Well, Christmas is well and truly over now. We had a quiet new year's eve. Now it's back to work.

I've just covered 4 ice cream cones with really small circles of sugarpaste, to look like slates on turret tower roofs for the castle cake I've got later this week. I've made the towers - I made some pastillage and this is BY FAR the best medium I've used to make them. It's quick drying and strong enough that once it's dried I don't need an internal support (ie cardboard kitchen roll tube!) Tomorrow morning I'll bake the 8" square and 5" round cakes. I'll start to cover them tomorrow evening and then finish it off on Thursday, ready for delivery on Friday. There are at least 100 'tiles' on each tower roof!

I also need to make a Cinderella and Prince Charming for this cake. Hmmmm...... wish me luck. I don't know if there's time to make it - or even room for it on the cake board - but I bought some polystyrene ball things from Hobbycraft... they way they have grooves in them makes them perfect to cover and use as the base of Cinderella's pumpkin coach! :o)

Anyway, time to clear up the kitchen, me thinks!

Suzanne x

Finished for the year!

Phew! That's it... I'm done. I'm exhausted. I have never been so stressed. But I did it! :oD

I've just finished my dad's cake. It's really simple, but looks sooooo cool! http://patacake-parties.blogspot.com/ (you can click on any photo on the blog to make it bigger) I think he'll get a real laugh from it. I hope so.

So, the #1 Winnie cake was all done on time. The mum was really really happy with it. Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo of it, so it's not on my blog. Otherwise, I could post the email she sent me

"Hi Suzanne

We just wanted to say a big ‘thank you’ for Amber’s number one cake. The Winnie the Pooh characters looked exquisite and the cake was the talk of the party and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it!

Kind regards

Lara and Lawrence"

So that was lovely!

The fairies cupcakes were done and sent. I haven't heard any feedback from those, so I imagine they must have been ok. They are so labour-intensive!

Katie was THRILLED with the cookies. I managed to make all 360 in time (120 star shape, 120 christmas tree shape and 120 round cookies). I also made a tub of little Christmas trees that I cut out of modelling paste (there were probably 150 of them?) and also I did a load of little flowers that I cut out with a blossom cutter. There were teeny-weeny stars, teeny-weeny snowflakes, teeny-weeny bows/butterflies (hard to tell) and teeny-weeny gingerbread men, all cut from some sort of sugarpaste. These were sent to me by my Auntie in Canada. You just can't get that stuff here. And even if you could, it's so cheap out there. I also bought 2 large tubs of hundreds and thousands, 2 large packets of hundreds and thousands and a large tub of silver balls... And along with the 45 tubes of Supercook Designer Icing, this is what the children were going to decorate the cookies with. When I made the round cookies, I made a hole in each one so they could be used as decorations, if threaded with some sort of ribbon. Katie thought that was just fantastic!

So, now I'm all done. I have to do food shopping for Christmas! But 'work' is over for now. I have a cake for 4th January, and then 70 cupcakes for 6th. But I'm not thinking about that for now.

Wishing everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy, prosperous 2008.

Suzanne x

Catch Up

I have been so busy, I haven't had a chance to sit down and update.

I did the Teletubby cake last week. Let's leave it at that. TinkyWinky is an ugly thing!

Then, I made Daniel's birthday cake. It was his birthday on Thursday, but we went out to celebrate on the Friday and so I took his cake to the restaurant with us. He had a 3D football. I suggested it, as I'd wanted to try one out. It was OK, but I made a mistake, which fortunately I managed to hide. Basically, you bake two semi-spheres of cake and then sandwich them together to make the football. However, I torted each half of the cake and filled with buttercream, then sandwiched them together. It just wasn't stable enough and so it started to go... like the Leaning Tower of Pizza! From the front, it looked OK. But from the side... uh-oh! So I made a football scarf to go around it, and that helped to hide it. I know better for next time and I wouldn't object to making one as an order. When Daniel saw the cake he said "I know you worked very hard mummy, but I really wanted a man sitting on top. But I know you tried hard". Bless him. What could I say? So I made a footballer. Red top, white shorts and white socks, as per Daniel's instructions! Pic over on my blog, here: http://patacake-parties.blogspot.com/

I'm currently making Winnie & friends for a cake for Saturday morning.

I also have a cake for my mother-in-law's birthday party this weekend. And I'm making food for the party, too.

I have to finish the 28 fairies for the cupcakes for the beginning of next week. And I also need to make the stand (which I hideously under-quoted for!)

My dad's cake shouldn't be too taxing.

Then there's just Christmas!

Oh, and I've got an order for 4th and 6th January! More about that later.

Suzanne x