Christening cupcakes

Personalised cupcakes can be a unique and special gift for a christening. I am an honorary aunty to my friend Sarah's beautiful little girl Ava so I made these cakes for her special day. The little daisy and heart decorations are cut out from icing and I used a stencil to press the letters for her name. Thankfully 'Ava' is only three letters long otherwise I would have struggled to fit it all on. But don't worry if you've got a long name to work with you can still personalise them by using their initials or alternatively just put one letter on each cake and arrange them so that they spell out a special message or name.

My first comissioned cake!

After seeing the fruits of my, 'sugar crafting class' labour my boyfriend's very lovely mum asked if I would make her 50th birthday cake. Not only was it an important birthday,
but she was also having a big party so the pressure was on. The theme of the party seemed to be daisy related so I set about designing a flower power inspired cake. I had a great idea to make a daisy chain, out of icing, that was draped around the cake. Sadly this did not go to plan as I didn't quite position the daisies in the right place. So, I had to spend ages tediously picking off all scraps of green icing. Despite this minor disaster it didn't turn out too bad. And thankfully, even after being made a week in advance, the maderia sponge tasted great. It has however shown me that I have a lot of practicing to do before I make Dawn's wedding cake in December!

Cupcake decorating course

I had a fantastic day yesterday at the cupcake decorating class at Cake Boy and after a couple of hours of guidance with cake expert Eric Lanlard I made these beauties! Eric had already pre-made a bowl of his own sponge mix so all we had to do was get creative and made these lovely decorations. He gave me some fab tips like instead of using icing sugar when working with flower paste to use cornflour as this won't dry it out as much. And to use cream chese frosting as this less sickly than butter cream. After our cake making we were treated to a gorgeous afternoon tea served in the very trendy and chic cake emporium. With a glass of champagne in my hand and a mouth watering spread of sandwiches, pastel coloured macaroons, and cream and fruit filled cakes laid out before me I couldn't think of a better way to spend a day. But after scoffing the spread it was time to leave. I carefully packed up my cakes to take home and impress my friends, but after a two hour trek from Battersea to Peterborough in a sweaty train they sadly deteriorated and looked like this...

More of a box of mush than a the stunning cakes they started out as. But I still took them into work and am pleased to say they've already all been eaten! They may not look great but they still taste fab. Eric Kindly gave his recipe so in a few weeks I will recreate my own batch and post up the secret recipe for you.... x

Very nice coconut ice

If you have a super sweet tooth then this is the recipe for you. This deliciously gooey coconut ice requires minimal ingredients and takes no time to make. I made this batch last night and it's gone down a storm this morning in the office. Here's the very simple recipe......
Ingredients: 500gs icing sugar, 2x 375g cans of condensed milk, 400gs desiccated coconut and some pink food colouring.
Start by lining a square baking tin (20cm square and 4cm deep) with cling film. Then sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Then with a wooden spoon add the condensed milk to the sugar and stir till combined. Gradually add in the coconut but get your hands stuck in and kneed it in until the mixture is thick.You will get messy but don't woory. Then fill the baking tin with half the mixture and add the food colouring to other half. Once it's nice and pink spoon the pink half on top. Place in the fridge overnight to set, then just cut into chunks and serve!

Dawn's wedding cake

I promised to update you on how the blueberry cupcakes went....Well they didn't exactly go to plan. Let this be a lesson to you not to pull a random recipe of the internet (which regrettably I did). Despite vigorously sticking to the recipe they were more like rocks than cakes. Each cake weighed a ton and were incredibly dense, I could almost feel the fat piling on my hips with every bite. Anyway after taking these poor excuses for cupcakes down to Dawn she wisely decided that it might be better for me to make a traditional wedding cake. As I've made two big fancy cakes before and I feel more confident taking this on. The cake pictured is exactly the sort of thing she wants. The only minor problem is that I don't know how to make the roses!
I'm desperately hoping that I can get myself on a 'How to make roses out of icing' course in September, if not I may have to rely on this very useful, but very long You Tube video It shows you exactly how to do it....Wish me luck x

A cross stitch bitch!

After being introduced to this hilarious book called Subversive Cross Stitch I have developed a love of the age old art of cross stitching. The book features patterns for phrases like 'Go Fuck yourself' and 'Bite me" and combines them with very cute, country cottage style boarders. It's this mix of quaint design and modern phrasing which amuses me. I decided to make this pattern for some friends who have just moved in together. The book also contains an alphabet at the back so you can write any personal message you like. These designs look best when displayed in a really chunky gold ornate frame like this.

How to make this bear....

I recently sent my little niece Layla some money for her birthday but sadly it never arrived as some utter thieving bastard at the post office stole it! Being on a meager writers wage I couldn't afford to resend said money so thought I'd make her something instead. I found a pattern for this cute little bear and whipped it up in about an hour! You can choose any kind of pretty patterned fabric, ribbon and buttons. I've made this bear a few times now and sadly he always looks like he's got a bit of camel toe going on down below. Maybe I just stuff him too much....
If you want to make your own then just design your bear shape, draw it onto your chosen fabric and cut 2 sides out. Place the two wrong sides together and sew together inside a 5mm seam, leave a gap of a few inches for stuffing. Clip the curved edges. Turn your bear inside out and stuff. Then sew up the gap. Sew on his eyes and nose with little black beads and decorate him however you like.

Easter farmyard cake

After just a four week sugar craft course I managed to make this lovely cake! Everything is made completely out of icing- even the cute little duck on the top. It was so much fun to make and was surprising easy. I decided to donate it as a prize for our charity bake sale at work but to my surprise I won it! It did look like a bit of a fix but it wasn't...honest! Luckily I got to take it to my nephews who demolished it in seconds leaving me to look on tearfully as I thought about how many hours it had taken to make.

Mint chocolate chip cupcakes

Inspired by a trip to Greenwich market, where I saw a stall full of gorgeous cupcakes I decided to make these mint choc chip cakes. I followed Nigella's recipe, which you can find here but unlike Nigella I decided to decorate mine with a sprig of fresh mint and some chocolate chips.
Update on Dawn's wedding cakes: I'm going to try make some blueberry and lemon ones and take them down to her next weekend. I'll post her review once she's inspected them.......

A house warming softie!

What do you get a friend who's just moved into a new house? Need you ask? A soft toy tree of course. My lovely friend Keely has recently bought her first, very grown up house and to keep her company I made this tree completely out of felt. The best thing about him is that his leaves never fall off, he never needs watering and he's always happy. He's quite literally the perfect housemate.
To see the pattern for him click here

The Chelsea Flower Show's take on cupcakes

Here's are a few cakes that are definitely fat-free. This beautiful display was part of this years Chelsea Flower Show. Displayed on a giant cupcake stand these pretty plants emulate the sweetest of treats but without the calories. Can't imagine they taste great though....

Luckily hungry visitors to Chelsea weren't left to nibble on grass, real cakes were available. Just like these ones......
I love the idea of decorating cakes with chillis, tomatoes and asparagus it gives sugary cakes a savory twist and a real rustic garden party feel!

Jo's wedding cake

Finally I've got this posted up. Believe it or not but this was one of the first cakes I made! I must confess I didn't do it all alone. With the help of a very talented and lovely lady called Diane at Yours magazine (where I work) we made this wedding cake for a credit crunch busting £90!
Last August my friend Jo was getting married on a tight budget so I offered to make her cake and was very pleased with the outcome. To buy in the shops this would have cost upwards of £400. Basically we soaked loads of dried fruit in alcohol for about a week, baked three cakes, almond pasted and iced them. Then with her sugar crafting talents Diane showed me how to make all the flowers and leaves out of icing then we decorated it all with pink ribbon.
Not only was everyone very impressed with the way it looked on the day, but it also tasted amazingly moist. The booze soaked fruit was the secret.
If you want to know how to ice a cake click here

A simple but sweet iphone cosy

After recently getting an iphone and being petrified of breaking it I thought it would be a good idea to make myself an iphone cosy. This literally took less than half an hour to make and costs next to nothing.
I used thick Aran wool bought from Hobbeycraft see here and casted on 10 stitches then did about 15 rows (measure the wool against your iphone) you want it to wrap around both sides of the phone. It's best to make it a bit smaller than you think as this wool is really stretchy. Leave about 6 inches of wool hanging once you've casted off. Then put the two wrong sides together and sew up the sides and bottom using the 6 inch strand of wool, then turn inside out.
You can then decorate it anyway you like. I sewed on this ribbon and added a telphone shaped button. And there you have it, your phone is now as snug as bug in a rug! x

My banana and white choc chip cupcakes

I made these at the weekend and if I do say so myself they were delicious! I made the recipe from taking bits of other recipes and forming my own. Sounds a bit Frankenstein-esq I know, but as you can see they went down well with these girls.

Here's the recipe...... It makes 24 yummy cupcakes
Cream 300gs soft butter and 300gs caster sugar together till pale and fluffy. Add 2 very ripe mashed bananas to mixture then add in
4 large eggs- but add one at a time. Sieve 250gs plain flour, 50gs cornflour and 2tsp baking powder into the mixture and finally fold in
100gs white chocolate chips. Fill muffin cases 2 thirds full then cook at 180 for 20 mins.
For the topping cream together 300gs of icing sugar with 19ogs butter when smooth pipe onto cooled cakes. Finally add a dried banana chip to each cake and sprinkle on top chunks of white chocolate.

Sheena's birthday soft- tea!

To mark the birth day of my tea loving friend Sheena I made her this little tea bag softie! It's a really cute design from this softies book........
It was pretty easy to make but whilst wrapping it up I accidentally cut the string that connects that bag to the ornately decorated tea bag tag. After much cursing, huffing and moaning I manged to tie it in a fairly neat knot but am still annoyed at my self and my slightly imperfect softie! Luckily Sheena loved it all the same and here she is proudly showing it off in the office.

What I made this weekend....

I made this little fella over the weekend. He was going to be a bag but I'm still a little nervous when it comes to my sewing machine so when I saw that this pup in my Kath Kidson 'Sew' book only needed to be made by hand I'd thought I'd give him a go. After finding some very cute fabric and getting my artistic boyfriend to enlarge the pattern I was away!

Now I just need to think of a fitting name for him. Any suggestions are most welcome! Xxxx