Thursday 20 September 2012

Bowling Cake


At long last - a celebration cake! Phew, I cannot tell you how bored I am of making cupcakes. It is not-so-little- P's 9th birthday this weekend, and a request of a cake to go with her bowling party has been loudly hinted at for weeks. As this is my last chance for a celebration cake in this current job, I gave in and devoted all of 1 hour to baking, and 30mins to decorating (all the time available with 6 kids running around!) 

Having moved all my baking equipment into my new house, I was rather unprepared for baking this cake - hence the simple design (got to love a tray bake!) and slightly uneven lean to it (I never thought I'd miss my cake leveller this much!) But in true nanny style- I improvised a tin (roasting pan) and spatula (knife) and leveller (copious amounts of buttercream and a layer of chocolate philadelphia that I have found no other purpose for) and voila, a cake was baked.

To the fun part - decorating! An experiment in painting a cake proved to be quite successful for a first attempt! Good quality gel food dye painted on with a very wet brush then almost rag rolling with kitchen towel to give a wooden effect, + slightly drier brush strokes for the darker plank effect = one very quick and easy bowling lane. Add to that fondant skittles with a red painted stripe held in place with cocktail sticks and a coloured fondant bowling ball, and the whole thing is done in next to no time at all! 




Phew! Back in the cake creating game... what next I wonder?


At

Monday 3 September 2012

Inspiration please!

This is a plea to all my followers - I'm bored of cupcakes!! I need some inspiration and a new challenge. Answers not on a postcard, but in comment form would be greatly appreciated. If there is something you haven't had time to try or fancy stretching my baking skills - anything you'd like to see, or something you just want pretty pictures of, let me know - I'll give it a go!

Strawberries and Cream



I've been lacking inspiration recently. Other than 72 of the usual glittery mixed flavour cupcakes for a charity ball I haven't had many commissions. So to branch out a bit, and to put a new twist on classic British summer favourite (loving the late summer we seem to be having this week) I thought I'd experiment with these little darlings!

These simple vanilla cupcakes were definitely fun, quick and easy to make. There is a surprise strawberry hidden in the centre of the cupcake, topped with whipped cream mixed with a dash of caster sugar and decorate with sliced strawberries. Light, delicious and not too shabby to look at! Give them a go, you know you want to...