Love is in the air.....

Today, I thought I'd show you some old cake photos - well, not THAT old - from just around Valentine's Day. The big heart shaped cake was made as a raffle prize for a fundraising event went to at the local village primary school. It was a really fun evening - a Mr & Mrs Night.... where couples competed against each other to see how well they knew each other. Some of the questions and challenges were a real test for the couples.....and I am so glad that I was just a member of the audience!

The other cakes were made as part of a gift for my Mum's birthday (which is on February 9th). I made lots of cakes (so I could try out a new cake stand - more photos another time!) and she took lots home with her..........including a little pack I made for her next door neighbour....a delightful lady who has had a bad time of it lately one way and another. I made the little fabric basket that the cakes are in - and she can either use it for little odds and ends.........or send it back to me for a refill of cakes!

It's cold and rainy and horrible here today - just the day to stay in and snuggle up by the fire with a good book, or an old film on the tele, or both .......... with a cuppa and some cake! Of course, I have to make the cake first............so I think I shall go and do that now.

Tilt Shift Photos and other stuff

Well, have a look at this!! Less than 24 hours after seeing my first "TiltShift" photo (which is what I now know they are called), I've managed to do one of my own! To be fair, it wasn't exactly rocket science - there is a wonderful website that allows you to uploads your own photos and then it just gives it this effect....so it's a bit of a cheat really (but I still feel like I'm clever!!!). Here's the link to this fab website, if you fancy having a go yourself

http://tiltshiftmaker.com/photo-processing.php



You will notice that my photos is NOWHERE NEAR as good as Nigel's (below), but this IS my first attempt, and done with a photo that wasn't really that good in the first place! Incidentally, the photo is of the gorgeous gardens at Bressingham in Diss, Norfolk. We went there for a day in the summer - it's great. Steam train rides, a beautiful old carousel ride, a fantastic garden centre and the delightful gardens....something for everyone.



I haven't spent ALL day looking at photos to tilt-shift (if that's the right term). I've also had a productive day getting things ready for a cake I have to make later on in the week. I always thought I would hate making "number" cakes - and then someone asked me for a "60" a couple of months back. Then, the same lady asked me for another "60" (the first had been for her dad, the second for her father in law) a few weeks back. Now, someone else has asked for a "65" for her dad.......... so much for not wanting to do number cakes. Actually, I quite enjoy doing them - they are certainly a challenge when it comes to icing them. I also quite enjoy the fact you have a large board - so it gives scope for more varied decorations.



I am off to make dinner now - a slightly altered version of a Chicken, Cheese and Sage Tart that I saw on another blog. I say altered because I decided to save time and not make my own pastry, but to buy ready made filo pastry...also should be a bit more slimming than making my own!



I'll be back on here later with the verdict. Watch this space.........

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Well, when I say "Lazy" what I really mean is "worn out, but not finished yet"!! I've just taken a break from washing, ironing, housework and finding things for everyone else in here who think that I know where everything is!

So, last night I made some cupcakes (and a large sponge cake, at the request of Archie, my 4 year old son). I just about managed to get Alice (the 13 year old) to snap some photos of them before she took the box to her friend's house with her, and Archie devoured the summery one - having conveniently forgotten that the "plain" sponge was what he had asked for!

Alice stayed over at her friend's house last night, and this morning she reported that everyone loved them, her friend's mum asked if she could keep the card I had (very slyly!) popped in the box, and wanted to know if I take orders. Errr................YES! I'd LOVE to. I guess it will just take time to spread the word. In the meantime, my family have to be chief samplers...........which they don't seem to object to!

Welcome to my blog!

Hello and WELCOME. I'm really not sure that anyone but me will ever read this, but anyway - it will keep me busy (as if I don't have enough to do that already!). Hopefully this will be more than just a diary for me - I am hoping that this will be somewhere I can waffle on about the cakes and cupcakes I LOVE making.

I originally started decorating cakes when I was little more than a child (I know that sounds corny, but it's true!). I can remember making and decorating a Christmas cake when I was about 11 or 12...using royal icing in peaks to look like snow, those little plastic snowmen (yes, this WAS the 70s!!!) and some tin foil placed to look like a pond!

I carried on making cakes for fun (and for family members) and kept promising myself I would take some classes, until in 1992 - I was getting married. So, I decided (foolishly, I now realise, looking back) to make my own wedding cake. I found a wonderful shop that offered lessons in Sugarcraft, and I took several courses, in how to use fondant icing properly, how to make wedding cakes, and how to make sugar flowers. I eventually finished my wedding cake the night before the wedding (no Hen Night for me!!), and it was lovely - but it was something that someone else should have been worrying about on my wedding day - as the bride, I should have been getting myself ready, not setting up a cake at the venue a couple of hours before I was due in church. Oh well, you live and learn.

On the run up to the wedding, I had been getting as much practice as possible, making cakes for colleages and friends (who very generously paid me to do this - even though my attempts weren't that good at first). Just over a year after I got married, I gave birth to my gorgeous baby girl Grace, so I kind of let the cakes slip a bit - although I carried on making them for her and then my other daughter Alice, after she was was born in 1995.

Over the years, I've gone from one crafting project to the next, enjoying lots of them, and wanting to find something to make some extra money - when all the time, cakes were staring me in the face! I started up again a year or two ago, after discovering there was a cupcake craze that didn't seem to be going away. It hadn't really "hit" Essex, so I thought I'd make some and see how they went down at local school events and Christmas Fayres. The answer is - they were admired and enjoyed by lots of people (most of whom didn't know I had ever had a hidden passion for making and decorating cakes), and this gave me confidence to carry on.

This year seems to be more "cakey" than ever, and I am making more and more cakes, which I am really enjoying.

As for the future - well, it would be my absolute dream to have a successful business selling my creations, but we'll have to wait and see. At the moment, my main problem is that I don't have the self-confidence to charge people what I should for cakes, so the "successful business" is still a dream, and I guess will be until I get tough enough (or confident enough, or busy enough) to charge more. Well, as I said earlier, we live and learn, so "watch this blog" and hopefully 2009 will be the year I start to make my dream a reality.

I want to use this blog to showcase some of my creations, and I will always welcome feedback and comments - and if anyone is local to me, I would LOVE to let you have samples of my cakes so that you can (hopefully) verify that they taste good too. There's nothing worse than the promise of a scrummy cake by the look of it, only to be disappointed with the flavour or texture.