Bee's and their flowers

The last weekend was crazy, I had two cakes due at once, Saturday morning and Saturday evening.

Saturday morning's cake was a gift for my daughters dance school Easter raffle, a beehive made up of 3 tiers of chocolate mud cake filled with buttercream and carved into the shape of a hive, everything on the cake was edible excluding the tooth picks i used to anchor the bee's and flowers in with.  I also added a ballerina bear who was cheekily sneaking some honey out the side of the hive.

Saturday evening's cake was an engagement cake for a friend, its was three tier again with chocolate mud filled with white chocolate ganache and strawberry preserves, the top tier was also filled with preserves and ganache but the cake was also infused with Irish cream for a bit of extra oomph!

Both cakes went of really well and I'm very proud of the job i did, the roses on the engagement cake, were a first for me as I had never made them before and after stuffing around for days with colour and technique, I feel i didn't do to badly.

I will definitely be practising though as I have found some different techniques that I would like to try!

Wilton Worries

So I started the Wilton Basic Cake Deco course and I have to sat I'm rather disappointed, from work go it was all about up selling and "what can we make them purchase from our store today".  There were things I was under the impression we were learning it turns out it was all lovely pictures in the book of things we were not learning! So not sure if I will continue on at this stage, I may just need to find another course and get into that instead.

Rant over!

On a more positive note I have been teaching dance this year and I am having an absolute ball! What a way to start a year, Hopefully fingers crossed I can do my dance exam in August and pass... and then I can focus on the teaching exams :)

I am pleased to say though that coming up this month I am making two cakes:

First cake is a bumblebee cake, three tiers of chocolate cake covered in yellow fondant and decked out with mini bees, that is my donation to the dance schools annual Easter raffle which hopefully will be a lot of fun to do.

Second cake is for my dear dear friend Kelly and her fiance Trav for their engagement party, again three tiers of white choc mud filled with strawberry butter cream and fresh strawberries and decked out with white fondant, red roses and as a special request from the 'bride to be' a candle in a bell jar on top to tie into their romance theme.......CANT WAIT!!

I have attached some pics of a cake I did in the course and some extra things I have just done on the side for fun and self taught practise (which I'm finding is the best way)

Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake

Love

Rainy

Aussie Aussie Aussie

Lamington's....chocolate covered cake rolled in coconut, frankly not my favourite treat but I have to say its an Aussie icon you can't go past so I thought I'd try it in a cupcake!

The actual cupcake was just your standard patty recipe:

Self-raising flour
Caster sugar
Butter
Vanilla extract
Milk

I used a basic recipe just for ease because I wanted to crack on with the more important decorating, I filled the cupcakes with a raspberry jam which I warmed slightly to be able to pipe it easily.


my next step was to pipe a cooled ganache onto the top and sprinkle coconut on top, honestly ganache is DIFFICULT  to pipe only because you have to cool it to the exact consistency you think would be best to work with, once you start working though it warms in the piping bag in your hand and thins....frustratingly messy haha

all in all it wasn't a complete disaster and my daughter had a great time decorating her own cupcakes as you can see ;)

New Year, New Me!

Happy New Year!

I hope 2012 brings you all your dreams, I know I am (fingers crossed) well on my way to fulfilling my 2012 goals.

Today I enrolled in a Wilton level 1 course, thankfully I pulled my head in and stopped procrastinating and just did it, I look forward to starting those classes once a week I'm hoping I pick up some great tips on piping and sugar flowers which will only help to create better and more beautiful cakes.

I also was given the opportunity to teach a dance class once a week, I will find out in due course if this is going ahead or not but if so I am really looking forward to the possibility of completing my teaching exams, I have missed dance teaching like you wouldn't believe and when given this chance a huge range of emotions came flooding in fear, suspense, excitement, pride and just pure happiness.

Maybe one day I can combine two of my favourite things cake decorating and dance.....don't ask me how but you never know.

Until next time

Keep Calm and Eat A Cupcake

Rainy x

Baking Baking Baking

I wanted to share my thoughts on baking

I am a terrible baker, I love baking but I'm not very good. I burn cakes and overcook cupcakes, I under fill patty pans and my cakes come out dry and not very appetising.

There will come a time one day that I may succeed but until then its back to trial and error, much to my taste testers disgust.

I find baking very relaxing, stir here, whisk there, fold in and pour out, There is nothing I would love more than being able to bake a spectacular tasting cake, this would make me a happy chap.

It is now time for me to get back to reading my cupcake murder mystery and dreaming about marshmallow fondant.

Until next time

Keep Calm and Eat Cupcakes :)

Rainy

Christmasy Cup e Cakes!!

Hi Everyone!

Just wanted to share my Christmas cupcakes, I did these for my daughters dance presentation night and was really hoping they would be a hit....and they WERE!!

This is a basic vanilla cupcake stuffed with peppermint buttercream and topped with edible Christmas trees to add a touch of Christmas magic I decided to use some edible glitter to finish them off.

I really enjoyed making them and I have to admit the photos don't do them any justice but please enjoy!

Keep calm and eat cupcakes

Love

Rainy

Things that make you go MMMMMMMM

The last two weeks I have been battling with urge to cook and bake and decorate and EAT!

I have all these amazing ideas for christmas decorating and baking there is just no time to do it all my baking schedule is looking like this:

Tuesday - Cupcakes for dancing breakup party, my idea initially was to do a ballet slipper slab cake or some tutu cupcakes but sadly due to time constraints I had to change my mind. Now I am in the middle of prepping mini christmas trees cupcakes decorated out of snowflake sugarpaste and stacked up to create a christmas tree, Im adding a touch of edible blue glitter with some silver sugar balls and they should look divine.
 (heres hoping)

Sunday - I have a first birthday which I have just sadly found out I cant attend due to our annual extended family christmas day, I promised I would make a very special fairy tale themed cake, very girly was the instruction. This I haven't made my mind up about exactly what this is but photos will be posted later on and I will share my thoughts later.

Sunday - On top of the birthday cake I did say I would do a christmas cake for the family, my idea was to use the 3 different sized pudding tins to create a rounded christmas tree and decorated accordingly, this should look lovely as I wanted to create a very simplistic classy looking tree that wasn't over the top but was eye catching.

On top of all that I am making christmas bark as a christmas present for my aunts and uncles as something a little different, every year I give them token gifts which quite frankly are useless and a waste of money, so I figure this year I will cook a range of delectable treats.  Who doesn't get the odd surprise visitor during this busy time of year and its great to have something scrumptious on hand to offer with a cup of tea.

I will endeavour to up load photos as soon as they are taken to share with you what I create over the silly season.

Till next time

Keep calm and eat cupcakes

Love

Rainy