Busy August Part 2

And now for the jungle cake for a 3 year old boy and a 1 year old girls birthday party

 There is a lot of detail to this cake that you don't necessarily notice at first glance.

 The cake is higher than usual cakes to replicate the height needed for jungle trees

 Yummy chocolate buttercream was used as the jungle background before tree trunks and leaves in every shade of green I had were added. Then the fun part - the animals

 Not sure if the picture shows it properly but two trees were etched with the letter E. One for the birthday girl and one for the birthday boy.

 A hand painted girl and boy giraffe emerge from the tree tops

 The animals were placed all around the cake with this cheeky beaky towards the back

The board was also decorated with names, encroaching tree roots and slithery snakes.

Busy August

They say buses come in 3s but in my case it was cakes. The Tiffany Box (see previous post) a beautiful simply elegant cupcake tower and a bright and fun jungle cake

First the cupcakes

To start off the vanilla sponge was piped with vanilla buttercream in a rose pattern giving a cupcake that I think would look lovely for a wedding

 The cakes were then embellished with pink blossom and dusted ever so slightly with pink to give pale pink hue

 The cupcakes were placed in a pale pink spotty casing that complicated the unfussy decoration

 I just love pictures of multiple cupcakes!

 Birthday girls name was spelt out in tiny cupcakes that topped the cupcake tower

Tiffany Box - behind the scenes

Thought I would be a bit different with this blog and show you the cake BEFORE it was finished. Most people don't see this stage where cake is stacked and buttercreamed but not iced. 

The cake was for an 18th Birthday and the brief was simply 'a Tiffany Box' I was actually allowed to borrow a real life (empty) Tiffany Box to help colour match but unfortunately had to hand it back.

 This is also a stage people don't normally get to see. The still wet ribbon with stuffing inside each bow so that you can see all the way through each side once it has dried an set. The stuffing was kept in over night and was only removed once the cake had been delivered to give it a little extra cushion during transport.

 To finish off the cake the infamous Tiffany & Co logo was hand written on. Steady Steady Steady hand needed for this part!

 Here you can see the 'lid' and the ribbon wrapping the box

Final article boxed and ready to be handed over. The colour looks completely different to the previous picture and shows you what a difference natural light makes to cake decorating. The previous picture was taken at half ten at night with flash and kitchen energy saving light bulbs! Ribbon has totally dried and protective stuffing removed.

Who would have two birthdays in 3 days

We did. Top picture is a flower. Vanilla sponge with jam and topped with vanilla buttercream, milk chocolate disco buttons and edible green 'grass' sugar. The bottom picture is a small selection of the 30 odd sweetie cupcakes which featured pink glitter candles, love hearts, dolly mixtures, flumps and milk and white chocolate disco buttons. Some of the cakes also had mini lollies not shown on this picture and when placed on the pink and purple board the cupcakes (with metallic pink cupcake cases) looked fab. What more could a 4 year old girl want?

1st Balloon Birthday

A fab little cake for a fab little boy. Shaped into a balloon with a smartied blue number one and every other colour smartie (except pink) round the base. The cake also had personalised ribbon coming out then end of the balloon. Eat it quick or it will float away.

Banana and bacon? On a cake?

 Ladies and Gentleman Elvis has arrived in the form of two different cupcakes. Elvis loves Vegas - banana sponge with chocolate ganache, peanut butter frosting and salted peanuts or the Elvis sandwich - banana sponge topped with peanut butter frosting and caramelised bacon bits. Try them you will love them just as he did.

Chilli or orange - naughty or nice?

This was a grown up cake(s) for a grown up party. Sachertorte covered in chilli chocolate ganache or orange chocolate ganache and decorated with candied chilli, orange peel, edible gold, more chocolate or candles. Would you be a saint or a sinner?

Wild and wonderful cupcakes

A couple of wild and wonderful feature cupcakes for an 18th and 21st. Smarties, Chocolate swirls, homemade chocolate buttons, crumbled flakes, lashings of buttercream and fab candles. The cakes themselves were swirled chocolate and vanilla . Don't you just want to pick one of the many chocolate decorations off and eat it!

90th!

This was a classic Victoria sponge with jam and buttercream. Really feminine. Numbers being made out of flowers really seems to be becoming popular

Poker cake

Chocolate sponge, chocolate buttercream, chocolate poker chips, homemade playing cards (adding up to 30 no less) and personalised 'Happy 30th Birthday Graeme' ribbon.

A whole lot of backdating. Starting with typical home baking

Apologies it has been centuries since I last posted. I may not have been putting pictures up however I have still been baking. Here are some of the pictures starting with ginger and lemon mini tarts above. They were scrummy 

Gotta love a sticky cinnamon bun

Some of the bread that has been getting devoured. Particularly pleased with last picture - it just looks like (and tasted of course) the perfect loaf

And lastly...It's not made by me and hasn't even been baked but I couldn't resist putting this picture on of a cupcake cocktail. It had buttercream, egg white and was served with a spoon. Fab.