A teddy bear cake

This is a very old cake that I made back in 2009! It was for my little sister who was turning 4.  This was the first really big cake I had ever made and probably what got me hooked on baking.  I will always remember how it felt to hear all the parents saying how amazing it was and the smile on my little sister's face when it was brought out.

This cake was a real challenge and I think I would still find it pretty tricky if I were to make it now!  The whole cake is edible except for the ribbon (if I were to make a similar cake now I would also make the bow out of icing so you could eat everything).

Spiderman pumpkin

OK so before I start I know there are a couple of issues with this post:
1. It isn't a cake
2. Halloween was ages ago

BUT, I just found this photo and wanted to share it.  This was my pumpkin last Halloween which I made especially for my little sister who was (and still is) completely obsessed with spiderman.

Compared to the regular scary face pumpkin this took a lot longer :( but I do think it was worth it :)

Unfortunately Halloween for us last year was on an evening where it poured with rain continuously and was absolutely freezing :(  We don't tend to get many trick or treaters near us anyway as we live on a main road but this year was even worse.

However, we had lots of fun making our pumpkins and my sisters were both very impressed :) Now we will just have to see what they ask for this year :/

Slightly christmas themed tiered cake

This was a cake I made for a charity event at my school just before christmas (I know that was ages ago but I sort of forgot to post it :/ ).  It was sold in slices and all the money went to charity so I felt like that was my good deed for the week :)

The cake inside was a plain vanilla sponge with buttercream and the decorations were made of fondant.  You can see the roses that I tried again :) I think they look a little more realistic in red rather than the purple from the Ariel cupcakes I made ;)

The cake was fun to make as there wasnt a particularly strong theme so I could sort of do whatever I wanted :)

I made the spiral candy cane type things in advance to allow them to harden but I think I probably made them too thin as quite a lot still broke :( However, I think it is a great effect so it may be appearing on many more cakes in the future ;)

Overall, the cake went down well :) People were impressed, the whole thing was sold :O and lots of money was raised for charity :D

Ariel inspired rose cupckes

I can officially be a wedding cake maker :) (By which I mean I can now make fondant roses).

 

These cupcakes were for a friend of mine for her birthday.  She had a Disney themed fancy dress party so I wanted to do something related.  I knew that she was dressing up as Ariel so decided to use the colours of her clothes.  I thought that would mean it had some kind of link without being massively OTT.

This was the first time I had ever made fondant roses so it was interesting :/ but really fun and I think they turned out OK.  The cakes themselves were plain vanilla sponge and the turquoise buttercream completed the look.  You can't really see in the photo but they are in red metallic cases (inspired by her hair).  I have since made quite a few more roses and I am improving :) The main thing I need to fix is the fatness at the base of the rose.  I have too much extra fondant which makes them very heavy to hold with buttercream and a bit too much to actually eat :(

Christmas cupcakes

 

 These were some Christmas cupcakes I made in December (I know that was ages ago but I just remembered).

 They were plain vanilla cupcakes with buttercream on with the toppers each being handmade out of fondant.  It was a time consuming process but I was really happy with the results :) 

My favourites were Father Christmas, the snowman face, the Christmas pudding and Rudolph.  They were probably the hardest to make but I think six of those would be a really nice present for people that you want to give something to but don't really know them well enough to get something physical (there aren't many people who wont be happy with something they can eat).

Another small change I considered for next year was doing them all as baubles and just changing the design.  You could work to a specific colour scheme or do each one aimed at a particular member of the family.

I took these into work for our Christmas staff meeting (it started at 9am on a Sunday which is definitely too early not to have cake).
 If I did these again I would try and either limit the amount of fondant I used or try to find a way to put more buttercream on as the ratio was a bit wrong and they ended up very sweet :/ Some people really like that  shall we just say I wouldn't give them to my sisters if I was looking after them for the rest of the day ;)

I know this is entirely wrong season but its never too early to start planning right?

Woodland themed cake

This was the cake I made for my little sister for her birthday. As usual I asked what she wanted and her answer was, 'the same as my jungle cake, but wood'.  An interesting request but I hope I did ok :/  The cake itself was vanilla sponge but I did give in and make chocolate buttercream (I don't like to eat chocolate cake so won't make it).  The animals were each handmade out of fondant in the week before and the grass is just piped buttercream.

There were only a small handfull of children coming to the party so the cake was small but the only cake board I had was massive :( Hence all the grass.  I was rushing off to get to work when I finished the cake on the morning of the party.  I am one of those last minute types ;)

 

My sister loved it and the animals have been not particularly safely stored in a drawer somewhere.  They may make a guest appearance at some point, otherwise they will stay in said drawer until my mother's next mad clearout :/  It's a hard life if you are a bow tie wearing mole.