Our wedding cake

Nick and I were married on the 10th of December at the very lovely Llangoed Hall in Llyswen, Wales. It was the perfect day in every way and it really couldn't have been happier, more fun or lovely. I'd do it all over again if I could!

Of course I had to make my own wedding cake. I wanted to make something simple and elegant and in keeping with the general white, silver and sparkle of the day. I decorated the cake with white icing which I brushed with a pearl shimmer, and I used white satin ribbon fastened to bows with vintage sparkly brooches. Each tier of the cake was piped with the same swagged design which was then hand painted with a little sparkle. The sugar roses and flowers were made from white flowerpaste and were similarly hand painted with edible sparkle.

I absolutely love fruit cake and so does Nick so we chose hot toddy fruit cake for the flavour. I made some cookies for the youngest guests for whom fruit cake did not appeal! I loved every minute of making my wedding cake but the best part of all was cutting it with my new husband!

*N.B all of these photographs were taken by the truly brilliant Paul Donovan www.pauldonovanphotography.co.uk

Apologies

Many many apologies for falling so badly behind with my blog posts. The last months have been full with wedding planning, the wedding itself, honeymooning and moving house. I promise to get back up-to-date very shortly!

Romantic Garden Wedding Cake 23 July 2011

On the 23rd of July Louise Zagozda was married at Glyn ar Afon Hotel in Usk. She asked me to design her a wedding cake which was romantic and traditional but with a fresh edge. She wanted to keep to a white colour palate but with a splash of pink to tie in with her wedding colours. The cake was covered in white sugarpaste and decorated with a descending pattern of trailing piped royal icing flowers and leaves:

The cake was four tiers, each with a different flavour. Louise chose a base tier of hot toddy fruit cake, and the remaining tiers of sumptuous belgian chocolate cake filled with white chocolate buttercream, carrot cake filled with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and lemon cake filled with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream.

Just lovely! Many many congratuations to you both!

'Masquerade' cake - 08 July 2011

I had the great pleasure of making Sian Owen's wedding cake on the 8th of July. Sian wanted a real statement cake which would be a centrepiece for her wedding day. We looked at lots of different possible designs but one particularly caught Sian's eye - I sketched a design which was based around the design of her wedding dress, Masquerade by Ian Stuart:

The one thing that Sian wanted the cake to be was big which meant it could take a lot of detail and intricate design which was great fun for me! The top three tiers of the cake were covered in swathed ivory sugarpaste hand brushed with pealescent shimmer to mimic the fabric of the dress. The back of these tiers was finished with a sugar paste 'seam' finished with 'pearl buttons':

I covered the bottom two tiers with over 300 hand rolled sugar flowers which were then dusted with pearlescent shimmer.

Sian chose a base tier of hot toddy fruit cake and remaining tiers of Jaffa (sumptuous belgian chocolate cake with orange buttercream filling), Lemon cake filled with homemade lemon curd and vanilla buttercream and madagascan vanilla cake filled with homemade raspberry compote and white chocolate buttercream.

I enjoyed every minute of making this cake, thanks so much to Sian for allowing me free reign! Wishing you every possible happinness for the future!

Kitt and Marco's Silhouette Wedding Cake - 18th June 2011

Kitt and Marco are a lovely couple. She is from Texas and he is from Wales. They were very clear from the outset about what they wanted their cake to be. They wanted it to be fun, frivolous and reflective of their different origins and importantly incorporating a graphic design element which was a strong theme of their wedding. They didn't want anything that looked like a traditional wedding cake, there needed to be a reference to birds as this was another theme running through the day and the colour green needed to be included too.

As always I sketched a few different designs and this is the one they chose!:

I kept the colours to black and white for a striking graphic feel. The top tier is a silhouette of Welsh landmarks and the bottom tier a silhouette of Texan landmarks using overlaid sugarpastes. The middle tier with the black birds on a wire reverses the layers of colour with the two birds in tandem flight (representing Kitt and Marco) in the lime green to give a pop of colour.

Kitt and Marco chose tiers of triple layered Strawberry Sundae cake (strawberry cake layered with vanilla buttercream) and of course Red Velvet with white chocolate cream cheese frosting for extra decadence!

The cake was placed at the centre of a dessert buffet which was comprised of cakes and sweet treats made by guests at the wedding. Lovely! Kitt and Marco have now embarked upon a new adventure living in Texas! Good luck and much happiness to you both!

Cookies for Cerys - 7th May 2011

Cerys' mum Elin asked me to make some pretty pink butterfly cookies for Cerys' naming celebration on the 7th of May. The cookies were tied up in polythene bags and finished off with pink ribbon and given to all of the guests as they left the party!

Thanks so much to Elin for her order!

Busy Bee

Gosh it's been a busy summer. So busy I have been entirely neglectful of this blog! It has been busy in a lovely way though working with lovely people on their wedding and celebration cakes, and outside of work planning my own wedding and starting to set up home in a new place (more on this later). Now these lovely autumn days are upon us it's about time I caught up on my summer blog posts! Apologies for their belated nature!

Kate's Baby Shower Cookies

I had the great pleasure of making Kate and Dominic's wedding cake last April. I was so excited when Kate's maid of honour, Elaine, got in touch back in March to order some cookies for a surprise baby shower for Kate. Elaine asked for the cookies to be piped in the same bright colours as the baby's nursery, the result is really fresh and pretty:

Big big congratulations to Kate and Dominic on the birth of your lovely baby girl and many thanks to Elaine for thinking of iced to help mark this special occasion!

Claire and Roland's Wedding Cake

Claire and Roland were married on Monday on the most beautiful sunny spring day at Llangoed Hall, Llyswen. Claire had seen a style of cake that she loved in a magazine with the cake tiers separated by blocks of ribbon but wanted it to reflect a romantic country garden style. After sketching out a few ideas we softened the design by incorporating layered champagne and dusky pink ribbon, piped royal icing dots to the sides of the cake and used romantic free-form sugar roses in dusky pink and ivory to connect the tiers.

Claire and Roland chose a top tier of hot toddy fruit cake and two tiers of triple layered Madagascan vanilla sponge filled alternatively with white chocolate buttercream and home-made raspberry compote. Many thanks to Claire and Roland for being really fun to work with, wishing them every happiness for the future.

Avril's Beatles Cake

My lovely mum was 60 on Saturday and of course I had to make her a cake. I asked her if she had any requests and being a big Beatles fan she asked for something with a Beatles theme. This was perfect as my sister and I had been thinking along the lines of having a 1960's themed dinner party to celebrate. The cake was three tiers of triple layered Belgian chocolate sponge filled with white chocolate buttercream.

My sister did a fabulous job of organising the dinner at Miskin Manor and put together a table of 1960's memorabilia for guests to peruse:

It was a really lovely evening made most special by all of the family and friends who joined us to celebrate!

Harri's Christening Cookies

Harri was Christened at the weekend on a beautiful sunny day. The service took place in Abercynon with a reception afterwards at the Community Hall in Quakers Yard.

My brief was to make vanilla cookie favours for the little guests keeping to the blue and white spot theme of the day:

Apologies

I've just found out that my telephone answering service hasn't been recording messages as it should :o( the problem is now fixed but many apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Lilac and Pink Birthday Cupcakes

I am feeling very spring-like this week, the sun is shining, lambs are bouncing around the fields and fresh colours are appearing all around! I made this cupcake tower for Philippa's mother's 60th Birthday celebration on Sunday. My brief was that the cake should comprise 150 British style cupcakes with Madagascan vanilla sponge, topped with fondant icing in lilac colours with half of the cupcakes decorated with sugar flowers and the other half plainly iced with a little sparkle! The top tier cutting cake was a ginger cake filled with lemon buttercream. I iced the top tier using lilac sugarpaste which was then hand piped with royal icing dots in the same colour, I topped the cake with a mixture of loose and tight pink sugar roses which I interspersed with sugar pearls.

The celebration took place in Surrey and the cake was collected by a family member so I don't have any photographs of it set up in-situ but I constructed the cake using half of the cupcakes in my studio to photograph it to give you an idea of how it looked!

The smooth, swirled fondant gives a really pleasing effect I think:

Many thanks to Philippa and her father for ordering the cake from iced (despite being based so many miles away!) and to Mike for recommending iced to them. It was an absolute pleasure to make! Wishing Philippa's mum a very happy 60th birthday!

The Handmade Wedding Collective Exhibition

The Handmade Wedding Collective Exhibition, which is taking place between the 15th and the 20th of March at Craft Central, London, is showcasing 14 fabulous UK designer-makers. If you are looking for gifts for your guests, fabulous jewellry, gorgeous garters or beautiful silk ties for your groom / groomsmen like these from the wonderful Peggy Bamford:

do pop along and visit the exhibition. All of the location, timing and exhibitor details can be found here. Happy shopping!

Your South Wales Wedding Panel

In this months Your South Wales Wedding magazine I was asked about wedding cakes on a budget. A lovely cake is a really central part of any wedding I think (but then I am biased!) the only problem is that they can be expensive particularly if they incorporate a lot of detailed decorative work or if they are structurally complex. If you are working to a budget don't despair, there are many ways to reduce the cost of your cake:

• Serve your cake as a dessert if your wedding venue allows, ask your caterer to provide little jugs of coulis or cream to go with the cake.
• Cupcakes are often a cheaper alternative to a stacked cake. They look beautiful and impressive when set up on a cake stand and each guest receives their own beautifully decorated cake.
• Choose a beautiful diminutive two tier cake and then ask your cake maker to provide extra undecorated cutting cakes which will be kept behind the scenes and cut up for serving
• And of course if you have an excellent baker in the family why not get them involved in helping to make your cake whether it would be making the whole thing start to finish or indeed simply baking the cakes which a professional cake maker could then decorate.

Nicola and Gareth's Spring Cupcake Wedding Cake

Nicola and Gareth were married at the beautiful St David's Hotel and Spa in Cardiff Bay on the 12th of February. It was a beautiful day with the first of the spring sunshine peaking through. Perfect! Nicola and Gareth chose a cupcake wedding cake with six different flavours of American style cupcakes. They selected Vanilla Vanilla, Blueberry Whirl, Strawberry Sundae, Sumptuous Chocolate, Mango Madness and Mint Chocolate Chip with a top tier of Chocolate Cherry Fruit Cake. Each flavour cake was decorated slightly differently and I made a cupcake menu so the guests could select their flavour of choice.

Nicola and Gareth wanted the cake to be decorated with predominantly white sugar flowers but with hints of blue and yellow. I made sugar roses, orchids and iris's to corresponded with the flowers Nicola had selected for the bouquets and table centrepieces for the cupcakes. You can see the beautiful flowers which Claire from The Bee Orchid Florist provided for the wedding here. The top tier was decorated with open white sugar roses and small yellow rose buds with edible diamonds interspersed. I also piped the top tier with royal icing and used white sugar pearls to accentuate the design.

Nicola's grandparents, who live in Scotland, were unable to attend the wedding so Nicola asked me to box an individual cupcake for them each and the boxes were tied with the same beautiful blue ribbon that was used on the top tier and throughout the reception room.

Many congratulations to Nicola and Gareth. It was really lovely working with you to create your wedding cake. Wishing you all of our best wishes for the future!

Kate and Dominic - Wedding of The Year

Back in June the lovely Kate and Dominic entered Your South Wales Wedding's Wedding of The Year competition, which I posted about here. Kate emailed me just before Christmas to let me know that they have now reached the final! Please find a few moments to click here and vote for them! Many thanks!

Iced in the Press - Your South Wales Wedding Nov/Dec

The hot topic for November/December's Your South Wales Wedding Magazine's panel was Family Dilemmas. Planning weddings to please everyone involved can be a little tricky (and, let's face it, sometimes impossible!). Thankfully, as far as cakes are concerned, a good cake maker will always have a few tricks up his/her sleeve! My hot topic was catering for guests with food intolerances:

My scanned copy isn't very clear, but you can see the full 'Ask the Experts' section here and I've typed up my Q&A below;

Q. My fiance and I would love to have a large, traditional, tiered wedding cake for our special day and would like to serve it as a dessert at the wedding breakfast. However, a few of our relatives have gluten allergies. Is it still possible to have our dream cake without having to leave anyone out?

A. Absolutely! This is a question I am often asked, in fact, around 50 per cent of my clients ask me to cater for special dietary requirements. The main concern when catering for guests with allergies or intolerances is cross-contamination, so the first thing you need to do is to find a cake designer that can bake a cake in a gluten-free environment.

Ask to try some of the company's gluten-free creations and remember to compare it to those that aren't. After all, there's no reason why these cakes should be any less scrumptious than any other variety!

If you have quite a number of guests that are gluten-intolerant, it might be worth making one of the smaller tiers of your cake gluten-free. However, if you only have a few guests that require a dessert which is gluten-free, why not serve them miniature gluten-free cakes in individual boxes? Your cake designer can even make them look like mini replicas of your traditional wedding cake, and that will make your guests feel very special indeed!

Becky and Andrew's Elegant Ivory and Black Wedding Cake

The lovely Becky and Andrew held their reception at Canada Lake and Lodge just outside Creigiau after their church wedding on the 5th of December. I delivered their cake on a fabulously frosty Saturday morning, the lake was beautifully peaceful and inside the lodge fires were blazing. It was simply stunning.

From the outset Becky and Andrew knew that they wanted their cake to fit with the sophisticated winter ivory and black theme of their wedding. They chose two flavours of cake - chocolate cherry fruit cake for the base tier and Madagascan vanilla Madeira cake filled with raspberry compote and buttercream for the remaining two tiers. Delicious!

We looked at varying different designs for the cake and settled on an elegant criss-cross quilted design which was accented with tiny piped royal icing beadwork in the groves. We used an opulent thick velvet ribbon to circle each tier and a slightly wider width of the same ribbon for the centre bow.

Becky and Andrew were absolutely brilliant to work with - designing and making their cake was a total pleasure. Sending them both my best wishes and wishing them every future happiness together!

(Andrew owns one of my favourite shops in Cowbridge Number 81 Interiors do check out their website and shop!)

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a very happy 2011! Happy planning for all of those organising celebrations and weddings for next year!