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!