Mini Christmas Cakes!

Appologies for my lack of blog posting of late. Amongst other things, I have been innundated with orders for these little christmas pudding cakes and I have been busily stuck in my studio! These dinky little cakes are perfectly indulgent for one and make excellent little gifts and a fabulous surprise in a stocking. Each cake comes packaged in a clear acetate box tied with a festively coloured ribbon! These diminutive cakes are made to order in a variety of flavours; the most popular to-date are chocolate fruit cake, hot toddy fruit cake and sumptuous chocolate. Yum yum.

Llangoed Hall - Best British Wedding Venue 2009!

Many congratulations to Lynn Tonkin and everyone at Llangoed Hall which has been voted Best British Wedding Venue 2009 by Wedding TV.  You can view the show here.  We work very closely with Llangoed Hall and the blue and white cake we made for Lynne and Robin is featured in the programme at the trophy presentation!

Little Blue and White Wedding Cakes

I made these pretty mini cakes for the lovely Lynne and Robin's wedding which took place on Saturday at Llangoed Hall. Lynne was such fun to work with as we designed her mini cakes. The cakes came in three flavours: chcolate fruit cake, lemon cake filled with home made lemon curd and vanilla buttercream and Madagascan vanilla cake filled with blueberry compote and vanilla buttercream. Each flavour had a different design in order to distinguish one from the other but we kept all of the cakes to the blue and white colours of the dining room at Llangoed Hall. I hand sewed tiny diamante buttons onto the ribbon which encircled each cake for a little bit of sparkly glitz! After the cutting of the cake in the evening the staff at Llangoed Hall boxed up each cake individually and placed them in the guests bedrooms!

The very talented Emma of Love Lily created the flower cake stand - isn't it beautiful?

Many thanks to Lynne for being so lovely to work with and for my lovely champagne! We wish Lynne and Robin every happiness for the future!

Pretty Poppy Party Cake

Linda ordered this pretty poppy cake to celebrate her mother's special birthday today! Poppies are Brenda's fravourite flowers and so they had to take pride of place on her cake! The base tier is a hot toddy fruit cake and the top tier vanilla cake filled with blueberry compote and vanilla buttercream! Wishing Brenda a very happy 70th birthday!

White Rose and Hypericum Berry Wedding Cake

This cake was made for a lovely couple; Sarah and Dave whose wedding took place on Saturday at the Miskin Manor Hotel. Their wedding colours were white and deep red to tie in with the white roses and hypericum berries in Sarah's bouquet. We wanted to carry both the white roses and the hypericum berries through to the cake and Sarah and Dave decided upon this romantic design of a loose garland of flowers and berries which trailed down the off-centre square tiers. The cake itself was comprised of a hot toddy fruit cake bottom tier and the remaining tiers with madagascan vanilla cake filled with fresh raspberry compote and vanilla buttercream! We send Sarah and Dave all of our best wishes for the future!

Festive cheer!

More gingerbread but this time of the festive variety! I can't believe it is November already! My thoughts are already turning to Christmas orders: to christmas cakes, cupcakes cookies and ... gingerbread houses. This year iced are making bespoke gingerbread houses to order like our little house pictured above, we can make totally individual houses covered in favourite sweets and designed to replicate your own home! Festive fantastic! (More festive cake and cookie news to follow...)

Chibi Cookies

When one of my lovely clients asked me to make her some special gingerbread chibi cookies to take on an anniversary weekend away I have to admit I needed to consult google! Having established that 1. I am a little bit behind the times and 2. that chibi's are cute Japanese anime characters I was a feeling a bit more in the picture! Ruth's partner loves gingerbread men and they are both into chibi design so we decided to make double gingerbread men with hand piped characterised chibi versions of Ruth and her partner in royal icing.  Wishing them both a wonderful week away...

Black and White Wedding Cake

I made this cake for Joanna and Andrew's wedding which took place yesterday at the Coed y Mwstwr Hotel near Bridgend. The wedding was designed around a black and white colour theme and Joanna and Andrew wanted to carry this through to their cake. Joanna's bouquet featured cala lilies and we decided to incorporate this into the design of the cake whilst carrying through the black and white theme. We used black lace ribbon from Liberty of London around the top and bottom tiers and added a subtle dusting of sparkle to the sugar roses.

The cake itself was comprised of a bottom tier of hot toddy fruit cake, a middle tier of sumptuous Belgian chocolate cake and a top tier of coconut cake.

We send all of our best wishes to Jo and Andrew for the future!

(PS. Many appologies for the graininess of these images my camera work isn't always at its best!)

Daisy Christening Cake

This fresh, pretty daisy cake was made to celebrate the joint christening of two sisters, Celine Rose and Ffion Mair, which took place today. The bottom tier is a light fruit cake with cherries and the top tier a chocolate cake filled with white chocolate frosting. The cake is covered with white fondant icing and decorated with varying sized hand cut sugar daisies and a white butterfly. I then used white royal icing to pipe little dots over the cake in a higglety-pigglety fashion! The scroll at the front of the cake bears the names of the two little girls.

Victorian Lilac Cupcake Wedding Cake

This cupcake wedding cake is comprised of 130 belgian chocolate and madagascan vanilla cupcakes topped with sumptuously gooey poured fondant icing. The cupcakes are decorated variously with roses and butterflies and daisies and piped with contrasting royal icing dots! The top tier is a hot toddy fruit cake topped with antique lilac sugar roses which have a little added sparkle to complement the diamante brooch at the centre of the bow. The wedding took place this afternoon at the lovely Parc Hotel in Cardiff. We'd like to wish Rachel and her new husband every happiness today and for the future!

Corsage featured at Cowbridge Food Festival

This romantic cake is inspired by the vintage rose corsages which adorn its sides, I used different royal icing piping patterns in very pale pink royal icing to give depth, texture and prettyness to the cake! The piped work was then brushed with pearlescent powder to give a little shimmer and sparkle.

This cake will be featured as part of our display in the window of High Society Bridal in Cowbridge this weekend as part of Cowbridge Food Festival. If you are visiting the festival this weekend do pop along to High Society to see not only our window display but also to sneak a peak at the beautiful dresses and accesories which High Society sells!

Where I have been....

You may have noticed a short impasse in my blog postings of late! After a wonderful summer making fabulous cakes for fabulous clients, I took myself off for a short break to Singapore. Singapore is a true meeting place of diverse cultures: the country is home to Chinese, Indian, Malaysian, Thai and European nationals to name but a few of the different nationalities which make up the population. While I was there it was, of course(!), incumbent upon me to investigate the effect of this cultural convergeance upon the wonderful world of cake and patisserie. I have come back armed with a whole host of ideas for new flavours and have been inspired by some of the beautiful intricate designs found in the architecture of temples and buildings, silk embroidery and exotic flowers. I can't wait to start designing!...

Dotty Stripey Sweet Sixteen Cake

We made this cake last week for an end-of-summer garden party to celebrate Ginny's sweet sixteen! The cake was four tiers of different flavoured chocolate cake: jaffa (Belgian chocolate cake soaked with orange sirop and filled with orange buttercream), sumptuous chocolate (Belgian chocolate cake filled with white chocolate buttercream), after8 (Belgian chocolate cake filled with minty buttercream) and chocolate cherry (belgian chocolate cake baked with morello cherries and filled with vanilla buttercream and cherry compote). The theme of the party was dots and stripes and the colour palate shades of peach. The party was held in a marquee which was decorated with dotty and stripey bunting and the chair covers were tied with funky dotty ribbon. Fabulous!

Monogram cookie favours

I've got a little bit behind in my blog posting! We made these pretty monogramed lemon flavoured lilac cookies for a lovely couple last week. The bride, who is from America, had a monogram theme running through the day and the piped design we used for the cookies mimiced that of their gorgeous letterpress stationery. Very pretty!

Beth and Robin's Wedding Cake

I had the great pleasure of making Beth and Robin's cake for their wedding on Saturday. The reception took place at the lovely St Pierre Hotel near Chepstow. When I first met with Beth and Robin they knew that they wanted something elegant and sophisticated which would be a centre-piece for their reception and so I sketched out a few designs for them. They immediately selected this four tier design with chandelier piped royal icing and bows with diamante brooches at their centre on alternate tiers. The bridesmaids wore champagne coloured dresses and the bows on the chair-covers were in the same shade. Whilst we wanted to keep the cake to a white colour palate we used champagne white ribbon and matched the piped work to the ribbon colour to give extra definition. The cake itself was comprised of four different flavoured cakes: hot toddy fruit cake; Belgian chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream; Madagascan vanilla cake filled with vanilla buttercream and fresh zingy lemon curd; and Madagascan vanilla cake filled with raspberry compote and white chocolate buttercream.

Thank you so much to Beth and Robin for being so lovely to work with and for taking the time to send a thank you message before heading for their honeymoon!

Sarena and Jason's Wedding Cake

Sarena and Jason were married at the beautiful Llangoed Hall a week last Sunday. The couple knew that they wanted a cupcake wedding cake from the outset. The motif of diamonds ran throughout thier wedding day with little gems featured on the wedding stationery. We decided to keep the wedding cake to shades of white and silver for an elegant sophisticated look which would highlight the touches of sparkle we added to the cake in the form of the pretty brooch at the centre of the top tier cake and the edible glitter we used on the sugar rose cupcakes. To carry the diamond theme through we scattered varying sized gems on the table and in between some of the cakes on the stand.

Sarena and Jason opted for a mix of 'british' style cupcakes (vanilla and lemon in flavour) and 'American' style cupcakes (sumptuous chocolate, coffee and cream and chocolate orange in flavour). The top tier cutting cake was a chocolate orange cake.

Sian and Chris' wedding

Sian and Chris' wedding took place at Celtic Manor a week last Saturday. Sian had spotted a design that she loved for her cake - three tiers separated by pillars, each tier vertically piped with royal icing and the gaps filled with white flowers. She asked Alison Bentley, her florist, to decorate the cake which we provided. The base tier of the cake was a retro fruit cake with glace cherries and walnuts soaked in brandy, the middle tier a lemon drizzle cake filled with swirled vanilla buttercream and fresh and zesty lemon curd, and the top tier was a Madagascan vanilla cake filled with vanilla buttercream.

Chris' grandmother was unable to attend the wedding and so Sian and Chris asked me to make her a miniature boxed version of their cake. They also asked me to make an individual fruit cake to a special recipe for one of Chris' and Sian's guests who has a dairy intolerance.

Sian and Chris also decided to have cookie favours to match the design of their cake and to bring in the cobalt blue which was featured in the wedding flowers and bridesmaids dresses. The cookies looked lovely and added a splash of colour to the place settings:

Many thanks to Sian and Chris for making the design process such a lovely experience!

Zoe and Mark's official photos

I've just returned from a short break in the sunshine to recieve a cd from Zoe and Mark of their official wedding photos of their candle-lit cake and cookie favours from their lovely wedding at Homewood Park at the beginning of July:

A big thank you to Zoe and Mark for their kind thanks and for sending these lovely images through, it was such a pleasure making their cakes and cookies!

Claire and Tim's Wedding Cake

Another beautifully sunny weekend for a beautiful wedding on Saturday. Claire and Tim hosted their wedding at the lovely Llangoed Hall near Brecon.

The very talented Claire and Tim designed their own beautiful wedding stationery in pale pinks and blues with a butterfly motif reoccurring throughout and so we absolutely had to feature butterflies on their wedding cake. Each butterfly was hand piped using pink royal icing and then over piped in pale blue, topped off with a little extra sparkle! The top tier cutting cake featured a piped design in white royal icing which mimicked an embroidery detail from Claire's dress.

Claire and Tim chose Raspberry and Vanilla Swirl, Sumptuous Chocolate and Lemon Meringue flavoured cupcakes with a raspberry and vanilla whirl top tier cutting cake.

Elephant Cookies!

I was asked to design and make a set of Elephant cookies to accompany the lovely birthday gift of an Elephant adoption. What fun I had making these! All of the vanilla cookies were iced in pale blue icing with sparkly pink ears and sparkly green eyes. One cookie had the name of the adopted elephant emblazoned on the elephant's sign; the others simply stated 'Happy Birthday'!

Beth's Bridal Shower

I am very much looking forward to making Beth and Robin's wedding cake this September. I had the great pleasure of meeting Beth's parents and sister Charlie at one of our consultations. After the consultation Charlie asked me if I would make cupcakes and cookies for a surprise bridal shower for Beth which was held at the weekend. The party colours were pink, lilac and green and so keeping to this colour scheme I made British style cupcakes in three flavours: orange, lemon and chocolate:

The 'shower' had an umbrella theme (!) and so I also made shimmery umbrella shaped cookies in gingerbread, lemon and vanilla flavours.

Geraldine and Paul's Wedding Cake

I had the great pleasure of designing and making Geraldine and Paul's wedding cake this week. The wedding was held at beautiful Slebech Park near Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire. The inspiration behind the design came from Geraldine and Paul's wedding stationery by laser-cut specialists Chartula. Prior to our first consultation Geraldine had emailed me a number of images - of their wedding flowers, colour swatches and also a proof of their stationery design. The laser-cut pattern was so beautiful, incorporating the wild garden feel of Slebech Park and Geraldine and Paul's initials that I sketched out a design for the cake which involved replicating the stationery design on the middle tier of the cake using piped royal icing.

The cake itself was a trio of cherries: the bottom tier cherry almond fruit cake, the middle tier chocolate chunk cake filled with fresh cherry compote and chocolate ganache and the top tier madagascan vanilla sponge filled with fresh cherry compote and vanilla buttercream.

Baby Shower Cookies

Baby showers are yet another lovely idea which we have transported across the pond from America.  They are a wonderful excuse for ladies (and men too should they fancy) to gather together before (or sometimes after) the birth of a baby to offer support and friendship and they are a fabulous reminder to the mum to be that she has a network of friends to call upon after such a life changing experience.  Typically guests bring small gifts for the baby and the hostess (normally a close friend) organises drinks and nibbles for the guests to feast upon.  There's no more perfect fare for baby showers than cupcakes and cookies in my opinion!  I made these cookies for a shower just last week:

 

Summer Garden Cupcakes

I love pink and green together. If you choose pale pastel colours you will have a pretty vintage chic effect, - with deeper fuscia tones you get a vibrant, funky romantic feast for the eyes. Lovely. These british style cupcakes topped with poured fondant icing are decorated with vine-like white royal icing tendrils and intricate hand moulded roses.

Pretty in pink

Earlier this year I was contacted by a lovely lady who had seen iced's cupcakes at a friends wedding and wanted us to make her cake for her wedding at Homewood Park located just outside Bath.   It was an absolute pleasure working with Zoe and Mark to design their cake.  They picked four different flavoured cupcakes: sumptuous chocolate (moist belgian chocolate cake with white chocolate buttercream), ginger lemon (ginger cake with zesty lemon buttercream frosting) vanilla vanilla and carrot cake, which were decorated with handmade sugar roses, butterflies, daisy clusters and gerberas.  The top tier cake was a lemon drizzle cake sandwiched with lemon buttercream.  

   

We kept to a colour palate of white and varying shades of pink to match the wedding flowers and bridesmaid's dresses.  The couple also decided to order iced cookies for their wedding favours.  We made rugby ball shaped chocolate cookies for the men with a hint of cobalt blue to match their neckties, four mini heart shaped vanilla cookies in different shades of pink for the ladies and special sparkly vanilla teddybear cookies for the little guests.  Zoe hand wrote tags for each cookie with the guest's name on the front and a personal message on the reverse which was a lovely personal touch.    

 

Many thanks also to Zoe's wedding planner, Julie from The Wedding Genie who ensured the whole set up process was fantastically smooth!