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!

Apologies ...

Many apologies for my shameful lack of blog posting! With one thing and another I have managed to get shamefully behind. There's lots to catch up on, lots of lovely cakes made and coverage of iced in the press all of which will be winging its way too you shortly!

Cowbridge Fashion Week!

This week is a busy week in Cowbridge. Not only is Cowbridge Music Festival in full swing (I'm looking forward to the Calvert-Turner Duo this evening), it's also Cowbridge Fashion week. Enjoy champagne afternoon teas, lunches and dinners all combined with fashion shows; a fashion parade down the high street on Thursday with late night opening and a champagne trail in all of Cowbridge's boutiques followed by a day of fashion shows in Cowbridge Town Hall on Saturday.

Kicking off the fashion shows on Saturday morning is High Society Bridal. Gowns from Jenny Packham, Alan Hannah, Suzanne Neville, Stephanie Allin, Sassi Holford and Mia Mia will be showcased as well as Mother of the Bride and Grooms attire. We work closely with High Society and we'll be helping to fill their goody bags with sweet treats. Tickets are £5.00 and can be purchased from High Society.