Butterfly Cupcakes at The Varsity Hotel, Cambridge

Here’s one of the weddings from September 2012, which I haven’t yet featured on the blog. This one was held at The Varsity Hotel in Cambridge. I have just a few photos, as the concierge was kindly keeping an eye on my car parked on double yellow lines at the time… One of the hazards of setting up wedding cakes in central Cambridge – they don’t always have a car park!

The theme was pale coral and lilac butterflies and blossoms.

The cupcakes all had rose piped frosting with blossoms and butterflies to one side.

The very pretty cases come in a two-tone pack, so you get coral on white and white on coral. There are also other colourways available.

The top cake was covered with frosting and swirled with a palette knife. The couple had arranged to have the flowers left at the reception for me to place on the top.  

Lots more weddings to come – I am trying to get up to speed and at least feature all the new stuff! Life just gets in the way sometimes, doesn’t it?!

‘Button’ Wedding Cupcakes at Jesus College

This cupcake stand was made for a wedding in April at Jesus College, Cambridge. The groom wore a tartan kilt and the bride was in a vintage-style dotted dress and carried a bouquet of buttons. These were used as inspiration for the cakes.

I used a tartan ribbon which very closely matched the colours in the kilt and the bride was also keen to have dots on the cake to match her dress. The topper was specially made and included their beloved cats!

The bouquet was very unusual, in that it was made from buttons, and this was to be the theme for the cupcakes as well. The buttons were made in shades of teal blue, sage green, yellow, white and cream to pick up the colours in the tartan and bouquet.

The cupcakes were all in white cases and were carrot cake with orange frosting and vanilla cupcakes with pale sage green vanilla frosting.

All in all it was a very personal and very attractive cupcake stand. The bride and groom were very pleased with it and said “Just a quick email to say thank you so much for our wedding cupcakes – they looked and tasted amazing. Look how perfectly they matched the bouquets!”

I have a large backlog of weddings to feature on the blog and will do my best to catch up! Luckily there are plenty on here already if you are looking for ideas, but I know it’s always nice to see the most recent ones. I have a wedding coming up in July featuring my mini layer cakes, so I am looking forward to showing you that one. I also have a photo of a wedding stand being featured in The Cambridgeshire Journal bridal feature, coming out at the end of May, I believe, so do look for out for it!

Madeleines

I haven’t bothered with New Year’s resolutions this year, but I do have an aim to try out lots of new recipes and introduce them to my web site. Today I am working on Madeleines:

These are the first ones I have ever made and I think they were quite easy. I don’t know what all the fuss is about!

Nice and light and fluffy inside, very buttery and lemony. Just the ticket when you fancy something plainer with a cup of tea! Apparently, the French dunk them in their tea, but I think I prefer to just eat them alongside. They are best eaten on the day they are made, so what I want to know is who’s going to eat the other 15 in the kitchen?! Well, at least there might be one left for my husband, if he’s quick. Last night there were none of the mini layer cakes left for him…

My aim is to try out lots of different bakes for afternoon teas and introduce an afternoon tea package shortly. If you are interested in the mean time, just get in touch and I will be able to work out a package for you. All will be freshly baked to order, in particular items such as scones and madeleines, which have to be made the same day.  The package will include traditional favourites, as well as some more unusual items. I will be ensuring you get great value, so that you will feel like you’ve had a wonderful afternoon tea and couldn’t eat another morsel!

 

New! Mini Layer Cakes

Another new addition to my repertoire in 2013 will be these mini layer cakes. These are made from chocolate sponge with a pale pink vanilla frosting and topped with a peachy-pink rose. The roses are made using an easy method, to try to keep time spent on them to a minimum. They would lovely at any party, wedding or afternoon tea, don’t you think?

They will be offered in everything from a Victoria sponge to carrot and red velvet cake, basically all the cupcake flavours, plus anything else you fancy. Any combination of sponge and filling is possible, plus any decorations you like, or they can be left plain or simply dusted with icing sugar and a stencil.

Here you can see how elegant they look on the wedding stand.

I will be loading these new mini layer cakes to my web site soon, as soon as I have made samples of the other new products I want to include. They will be on a new page, which will be unveiled shortly…but hopefully it will be an exciting new addition to the web site!

New: Mini Pastel Meringues

Here is my first new product of the year – I think having a break over Christmas has got my creative juices flowing again. Everyone’s thoughts turn to lighter foods at this time of year, but sometimes we still need to offer up a delicious dessert, so how about mini pastel meringues?

Here they are, just about to go into the oven. The mixture seems to hold its shape well, so would adapt to any piped shape quite well, so if you prefer swirly meringues, that would be fine too.

You will have to imagine them sandwiched with whipped cream, mascarpone, a lemon curd or conserve and served up with a healthy portion of berries. I supply them plain, as below, so you can serve them however you wish. They would make a lovely dessert or a wonderful addition to an afternoon tea.

You can see are crisp on the outside and very soft and chewy on the inside. They keep in an airtight container for 2 weeks, so you can even plan ahead with these! They can be made in any pastel shade as well.

All I know is that once my boys had tried one, the entire batch disappeared. Very light and moreish…

New! Baking Lessons 2013

I was asked before Christmas to supply baking lessons for a 10 year old, a Christmas present from her  Mum and Dad, and yesterday was the first lesson! We began with all-in-one cupcakes, frosting and decorations with lots of talking about equipment, techniques and tips in between. One of the first hurdles to overcome was to figure out their oven. All ovens differ and theirs cooked very hot, so we reduced the temperature right down to 140C and luckily that seemed to work. For the first time she was able to produce nicely rounded cupcakes instead of very pointed ones. So we were all delighted with that!

Now Lydia has already been baking for a while, even though she’s only 10, so she knew her way around the kitchen. I took all of my own equipment and ingredients,  so we could talk about digital scales and the need for accuracy, different mixers and the techniques/equipment I use to produce my cakes. I think I surprised Lydia by how long she had to beat the frosting for! We talked about professional colours and all the equipment needed to produce sugar paste flowers and decorations. I also took along a large range of sprinkles and glitters, so she could see what else was available on the market. I think Lydia’s eyes really lit up when it came to the decorating, as she could really use her creative side!

We talked about different ways of applying the frosting by hand or piping. Now even most adults find piping a challenge to begin with, but like anything, practice makes perfect!

I think she enjoyed seeing everything I use, although I have a feeling she may be presenting her Mum with a long wish-list now…

Anyway, I really enjoyed our first lesson. Next time we are moving on to a Victoria sponge, so she can perfect the folding-in technique.

If you would like baking lessons, do contact me. I come to your home with all the equipment and ingredients, as I think it’s important you use you own oven and get used to its foibles. If I teach a child, then a parent needs to be present too, of course. It takes about 2 hours to produce the cupcakes above, as we do a lot of talking about cakes in between! I can teach anything you would like to learn to do with baking. One to one is best, but I could teach two people at once, if you have the room in your kitchen. Just get in touch to discuss your requirements.

Valentines Day Cupcakes

Well, Happy New Year to you all!

Apologies for talking about the next event of the year ALREADY, but it really isn’t very far off…

I am keeping things simple for Valentines Day and making devil’s food cupcakes with a shiny chocolate fudgy frosting. You can have the decorations you see below or you pick of any combination of flowers, hearts, sprinkles, glitters etc.

Devil’s Food Cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting

Here are a few other ideas for Valentine’s Day – you can can have any of these made for your loved one:

Above are various sizes of hearts and sprinkles.

A more sophisticated combination of deep pink roses, raspberries and chopped pistachios.

Red roses, rosebuds and red Magic Sparkles.

Red Velvet Cupcakes with vanilla frosting

Icing plaques, roses and heart dragees.

Boxed and ready to go…

Pure and simple – red Magic Sparkles.

Or red icing heart sprinkles.

Don’t forget to order in plenty of time…