Cat cakes

Sorry, I've been a bit dreadful with updates on here. I have been making the cakes- just not always documenting them on here. I mentioned on my profile on Blogspot, but not in this blog itself, but I have fibromyalgia which is a chronic pain condition that makes me very, very tired amongst other things. (for more information check out http://www.fibromyalgia-associationuk.org/ ) This means that sometimes making cakes is impossible, as is updating my blog, and sometimes it's all I can do just to get out of bed. Sounds like an excuse, but yes. I will update as and when!

Right. This cake was made for a very good friend of mine, Becky, who, like me, is a crazy cat lady. We missed her birthday as we were all away celebrating my brother in law's wedding, so this cake was done later for Birthday Version 2 (yes we're nerdy)

I carved this cat out of chocolate cake, sandwiched with chocolate buttercream, and then added all the details in normal icing, apart from the whiskers which are wire, and the feathers, which are, err, feathers. Oh and the candle is real!

Look! Around the back there is a ball of wool and a mouse (my MIL made those and marbled the icing, the whole of the rest of the cake is all my handiwork!)

*Burp!*

While I'm at it, I don't think I posted this cat cake either! This was made as a silly fun cake for one of my Mother In Law's friends who was having a civil partnership. We made her proper wedding cake, and then this silly fun cat cake just for fun. Apparently she put it out at the wedding reception! We would have taken more time over it if we knew it would be on display...

Here's some of the cats drying on my icing mat..

And that, cake fans, is it for today. I have more cakes to show you, but I'm tired now. I hope you enjoy them.

Faerie Cake

Time for more cakes! I'm still getting through cake photos backlog. It's a good job I don't have any cakes to make this week. It's very hot here at the moment and the sugarpaste would just melt into a gloopy mess and go all 'orrible.

Here's a Faerie Cake... goes with the blog name! I was actually rather cross with this cake because the faerie's legs and hands and things kept falling off, but most cracks and things got covered with butterflies. I don't think anyone else noticed- but I knew it and it made me really, really cross.
It was a little girl's first birthday cake.

Edible glitter is the BEST THING EVER by the way. Sorry the pictures are so dreadful.. I've said before that my old photos are on poor phone cameras but the new cakes are all taken with much better photos, I promise!

Divorce Cake

I'm sure by now, most of you will have seen at least one Divorce Cake on the web now as it's becoming the new 'thing' to have a party when people get divorced and parties need CAKE.

So far we've only had the one Divorce Cake request, but it was incredibly fun to do!!

First we made a cake to look like a tier of a wedding cake

Then we destroyed a side, made it look like exposed cake and like the bride had pulled the pillars off at thrown them and chunks of cake at the groom to squish him!!

Poor groom got squashed... That's strawberry jam. And look at the scrape marks where the cake was pushed over the edge.

Here you can see the 'finger marks' where she's grabbed chunks of cake, and the icing decorated to look like exposed cake.

The Bride looks a little too proud of her handiwork...

I'm looking forward to doing more divorce cakes... but I don't want any of my friends to get divorced just so I can make a cake!

Retro gaming cakes

Still getting through cake backlog! So here's some gaming cakes!

First of all here's one I did for my brother's birthday based on the game Lemmings (see the Wiki here)You'll be pleased to know that the background is moldable chocolate (Cocoform)

Normal problem with the camera not liking small things I'm afraid (I do have a better camera nowadays!)

Secondly here's a cake I had no part in, my MIL made it for my husband (her son) for his birthday and I couldn't get away to do it as a surprise.. but it was my idea to make it a Pacman cake so that kind of counts right? I always get annoyed by the sideways ghost in it.. I'm sure they never do that in the game!

Next post I will show you our first and only divorce cake so far which was so much fun it should be illegal.

Spongebob Square Cake

Still getting through the backlog of old cakes we've made over the years that have long since been eaten!

Today, I'd like to show you the cake we made for my brother in law and his fiancée's engagement party. They like Spongebob Squarepants because they're both so grown up, and they love to snorkel, so what better thing to do for a cake than make them snorkel with the Spongebob characters and give his fiancée and enormous engagement ring?

As you can guess, my job on this one was mainly all the little characters, whereas my MIL did the happy couple and the swirly sea background. The shells are things around the base are from some fabulous moulds.

Here's the top view:

I'm afraid, as normal, you'll need lots of photos to see all the detail!

Squidward

Spongebob

Patrick

Gary

Sorry that Plankton isn't very clear, but he was very, very small and hiding at the back!

I hope you all like it!

Christening Cakes

I don't have any new cakes to post, but I have lots of new to HERE cakes to get through, so here's a post of some Christening cakes just because!

I am SO proud of my Noah's Ark cake. It took an age to make all the little animals, and a rainbow around the cake seemed like such a good idea until we started doing it! The Ark itself is constructed from a bit of cake too.

You can see I really do have a bit of my own style when it comes to animals- bulgy googly muppet eyes!

The pairs of animals:

Of course here is Noah himself and his dove friend (that olive branch was a pain to get to stay put) Sorry the dove is out of focus, but it was so small the camera didn't want to acknowledge it!

Now a more traditional Christening cake with quilting, alphabet block style name on the top and bunny wabbits.

I still have a whole heap of photos of past cakes to document on here, so watch this space! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment on here.

Mad Hatter's Tea Party!

My friend's birthday was last week, and she told me she was having a Mad Hatter's Tea Party for her party, so I told her to pick a cake flavour, and I would do the rest! I've had to put off taking photos and blogging about it until after her party yesterday so I didn't spoil the surprise!

It's three layers of chocolate sponge cake with chocolate butter cream, and the top tier is carved to the shape of the hat. As you can see, it's a bastardisation of both the cartoon and the more recent Alice in Wonderland film.

What's that round the back? A caterpillar with a tiny monocle you say?

And a melting Dali-esque pocket watch, and hearts on wires coming at your face...

My Mother In Law also made cupcakes to go with it, but I can't say I made these, I'm afraid, she did it all, but I think they're stunning. (Sadly the chocolate ganache ones got a little squashed on the journey to the party)

Diabetic Friendly Apple And Carrot Cake Recipe

Well there's a lull in cakes at the moment before the mad rush of Summer weddings, which is just as well really, as we had such heat last week, I know anything I had to make would have melted into a sticky heap.

So, in lieu of pretty cakes to show you, I have here a recipe for a Diabetic Friendly cake that I have baked for both my husband's grandmother, and my dad who are both diabetic.

Diabetic Friendly Apple And Carrot Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

280g self raising flour

120g Margarine

1 tsp Cinnamon (I missed this out in my dad's cake as he is sensitive to all spices, but it does add a nice flavour)

125g Walnuts, chopped (or equivalent in fruit if you have a nut allergy like me!)

100g Raisins

2 average sized dessert apples or pears, peeled cored grated

1 large carrot, peeled and grated

Grated peel of 1 orange

2 large Eggs,

4 tbsp Fresh orange juice

Obviously as with anything for diabetics that has any kind of sugar in, it should be eaten in sensible portions and in moderation, but it doesn't contain those horrible fake sugars like Splenda, just flavoured with fruit. Be sensible, and don't eat it all in one sitting as the fruit contains fructose which is still sugar!

1. Line and grease the base of a loaf pan with 4 cup capacity.

2. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3/175 degrees centigrade/350 degrees Fahrenheit

3. Place the flour in a bowl and cut in the margarine and stir in the cinnamon.

4. Stir in the walnuts (or extra dried fruit), raisins, apples/pears and carrot.

5. Add the orange peel, eggs and juice, then beat well until thoroughly combined.

6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top flat

7. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours, or until the cake is well risen and firm to touch.

8. Turn out on a wire rack to cool

9. Omnomnom.

I have hashed this recipe together from an American recipe that was all in cups, so hopefully the measurements are accurate enough, but on the whole, if a cake mixture is too runny, add more flour, if it's too dry add a splosh of milk or similar. It's not rocket science! It's good to remember this as sometimes eggs are bigger than others and make a cake wetter or drier than a recipe may require. If you bake regularly you'll be able to tell what consistency the cake should be.

Inner Wheel cake

Just a quick post to show our most recent cake. We were asked to make a cake for the 80th anniversary of the Buxton Inner Wheel club (the women of the Rotary Club). This was a very formal affair so required a very formal cake!

My mother in law spent a long time ensuring all the icing was flat and level, and piped the gold and blue around the base with great care, and piped the writing.

My job, as ever, was one of the most complicated. I made some cogs of sugarpaste, which is no easy task, especially when you are copying a logo so you know it has to be accurate!

I'm particularly horrified as I have learnt since that the club have peeled the logo I made off the top of the cake and are going to KEEP IT. The joy of working with cake is knowing that ultimately your art will be eaten and any flaws will be lost. Thankfully I was quite pleased with how this piece came out, but I think I would have panicked more if I knew they would be keeping it forever...

Anyway, I know you're all just here for the pictures!

A darker photo, but you can see some of the glorious piping my MIL did

Pig Cake

So here's the pig cake in all it's glory! I made all the pigs then my MIL picked them up from my house, and put them on a cake she made herself. The 'mud' is melted chocolate.

I was rather proud of the pigs I have to say. I'm told that my mother in law is hoping to encourage more people to have cakes with animals on so I can make them. I think she's trying to make me do all the work. Heh.

Muddy little piggies!

Piggies to come soon!

Ooh, I have to make a whole field full of little pigs this week, so I'll be posting those up when I get some done, but I have just been knitting and made my hands and arms hurt, so I won't be starting them tonight. Watch this space though if you want to see some cute little piggies!

Sugar flowers

For my first real post on here, I'd like to focus on sugar flowers. It is something I particularly enjoy making because there is a real challenge involved, and there's a true sense of satisfaction when they're completed. Dusting on the colours to make the petals look real is time consuming, but makes such a difference. To make just one flower can take HOURS (depending on the type) and you have to wait for the sugar-paste to dry before attempting to colour it.

My first example is this gerbera wedding cake. This was so frustrating to make as we had to make a LOT of gerberas to fill the space between the tiers, and they were so brittle as well and we had many casualties on the way!

Another flower that has been popular amongst wedding cakes and birthday cakes alike is the orchid. It's a beautiful flower, but harder to make, as the petals are different shapes, and each need wiring separately, but I really get to go wild with the colouring!

Chocolate roses! I will admit I didn't make these- my MIL did them all without me, but I have to include them because I think they look STUNNING. This was done using Cocoform and real edible gold leaf.

Finally, for this post, we have the chrysanthemum. This cake was for my Gran's 89th birthday. She had been quite unwell, and wanted to make a big do about her birthday "in case she didn't make it to the next one". I'm pleased to say she's still doing well, and I'm hoping to do a 90th cake for her later this year! This cake was covered with all my Gran's favourite things- British Wildlife and her favourite flower, bronze Crysanthemums.

I hope you enjoyed my first instalment here on Faerie Kakes. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions of what you'd like to see here, I'd love to here from you. I might even include some step by step guides at some point if you ask me nicely :)