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 :)

Hello and Welcome!

Well this is my first foray into the world of blogs. I have been keeping a Livejournal for years now with the inanities of my own personal life, and, like most of the planet, post to Facebook regularly, but this is my first 'Blog' Blog...

So why Faerie Kakes? Well. My persona on the web has been FaerieEvenstar for many years now, mainly due to a love of pretty little faeries, and Arwen's Evenstar pendant in Lord of The Rings. The 'Kakes' part is due to a joke from many years ago when I went to see a band called Rachel Stamp, asked the lead singer for an autograph, told him my name was Kate, to which he said "With a K?", I said yes, and got an autograph to 'Kake' which stuck as a nickname for a while. Faerie Kakes is obviously a pun on Fairy Cakes as well, which, to you Yanks, is what we Brits call cupcakes.

This Blog is going to (hopefully) be a place where I can document some of my baking and sugar-craft achievements, as a friend suggested to me that I really ought to blog about it as she thought people would be interested, so you can blame her if this is boring

I have no formal training in cake decorating, but a history in Fine Art, and a bit of dabbling in pottery, which is all surprisingly helpful. I don't make cakes professionally, but my Mother In Law (referred to as MIL from here onwards) has been decorating cakes for family and friends for many years now (also non-professionally) and I have been adopted as her apprentice when she discovered my artistic leanings.

I don't often do cakes alone, so all the complete cakes you will see here are probably a collaboration between me and my MIL, unless it's just me messing about with some experimentation!

Thanks for dropping by, and watch this space. I will hopefully post some highlights of some example of past work in a while.