The Mystery of the Garden Pond Cake (That's not really a mystery)

You know when it's your birthday and you get a cake? You probably expect that you'll get a slice of said cake, right? Well, not so much with this one...

This is a lesson in always cutting your birthday cake.

Chloe bought this cake for her step-dad's birthday and gave it to him a few days before his birthday because he was going to be away. He, however, didn't want to cut it and left without doing so. 

The birthday gentleman was my Mum's cousin so we were able to watch on Facebook as various family members and friends wound him up about how they had really enjoyed their piece of his birthday cake and watching him go mad that they'd cut it. I'm not sure how big they thought this cake was but I think the entire North East had a slice.

As it turns out that this was only half a joke; Chloe had been working her way through the cake while he was away and it had all gone by the time he'd got back. I don't think she was sorry.

People! Cut your cakes! What is the point in having a cake other than to enjoy eating it! if you want a piece of art then I'll make you a fake cake out of play-dough and you can keep it forever. Tuck in! I like to think I put as much effort in to making the cake taste nice as I do making it look nice.

Anyhoo the design for this cake is not my own and is one of many fabulous designs from The House of the Rising Cake, who have very kindly gave me permission to share this cake. Big thank you to them - it was great fun to do!

Cake details: good ol' vanilla sponge with jam and buttercream filling

What I listened to: Day time decorating meant Radio 1 - keeping it mainstream

Anything else: Bit disappointed with the reeds; in hindsight I think I should have tried to hide the green florists tape a bit more but I am hoping it just adds a bit of colour contrast.

Vicky x

Things I Love Thursday: Sunshine!

Obviously, along with the rest of the nation, I am loving the sunshine and blue skies this week. There's still a chill in the air but who cares when birds are tweeting and the spring flowers are popping up all over the shop.

Image  ©Ian Britton, Flickr

I've been enjoying going out for walks/jogs this week; it just makes it so much easier to leave the house when the sun is out and you don't have to worry about whether you are going to get rained on mid-way through. 

My favourite moment of my walks this week happened on Monday when I was walking past a house where a little girl was helping her grandma in the garden, and asked her: "Grandma, what was your dream?" I didn't get to hear the answer but I love how the sun just makes everyone feel dreamy and wistful. Or she was just being nosey!

Things I Love: a clean car & a no clothes on my bedroom floor (however temporary!), ice cream, always ice cream, rediscovering old favourite music and discovering new music courtesy of the boyfriend's CD collection, movie dates and book club chats, iPhones - I am so late to the iPhone bandwagon but I am currently loving my yellow iPhone 5c, my new I Quit Sugar book and the excitement (yup, excitement!) of starting a sugar-free adventure, this Nerdy Nummies video featuring Miss Piggy & Swedish Chef - AMAZING!!

And I will leave you with possibly my favourite cat video EVER!

 

Happy Thursday! xx

Things I Love Thursday: Jam Packed

I am currently midway through a busy week full of cakes that all seem to require a lot of modelling. Fish, hairdressers, brides & grooms, shoes: it's been a varied week.

There have been a few blips but I am very grateful for people getting me back on track; the boyfriend helped me stupendously yesterday afternoon after I was having a meltdown as I was convinced I had ruined the wedding and lives of the couple I am doing a wedding cake for - some encouragement to breathe and emergency kittens solved that. I am also truly grateful to my Mum for sticking with me and these darned cakes even though I was a proper horror this morning; I am sure she thought her days with living with a hormonal teenager were over...

But despite all that it has been a good week. I delivered a cake on Tuesday that I cannot wait to share! I think it may be my favourite cake I have ever done; I didn't want it to go away! Now I just need to power through with the rest of this week's challenges and look forward to some down time and maybe a few gins at some point...

Things I Love: Encouraging boyfriends and Mums with the patience of Job, rocking out to the classic rock that is Meat Loaf and singing along to Disney, coffee cake with coffee buttercream, Emergency Kittens on Twitter, this new advert for Three, Charmed, rekindling my love for searching Pintrest, Disney Villain shoes!

Star Wars Themed 5th Birthday Cake

Every time I think about this cake I get the Indiana Jones theme in my head. I think Harrison Ford makes Star Wars, and when I think Harrison, I think Indie.

Indie > Hans

I didn't grow up on Star Wars; it's only recently my boyfriend introduced me to it (original, not those new things.) I enjoyed it but it didn't make me want to run off to outer space to save the galaxy in the same way Indiana Jones makes me want to buy a Fedora, run from boulders, destroy Nazis and save all the treasures.

But this wasn't my cake.

Dreams of treasure hunting aside, I definitely did still have a good time making this one. It's fun and not over fussy. I love the 2 tiers with just the stars on and the star impressions on the board. This means nothing is taken from the characters which are really the focus of the cake.

The bottom tier was a yummy chocolate cake and the smaller was a good ol' vanilla sponge.

What do I love most about this cake? Well, obviously that the young chap who asked for it was called...wait for it....

LUKE!

So amazing!

I can't take credit for the design, which belongs to Jane of Jane's Cake Tragedy, although there is nothing tragic about her cakes!

May the Force be with you! (Had to be done.)
Vicky 

Things I Love Thursday: Cake!

I have had such a fantastic little week! The highlight being a lovely little event at the weekend that I am currently unable to discuss (although if you witnessed a moment of bravery and saw my post last week before I took it down you will be already in the know.) But it involves cake and it went swimmingly.

But the details aren't important, what is important is that, being my own self critic, I proved a lot of things to myself and that I am feeling a little bit proud this week (that's allowed, right?)

So I have been riding the happy waves in to the week with only a minor blip last night when I realised how much I've taken on for next week but we'll survive and it'll get done, as it always does :)

Things I love:  blue skies and dry days  Florrie cuddles  Sherlock (yes, I am late to that party)  Netflix on my Wii (yes, late to this too)  watching Chuck on Netflix on my Wii  Valentine's Day loveliness  green tea  cheese scones  It still being cold enough to use my hot water bottle  Body Shop ginger sparkle hand cream  Discovering my G&T is better with a slice of lime rather than lemon!


These super cute bots are by Jenn & Tony. Check out there Flickr here and they can also be found on Instagram.

Cake Time - Pink Cake Box's Two Peas in a Pod Christening Cake

Sarah is a very good friend of one of my auntie's who moved to New Zealand many moons ago now and has just recently started a brand new chapter of her life over there by the arrival of twin boys: Sebastian & Noah. Too cute!

While on holiday with the babies she decided to have them christened and asked us to do the cake!

The picture she sent over was super adorable and I was excited to put it together.

The original design of this cake is by Pink Cake Box, who have kindly allowed me to share my version of the cake. But I must stress that this cute design is all their work and none of mine! And do check out their galleries -  their work is the kind of stuff I only dream of being able to do!

So here is our version. (My Mum & I had some super awesome team work going on with this cake!)

The top tier was lemon and the bottom chocolate.

Big thank you to Sarah for letting us be a part of her special day! Sending all the hugs.

Vicky xx

No More Hiding: Welcome to 2014!

I kind of feel I have been a bit slow about starting my year this year; my head is full of ideas and plans but at the beginning of the month I just didn't seem to have the motivation to even get started with any of them. 

Last week I went on a course for work and I think that was the reason I was unable to progress with the new year. I was going to have to be away from home for 4 days, do things that got me out of my comfort zone and socialise which strangers, something I don't do easily. As a result I had been dreading it for about 6 weeks to the point where I just wanted to hide under my covers. 

As it turns out the course was fun, interesting and useful. And my fellow course-goers were interesting, lovely, and, being also from the heritage sector, very easy to get along with. (2 of the attendees were from Sydmonton Court Estate, country retreat of Andrew Lloyd Webber, dontcha know!)

So, after a weekend of trying to catch up with sleep between work and making cakes, and a lovely day lunching and spa-ing (the massage kind, not the fighting kind) with my lovely friend, I am now feeling ready to start my year...ish. I still have that tax return to do...

So what do I want from 2014? Well, I just want more!

More Positivity

As we have already established I have a general leaning to the negative. This is something I have been working on and intended to continue to do so in 2014. Unicorns and sparkles are the name of the game!

More style

I got a fancy new camera for Christmas and intend to learn to use it as it was intended - not just having it constantly on auto mode. I want to really work on my food styling, you know, get my cakes away from the many plug sockets that can be found all over our kitchen.

More Content

I want to work on my blog this year and I would like to have an actual website, or even just a glimmer of one, by the end of the year. This is going to make my business look a lot more professional rather than directing people to my Facebook page.

More creativity

In summary, I just generally want to be more creative this year in all areas: coming up with cake ideas, business ideas, flavours, crafting, little projects, big projects, everything!

I do intend to set more specific goals within these so I can see what I am achieving. 

Phew, I better get my year started...

Vicky xx

Images ©Earle Hatsumy Thanks to Earle for letting me use her images - check out her Flickr, there's some super kawaii pictures on there!