Sugar cookies part 1 - birds

There were some more work birthdays coming up, and I was wondering how I could mark those occasions too.  I wanted something that would suit more than one person, and could be personalised. I follow a fair few cookie pages on Facebook and thought - aha, cookies!  

I have made roll-out sugar cookies before, and tweak the recipe slightly regarding bake times each time.  I haven't tasted anyone else's to compare, but wonder always if mine are the right crunch/soft ratio, or the right colour and so on.  Nonetheless, I went with my tried and true recipe (flavoured with a drop of caramel) and baked up a large batch of birds, circles and plaques (more about them to come).

The birds and circles were spares really, just done for fun - and then Mr Becca mentioned that he had a meeting to attend and did I have any spares for him to share with the participants?  Uh, yup.

As you can see, I had a few chocolate chunk ones, however they didn't bake up as well, because the chunks were a bit large I felt.  (the children ate those ones, and declared them perfect)  I decorated them in gorgeous shades of bright pink and green, and think they looked lovely.  He asked for them to be personalised with an initial, and the participants were all very impressed :)

A giant cupcake way to say thank you

A regular customer of ours, let's call her S, loves loves loves our giant cupcakes.  She's ordered a classic one or two, a sticky toffee pudding one and now a thank you one.  This was for her child's nursery (kindergarten) teachers because he was leaving to go to a different nursery.  I had free reign, and was keen to try out a technique I had seen on Pinterest. It was a novel way to make a shaped top on the cupcake, using a fondant 'snake'.

You crumb-coat the cupcake as you normally would, then roll out a long snake of fondant and wrap it around the top half.  Then you place over your fondant top as you would when covering a cake.  If you click this link, you should hopefully see one of my pins on the topic.  (Have I told you how much I'm loving Pinterest?  It's like having a wall full of post-it notes, but on the computer!  And you can add to it whenver and however much you like! So so fun, and kind of addictive.  Check me out at Pinterest and see what I mean)

Then you roll out enough of another colour of fondant to cover the base, cut it to the size you need (I needed 3" x19" for this particular time) and roll it onto a rolling pin to transport it, then roll it off onto your giant cupcake.  That probably sounds super-confusing, so check the link above to find the photo tutorial.

I have embossed the greeting for two reasons - I really like embossing and I haven't successfully used my alphanumeric cutters/moulds yet.   The whole cake was then sprinkled with a bit of white fairy dust, and we're good to go!

I'm really pleased with the way it turned out, and the feedback from both the customer and the recipients was great!  Hope you do too 

Zebra print for Zoe, part deux

Zoe's mum is similar to me, in that she fully understands that a birthday is the perfect opportunity to go a little crazy and spoil your daughter with cake.  Lucky Zoe had a fabulous cake for her family party, and was having matching cupcakes for her friends party.  

I came across some Wilton Sugar Sheets in zebra print and thought they'd be the perfect match for her theme.  I had purposely kept back some of the purple sugarpaste that I'd used on her cake so that everything would match.

Happy birthday again Zoe!

Zebra print for Zoe, part 1

I don't normally tell you the names of people whom I write about, in order to protect their privacy.  I suppose I could just 'change their names to protect the innocent' like they do on tv or in magazine articles, but I never remember to do that.  However in this instance, I really hope Zoe doesn't mind me using her name - the alliteration between it and the requested zebra print was just too wonderful to pass up on.  

I had the privilege of doing Zoe's birthday cake last year, and was thrilled to be called on again.

This year her mother sent me an image, and asked if I could make a similar cake.  However the colours were to be different, as purple is Zoe's current favourite colour.  No problem I thought, as I'd really enjoyed making this type of bow on a cake, and was looking forward to trying a different style.  I had two options for making the zebra print, and had tried to do the type where you lay out a huge area of white sugarpaste, then lay the black on top and roll over the two to sort of flatten them both.  It kind of did and didn't work, but...

I'm pleased to report that Zoe was blown away by her birthday cake, and they all loved it!  Happy birthday big girl!!

Cookie decorating parties are such fun

Our girls are, possibly sickeningly for some, the light of our lives.  Really.  They drive us insane at times, but we really are glad they're about.  Would have been all sorts of fun with Mini-3 too, but sometimes you just need to deal with the hand you're dealt.  

Mini-2 has a birthday coming up soon, and a school friend who wanted to come over for a playdate.  Now this particular girl in Mini-2's class lives on a street with about 4 or 5 other girls in their year group.  And when they found out that L was coming over, well, they all wanted to come!  As you do when you're 6.  So they all came.  And I guessed it would be a madhouse for a couple of hours, so figured I'd call it an early birthday party and try to contain the excitement slightly.

Mini-2 chose the cake she wanted (see details in a separate post) and then chose cookie decorating as the activity.  Remember those edible food markers I bought a year or so ago for her 5th birthday cake?  Well they still worked, so were put to good use by the girls at the party.  As with last year, they all had a blast and were thrilled to take home their arty efforts.  Well done girls!

Big sis went for the stripy cupcake case and sprinkles with the red cherry again - ha ha.

Little sis (and birthday girl) decided to write herself a happy message

 Not everyone managed to complete their designs, but they were all happy with them.

Great work girls!

Blazing out of this place

A last minute order for a leaving-do, from a fire station!  I got the message from L that she needed some cupcakes for a colleague who was leaving the Fire Service and could I help, as she knew we were headed off to Oz very soon.  Sure thing I said, and baked her up some strawberry ripple cupcakes with a dollop of jam (kind of like fire, see?) in the middle, topped with luscious vanilla buttercream and wishes of good luck in flames on top.  Ciao, adios, adieu - enjoy!!

Becca does decorations, and holidays

The Team were invited to a friend's birthday party, and I was asked to make the party cupcakes.  All very thrilling, and right up our street... But we were going on a late holiday this year, in the October school holidays, to Australia (yes indeed, you read that right!  Australia!!  For the first time in over a decade, and thus with the children.  For nearly 40 hours door-to-door) and were leaving the day of the party.  So not only could we not attend, I couldn't make the fresh cupcakes.

So the mother had an inspired idea - could I make the decorations, and she'd make buy some cupcakes from the supermarket?  Sure thing I said...  Butterflies, flowers, birds and buttons - Happy 6th birthday E!!

One Direction, every little girls dream

It was that time of year again, D's birthday, and this year she was planning a One Direction themed party. They had so enjoyed the little lilac mini cupcakes from last year that that was the go-to idea for this year.  I started out with the little named decorations and let them dry out overnight.  Then made up dozens of mini cupcakes, all named and some even with the party-guests names on!  Then once they were decorated they were lined up and ready to be eaten.

Happy birthday D - hope it was fabulous!!

 

Say Happy Birthday with purple roses

This lady loves purple.  She asked for light and dark purple roses on mini cupcakes to be the centerpiece of her birthday celebrations.  I had made sugarpaste roses before, but only once or twice, so confidently said, sure thing, I can do that!
Then spent far longer than anticipated on getting them good enough.

I used vanilla bean paste this time, rather than the usual extract, so there were tiny little dots throughout the sponge and icing.  Lovely taste, will try this variation again soon. 

They went down a storm at the birthday lunch I believe, and her children took the leftvoers in to school the next day in their packed lunches.  And every other child wanted to trade snacks, yey!!

A cake can be the actual birthday gift...

This was a fun request - the cake was to resemble a bow-tied gift box!  It had to be in lilac and cream, where the icing was cream and the bow and any accents in lilac.  there were also to be matching cupcakes and it was for Laura's 21st.  Righto then, off to work.

I had recently seen a few bows done in a different style from that which I had learnt and sort of mastered, and was keen to try one out.  So I asked for a tutorial or some advice from another baker and she pointed me in this direction.  I found it really well written and easy to follow, et voila - I made lots and lots of loops!

Despite adding CMC powder to my sugarpaste so that it would be possible to roll it thinner and have it harden faster, I still made these a few days in advance and probably rolled them a little too thick.  I had been a bit nervous about how I would place and attach them, so did a couple of placement practices.  Until I found that you can't place any more than one layer without something to hold/bind them - oops.  Nevermind, the final run worked out well I think, and I used buttercream and a touch of sugarpaste to hold them in position.  I added the gift tag in last, as it needed to be soft so it could mould to the shape of the finished cake.  Suffice it to say that the customer was thrilled, and I heard back later that the birthday girl had absolutely loved it all.  Result!  Oh, and Happy 21st Birthday Laura   :)

It's not too obvious unfortunately, but some of the cupcakes have cute indentations on them that say 'party time' and 'happy birthday' with balloons.  Perhaps white wasn't the best colour for that?

Giant cupcakes are not just for giants...

I have the email address on the blog and our Facebook page, and was lucky enough to get an email earlier this week asking me to do not one, but two, giant cupcakes for yesterday.  After checking the diary to see what other baking commitments I had, and the calendar to see what family commitments we had - I said, sure thing.

The customer was a new one, and wanted one sticky toffee giant and one vanilla with pink decorations giant cupcake.  I hadn't done any flavour other than vanilla before but was confident about the toffee as it's a similar flavour to caramel and butterscotch and I'm adept at them.  I used the vanilla cake recipe and swapped 2/3rds of the sugar for light brown muscovado sugar and it was good.  Baked up the same and smelt great.  For the icing, I searched through my books and folder (the folder is indivual random recipes that are printed from emails, or other books or other people or cut from magazines) and was beginning to panic as there were no specifically toffee recipes.  They seemed more caramel to me, and that's not what I was after.  Then I found it - Fiona Cairn's toffee buttercream recipe.  I had copied it out of this book as I liked the sound of only some of the cakes and designs she had featured.
The recipe required you to make a sauce with sugar and butter, then add cream then when cool you added it to the buttercream  I had to play about with the texture a little, so it was solid enough to pipe, but wow - did it taste good!! 

I had also made a chocolate shell for the bottom of the cupcake for the first time.  This was done by melting 200g of milk chocolate and painting it on the inside of my silicone mould.  I popped it in the freezer for 10 minutes, then painted on another layer, and so on times in total.  I turned it upside down, made a wish, then it popped right out in one piece!  Phew.  Next time I shall use a bit more chocolate, as it seemed a bit thin in places.

This is a vanilla cake with vanilla (and a round of lemon curd buttercream) buttercream, strawberry jam filling and a spray of flowers.  I think I really need to practice making flowers out of sugarpaste or flowerpaste, to give a little more variety in what I can offer.  But the customer loved it,  and that is what matters most.

Is it a boy or a girl?

Babyshowers seem to be an American phenomenon, where the pregnant lady is thrown a party by a friend and people attend with presents for the imminent birth/arrival.  They also eat and drink, but basically you bring baby gifts.  I've only heard of them recently over here, and, when discussing it with an American friend, she seemed incredulous that we don't have them - but how do you get all the stuff baby will need?  she asked.  Uh, from the shops, I answered.  Odd.

But pleasingly, I was asked to do my first babyshower cupcake dozen recently.  The request was quite particular - white icing, coloured sparkles and the male and female symbols on top.  Great, nothing like a customer who knows what they want. 

I wasn't too sure of how to do the symbols on top, as I had no cutters the right shapes and am not too hot on fondant modelling.  Then I had the (I felt) inspired idea to make coloured fondant circles as the toppers, then pipe the symbols onto them.

And to colour the batter and use white paper cases, so the colours would show through. 

That way you have a coloured bottom, white icing, coloured sprinkles and toppers - lovely.  And here are some I made earlier, ha ha.

I do have pink piping gel, but there wasn't enough contrast between the colour of the fondant topper and the icing, hence the use of white.  However the blue worked well.

Now we can see them in box, as delivered...

And the final shot is of Mini-2 dressed as Snow White, making sure that the bowl is really, really clean!

Happy Australia Day

Today is Australia Day, (here's Wikipedia's take on it, FYI) Australia Day (previously known as Anniversary Day, Foundation Day, and ANA Day) is the official national day of Australia. Celebrated annually on 26 January, the date commemorates the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788 and the proclamation at that time of British sovereignty over the eastern seaboard of New Holland.

Although it was not known as Australia Day until over a century later, records of celebrations on 26 January date back to 1808, with the first official celebration of the formation of New South Wales held in 1818. It is presently an official public holiday in every state and territory of Australia and is marked by the presentation of the Australian of the Year Awards on Australia Day Eve, announcement of the Honours List for the Order of Australia and addresses from the Governor-General and Prime Minister. With community festivals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies the day is celebrated in large and small communities and cities around the nation. Australia Day has become the biggest annual civic event in Australia.

Hmm, the font is very strange in this post - sorry!

If you read the last post about Burns Night, you'll understand the cupcake.  Here I'm simply going to show you the Southern Cross topped cakes, and the latter is by Aspire2be. creative again.  Enjoy!

Burns Night, or Scottish Day if you're 4 years old

Tomorrow is Burns Night, which is (according to Wikipedia) - a Burns supper is a celebration of the life and poetry of the poet Robert Burns, author of many Scots poems. The suppers are normally held on or near the poet's birthday, 25 January, sometimes also known as Robert Burns Day or Burns Night (Burns Nicht), although they may in principle be held at any time of the year.

Basically, to Mini-2 it's Scottish Day (although technically November 30 would also fall under this category, as that is St Andrews Day, and he's the patron saint of Scotland).  They had China Day on Monday as it was Chinese New Year, so for snack they had prawn crackers and noodles and tomorrow they're going to have Haggis and oatcakes.  Ooh, wonder if she'll try the haggis? 

I felt like trying a new flavour of cupcake, then covering the top in fondant and doing a Scottish flag design on top (with an Aussie one for the day after tomorrow) and had a wee read through my favoured cupcake books.  Peaches and cream it was - only I didn't have any peaches and wasn't planning vanilla buttercream for the icing.  I had a tin of pears, and felt that the others ingredients would be lifted by the addition of about a 1/4 teaspoon mixed spice, resulting in Spiced Pear cupcakes.

However, after baking - the Team and I weren't thrilled with the result.  Don't get me wrong, they tasted good and were moist and so on, but it was really silly of the recipe to tell you to put the chopped fruit at the base of the cupcake case, because then the whole thing disintegrated when you removed the wrapper.  You kind of had to turn it upside down to eat, not practical. And Mr Becca and I felt that I could up the amount of spice, for a better flavour.  Still, they were the perfect foil for the fondant topping, which was the original plan.  So all's well that ends well!

And again, by Aspire2be. creative photography...

and another

7th birthday number 1, for K

The brief for this cake was round, green, blue, stripes.  That's it.  Oh, and it had to be vanilla flavoured (none of that chocolate nonsense) with berry jam and a letter K in stripes in the middle.  Sheesh, talk about strict instructions...

As I knew this particular customer didn't much like cake (was getting bored of it, can you believe?!), I tried out my new 6" tin, still placing the cake on a 10" board.  Which allowed me to try out my new embossing alphabet set, and floral embossing mat - both from Purple Cupcakes.  (I don't get paid for endorsing the company, rather I'm sharing my knowledge).  I also need to share with you that this cake wasn't wholly my idea - a new cake friend, Chelsea over in the good ole US of A did it waaaaay better (check out her Facebook page and see the Rockstar cake) and let me borrow her ideas - thanks C!!

And was the recipient pleased with my interpretation of the brief?  Too right mate! She loved it, and even more so when she saw the bright orange interior with its layer of red strawberry jam - job  well done!

Uncle Sam needs you!

A lady was due to emigrate to the gool ole US of A, and was excited but also sad to leave her family and friends behind here in bonnie Scotland.  So her lovely daughter-in-law reqeusted a cake that would help make her happy, an American flag.  We looked at a couple of images, discussed ideas and this is how it all panned out. 

I thought it would be fun if, when they cut into the cake, it was coloured appropriately, so started out like this - one blue half, one red.  Once baked, the tops were sliced to flatten the cakes for layering with jam and buttercream and crumb-coated.  I saw this on one of the YouTube videos and am embarrassed to admit that it was news to me.  But no more!  It's basically where you coat the cake in a slightly thinner than usual layer of buttercream so that it catches all the crumbs, then after you cover it in buttercream or fondant.  Here's a photo of what I mean.

It's not pretty, but it is a foundation.  You can see that I'd tried to smooth the edges so that the next layer would lay well, in theory anyway.  I cut out the stars and couldn't decide whether to use small or large ones, so cut out both...

In the end I went for the large ones, and laid them onto blue fondant.  I did the stripes in Fruit Winders, which ended up a bit wobbly. Sorry.

The customer reviews were positive, phew!  "Thank you so much :) they both loved it! Looked Amazing, tasted amazing!" from the daughter-in-law and "Thanks Becca. Great cake! Really delicious. Thanks to our family party co-ordinator too for organising it! :) " from the lady herself.  They even took an interior shot for us, awww.

Cake Club 1, fondant icing

Now, I know that the first rule of Fight Club was that you didn't talk about Fight Club.  That obviously won't work in a blog situation though, so I won't talk too much, but will show you some photos of what we did.  We're basically just having fun and practicing techniques and passing on knowledge. 

Here we have M, with her mini marzipanned fruit cake.  She covered it in white fondant, and is rolling out shapes to make little robins having a snowball fight.  This cake is for sale at her son's playgroup fundraiser.

 M's finished product.  She's even done tiny feet for the one who got knocked over - too cute!

Here we see P cutting off her excess fondant with a pizza cutter.  We found this to be much easier than a knife, so H and I used it too.  P's cake isn't for anything in particular, she was just practicing her skills.

P trying to get smoother sides.  Someone passed her the plastic smoothing tool after this photo.  It really helps you to get a very smooth finish, you just have to be a bit careful that you don't push too hard and indent your cake.

P had a white powder, that had an E number for a name, and it's meant to be added to fondant/sugarpaste to make it more like flower paste (i.e. you can roll thinner and the item keeps its shape).  She decided to try it out on a butterfly or two, and left them to dry in a book to give them a lifted appearance.

P impressed us all with her flowers, and they look great with the butterflies. Then she saw the green colour that H had made, so added in some falling ivy...

Next we see what H did.  To my surprise, H had never used fondant icing before (I was sure we'd talked about it, but was obviously mistaken).  She was keen to use colour and shapes/cutters and decided to try a garden sort of a theme.  Again, her cake wasn't for a reason, but simply to practice on.

We had an old Wilton Yearbook and we all went through it for inspiration (none struck for me, as you'll see below) and H went for the garden idea.  M had done grass before, and suggested H cut into fondant in mismatched long skinny triangles, but she was finding that quite tricky to master.  This idea worked a lot easier, and she simply used a toothpick to press in the lines.  The grass sections were stuck on by moistening the back with a touch of water.  Then she went crazy with the flower cutters and food colours...   Lovely!

And finally we get to me.  Once you've seen it, you'll think I shouldn't have bothered.  Sorry.  Please keep reading, pretty please?  I had done Mini-2's birthday cake and had a bit of an issue with the rolled out fondant not being fully circular and thus not being quite smooth enough.  So we talked over possible fixes and I went for it.

This time the rolling out/smoothing etc went much better.  The only issue is that I came without any real idea of what I wanted to do, so ended up doing nothing much.  I haphazardly slapped on the leaves on the sides, and then wished I'd got down to eye level to do them in a clock formation, so they would have been more even.  I found the Gerbera flower cutter quite tricky to use effectively, even though it was the push-out style.  And M's gold dust wasn't as successful for me as my edible glitter usually is.
So in summary, we all had a great night, learnt new skills and have already booked in our next meeting and decided to do buttercream.  I think subsequent club nights may need to be decorated cookie related, and what else do you think??