A take on a cake I did a few years back and have done workshops on. Slightly changed the design so it would travel better, not that I ever had any problems with the others but always had a nagging feeling that the stability could be improved. This one had 3 support rods and a stabalising rod through the centre, can't imagine it going anywhere! lol

The inscription I was given was such a long one that the tappits I would've normally used, were to big and I was all set to make Royal icing when I suddenly had the idea of the scroll, and printing it on rice paper.

Really pleased with how it all came together and even the little fairy isn't as scary as the last one I did! lol

A couple of favourites from the last few weeks

Teddy Bear Topper

I've wanted to make a cute teddy topper for ages but sometimes they just don't go to plan and I find that somethings you would think simple, can just sooooooo easily not look right and get you scratching your head as to why??????

Anyway CRACKED IT!!! lol

I took the basic feel of the Cuddly Rabbit I do for christening cakes and decided to tweek it into a bear. So armed with that and a birthday card with an adorable teddy on it, I set to work.

Here's the resulting Teddy Bear, and I love it!! I hope you do too! I'm going to use this on Sunday and later in the year for the Teddy Bears Workshop. Definately one for beginners as it's an extremely simple design, but looks very effective. Now to design a cake to pop him on, hmmmmmmm...........

"Summer Fun!"

Last month and this month have been a little quiet on the cake order side of things, and what cakes I have had are repeat orders of designs I've already made so nothing new. It has given me time to crack on with projects and designs that have been in the pipeline for sometime now, stuck because of time issues. Not easy being a full-time mum and part-time business woman as I'm sure many of you will understand.

There's still alot I can't reveal yet but I can show you the model that is the subject for June's workshop (more details of workshops can be found on my website).

I wanted to make her a slightly chubby child, "put some meat on 'er bones" as my dad would say and I must admit, I prefer the kiddy models like this, a lot more realistic and cuddly! lol Just like my own lol.

The design could also be easily adjusted to fit into a beach scene too.

Hubby's 40th birthday tomorrow and it suddenly occured to me on wednesday that he might be expecting a cake! Well I was out of ideas for him as he has 2 main hobbies and I've done cakes in the past for him using these already. So I was stumped

Then I suddenly realised that because the cake had to be chocolate (his Fav) and quick, I thought I'd do a twist on the Maltesser cake. Must thank Tal for the inspiration too as I love her idea of the boy in the sweets cake.

Had too use finger biscuits in the end as they had no choc sticks, Ah well I'm not complaining, anythings better then eating sugarpaste, yuk!!

I passed!!!

I had my second BSG demonstrator assessment last night with a lovely group in Droitwich, very nice group, and lots of fun.
At the end of the night my assessor came over to me and told me she'd enjoyed the demonstrationn very much and wanted to be the first to congratulate me on achieving the level of professionalism needed to become a BSG demonstrator!!! YEE-HAA!!!!

This week is turning into a great week, I'm so pleased!

Published Magazine article!!! YAY!!!

What a great suprise I had yesturday when my 'Cake Craft & Decoration' Magazine dropped to the floor with a thud. I wasn't quite expecting it to arrive yet, thought I had another week or 2 of waiting. A quick glance of the cover articles, told me all I needed to know,

"MY 1st ARTICLE HAD BEEN PUBLISHED!!!" YAY!!!

March 2010 edition, page 48, 'Get Well Soon' cake, and the added bonus that the picture of me wasn't as horrific as I'd thought it would be (I maybe tall enough to be a model, but photogenic? Nah!!!! lol)

After all the hoo-ha we had with this cake I'm so pleased it turned out to be a cracker in the end!

Visit "Cake,Craft and Decoration" for more information

Inside information (if you're in need of a giggle, you'll like this)

Story goes: The lovely Bob (photographer) arrived at my house at about 10am. After assessing my workroom, the decision was quickly made that it wouldn't be large enough to accomadate us both, and all the equipment needed to photograph the projects. So we went downstairs and decided to set up on the breakfast bar in my kitchen. I was happy with that, although I did feel that probably my decision to close the door on that whole side of the house, and not tidy it, had probably not been a very wise one now.
So Bob set his equipment up and I'd brought my stuff down, or so I thought........
After about the 15th trip upstairs I was feeling quite fit, and Bob had gone past the appollogetic phase and had probably reached the "This woman must have the brain of a flea" stage, as I raced back upstairs for something else that I'd need from my workroom and had forgotten to bring down in one of my recent trips up there.
Finally after all the ups & down's (literally) we finished the 2 cakes. Bob took a quick picture of me, packed up his gear and went on his way.

He was long gone (the next day infact) when I was typing up the instructions to go with making the cakes, when suddenly it hit me that I'd toatally forgotten to put the bandage on the leg of the model! Argh!!
After a quick phonecall to Bob to confirm my fears, we arranged to meet at the NEC a month later, to pop the offending piece of paste onto her. Well as you can imagine, it was very busy at the NEC and as soon as Bob had finished photographing the exhibit's and competition pieces, we popped out the back, away from the hussle and bussle into the quiet of the carpark to start work. Not only did she need finishing, but she needed repairing too!! She'd fallen off, obviously were she'd had to travel straight away after making and had not had time to set. So a first for everyone, Bob, Julie the editor, Chris my friend (both might i add taking photo's of the strange cake making workshop, (the boot of Bob's car)) and me, all outside in the dizzling rain finding the whole situation extremely surreal and amussing.
I've not seen the photo's yet, but I'm sure at some point they will surface for us all to have a good chuckle at.

Then in January I get an email from Julie to say the picture that Bob took of me was not that good and would it be possible for me to send in another. No problem I thought, although I knew from past experience, the camera and I do not see eye to lense (grrrrr), and the chances of me getting a good photo were probably no better then Bobs! lol. Anyway hair up (never a nice look), white coat on (no chance of this complimenting my painfully pale skin either) and with the bedrooms beige wallpaper as my background, I was ready.
I'd put the camera on the tripod and set the timer, I knew from the start that the odds were against me as I raced around the bed, to sit on the chair, before the thing flashed me!!! So after 12 photo's and the 'losing the will to live' look, starting to show in my eye's, I decided that I'd see what they looked like close up, on the PC.
I managed to scrap 3 photo's together were I didn't have a mentally insane smile on my face, or looked miserable. Then cropped & edited them to death, so I didn't look sick, and sent them off to Julie with a note saying "I could try again if needed, as I knew I wasn't the most photogenic person on the planet" (understatement). The note came back thanking me, agreeing with me that they were'nt the best pictures but hopefully they would be able to use one of them! (splutter!!! lol, lol)

Well after all that, thank godness, all went well in the end and my ditzy distractable mind hasn't put Julie off from using my services again. The job got done and we've had a giggle, also lesson's have been learnt. "Have all your stuff ready downstairs in the kitchen, and not upstairs in the workroom" & "Don't let the photographer distract you"..........................