Happy New Year and Farewell!

Happy new year everyone! Hope you all had a good one! I've decided to give up my baking blog, i've been thinking of it for a while now and as it's a new year and new start etc i think now is the perfect time! Thank you so much to everyone for all your lovely comments and support over the past two years; you've all been lovely - i will of course still be reading your blogs and i will still be baking from time to time but i'm going to focus on my career and i've decided to take up some new hobbies running and knitting! So farewell, so long and see you around! Mrs B!

The wedding cake and other bakes!

I haven't blogged for what feels like ages, so i thought i'd just post everything i've been up to in one go! It's been busy, i moved house and absolutely love living outside of London in the countryside, i went to America on holiday, i made a wedding cake and a got a new job all in the space of 4 months! Phew! Well, i promised pictures of the cake and here it is, their wedding day was just so beautiful; making this cake was one of the hardest challenges i've ever done! It was 4 tiers, one fruit, one sponge, one chocolate and one chocolate fudge! All iced in ivory sugarpaste and dotted with purple butterflies and finished with ribbon!
From afar!
All boxed up and ready to go...
All 4 tiers iced and finished...
The bottom tier...
The second largest tier; vanilla sponge cake with buttercream and jam, being covered in buttercream ready for the sugarpaste...
The bottom tier just marizpaned...
Some carrot cakes I made - they look pretty but the recipe I followed wasn't that great...
A delicious banana cake; it tasted like heaven and healthy too...
Energy bars with cranberries and seeds for work...
Some cupcakes I made for a charity fundraiser...
My lovely friend's birthday cake-stars...

Chocolate cupcakes to match

I made these cupcakes to match the birthday cake that I made for my sister. I adore the little red cupcake papers - they look so effective against the chocolate colours and I know they would be brilliant for Christmas and winter cupcakes!
I hand grated all the chcolate shavings using a cheese grater, it was messy but lots of fun! The cakes are chocolate with chocolate buttercream and then chocolate shavings quickly sprinkled on!
My camera has been broken for some time now but i'm pleased to report that I have just purchased a new one so worry not, I can keep baking and taking photos! I took part in the London Triathlon at the weekend - i entered as a team with work and did the running part dressed as a toilet! It was so much fun! That's it now though for my sporting achievements for this year! I've done the Crisis 6k, Race for Life 5k and LT 5k - what with all this running, I deserve a cake or two! I'm looking forward to spending long Sunday afternoons baking in the kitchen again rather than out running or worrying about my lack of training! Give me baking cakes anyday! x

roll up, roll up, read all about it...

I have some great news! The first is that my lovely friends are getting married in October and I am making their wedding cake - I am so excited about this and have just been to the Squires shop in Farnham to buy some new cake tins and things, what an honour! They are having a fruit cake as the bottom tier, followed by vanilla sponge, followed by two chocolate cakes, 4 tiers in all!

Secondly, is that (hopefully) in about 6 weeks time my husband and I are moving out of London (woop woop!) further north into the countryside to a town called St. Albans, i can't wait to be packing the boxes but even more exciting is that we are going to be living near a college that does a 20 week sugar flower course for beginners, it's a little pricey but i'll scrimp and save and sign up soon. What exciting times! It was nearly a year ago that I did a 10 week cake class and i had such a great time!

Chocolate Birthday Cake

This is my sister's birthday cake. It's a 6inch chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and then I bought some lovely dark and white chocolate bars and grated them to create chocolate shreads with I covered the cake in. I think it's looks really effective but to add a touch of love I swirled white melted choolate into heart shapes and stuck them on the top.

It's a small cake but it was the perfect size for my family to have a slice each with two slices for my sis to enjoy the next day!
I entered Race for Life today. It was in Hyde park and even though I've done quite a few charity runs I found this one particulary hard and it was only 5k but boy was it a long way! I was tired after 1k! I've spent all afternoon sat on the sofa drinking tea trying to recover from the pain! I can't work out why I was so exhausted! So I thought I'd post my chocolate cake to cheer myself up, cake always puts a smile on my face! Enjoy! x

Mum's 60th Birthday Cake

I made this cake for my mum's 60th Birthday. I wasn't sure of a complete design when I started it but I decided on yellow butterflies and roses. It was a fruit cake (10 inch) covered in marizpan and then roll out icing. I made the roses out of sugarpaste and the butterflies out of flower paste.

I'm not sure how I managed to carry this cake all the way from London to Preston on the underground, train and then car but somehow I managed to get it their in one piece with all the butterflies attached.


My mum loved it and i'm so pleased she did! She really deserved a special birthday and we had a lovely 'country living' style outdoor garden party! Happy Birthday mum!

Luscious Lemon Drizzle Cake

This is perfect sunshine food! Luscious lemon drizzle cake, it's easy to make, doesn't take long to cook and your friends will be swept away by the freshness and lovely deep sweet lemon flavour.

All you need is:
100g/4oz butter
175g/6oz self - raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
175g/6oz golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
6 tbsp milk
finely grated rind of 1 large lemon

For the icing:
juice of one large lemon (3 tbsp)
100g/4oz golden caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c and butter and line the base of a shallow oblong tin and line the bottom with baking paper.

Take a large bowl and mix all the ingrediants together for 2 - 3 minutes until the mixture drops easily off the back of a spoon. Pour it into the tin and smooth the surface with the back of a spoon and bake for 30 - 40 minutes until golden and a beautiful smell fills your kitchen. While its cooking, make the icing by beating together the lemon juice and sugar. Once the cake comes out of the oven, pour it over while its sill hot and let it soak into the cake. Leave to cool.

Cut into squares and serve with iced home made lemonade! Summer bliss!