2012

It's difficult at this time of year not to spend time reflecting on the last 12 months and thinking of what's in store for the year ahead.

With this in mind it's time for Cake of the Year 2012! Some of you may remeber I did this last year. I really enjoyed looking back at the cakes and sharing some stories so I think this will become a tradition in the years to come.

Of course, this year I look back on cakes that I have made for my business(!), a business that did not exist 12 months ago but was very much a dream for the year. It's been so much fun setting up and meeting so many lovely people who have helped and supported along the way. Thank you so so much to everyone who has been involved.

So, on to the cakes. I've narrowed it down to my top three...

In third place is a cake I made recently for my lovely sister and her fiance. Shaun proposed to Katie in April this year and to celebrate their engagement they held a humanist relationship blessing with a handfasting ceremony.

A handfasting ceremony involves the couples hands being tied together with ribbon and I used this as inspiration for the design on the side of the cake. Katie liked the hearts design that has been featured on a few cakes I've done in the past so I decided to use it on the top of the cake this time. I felt that the text on the cake needed to be more natural for this design so rather than using cutters I piped the writing.

This cake was also a gluten free cake so that all members of the family were able to enjoy a slice!

Hopefully I passed the test and will get to make their wedding cake in the future :-)

The cake in this year's second place spot is a cake that I made for Free Cakes For Kids Wales. 2012 has seen the start of the Newport and Torfaen group and I am stupidly proud of what we have all achieved this year. I can not thank the ladies involved enough for their help and support and I am looking forward to seeing where 2013 takes us. If you would ike to know more about this amazing organisation please visit Free Cakes Wales

The cake was for a girl turning 18 who loves chocolate cake and rocket ice lollies. I immediately knew what I wanted to do for this one and you can read the full story here. I really enjoy carving cakes and was pleased with the finish of this one. I'd love to do more carved cakes in 2013!

And on to the winner...
My favourite cake of 2012...
It just had to be...
A cake that tells a life story!

I've blogged about this cake before here. The cake took a lot of time to create as there were so many elements but it really captured all of the different parts of Mike's life. It was lovely to meet Mike's wife and plan this as a huge surprise for him! For me, it was a test of many techniques that I have learnt since starting cake decorating and really showed how my skills have developed.

So that's my round up on 2012, there were many more cakes along the way and I am looking forward to lots more next year.
I'll be starting 2013 with an exclusive offer for all bookings taken in January. If you have a special event to celebrate check back tomorrow for more details!

Thank you once again to everyone who has helped get Oh Sugar Cake Company off the ground this year. I've had support from my amazing family, fantastic friends and wonderful new customers. This is one of my dreams coming true, thank you for helping to make it happen! xx

New Flavours

Some of you may have noticed I posted on Facebook recently asking if anyone wanted to help out with new flavour ideas. I had some lovely suggestions and one really jumped out at me.

I like to bake things that suit my mood and with the rubbish weather and dark nights who would ever turn down apple pie and ice cream? This flavour suggestion came from Kira and I'll be popping some of the new cake in the post for her to taste test later in the week.

But now it's confession time.......

I didn't really want new flavours, it was all a secret plot!

A friend of mine is turning 40 next week and I wanted to organise a special treat for her. I wanted her cake to be something she really fancied eating and could enjoy so I came up with the plan to ask for flavour help on Facebook! Luckily she completely fell for it and gave me a few suggestions. I even found out today how disappointed she was that she hadn't won the Facebook competition!

A group of us organised a surprise gathering today to celebrate the upcoming 40th birthday. After we enjoyed lunch the cake was brought out, chocolate and popcorn cake!

The cake was a caramel mud cake and was filled with a chocolate and popcorn filling. I also added popping candy to give extra 'pop'. The whole cake was then covered with chocolate ganache and simply decorated with toffee popcorn :-)






Happy 40th Birthday Belinda! Hope you enjoy the cake and have a lovely birthday xx

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Every Cake Tells A Story....

One of the best things about creating cakes is being able to add something really personal that the recipient will love. The cake I delivered yesterday did this more than any cake I've ever made.

I had a call from G, a new customer, back in September and we discussed her ideas to create a cake for her husband's 40th birthday. The idea really was to capture all of the things Mike loves, from their children, to his hobbies and his job.

I came up with 3 design ideas for G to choose from and the design below was the outcome. I met G and was given lots of design inspiration, including photos of their children, his training shoes, his rugby shirt and of course his (apparently famous!) man-bag. I was able to use these to make sure the cake represented everything he loves as much as possible.

As there were so many elements I've been working on this cake for some time, it really was lovely to finally see it come together this weekend. I delivered the cake yesterday, ready for Mike's party that evening. I hope it was a great surprise as Mike had no idea!

I keep referring to this as a life story cake and I'd love to hear what other people would have to have on their life story cake. Mine would have lots of cake related things of course!

Cakes for Family

Being a baker and cake decorator makes me a very popular family member at times! Creating cakes for family is great fun and often gives me the chance to try new recipes and design ideas.

Having said that, this year my niece turned 9 and my design input is no longer needed. This year Abbie drew her cake for me and supplied the Moshi cards and figures I needed to make her cake.

I should say I'm not a huge fan of having non-edible elements to a cake. With timescales and Abbie's plan I didn't have much choice for this one. For customers, it does also give the option of a cake at a lower price as often the modelling adds to the cost. If your child has a favourite toy or figure why not use it for a great birthday cake design? As long as it isn't too big of course!

Not only did Abbie give me all of the supplies but I was given strict instructions on what Moshi went where and which cards too. This was of course in order of her favourites and I was even trusted with shiney cards, which is quite a huge deal I understand.

I was told they would have to be replaced if I damaged them but the small amount of royal icing holding them in place came away easily. Good thing as I would have still been trying to find the right cards now I'm sure!

Here it is, Abbie's very own design....

This cake has really grown on me, at first I thought it was too busy and I definitely wasn't a fan of the cards. Now looking back though it's great for a child, lots to look at and all of their favourite things to celebrate their birthday. Of course, if the toys were new it would be a great extra present too!

This cake could also be recreated to be completely edible, with modelled figures and edible card images. I guess a 9 year old prefers the real thing though...

Returning Customers

I don't think there is anything more rewarding in the business of cake than customers coming back. There is just no better feedback in my eyes :-)

The couple I mentioned in my last post have a son who, soon after their wedding, announced his engagement. I was asked straight away to make the cake and with some elements of the wedding cake to be included as they'd liked it so much.

Paul & Abi wanted figures of themselves and their 2 white dogs on the cake, but also wanted to stick to the hearts theme somehow. I designed the cake to show off the 'down on one knee' moment and even added the sparkly ring!

To keep the focus on the figures I decided on one row of hearts around the base tier and Abi wanted a large heart to top the cake.

This time the cakes were classic vanilla sponge with jam and buttercream.

It's been a while...

I apologise for the lack of blogging recently. I'm surprised I've got away with it really as I usually have people telling me off when the posts become less regular!

It's been a busy few months, with the Oh Sugar order books becoming busier by the day. I'm starting to get orders in all sorts of ways. Through twitter, facebook, recommendations and even forums! Not forgetting of course my lovely returning customers who's numbers are also on the up.

It's all great news and I'm really enjoying working with new customers and their ideas to create some amazing cakes.

Since I last posted I've made another hearts wedding cake, this seems to be such a popular design. All of those hearts do look great but, wow, do they take some time. It's all worth it for the final effect though. This cake was finished off with a posy of flowers, added by the bride and groom.

Both tiers of this cake were rich fruit cake and I received a lovely thank you card from the couple explaining how their guests just kept going back for more!

Congratulations again to Mr & Mrs Humphreys x

Cardiff City Cake

This week I had an order to make a Cardiff City shirt and I really enjoyed it. The lady who ordered this for her son wanted the 'Bluebirds' kit and logo rather than the new red version.

I have both logos available as edible images, I wonder who'll be the first to want the new look Cardiff City shirt?

A first...

Thanks for your patience while the blog has been quiet, I know people have been checking in for updates regularly.
I've been busily working away and things have been picking up steadily with orders coming in for dates ranging from next week through to the end of next year!
Today's post is a first for the blog, a short tutorial on covering a cake drum with sugarpaste. Tutorials are something I plan to do more of with lots of ideas for future posts. I'd also love to hear from you if there is anything you'd like to see.
There are many, many ways to cover a board with icing. How you tackle it is dependant on the cake project and the design (if any) on the board. This particular board is for a project later in the week so I'll pop back with a picture when the cake is in place. I needed to create a wooden floor effect and this does mean you need to work reasonably quickly to avoid the icing drying out. If this is a new technique for you, you may want to practise first.
Here are the tools I used....




I like to use my cake turntable when working but it really isn't a 'must have', it just makes the job a bit easier. I have a 12" drum and my usual tools for covering a drum (rolling pin, smoother and pallet knife). Also for this project I have my royal icing ruler and dresden tool.
I used 500g of icing, this seems a lot but you need a little extra for rolling out and for the design I am doing I didn't want it too thinly rolled. Knead your icing until it's soft and pliable and then roll out on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar.




Roll out your icing to the correct size, to check you can easily hold your drum over your icing to see if it fits. Remember to lift your icing regularly to avoid it sticking! To stick the icing to the drum I brush water over the drum with a pastry brush and then lift the icing into place.




If it's a little small, don't worry, just use your rolling pin to roll out where needed. You can then use your smoother to ensure the icing is smooth and level over the board.




When you are happy with the finish you need to remove the excess icing. The best way to do this is with a pallet knife, I always use a cranked knife as I find it easier. You need to run the knife around, slightly angled in to the board and then gently run you fingers around the icing to soften the edges.




At this point you can of course stop if you want a plain board to present you cake. As I want the wooden floor effect I used my royal icing rule to create the floorboards. I didn't measure, just used the width of the rule and did the rest by eye.








At this stage you need to keep working as you don't want the icing to start drying out. Use the thin end of a dresden tool to draw on a wood effect, don't worry too much about each board as overall you will get the effect and of course some will be covered up with your cake.








And there you have it, a wooden floor effect cake board.
I'd love to know what you think of my first tutorial and I'll be back very soon to show you why I was in need of this style cake board.

Please note you would now need to have your cake on a cake card as you wouldn't really want to put it directly on to icing.

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Foodie Penpals - April

This month I was really excited to be receiving my parcel from a foodie penpal in Estonia! When Mary got in touch I shared my love of baking and said I would love to have something from her local area to bake with. I was then sent a box full of yummy goodies!

My parcel was wrapped in bright yellow tissue and had a lovely hand written letter to tell me all about the contents. Mary sent me some of her favourite baking spices, cloves (nelk) and cumin (Koomned). I also had some chocolate bunnies, green coconut flakes and a bright tea towel that I just love! My final item was homemade chocolate chip cookies, made with local Esonian ingredients. I can't believe I didn't get a picture of them but they were scrummy. More dense than a cookie we would make in the UK but just perfect for enjoying with a cup of tea! Thank you so much Mary, my parcel was a real treat! Unfortunately this will be my last foodie penpal post for a while as I've decided not to take part for now. I am just so busy with other things and haven't been able to give my parcels the time they need. I have loved the scheme though and hope to be back soon :-)

It's been a while...

I've been busy working away in the background and haven't had a chance to update for a while. Things are moving forward and I hope to share news of my launch very, very soon.

Since I last updated I've gone boy cake crazy with 2 footballs, a train christening cake, a Thomas cake and this week it's all about football boots!
Thanks to everyone who has sent such lovely feedback on my recent cakes, it really does mean a lot to me :-)
















Thomas was a cake for a family in Cardiff that I made for the Free Cakes For Kids project I've mentioned before. As well as concentrating on Oh Sugar I'm helping to set up Free Cakes For Kids in Gwent and Torfaen. Please check out the website (www.freecakeswales.co.uk) and if you would like to join the new group get in touch. It's not about being the best cake decorator in the world, it's about creating a homemade cake for a child who is in need of a special treat :-)

Finally, I had an exciting delivery yesterday. My first print of cards...




I'm really pleased with them and will no doubt be handing one to every person I see like a crazy lady!

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