A cake with cheese...

This weekend was my birthday and I decided to celebrate with a different kind of cake...a cheesecake!
The thing is, I don't like cheesecake. And in the words of a friend of mine 'Everyone likes cheesecake' so maybe it's time for me to try to get on board.
I remember eating cheesecake as a child and the fruit on top was always really sharp. If I was really unfortunate it hadn't quite defrosted! The experience of a supermarket cheesecake was never very pleasant.

As with everything I guess it's about the quality of ingredients so I have been tempted to try a cheesecake for a while. Myself and a few friends get together regularly for coffee on a Sunday afternoon and not long ago a cheesecake appeared at one of our gatherings. I had a little piece and it was actually quite nice. The biscuit base was delicious and crumbly, the topping was creamy and there was no hint of sharp fruit.
So this weekend it was time to try to make my own, and with no idea where to start I went recipe hunting. I came across a chocolate and Kahlua cheesecake recipe and figured that has to be delicious, right?! I followed the recipe from the BBC Good Food website and managed to create this...

The cheesecake is topped with a crème fraiche and Kahlua topping and I added some chocolate swirls to finish it off. The only thing left to do was have a taste...

Well, what can I say?? Wow! This was delicious. Maybe a little too chocolatey but the topping gave some balance and was definitely needed to calm it down. I ate this a good few hours after lunch and felt full again instantly, just a small slice needed I think! As I'm no cheesecake expert I have no idea if it's good in comparison to others but I really enjoyed it and may try more cheesecake in the future. For now I have lots left and need to find some taste testers...any volunteers?

It's been a year!

So I haven't blogged in a long, long time!
I knew that and kept thinking I should get back to it.
I mean it had been a good few months surely??
No, it hadn't, it's been exactly one year!
Time really does fly.

2013 was a big year for me, this is always a time to reflect and I had some incredible highs and some fairly big lows too. I have learnt that we should stop waiting for a fantastic year as 12 months without some drama is almost impossible. I've also learnt that the lows often help bring on the highs!

I was asked yesterday what my biggest achievement was in 2013 and it took a while to decide. I think it has to be the skydive I completed in September as it kind of sums up my year. Not only did I get to do something I never thought I'd be brave enough for; I also did it to raise money for Tenovus, a charity that has done a lot for my family over the last few years. My skydive will always be a hugely fond memory and I'm glad I was able to share my experience with the person who influenced it the most. Fundraising will be something I hope to continue in 2014, more on that soon.

So on to the cakes! Things have been growing at Oh Sugar Cake Company and I've had some busy times over the last 12 months. I have also been taking orders for cakes in 2014 and 2015! There are some very organised brides and grooms out there :)

As I've done for the last 2 years I'd like to announce my Cake of the Year. This is a great way to look back at the work I've done and remember the fun (or stress!) of completing a particular cake. It's getting harder to decide, particularly as I do more wedding cakes as they are definitely the best cakes to work on.

In third place is a two tier birthday cake that I loved making. It is bright and fun and I was really pleased with the overall finish of this cake. As you can see the toppers are not sugar but I think for children this is probably better as they get to keep the toys too.

My second place cake for 2013 is my first car cake. I really enjoy carving cakes and it was about time I tried a car. This cake was for a 50th birthday and it must be really special to have something so personal to help celebrate...although maybe a real Ferrari would have been a better surprise!

In first place it had to be one of the wedding cakes I have made this year and it was a really tough choice. In fact as I type this I'm still stuck on which to choose, I love them all for different reasons. One of the big milestones for me this year was supplying my first wedding cake to a couple who had no previous links with me. All of my previous wedding cakes had been for family and friends. So I think this cake has to be 'Cake of the Year 2013' for that reason. It was a fantastic cake to make as I love making sugar flowers. The David Austin roses were a lot of work but I think look so beautiful on this rustic looking cake. The groom made the cake stand and the couple chose a buttercream finish. I assembled the cake on site, another first for me but all went really well and it did make the transporting of the cake a lot easier!

Cake of the Year 2013

Now it is time to look forward to 2014, I have some exciting cakes coming up and am already fully booked at times. If you have an occasion that you'd like to celebrate with cake please feel free to get in touch for a free, no obligation quote. It's never too early to book and your date can be secured with a small deposit while we agree a final cake design. I look forward to working with new and returning customers in 2014 and hope that you all have a great year. Especially those lovely couples I'm working with who are getting married THIS YEAR, such an exciting time!

Happy New Year All!

Rachel x

January Offer

Happy New Year!!!

I hope the 12 months that lay ahead hold many good times for all of you. I'll be busy working on developing Oh Sugar Cake Company throughout the year and have a huge list of things I will be working on. This will be my first full year in business so I'm hoping to achieve great things!

I've decided to kick off 2013 with a fantastic offer. For those of you wanting to get organised in the new year now is the time to get a tick on your to do list and book in your cake requirements for your upcoming celebrations.

All cakes booked in January will receive a huge 20% discount! A deposit paid in January will confirm your date and booking, with you then being able to arrange the details of your cake closer to the date it is needed.

For celebration cakes a £10 deposit will confirm your order and for wedding cakes a £50 deposit. If you'd like a quote on any cake please get in touch by phone (07918 088992) or e-mail (enquiries@ohsugarcakecompany.com)

You can view galleries of all of my cakes at my website which is now live www.ohsugarcakecompany.com or on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/ohsugarcakecompany

It's 2013, let's celebrate with cake!

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...

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?

Cake of the Year - 3rd place!

My final instalment for Cake of the Year 2011 is this chocolate cake...


This cake was made on behalf of Free Cakes For Kids Wales. For those that don't know FCFK is a project that is quickly spreading around the UK and I have now been a member of the Welsh group for almost a year. The group provide birthday cakes for children who may not otherwise receive them and I made this for a boy turning 17 who was having a bit of a tough time.
The cake itself was chocolate sponge covered in chocolate buttercream and loaded with lots of chocolate goodies! I then had some fun making the panels and drizzling the leftover chocolate on top...mmmm!
This makes it on to the favourite cake list as I loved making it, love supporting Free Cakes For Kids and love the picture below...



You can check out Free Cakes For Kids Wales here

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Cake of the Year 2011

I have been shocked by the traffic through my blog over the last 2 days so I'm back earlier than planned with my next installment!

I thought I'd share with you my favourite cake of 2011. A few cakes were in the running and I will no doubt share the 'runners up' at some point too!

Here is the winner...my take on Minnie :-)




This was such a fun cake to make! The ears are separate cakes which gives the option of adding different flavours. In this version the ears were chocolate cake coated in rich chocolate ganache and the face was a vanilla sponge filled with buttercream and jam.

All three cakes were carved to create Minnie but covered separately to make cutting much easier at the party. The cake was displayed on a 14" square board which made it a great centrepiece at the party and it was a huge talking point.

This cake would adapt really well to Micky too and I'd love to do them together one day, maybe for a joint birthday celebration for twins or a Disney mad couple!

But the real reason it made it to the top spot? Well, that's easy, seeing my niece's reaction and her eyes wide open with surprise when she first saw it was amazing!

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