peacocks and wedding cake

The morning of the wedding launched itself gently but optimistically - full of promise and blue skies, and the smell of jasmine on the breeze. 

Miss Z and Mr S asked me to design a classic cake in keeping with family traditions and a family name. A real peacock feather brooch was specially commissioned to clasp the peacock blue ribbon adorning the cake. Baguette-cut diamantes added sparkle to each tier. It was a beautiful day for a lovely couple. 


Best wishes to you both for a long and happy marriage!

raising funds for cancer research

My Daffodil Day morning tea was a great success with over $2,700 raised for cancer research. Thank you to all involved for your kind donations and support! x

Daffodil Day

Hoping that the day we know how to stop cancer comes soon.

the circus comes to town!

Can you remember when the circus came to town?

My first memory of the circus was Billy Smart's in Blackheath, London. The smell of candy floss and sawdust and the crush as the crowd poured through the mouth of the big top ,  gasping and chattering excitedly.

I wanted to be a  trapeze lady (when I wasn't being Gigi), with feathers in my hair and a sequinned costume. I was bewitched by the way they swung gracefully overhead and would look away as they flew out into space, reaching optimistically for a swinging bar somewhere in the darkness. Would they make it safely? Would they fall? And then entwining themselves around ropes as they descended serpent-like from their eyries high above the sawdust ring.

I hope young Master M likes his circus tent cake and has sweet dreams of a circus life of daring and adventure.

birdies

I love birds and I love painting on cakes.

The cake artist who inspires me the most with the way she captures birds and nature is Natasha Collins of Nevie-Pie Cakes. Natasha worked for many years as an illustrator and textile designer before combining her life-long love of baking with her art.

Like Natasha, I mainly use food paste colours to paint with, however for washes, I use alcohol whereas Natasha uses boiled water. I also use pure cocoa butter to create a lustrous patina.

The swallows were featured on a spring cake created by Natasha, while the robin red-breast in the snow was painted by me to decorate traditional christmas cakes.

butterflies in my tummy

I'm excited for Miss C. It's her first birthday! A big day for any girl. Mum and Dad have bought her a brand new dress and matching swishy shoes and fancy socks, and she's looking as pretty as any cupcake herself. And I've made the cake. Butterflies and blossoms was the brief. I do hope Miss C doesn't get too excited to eat the cake. After all, this may be the very first butterfly in her tummy ever!

sweet peas

As our winter starts to fade and spring is shaking out her prettiest dress ready for her grand entrance, in my garden the sweet pea seedlings are heading skywards with all the determination and zeal that I admire in these delicate plants. 

Every hour they seem to have climbed further upwards, entwining themselves elegantly but tenaciously around their wire frame. I examine them each day, impatiently waiting for that very first bud to unfurl and release its tissue-like petals and delicious perfume.

Sweet peas are old-fashioned and charming. I really like that about them. I love making them to decorate my cakes and have decided that, if it came to it, I'd happily be re-employed as a sweet pea tendril-maker. I twirl, twirl, twirl the tendrils, this way and that, as dreamily as a young girl twisting her hair around her fingers, each tendril different from the last. 

In this wedding cake for Miss L and Mr A I have included ivory roses and rosebuds with pink and blue sweet peas to capture the freshness of spring.

Willy Wonka meets Chocolat

I've been busy stocking up on ingredients, including chocolate, for my Daffodil Day baking.

It's like a childhood dream-come-true when the chocolate is delivered to my door. As I open the 10kg bags to decant the chocolate, the whole house is filled with perfect chocolatey-ness. It's Willy Wonka meets Chocolat!

I use Belgian Callebaut couverture bitter sweet chocolate for my cakes and ganache.