'I don't know your name...'

'I don't know your name, but your birthday cake was delicious.'

As most of us are leaving before Tom's actual birthday, we thought it would be good to make him an early birthday cake. So to celebrate his birthday, my best friend Jess and I decided to bake him a Victoria Sponge! 

I've made one before but, because I got too excited and took the cake out the tin whilst it was still warm, it kind of went wrong. Then, when I was spreading the jam and buttercream icing, I got too excited again and didn't work... I'm sure you can guess what happened. All the cake crumbled off.

So, this cake was much better as I learnt from that silly mistake.

Instead of baking two separate cakes, we thought it would be a good idea to bake it in one tin and then use the 'Kitchen Craft Cake Cutting Wire' to divide it (we also used this device to slice off some excess cake so that it wouldn't wobble around). Being lazy students, we didn't want to wash more than we had to, so we kept the utensils and tins down to a minimum! 

After dividing the cake, Jess and I spread the jam (Hartley's No-Bits Strawberry Jam) on one half of the cake and placed the other half on top of it. We made our buttercream icing by following Mary Berry's recipe, rather than using Betty Crocker's, which actually worked out well since we could spread it easily. The buttercream went on top of the cake (instead of in between the two cakes) so that we could decorate it. 

We used icing pens to write the '20' on the cake so we could cover it with the smarties and then added the different coloured candles to make it a bit more exciting.

For the sides, we used small stars and positioned them in a zig zag pattern. Unfortunately, this isn't a fantastic photo of it as the buttercream wasn't spread well along the sides so it doesn't look as smooth as the rest of the cake. 

I was going to add a photo of the birthday boy with his slice of cake but I thought he might not appreciate a photo of him on here. But...

Happy 20th Birthday to Tom on the 29th of June! 

The Start of Something New...

The Start of Something New...

Well, I've been thinking about doing a blog for a while now and I've finally persuaded myself to do it, and what better thing to do it on than the wonderful world of cakes! It also means I have an excuse to spend some time making yummy cakes (and eating them, of course). 

So here's the cake that I made yesterday for my nan and grandad's silver wedding anniversary:

To get the round shape of the cake I used a hemisphere cake pan (purchased from Lakeland) and filled it to about two thirds with a sponge mixture and popped it in the oven for about half an hour. 

I'm new to cake making so I thought it would be a good idea to use roll out icing as I don't quite trust myself at this stage to make my own fondant icing, but I'll get there! So I covered the board with green icing and measured how big the cake would be so that I could decorate the board with the butterflies and flowers (which were moulded using plungers).  

Once the cake was cool, I positioned it onto the board and placed the red icing on top of it. It was easier  since I had already cut it down into a circle so I could just position and mould it on top. I then cut out a strip of black icing to create the look of wings and a semi circle for the head. Using cookie cutters, I made the spots and eyes for the ladybird.

I also made cupcakes and cake pops but, with the excitement of this cake, I completely forgot to take photos. Hopefully next time I'll remember to include the extra cakes and take better photos!

Ps. Thanks to Helen Petty (http://aboutanail.blogspot.co.uk/) for the idea to make a blog. By snooping through her beautiful page it gave me the inspiration I needed to create my own. Thank you also to Sophie Renwick as her ladybird design was so pretty that it made me want to do a similar design.