Black & White Cupcakes

I finished my black & white cupcake theme last night.  I was practising using a different method of icing where you cover the cupcake with buttercream to kind of make a flat surface and then cut a disc out of rolled fondant icing to place on top (I used scone cutters) and then you place whatever topper you like on the disc.

I have been practicing with flowers and made a few good ones (got some new cutters!)  I also bought some zebra cake boxes (Morrisons....quite cheap really) and along with the zebra cupcakes, I thought it all looked rather good!

Next week is going to be slightly hectic (again), I have 2 birthday cakes & party cupcakes to do and Mother's Day Cupcakes to make...all for at the weekend. Thats should keep me busy for a while!

Father-In-Law's Cake

What a late night last night was!  Finally finished my Father-in-Law'ss birthday cake.  He's a big Rangers fan so I hope he likes it!!!

Second Commission!

I have been asked to make some cupcakes for Mother's Day!

The next few weekends are very busy with cakes.  I have my father-in-laws birthday coming up this weekend and he is having a Rangers Football cake for the occasion.  I finished the main part of the club emblem last night, I just need to make long rolled strips to form the circles that go round the text but I will do that once I have the main body of the cake iced as picking up the icing once its been rolled into its sausage shape is a bit of a pain in the ...... as it broke on me last night when I was practicing!  It will look good when finished.....fingers crossed!

Back to Black

Last night I was working on some cake toppers using black fondant.  I have some funky cupcases which are a black & white zebra pattern and also zebra patterned cupcake boxes to match.  I thought some cakes would look good with white buttercream frosting with some black cake toppers.  I made a few to try on my mother-in-law at the weekend to see what they look like.

I have put dark glitters on the flowers (purple, blue, green, black) just to give a hint of sparkle and I was going to paint some lustre dust colours on some to see what that looks like.

Of course, the battery died on the camera and the charger was at my office so the pics are not that great....

Christening Cake Completed

Sunday was the day of the Christening.  Imogen looked lovely in her Christening gown and I received lots of compliments about the cake I had done and all those cupcakes.....  My dining room table was a production line on Saturday evening of cakes, glitter pots, hearts, butterflies, boxes etc.  It all got done in the end though and there were no hitches or glitches.

This was my first actual 'commission' and it felt very nice actually being paid to do something I enjoy, but it also felt a bit strange.  I sometimes feel a little embarrassed at asking money for the cakes as I am not a professional cake maker  and worry that people may not like what they see but just pay lip service to be nice and not hurt my feelings.  Other Half thinks I talk rot and thinks I should start charging people £5 for 12 cupcakes and £10 per cake just so my ingredient costs are covered at least.  He may have a point......

Successful 'Diet Cake'

Well, I have to say the diet tea loaf was a success!  I had two independent reviewers (well, the OH and Jess!) who both said the same thing......it would be great with custard!!  I think that might defeat the object of it being a 'diet cake' but the consensus was it was a hit.

I think it helped soaking the fruit overnight for them to gain maximum plumpness so its worth going to the extra bother.  The recipe itself couldn't be easier and there is no need for any fancy mixers etc, all very easy to do by hand....

Fat Free Tea Loaf

1 cup of cold black tea
8oz dried fruit
8oz self raising flour
2 beaten eggs
6 level tbsp of artificial sweetner
...Soak fruit in cold tea for a few hours or over night ,once soaked add all other ingredients to the fruit and tea mix well and place in a greased loaf tin cook for 40-50 mins at gas mark 4 or 180°C , leave to cool, slice into 15, 4 syns a slice

Diet Cake.....

Is there such a thing I wonder?  Several people I know seemed all of a sudden to start dieting this week, everyone on an eternal search for low fat food and 'healthy options'.  My quest has been to find a low fat cake recipe that doesn't end up with a tasteless cake.  There seems to me very little point in eating something if it lacks any real flavour.

I have found two recipes that I am going to trial, both fall under the Slimming World banner.  One is for a fruit tea loaf and the other is for an orange sponge.  I hold out great hopes for the orange sponge as it basically just a fatless sponge cake where whisking the egg whites & yolks separately so that you get a meringue with the whites and by whisking the egg yolks for long enough it results in a mousse type mixture which has doubled in volume, literally combine the two, (folding in gently with flour), add orange zest & juice and hey presto, one fatless sponge!

I shall post the results after the testing has been done........