Joshua and Beth get hitched!

I don’t know where the time has gone since the last post so it’s about time I update and share this wedding cake!

Some friends of mine, now Mr and Mrs Guy (!), asked me to make them a wedding cake for their special day in October. They chose a royal iced fruit cake, all 3 layers, and wanted some flowers to match their colour scheme to decorate.

I really love the simplicity of the white royal iced cake against the strong pink flowers. Such  a lovely touch having the ribbon to match their invites, Beth’s genius idea!

Not only did I have the special job of making their wedding cake but I also got to enjoy the day as a bridesmaid, and boy did the day fly by! Who wouldn’t love seeing their cake cut with a sword…such a great way to see the cake finally enjoyed after all the work 🙂

Congratulations to Joshua and Beth!

Baby Showers!

I have made a few baby shower cakes over the last 2 years and they’ve all been different which I love! What’s even more lovely it one was for a boy, one for a girl, and another for a surprise 🙂

Let’s start with the cake for a baby boy…this was a fun cake for me, I was left to choose my own design. Thankfully in my cake class (remember me mentioning Carmel’s Cake Classes Cardiff) we had been looking at baby shower cakes, perfect timing hey! We’d made bibs and dresses so I made some bibs to put on top of the cake and I was chuffed with how they turned out. I also made some little booties, I still can’t believe how cute they are. It was also a gluten free cake so I enjoyed experimenting with those and seeing how well they baked. All in all I was happy with the overall appearance of this cake.

Now the cake for the baby girl…I was given a guide on how to design this which was really helpful as I actually loved the bunting in the end. You can imagine the panic in trying to make an elephant but don’t you think it’s cute?! My friend was happy with the cake and it fitted in really well to the baby shower theme so that’s a success!

The final baby shower cake is the baby surprise so we had a children’s book theme…for those of you who may not recognised the stories they are ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’ on the top tier and ‘Dear Zoo’ on the bottom tier. By the end of making this cake I think I was in love with my little caterpillar! He turned out so much better than I could have hoped sitting on his pile of leaves! The doors represent the different animals that are delivered throughout the story of ‘Dear Zoo’. I really enjoyed taking 2 well known, well loved children’s books and making them appear in cake form.

So there are no more baby shower cakes lined up yet but who knows what theme I’ll be asked to do next!

Wedding cake

This week I am going to start making a wedding cake for some lovely friends of mine who are getting married in October. When I said yes to making their cake I was so happy that they were wanting a traditional fruit cake….working full time this was a dream as I can make the cakes in the summer! The flavour of the fruit cakes will develop so by October they should be even more delicious!

Here is the first wedding cake I made last year. Again it was a fruit cake (their choice, no persuasion from me!) and I used the brush embroidery technique on the design. Now, I seriously love brush embroidery, it feels me with so much joy! I love the simplicity and beauty of the finished designed, it’s such a relaxing technique I’d happily decorate all my cakes like this!

I learnt the brush embroidery technique from my amazing cake teacher – Carmel Cake Classes Cardiff – she’s so patient with us I’m always so grateful for her help. I completed a one day course to learn how to do brush embroidery, learning how to pipe correctly to get the edges of the petals, which type of brush I was comfortable with and how to correctly use the skill. This was my cake from the course:

I think it’s definitely a technique I’ll be using many times in the future, especially if I need a relaxing cake to make!

Creative differences

When I said to my family I was starting a cake decorating course my sister-in-law very excitedly said that was great because now I could make all the kids birthday cakes! It’s a good thing I love my family!

My niece’s birthday arrived and she had many ideas about what she wanted on the top of her cake (my nephew had already had his first cake made by me, I’ll share that some other time) so her little brain went whirring….a horse, and a dragon, and 2 bears on the top please, oh and purple and blue spots all over…

Well I got to the stage where the cake was covered, the models were made, and all that needed to be done was to put the models on the top. I stopped and thought if this was my cake I would stop here, see the first picture? I was pretty happy with the simpleness and neatness of the spots, but it wasn’t my cake. Putting the models on the top made it for my niece, how could I not follow what she’d asked! So I learnt then that it’s the little touches on the cake, the extras things I might not add myself, that make the cake what my 6 year old niece wanted. She loved it so I was a happy auntie!

 

All about me and jam!

My name is Naomi and I wanted a space to share my ideas. I simply create things in my spare time…my real job is being a teacher, which I love…so there’s little time for anything else during term time!

So my first post is all about jam!

I love making jam, usually a simple strawberry jam but it tastes so much better than shop bought! I started making jam a few years ago while I was studying to help me make some inexpensive, yet thoughtful, Christmas gifts. Jam was the present of choice that year. A nice jam jar with a cute piece of material or patterned paper finishes off the present beautifully.

I’ve also made chutneys but soon discovered that depending on the recipe you can end up with a linger chutney smell for a good week, which doesn’t please everyone you’re living with! Jam however just fills the home with fruity sweetness 🙂

I’ve kept making jam for the last few years, when I moved into my flat last year the freezer was full of strawberries! I like making jam from frozen strawberries as I find they mush slightly better, giving a good texture when the jam sets.

It’s so easy to make, give it a go!