Author: kayleigh

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3 cakes in 1 day

It was our niece’s 6th birthday celebration on Sunday, and add to that it was the Brother in Law’s 40th that weekend too, so we decided to surprise him at her 6th Birthday “party” at our house. That was 2 cakes.

I had also kindly agreed to make a cake for a friend’s mum’s birthday, so that meant 3 cakes to sort on Saturday. I’ve never felt more like a baker, and it took the full day to decorate them all.

I’d pre-baked the layers (5″ rounds of vanilly cake for the niece, and chocolate cake for the other two) and kept them in the freezer. They always turn out amazing & it makes it so much easier to decorate from frozen.

This was the fridge throughout the Saturday:

It was just as well we have a big fridge & that what little food was in there condensed to the bottom shelf & drawers at the bottom.

These are the finished cakes that I ended up making that day:

And a few more shots of the cakes on the day:

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Pride Cake

We had a Pride Day at Zen and I volunteered to bake cakes for it. I originally planned to do my striped rainbow cake again, but I couldn’t be bothered with the effort to dye and pipe all the buttercream.

I instead came up with a painted version with fondant toppers:

The main cake was vanilla sponge with strawberry jam, vanilla buttercream, and rainbow sprinkles.

I also made some vegan cupcakes to go with it – 6 each of Vanilla and Chocolate cupcakes.

Posing with my creation in all my rainbow-glory

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Practice Practice Practice

I made another rainbow striped cake, this time for someone who asked me to make one for their sister’s birthday.

The stripes were definitely better this time around:

I added the banner on the top as I felt it just added that something to the cake – originally it was just going to have the candles on, but I liked the banner better. Thankfully, they did too!

The cake itself was chocolate cake layers and chocolate buttercream on the inside, then white chocolate and vanilla buttercream on the outside.

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Beach Birthday Cake

I got asked to make a cake for a 60th and was asked to make a fondant -covered cake which I’ve not done in years (because I hate it). Challenge was accepted though.

I’m not overly imaginative for cake design, so asked if they had anything in mind for inspiration. This is what I was sent…

I think the result went quite well. I couldn’t be bothered to make a palm tree, but may not have had the room anyways.

I last made a beach themed cake 12 years ago… I think it’s safe to say I’ve improved little:

The inside of the cake (not pictured) was:

  • vanilla sponge
  • strawberry jam
  • Vanilla buttercream

Everything on top was made from fondant and just shaped / coloured accordingly.

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Frozen Birthday Cake – Free Cakes for Kids

This cake was done as part of the Free Cakes for Kids group that I bake for. The spec: Frozen – she especially loves Elsa.

I looked online for some inspiration, and opted to make Elsa using a cake topper / cut out. When I looked for cake toppers, I thought they were over-priced for what they were. I figured I’d buy a birthday card to use but then saw a gift bag for 99p when in Poundstretcher:

Seeing the chance to save some money, I got the bag & made my own topper using kebab sticks

The drip was made with white chocolate and silver lustre dust. I added some sprinkles and edible glitter for the finishing touches, as well as a candle I picked up at Asda for £1

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Easter treat boxes

I am going to London for Easter weekend but I am visiting family tomorrow so decided to make some treats to take with me.

I made quite a few things to fill the boxes. Some may say I got carried away again.

Cakesicles and cake truffles. These were all made with vanilla cake, buttercream, sprinkles and white chocolate.

Next up were NYC cookies (vanilla and chocolate) stuffed with chocolate chunks, peanut m&ms, and mini eggs.

There was also lemon cupcakes with lemon icing.

and finally we have chocolate mini egg brownies

I made 4 larger boxes, and two smaller boxes to take to people. I finished them with some Easter chocolate coins I picked up at Asda.

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1st Birthday Cake

A family friend sent me a picture & asked if I could do a pink fault line cake “loosely based on this but not exactly the same”.

This was the cake I made:

It was made with 4 layers of vanilla sponge, with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream. The toppers are:
– Strawberry Shortcake Hershey Kisses (1 painted gold)
– White chocolate Lindor (painted gold)
– Home made sugar lollies

I’d never made lollies before, but I had made some sugar “glass” for these stabbed cupcakes a few years back, so I felt comfortable in giving it a go.

I used an “oreo” mold to keep them round and flavoured them with cherry flavouring. Looking back, I should have put the sticks the other way in so they didn’t have the pointy bit inside the lolly.

The final image show sthe inspiration against the actual result.

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My Brother’s 40th Birthday Cake

As per the title, my brother celebrated his 40th birthday this month. I made him a cake for his birthday which came to a Family meal (for us to all singe “Happy Birthday” to him) and then it went with him for a further celebration the next day. Thankfully, it seems to have lasted the trips!

The card wasn’t from me, and the balloons had started on top of the cake

I made a rainbow striped cake, with a balloon banner on the top. All went well, except the red buttercream kept pulling out of the cake when I was running the scraper along… very annoying! Still, it turned out as I pictured in my head when I was planning this.

The cake photoshoot (with a black background) – balloons on top

It also looked great set up at his party venue for the Saturday night

I don’t have any pictures of the cake once it had been sliced up, but it was my standard vanilla cake layers with buttercream and strawberry jam. This one was 5 x 8″ cake layers, and a LOT of buttercream!

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Striped “practice” cake

I made the above cake as a ‘practice’ for a design I’ll be making next month. I’d not made a striped cake before so this was my first go and I was happy with how it went.

Not clear from the picture is that it was thicker at the bottom than the top on one side (I clearly hold the scraper at an angle without realising it) so that was a good learning!

On the plus side, the buttercream itself was smooth and not all grainy like the last few cakes i had made.

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Buttercream Blues

The last couple of cakes I have made really annoyed me as the buttercream kept “splitting” / going grainy and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to be smooth. I tried hacks like adding in a spoonful of melted butter which looked like it made it better, then it just went grainy again. You can see it on the Minecraft I did earlier this month too.

The next time I make a cake, I’m going to be super meticulous in every step to see if I can remedy this. Sadly, I didn’t have the time / energy to re-do buttercreams when I made my dad’s birthday cake this weekend.

Thankfully, my family all thought it was good, but I knew it should have been far better than this. I’m not perfect, but I know my own capabilities and it should have been better than it turned out.

The plus side – it was still edible 🙂