This Week In Cakes

So it was cake week again, without realising it I had taken on three cakes to do in a week with full decoration, crazy! But it's OK because I made it to the other side! The first was the cupcake and cake pop order I posted earlier in the week as you can here.

The second was for my brother's 25th birthday, I couldn't post about it at the time as I didn't want him to see it before we went to visit, but here it is. He loves comic books and all that stuff, Batman and Joker in particular, so it was a natural choice to do this one. I took me ages to find a picture of one from the right era, illustrator etc..it's important to boys. I printed the picture out about a million times and did it like a stencil and luckily managed to keep it down to two layers rather than it looking too 3D, it took me hours but I'm so happy with how it turned out, I tried to get it within the Joker playing card theme too. To finish it off I outlined every bit with and icing pen to give it the real cartoon look and it needed some definition from the base icing as it was the same colour. For the colours I used Sugarflair pastes: Mint Green, Liquorice, Christmas Red, Melon Yellow and Grape Violet.

The third was another one of my giant cupcakes, this one was for a lady turning thirty...who loved Eddie Stobart lorries! It definitely made a change from the super girly ones I do although I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of those! But it was good to be challenged. I had to be careful here as the lorries feature strong colours...but I still wanted it to look edible. I made the bottom 'case' part of it red, and made wheels to go around it so it then looked like the actual bottom of a lorry. The very bottom of them also have a red and white stripe patterns (candy cane like) so I piped some white icing around the seal to give it that look. For the top I piped green swirls like I usually took to give it a bit more of a feminine feel. For those of you who don't know, all of the Eddie Stobart lorries have their own names, so as she is a fan I of course had to make sure this one had a name - hers! I also made a little number plate saying L30, her name is Laura and she is thirty....I realised it still didn't look very lorry like so I added a windscreen and some wipers just to make it a bit more obvious so I hope it helped.

The hard part was that down the side the lorries all have 'EDDIE STOBART' down the side in a particular font in yellow with a red shadow, I didn't have cutters in this font so it just wouldn't look right, and to be hones there would not have been enough room for that long name. So, I thought I would do the number thirty, the other font cutters I had looked just fine in number form and I managed to do the yellow/red colouring which really tied it all together and is part of the whole trademark look. This was one of the hardest cupcakes I have had to do but I think it came out really well!
Sugarflair pastes used: Holly Green, Melon Yellow, Christmas Red, Liquorice. Pin It Now!

This Week's Best Baking Buys

So I've been very good with my baking spending recently, but I'm afraid with The Great British Bake Off showcasing some seriously sexy items I have not been able to resist.

Of course the KitchenAid mixer is something that is always catching my eye, and if I could buy their little individual kitchens they all have then I'd even put one in my bedroom believe me. But both of those things are out of reach.

There were a couple of things within easy each though, I loved the look of the heavy duty baking sheet, I was saying only last week how I needed one without a lip, mainly for when I'm baking my giant cupcakes as sometimes I need to do two in one night and it would be handy to be able to put two in the oven at the same time. Luckily, Tesco has everything, of course, and I found this one there for £8.25 which I didn't think was too bad, sometimes you shouldn't always get the cheapest. It's also great because it was such a large surface area the baking possibilities will be endless!

I was also really intrigued by their piping bags, I go through so many it's actually a little ridiculous, I use them do much they end up splitting at the seams but find it hard to find one to fit my large icing nozzles and you can't exactly measure them first as none of the bags say what size they are. then ofcourse The Great British Bake Off contestants were using disposable blue ones, which fit for any nozzles as all you have to do it cut them to fit! Perfect, and they're biodegradable so you can use them guilt free. I my blue Savoy bags from eBay, but these are exactly the same from The Craft Company, 10 for £3.12. I'll do another post when I've given them a go, I'm always after the perfect swirls.

In October I have a weeding cupcake order for 150 cupcakes and a top tier with a pink and butterfly theme, which I love as it's my favourite theme to do! We're meeting up next week to discuss the details but I went ahead any ordered these butterfly plungers, I've wanted them for ages and saves me having to buy ready made butterflies in the future. These will be great for girly cakes and I can't wait to give them ago, I'm thinking pinks, glitter and shimmer! The plungers are veined too so they give off a bit more detail, I already have the leaf design one and they work great. They come in a pack of three, various sizes for £7.99 from The Cake Decorating Company.

I can't wait to give all of these a go at the weekend, I also have my eye on one of the loose bottomed pie dishes....I think I might be trying out some pastry at the weekend...and maybe some cupcakes! Pin It Now!