All go!

It's been busy busy here at The Sugarplum Bakehouse! I've finally got a couple of days free so I'm able to do a quick blog entry! I've had some lovely cakes to do just recently, one of which was a beautiful wedding cake for an old school friend. The photographer was there while I set the cake up so I've got some professional shots of the cake, it looks fabulous, I just wish I could have a professional photograph all of my cakes! Here you can see the cake in progress!

What do you think? I personally love this cake. I enjoyed the piping on this cake, it was only my 2nd time piping and I think it turned out well. Most importantly the bride and groom were pleased with the end result!
It's now the new tax year and this is going to be my first whole tax year while in business! The year has started off well, so here's to hoping it stays that way and we stay very busy! I've ordered a lot more stock in as well as a couple of different embossers and a new gigantic 14 inch round tin. I'm very much looking forward to trying them out! It's like Christmas when my Cake-Stuff.com orders arrive!

I've got some exciting cakes coming up in the next month or so, a penguin themed cake, several wedding cakes, a smash cake for a little boys 1st birthday photo shoot, christenings, football shirts and plenty of cupcakes.
I shall leave you with some pictures of recent cakes! Enjoy!

 Mater from Cars!

 2 tier square cake, hand made and edible decorations!

 Hello Kitty Cake

 Vanilla moustache cupcakes for a moustache themed birthday party,

 Chocolate and Carrot cake cupcakes

 Chocolate and Lemon cupcakes with white chocolate sprinkles

Poured ganache covered Mocha Mudcake!
Thanks for looking! See you soon
x

Ahhh rest!

I have a couple of days off baking now. Pure heaven after the manic fortnight or so I've just had! I plan on spending most of my time out in the garden enjoying the beautiful weather we're having! We have a rabbit run being built at the moment so it's just nice to all be out in the garden. We've got chickens too who are laying beautiful eggs! I had hoped to use in my yummy cakes but it looks like you can't use unstamped eggs in baking which is a shame. I always get my eggs direct from a Norfolk farm which are stamped, they're gorgeous eggs to so I'm happy to keep using them, it would just be nice to be able to say that the eggs I use have come from pampered free range pet chickens! Never mind, just means there's more for us to eat instead!
I've done a couple of very pretty cakes this last week, a very girly birthday cake and a spring Wedding cake. I just love doing girly cakes, they're so much fun! This one was a Vanilla Giant Cupcake decorated in plenty of pink and glitter!

Us bakers are having fun at the moment trying to find safe glitters to use as lots of people were using safe 'non-toxic' glitters on their cakes. This meant that although they were completely safe to be eaten, they contain no nutritional value and are not digested, therefore, are now deemed in-edible. There seems to be a lot of confusion with what can be eaten. I've been doing my research and have found a couple of brands who make edible glitters and dusts. I have been making my own glitters using lustre's mixers with caster sugar too. The glitters and confetti I have in stock are all considered safe by the FSA as they are made from modified starches and food additives (E numbers). I make a vast majority of my own decorations for cakes as well and always do so from fondant icing which is completely edible and rather tasty too!

Here's a picture I was sent by a customer to show what design they'd like for their wedding cake (please note I do not own this photo and I did not make the cake pictured)

As you can see it's quite an unusual cake with the divider under the top tier but also quite pretty! The bride wanted to have daffodils on the cake as well as the butterflies.
Now, here's the one I made, before and after the daffodils were added.

What do you think? The bottom tier is chocolate, the middle is vanilla and the top is fruit cake which they wanted so it could be kept. I wanted to get a picture of the cake with and without the daffodils as I think they really change the look and feel of the cake. I decided to go with less decorations than the example picture and went for differently place butterflies. It's a shame you can't appreciate the effect of the butterflies and they delicately glittered and looked gorgeous in the light.

Well I really should be getting on!
Thanks for reading, Sam x

More goodies!

I've registered with Makro today so I can shop for ingredients! We had a quick loo round today as there was so much else to do but I did come out with cocoa, icing sugar and a whopping 12.5kg of caster sugar! I wonder how long that'll last! We popped into my local cake craft centre to get a few bits and pieces too, as usual I managed to spend a fortune after only going in for a couple of bits! Got some ribbons, lustre sprays, flower paste and some new rose cutters! A good friend of mine is getting married in July and I'm doing her wedding cake! Very exciting! She's decided on a white 3 tier cake with blue and white roses draped around. I'm looking forward to seeing that one finished!
Over the next couple of days I have a Thomas The Tank Engine Cake and a white cake with flowers and silver and turquoise accents. I'm certainly looking forward to getting on with them! I've bought some Valentine's sprinkles, glitter and some heart toppers for my Valentine's Gift Boxes. I've bought some cake dummies in too so I can play with some new wedding cake designs! How exciting! I've FINALLY ordered a giant cupcake mould! I've never had one or made one before and I figure it's about time I did! They certainly seem to be popular at the moment! Oh the poor bank balance has taken a bit of a beating just recently but we cakers need lots of tools to make lovely cakes!
I'll be back soon with some pretty cake pictures!
Sam x

Wedding Cake!

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are looking forward to seeing in the new year!

It's been a busy December here at The Sugarplum Bakehouse and it looks like it's going to continue into the new year. The books are slowly filling up. As the 2012 rolls in, I'm planning on expanding into a craft business doing handmade cards and going into Wedding Stationery; place cards, invitations and more so you can come to Sugarplum and get a wedding package of the cake and themed stationery too!


I shall leave you with a picture of my latest wedding cake due for a couple tying the knot tomorrow on New Year's Eve! I hope they love the cake, have a fab day and a long and happy marriage!

Sam x