Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you've had a great day no matter what you've been up to! I've been baking today as well as shopping for more cake supplies! My lovely new stand arrived this morning and my new textured rolling pin arrived yesterday as well.
Yesterday was spent greeting customers coming to pick up their Valentine's Gift Boxes. Everybody seemed very pleased with them so I'm very happy!

I also surprised a friend with these cupcakes as a bit of a pick me up.

I'm spending tomorrow decorating an 18th birthday cake and meeting a customer who's having an exciting cake next week!
Sorry it's just short and sweet but I'm off for an early night before a busy day tomorrow!
Sam x

Nurses, Roses and Stands

I've been busy making some decorations for upcoming cakes. I've never made figures before for cake toppers before but I've had an order for a cake with a Nurse topper and that's not something you can get easily in the shops so I thought before I pay a fortune for one that's I'd give making my own a go. I don't have any modelling clay here so I just used some roll out icing that I coloured and thickened up. I'm quite pleased with the results, especially for a first attempt! What do you think?

I'm going to keep practising as I'd love to be able to do wedding cake toppers! I've made lots of roses for my Valentine's cupcakes but I just wasn't happy with them so I tried a different method and I'm so much happier with them. I've got a few more to make tomorrow so I'll have enough to do my Valentine's gift boxes. Here's a quick peek at them drying out!

I've got some very exciting orders coming up and the wedding orders have started rolling in too which is fab! I have a casino/Las Vegas themed order coming up very soon that I'm so looking forward to doing. I've ordered a gorgeous new cupcake stand as well, I'm really looking forward to it arriving! It's a 7 tier mirrored stand and it's first use will be with the casino order. Here it is and it is available for hire with and without cake orders!

Right I must be off, busy day's baking to get on with in the morning!
Sam x

What a busy week!

It's been a busy week at The Sugarplum Bakehouse! lots of quotes done, a few more wedding cake bookings taken and several cakes made! We got a couple of consultations booked in this week for wedding and occasion cakes. We're definitely getting a bit busier now which is great! I have a 4 or 5 day holiday booked in May and luckily no-one has asked for a cake during that time. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that no-one wants a cake during that week as I can't bear to turn customers away.
I thought I'd take a few more pictures this week to show you so you can see a bit more of what goes into our cakes etc.
At The Sugarplum Bakehouse, only lovely ingredients go into our cakes, no margarine and no battery eggs. Our eggs come fresh from a Norfolk farm and you can really see and taste the difference! Just take a look below at the goodies that come together to make some of our yummy cakes!

Delicious Free Range Eggs - Fresh and Local!
Slightly Salted Butter - We don't like adding any salt to any of our batters.
Raspberry Conserve - Perfect in a Vanilla Sponge!
Cocoa Powder - Not drinking chocolate, no added milk or sugars.
Fresh Double Cream - Perfect for Ganaches and Cupcake Fillings!
74% Cocoa Dark Chocolate - The (Not So) Secret to our super Indulgent Chocolate Brownies.
Bailey's - Bailey's Frostings are made with proper Bailey's, no artificial flavours, authentic Bailey's Irish Cream. Yum!
Next, here's a glimpse at the delicious Mocha Mudcake batter.........

Look at that lovely rich shiny gooey batter......mmmmmmm! That's why the mudcake is so rich and dense, so chocolatey and just perfect with a nice ganache!
And a gratuitous shot of Indulgent Brownie Batter......

All thick and gooey and ready for the chocolate chunks!

And to finish, here are some of last weeks cakes (minus some rather naughty cakes I did!)
My first Topsy Turvy Cake - Mocha Mudcake with Chocolate Ganache Cake and Coffee & Baileys Cake.

 Pink Butterfly Vanilla Cupcakes.

 Number 1 1st Birthday Cake.

Sam x

New tricks!

I've spent the past few days trying out some new bits and pieces. Yesterday I made some Cappuccino & Bailey's Cupcakes! They didn't look the prettiest and I was only trying out the recipe but they were certainly yummy and proved quite popular! Take a look!

I only made a few of them and they certainly didn't last long at all!
I've been making some decorations in preparation for the cakes I have this week. They've been hard work but fun! I can't reveal most of those items yet as they're going on cakes this week. I've made some roses. They're not perfect but for my first 6 roses I think they're a good start! I'm about to make some small ones for my Valentine's Cupcakes. I'll post pictures of those when they're finished! I think I'm getting the hang of them now so I'm hoping they'll look great! Here are my practice ones. Still got a way to go before they're perfect but you know what they say about practice!

Today I made my very first gum paste shoe! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, my first attempt didn't go too well so I started again from scratch. I want to be able to do all these extra things so I always have something to keep me busy and I'm really enjoying it and find I can't wait to make something else! Here's the shoe, what do you think?

Thanks for reading! Back again in a day or 2 with some more Sugarplum antics!
Sam x

Excited!

The Sugarplum Bakehouse has got a busy week coming up! Among the cakes I have some naughty cupcakes for a friend's partner's birthday, a first birthday cake and the cake I'm most looking forward to tackling, a special topsy turvy cake! I've drawn up some plans and need to make some decorations in advance so they have time to dry out before they're needed. I think this may be one of the most challenging cake I've done and I can't wait to get started. I'll post some pictures once the occasion that cake is for is over. I plan on taking pictures of each stage of this cake as I think it could make for some interesting viewing.
I've been thinking about the website and I think it needs a bit of a spruce up! The plan is to make each cake in my range of flavours so I can show all the yumminess and maybe help people make their flavour choice! It also means I can do a few bargain boxes up for customers after a lot of cake for little cost! My 'Bargain Boxes' normally contain a mixture of cupcakes, a half batch of brownies and cake slices. They certainly prove popular each time I make them, normally means I have a manic day in the kitchen too baking all sorts of cakey goodness.
I've had a nice quiet day today, just a batch of brownies done. I just love baking brownies, I use 72% cocoa chocolate and the smell just fills the house. Not great if you're dieting though let me tell you!
Here's a picture of some of my Indulgent Chocolate Brownies, just check out the chocolate chunks and that rich fudgey centre.

Thanks for looking! See you soon!
Sam x

The Giant Cupcake Experiment

Today I did my first giant cupcake! I may have to tweak my recipe slightly to get them perfect but practice makes perfect!

First off, here are the halves filled with yummy chocolate cake batter! This was the second attempt as the first time I didn't fill the moulds enough. I used the additional piece of the mould not shown here to create a cavity in the top of the base to be filled!

 

Once the cake had cooled, I covered in a layer of roll of icing before filling the cavity in the base with some of my yummy hot fudge style chocolate sauce!

Annnd here is the finished article! This was my first time piping frosting roses. They're not perfect but I'll keep practicing until I get them just right. I've only made this one as a practice hence why the board is left uncovered but my next one will be fully decorated! I have some ideas for different designs including a few for Mother's Day.

Thanks for looking!
Sam x

More Cakey Goodness

I had a birthday cake picked up today. I finished the cake itself last night and had to do the finishing touches this morning when I got up. I was really pleased with how it turned out and I hope the birthday girl will be pleased when she sees it tonight! We decided to go with a Contemporary style cake, but a more classic sort of style rather than the big stripes and bold shapes. I wish I'd counted how many silver dragees and flowers I put on the cake, there were hundreds on there! Check below for some pics of the cake!

 

I'd love to do a tiered wedding cake in the same style so you can really see the effect of the blossoms on the cake. 

Tomorrow I'm having a play with my new Giant Cupcake Mould, I'm very excited! Can't wait to see how it turns out!I'm doing a Giant Filled Chocolate Cupcake. My friend is a very loyal filled cupcake customer so I'm making the cake to take pictures to add to my website and fan page, and she's getting it at a vastly discounted price! I shall post pictures of the cake tomorrow, might even do some during shots as well!

Thanks for reading!

Sam x