Cake Gadget of the Week

Yes that is what it looks like and no I'm not mental, my cake gadget of the week really is an empty egg box.  OK so I'm not sure an empty egg box really counts as a gadget but they're really handy when it comes to making sugar flowers.

Cake Serving Guide

I get so many requests from people who are insure what size of cake they need for events.  There are lots of cake serving guides out there which are all very different but I thought I'd post up the one I use.  The servings calculated here aren't huge afternoon tea size but the kind of size you'd give out as a taster at a wedding or birthday.

CAKE SIZE	FRUIT (ROUND)	FRUIT (SQUARE)	SPONGE (ROUND)	SPONGE (SQUARE)
6 INCH	22	28	11	14
8 INCH	40	54	20	27
9 INCH	54	70	27	35
10 INCH	68	90	34	45
12 INCH	100	134	50	67

How to..........Quilt A Sugarpaste Covered Cake Board

I was asked a couple of weeks ago to make a cake with a quilted effect cake board and so thought I'd share my easy, low cost method of doing it. 

You can buy all sorts of fancy quilting tools such as this and diamond cutters like these and special tools like this which are all fab but if you don't have any of these to hand its still possible to create a quilted effect with kitchen utensils you probably already have in your drawer.  This method is also a lot more versatile and customisable as you can adjust the size of the diamonds exactly to your liking which may be important depending on your design. 

It's Been A While...........

I know, shame on me, it's been a good couple of months since I've written a blog.  But there is a good reason.   My other half Steve has just taken on a pub and so the past few months have been a whirlwind of getting to grips with the new business (and being a part time Landlady.....'get out of my puuuuuuuuuuuuuuuub' etc), renovating the living accomodation and moving in!  Needless to say its been mental with my feet barely touching the floor most of the time.

Saying that its all good, business is going well and I finally have a permanent home for We Bake Cake along with (hopefully) lots of new business.  So this my place:

Bit grand eh?  The pubs called The Tavern at Scale Hall and you can find out a bit more about it at www.scale-hall.co.uk or if you're in the Lancaster and Morecambe area why not pop in for a pint?

I might have been quiet on the blog but I've still been baking away like a demon.  You can see some of my latest creations over on the Facebook page and I promise I'm now back to my regular blogging starting with my new blog on my recent Barcelona trip.

Cake Travels - Barcelona

I turned 29 again *ahem* a few weeks ago and in celebration my Mum and I thought we'd take ourselves off to Barcelona for the weekend.  There was A LOT of this

(those glasses were almost as big as our heads.....serious)

plenty of this

How To......Make Rocky Road

I'm on a bit of a health kick at the moment and so last weekend I decided to remove all temptation and remove the masses of chocolate and biscuits that have been hanging around my house since Christmas.  Yes you read that right I STILL have chocolate left over from Christmas. 

Anyway I couldn't bring myself to bin it all so decided to whip up a batch of Rocky Road with the intention of sending it to work with the boyfriend to feed his cake hungry office and gain me some girlfriend points.  I did send him to work with some but a couple of pieces may have inadvertently fallen into my mouth also, ooooops.  Well if you're going to be naughty you may as well do it properly. 

How to..........Make Sugar Roses

Sugar roses..........the flower every aspiring cake decorator wants to learn.  Yep they can be tricky but master the technique and you can create some really lovely decorations that will always impress.  I did consider posting my own step by step 'how to' but to be honest there's already plenty of tutorials out there online so I won't regurgitate the great stuff that's already out there, but I will let you in on a few of my hints and tips!!

Cake Gadget of the Week

OK so you'd be forgiven for thinking you'd accidently stumbled across a DIY blog for this weeks cake gadget.

Yes that really is a spirit level......on a cake.  But what else would you use to to check that your cake is really level on top?  Makes a lot of sense when you think about it and you can pick up these tiny spirit levels for pennies online.  Genius!

The Death of the Cookbook?

I came across this interesting article on the Guardian website this week about the increasing use of tablet devices in the kitchen and I wondered what you all thought about technology like this moving into the kitchen and whether our trusty cookbooks are going to become a thing of the past?

I for one have to say that I've been converted by the iPad.  I got one as a present for Christmas and it now pretty much lives in my kitchen which is great for me although probably not great for the iPad.  In addition much to my boyfriends dismay everytime he picks it up its covered in buttery fingerprints and/or a thin film of icing sugar, ooooops!  I do love it though, largely using it to access my favourite recipes on the web and via the odd useful app I've found.  With sites like BBC Food and culinary greats such as Delia, Nigella and Jamie all having an online presence the wealth of recipes available is very impressive!

How To...........make (almost!) perfect fondant stripes

Striped cakes seem to be the cake of the moment so thought I'd let you know how I go about getting (almost) perfect stripes on my fondant iced cakes. 

First off, creating the stripes.  You can do this by hand by rolling out some fondant, measuring and then cutting out stripes, however to get a really neat look its worth buying one of these handy little ribbon cutters such as this one by Wilton.  They look overly complicated but once you've got the hang of which spacers go where to get which size of ribbon they're super easy to use.  Just roll over the fondant and voila perfectly sized ribbons.

Now to add them to the cake.  Now you can be all mega technical about this if you like and measure round the cake working out where to place all the ribbons and how many you can fit on.  However if you're like me and prefer a speedier solution I find trial and error and trusting your eye works just as well.  Its easier to place four ribbons on the cake first (two opposite each other) to split the cake into quarters.  Place the four ribbons on the cake (with no water at this point) and have a good luck to see if they look even, if they don't move them around.  Once they look OK dab a bit of water on the back of each ribbon and gently place on the cake and press down.

Once you've got your four quarters sorted you can then fill in the gaps of each quarter.  This ensures you get the same amount of spacing between each ribbon and the same number of ribbons in each quarter.  Again just lay the ribbons on gently to start with to position them and once they look OK then stick onto the cake.

Here's one I made earlier.

How Cute Is This?

Just had to put a post up about this as its so bloody adorable.  Came across it in Accessorize at the weekend, a super cute mini cupcake necklace.  I think if a piece of jewellery epitomised me this would be it.  Well actually anything with a row of pink sparkling diamonds in it would probably do that particular job but its hardly likely so in the meantime I'll just make do with this.

You can buy it here on the Accessorize site for the bargain price of £6.

We Bake Cake Christmas Cake Part 3

Wow its been a long time since I last posted!  I blame the excesses of Christmas.  Why is it even when you're off work and technically not doing very much you still can't find time to do the stuff you need to do?! Anyway thought I better post the final pictures of my fully decorated Christmas cake.  I decided to wrap it up like a present with holly motif wrapping paper and a big red bow.  What do you think?

Needless to say it doesn't look like this anymore!

We Bake Cake Christmas Cake Part 2

The more this cake gets decorated means the closer we're getting to Christmas which makes me very excited indeed!! 

How To.....make your own piping bag

This is a neat little trick I learnt recently from my college tutor which has proved so useful I wanted to share it with you all.  There are loads of different types of piping bags out there, different sizes, re-usable, disposable etc.  Up until now I used the re-usable ones but they're an absolute nightmare to get clean and if you're piping lots of different colous of icing it can be a right faff cleaning them between each colour.

But with this handy trick you can make your own piping bags, whatever size you like and all you need is a square of greaseproof paper and some scissors.

We Bake Christmas Cake Part 1

Yes I said the 'C' word.................CHRISTMAS!  There's only 45 days left until the big day and aside from all the present buying, card writing, food shopping and house decorating there's also the very important matter of the cake!

Christmas cake has always been a big deal in our house.  Ever since I was little I've always helped my Mum bake the cake, feed it with alcohol and then decorate with snow scene royal icing and the same Christmas cake decorations (usually a plastic christmas tree and father christmas) that every year we'd lose and spend hours trying to find.  The Christmas cake to me will always hold fond memories and is a very important part of the Christmas celebrations and even though I'm the only person in my house that actually likes fruit cake I still make one every year.

If Cupcakes Are As Addictive As Cocaine Then I'm In Big Trouble!!!!

Gotta love the Daily Mail.......apparently cupcakes are now as addictive as cocaine:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057849/Why-trendy-cupcakes-addictive-cocaine.html

I love how there is a picture of some cupcakes next to a picture of some cocaine just to reinforce the point.  Now I can't say I've ever sampled cocaine but I have eaten A LOT of cupcakes and I'm pretty sure its not the same thing.  But if it in fact is then I have a serious problem, get me to rehab!

Cake Circles

I was at work yesterday opening one of the many e-newsletters I receive daily and came across one relating to cake!!!  This was most exciting not just as cake had somehow infiltrated my day job but also as the subject matter was very curious indeed.  The newsletter contained a story about Bill Drummond's Cake Circle which is taking place around the Static Gallery in Liverpool from 4-6 November.

Cake Circles are a completely new concept to me but I'm liking their style.  Basically what you do is take a map of your local area and draw a circle on the map with your home as the centre point.  Then you bake a cake, anything you like, then travel to a point on the circumference of the circle taking the cake with you, knock on the door of the chosen venue and give the recipient the cake.  Then bake and repeat for as long as you like. Sounds a bit mad but spreading the love with cake can never be a bad thing.

There's more information about Bill Drummond and the Liverpool Cake Circle here.

All I can think is those living in Bill's circumference of the Static Gallery in Liverpool are very lucky indeed.

Cake Decorating Class Week One

A few weeks ago I decided to enrol on an Introduction to Sugarcraft course at The Adult College in Lancaster.  I've taught myself a bit of sugarcraft via online tutorials and a whole lot of trial and error (!!) but when I found out this course was running I jumped at the chance to get some expert tuition.  My first session was this Monday just gone and even though it was only session one I've already learnt sooooooo much!

I was a bit unsure what to expect so I nervously made my way to the college (and getting caught in a massive rain storm on the way there didn't help matters either!) but once I got there everyone was lovely.  There's ten of us in the class and the tutor is called Dan from Emily Jane Moore Cake Designers based in Preston.  He was full of useful information and tips and very patient with us all!

Cake Gadget of the Week

This is my cake gadget of the week for only one reason...........because its so freaking cheap!!

I was wandering round my local Sainsbury's last week picking up a few cake supplies and came across this fab hand whisk for the bargain price of £4.18!  It's from the Sainsbury's Basics range and yes it is a bit basic (no extra fancy attachments etc) but if you're just looking for a cheap hand mixer you can't go far wrong with this.  I've used it several times in the past week or so and its not let me down.

I can't find it on their website so best bet is to hotfoot it down to your local store and snap one up before they sell out!

Dogs Heart Cake Too!

Meet Frank.

Frank is my dog/child.   A furry, black, stinky child but a child nevertheless.  So when it came around to his first birthday naturally I wanted to make him a cake to celebrate.