Cake Toppertastic

Posted on January 11, 2012 by admin

A little while ago I received an email from Kate Murray at Cake Toppertastic asking if I would like to see her handmade cake toppers.  Kate and Jo handcraft gorgeous cake toppers from wire and jewels and buttons in Birmingham and can send them all over the country. 

Although I do make cake toppers they tend to be the icing variety and I was intrigued how these would look on my cakes.  Kate and Jo made the trek up to the studio and brought lots of sparkly things for me to see, I was very impressed!  They are really pretty and unique a gorgeous compliment to a well designed cake, but also ideal for making a shop bought cake into somethingn really special.

I will leave you with these images of their work but do check out their facebook page or drop them a line at caketoppertastic@virginmedia.com.

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Getting Married in 2012?

Posted on December 13, 2011 by admin

I’ve been getting organised for next year and already I have as many weddings booked for next year as I’ve done this year… which means if you are wanting a Just Darling Wedding Cake in 2012, I need to see you sooner rather than later in the New Year. 

Generally the earlier you book your wedding cake the better as the popular summer dates fill up incredibly quickly but even March is looking  busy this year.  So how do you go about it?

  1. Contact me to have a chat or email me and arrange a consultation.  Generally this takes place in the studio but I can visit you if you prefer.  At the consultation you will have the opportunity to taste my cakes and to discuss any ideas you have about your cake and see examples of my work.
  2. Once you are happy that you would like me to create your design, I can put you in the diary and that’s one more thing you can tick off your list.  To reserve your cake it is 50% of the cost of the cake and the remainder is not due till 2 months prior your wedding.
  3. In order to book you do not need to be fixed on a design as once your date is secure we will have plenty of time to discuss final details and if necessary mock up any details.

Please note I have a new telephone number 07429 570 744.  I look forward to seeing you all soon xxx

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Facing the Fear

Posted on November 23, 2011 by admin

I’m a cake designer, I love creating designs, making cakes, icing cakes… paperwork tends to overwhelm me slightly.  After such a busy summer I’m now pretty far behind, my accounts are screaming at me, I need to conquer mail chimp and start sending out my newsletter and I generally need to get my self in gear and do some self promotion.  Generally when I think about everything 0n the list my body shuts down and I want to sleep.  It’s not that anyone thing is impossible just that the whole of it makes me quake with fear and I end up panicking and not getting anything constructive done.

So, I’ve decided to face the fear and bite of small chunks to work at, bit by bit rather than worrying about getting everything done at once… I’m bound to make some progress that way?  Right?  Well, I hope so and this is the start a mini blog post for my much neglected blog.  I’m sure I’m not alone in feeling like this as must people who have their own businesses must be more passionate about one element than the other?  Any hints and tips how to get myself organised/motivated/keep sane, leave below, they’ll be most welcome.

Happy Wednesday everyone, hope it’s a productive one xxx

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Children In Need

Posted on November 16, 2011 by admin

Earlier in the year I had the fantastic task of making two cakes for Children In Need.  They were ordered by Sia Fibral in Elland in order to raise money for the cause during their coporate golf day.  I had sooo much fun designing these cakes, the centre piece was a 3D Pudsey made almost entirely from madiera cake (with rice crispie treats for his head) transporting him made me just a little nervous, but he was just fine:

As the organisers wanted to auction the 3D Pudsey bear, I also made a cutting cake which was chocolate with white chocolate chips and decorated with the 2011 spots

you don’t need me to tell you what a fantastic charity this is… do your bit and click on the link to donate and leave me a comment for a shout out!

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Jenna and Ryan

Posted on November 13, 2011 by admin

Generally my first point of contact is with my brides, but earlier in the year I had a Mother of the Bride call in enquiring about her daughter’s cake.  This lady was just so damn lovely, so excited about her daughter Jenna’s wedding and just genuinely so warm.   We discussed her daughter’s cake, I assured her I could create something gorgeous to compliment the theme and she gave me such a big hug, really made my day :-)

Jenna and Ryan were married in August at the Crab and Lobster in Thirsk, a gorgeous, quirky venue which you can see more of in Anna’s pictures (see the link below).  Their cake was to be white with vintage flowers and apple green ribbon to compliment the bridesmaid’s dresses.  I love this cake it’s so ‘me’ …

Congratulations Jenna and Ryan!

For more pictures see Anna Hardy Photography, such a happy, beautiful wedding captured in gorgeous images.

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The Love Birds

Posted on October 10, 2011 by admin

Karen and James are two of the loveliest, funniest couples I have met.  As soon as I received Karen’s first email I knew I just had to do their cake.  Luckily they felt the same way and we were soon in the studio designing away :-)

Quite often the couples I meet have a theme or something, a colour or detail they want replicating in their cake.  This is fabulous and really gives me something to work from.  With Karen and James I had a first … a cake stand, I believe it was literally the first (of literally thousands) of ‘bird’ related paraphanelia they bought for their wedding

Never one to make things easy for myself I decided i could recreate the intricate pattern on the next tier up and then top the whole creation off with a bird cage :-)   I finally (several months and a few sleepless nights later) decided the best way to replicate this would be by piping in royal icing as I’m not rich enough to own a cricut machine.

The delivery of this cake was a nightmare!!!!  I was so organised with the directions and timing etc… but then my lovely, helpful husband decided I’d be better off going a different way to avoid a particularly steep hill.  Oh the irony as I ended up getting lost in the North Yorkshire National Park and went up and down sooooo many almost vertical hills, over way too many cattle grills and through more fords than I care to remember…. 2 1/2 hours more than I thought it would take (but due to me being completely anal about time… hours before the wedding) I arrived at the breathtaking Danby Castle. 

Thankfully the cake was still very much in perfect condition and I set about assembling it in the pretty marquee.  Danby Castle is just beautiful, partly ruined castle, part manor house and the marquee snuggled between the two.  It’s really easy to find too with proper directions it only took me an hour and a half to get home!  Thanks to the very helpful Carolyn at Danby and her husband!

So here is the finished cake for Mr and Mrs Bird

Isn’t their cake table just adorable?  Karen and James put so much work into their wedding with so many personal touches, from the photos I have been lucky enough to see it looked like an amazing day and they both look so so happy! It was a pleasure to do your cake Mr and Mrs Bird xxx

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The Wedding of the Year – Laura and Richard Crabtree

Posted on October 4, 2011 by admin

Laura first approached me way back in July 2010, knowing exactly what she wanted and would I be able to do it? She had seen miniatures done by the amazing Peggy Porschen and Mich Turner and wanted a similar kind of style for her Rudding Park wedding in August 2011.  I loved the cakes she’d shown me and although I’d never tried miniatures before (I never say no I can always learn!) I got to work on making up some examples for her so she could see my skill in 3D.  Please excuse the bad photo but here are the original samples that it probably took me a whole week to get right…

at this point my husband is having heart failure, because it took me all week (evenings only) to get these right, but the wedding order was for 130… I’m an optimist when it comes to cake I CAN do it :-)

Not only did Laura order the miniatures in four different designs, and some with different colour ways within each design or a difference in size of flowers, there was also a 3 tier cake again inspired by Mich Turner.  I have never seen so much cake in the studio in one go…

I was very relieved at this point that I no longer worked from home!  The cake was to be quite simply iced with ribbon around each tier but with a stunning hand piped lace veil cascading down the cake.  We searched high and low for lace to use that was close to that of Laura’s dress, and were lucky to have some beautiful lace given to me by the lovely Linda of No 9 Bridal Couture, but in the end we did manage to get a sample of the actual lace on Laura’s dress.  This was cut up, sterilised, doused in cornflour and pressed into gum paste (how awful do I feel abusing such beautiful lace like that?) to imprint the design, then hand piped to resemble the actual lace . You can see both the lace on the cake and on the dress in this image (provided by Jill McArthur Photography), what do you think?

The miniatures were very much a labour of love, with hours and hours of flower making preceeding the actual assembly.  I worked every hour of every day for a week and LOVED every minute of it.  I can honestly say it was a pleasure and Laura was just amazing to work with.  I love it when a bride is genuinely excited about her cake.  I also got to know her mum pretty well too and can’t wait for a catch up and a cuppa soon … hint hint :-)

I hope you enjoy looking at the photos of these cakes as much as I enjoyed making them.  I really love my job!

Laura and Richard’s wedding is going to be featured in Wedding Ideas Magazine in the February 2012 issue (which will be out in January) so you will have the chance to see the bride and groom and all the other wonderful details they put into their day.  As you can see from the images above the tables were beautifully styled by the Eva at The Vintage Teachest and the gorgeous flowers were from Amy at The Greenhouse Florist in Ripon . Watch out for truly gorgeous hair by Kizzy Edkins and the most adorable table plan by Nat Ramsell.

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My Cinderella Moment… sort of…

Posted on September 12, 2011 by admin

Once upon a time there was a cake designer who desperately wanted to go to the Soiree hosted by the lovely Annabel Beeforth of Love My Dress Blog.  So you can imagine how excited I was when I received this email invite ….

I was beyond giddy, I think I had the hotel booked within the hour.  Such an amazing opportunity to meet all the amazingly talented people I interact with on twitter who are literally the creme de la creme of the wedding world.  At this point I was full of confidence that I would be able to introduce myself to these people and hold conversations… the reality was a little different but more of my social ineptitude later….

The dress was a given, as the dress code was vintage and I’d bought a beautiful 50s style dress earlier in the year, it just needed a full petticoat underneath to give it some umph… the purchase of which was well worth the month without wine I had to do (justification for purchase to husband). 

Then when I heard the lovely and extremely talented Jo Bilham was also going and would be doing my make up, and Corrine Smith was lending me some sparkly pieces… all the pieces had fallen into place.

The night of the Soiree was finally here, Jo and I had primped and preened and were ready to go….

It was such a buzz, walking over the bridge and up to the Baltic knowing we were going to have such a glamorous and exciting eve.  Before I went I had an idea of people I really wanted to meet and make contact with, I talked to quite a few of them in the end despite the migraine that struck mid eve, but I don’t think I introduced myself to more than one, the incredibly talented Emma Woodhouse of the Wedding Reporter.  I lost count of how many times I saw and talked to Annabel but never once did I say who I was :-(   Many lessons were learnt that night and I’m pleased to say that I acquitted myself much better at the Buntweetup on Tuesday this week. 

Here are some more pictures from that fairytale evening

Thank you so much to Annabel and all those involved in creating a fairy tale evening, please let me come again next year and try again?

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Hello

Posted on August 17, 2011 by admin

Hi everyone, sorry for lack of blog posts lately but it being August I’m swapped with wedding cakes and this is literally my first night away from the studio in weeks…. so I thought I’d give you a quick hello and an idea of the blog posts coming up soon.

First of all I must tell you all about my experience at the fabulous Love My Dress Soiree, an entirely glamorous affair that took place at the beginning of the month.

This picture was taken by the fabulously talented Katy Lunsford.

Then I will catch up on blogging all my lovely weddings from this month but here’s some sneak peeks to whet your appetite

 There’s a couple of special birthday’s too… can’t believe how much I’ve neglected my blog!

However, in the midst of all this intense cake decorating I have learnt so much, each cake is a new challenge and the triumph of finishing a cake, standing back and taking it in is addictive.  I love the buzz I get from giving my lovely couples the cake of their dreams.  This weekend’s cake is particularly special, not only is it my largest order to date, it’s also incredibly beautiful (even if I do say so myself) and is for the nicest possible bride Laura, who has been such a pleasure to work with.  I’m going to miss my cups of tea at your Mum’s Laura!

So, I will be back soon with lots of blogs and pictures, thank you for bearing with me :-)

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OMG sooooo excited :-D

Posted on August 2, 2011 by admin

For the most part us happy people in the wedding industry often work for ourselves and for the most part alone, but we are certainly a sociable bunch and keep in touch via the main social networking sites, sharing stories and keeping each other motivated.  Many of the people I interact with on a daily basis I’ve never met but tomorrow that changes and I’m so beside myself with excitement, I literally have goosebumps as I’m typing :-)

Tomorrow The Love My Dress Soiree is finally here! Way back in June this landed in my inbox and I’ve been excited eversince…

I would just like to say a huge thank you to Annabel Beeforth for organising such a fabulous event and for inviting little old me :-)   I’m so lucky to be travelling with the lovely Jo Bilham of Jo Bilham Makeup, and meeting my gorgeous friends Natalie Ramsell and James Melia there, not to mention the hundreds of lovely tweeps I’ll get to meet on the night. 

I also want to say a huge thank you Corrine Smith to who is kindly lending me some gorgeous sparklies to compliment my outfit and my ever wonderful mother in law Karin for the loan of a beautiful clutch to match my dress! 

I will do a full post when I get back to tell you all about it :-)

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