When life gives you lemons, make cake!

The sun has been shining here which makes for a very hot kitchen and not so much baking, but.... I did manage to do one cake this week. This was for my friends at Moms Club for our end of year banquet. After much thought a lemon cake was requested so a lemon cake is what they got in the form of a 10 inch round, 4 layer lemon sponge with lemon buttercream filling. Avocado coloured (not flavoured, although...) buttercream with fondant dots and just a tiny bit of pizzazz on top, because we're worth it!

Don't look too closely at the pic. as this cake was in the wars before it made it to the restaurant, nothing unsanitary of course but a few knocks and dints as I drove along a 55mph limit at 40mph with horns a-tooting and people waving at me with just the one finger, I guess their other fingers were busy with driving? The wires were swinging and one of the balls dropped off and dinged the top! I won't say who put their finger in the side of it whilst moving it either... but it's all about the taste and that got a resounding thumbs up!

Footballs coming up this weekend as Pompey (Portsmouth FC to give them their proper name!) take on Chelsea in the FA Cup Final - ♫ Play up Pompey, Pompey Play UP ♫

Life's a beach....

This week I've been making the biggest cake I have ever been asked to make. It's for a beach themed Bar Mitzvah - that's the only direction I was given. I went and met with the mom ordering the cake and learned that her son is very much into Chess so I tried to tie that into the sand-castle theme. There are also 60 mini cupcakes iced with aqua blue buttercream and sprinkled with blue sanding sugar but you'll need to just take my word for that as I've boxed them up ready for collection.

This is a 16", 12" and 8" square cakes construction of rich chocolate cake with cookies and cream filling.

Whilst typing this one up, I got the call to say they were on their way - nervous doesn't cover how I was feeling. But, I needn't have been, they loved it and to show how much they did the whole family got out of the car to come see it in my dining room, lol. It's all now safely tucked into the trunk of their car and en route to the W for the celebrations to begin - Mazel Tov!

Speedy Slipper!

I received an email on Thursday from a friend saying she had a friend who wanted a 'slipper' cake made for the coming Saturday, i.e. 1.5 days away! I was on my way out to a PTA meeting, because I do get involved in things that aren't cake related - honestly. Anyway, no email from said friend so I presumed she'd found one somewhere else. Roll on Friday morning. I got the email... 'Can you make a cake for me and I need it for 6pm tomorrow night?' I called the lady and had a chat and was all set to tell her no way totally impossible but she sounded lovely so guess what??? Yip, Friday I baked a 1/2 sheet marble cake, filled it with scrummy vanilla buttercream and carved it into a slipper. Now thankfully it was just a regular 'pj's' type slipper and not an intricate cinderella-esque one or I may have still been working on it now. Anyway, a white slipper with black and hot pink was ordered. Here's what I came up with.....






Of course I could have stuck with plain fondant stripes but where's the fun in that, this is for a sassy 6 year old (I have one of those myself!), so 1/2 drum of black sanding sugar 1.5 hrs and a hell of a mess later, the cake was finished. I did take a dry soft artist brush and gently sweep the stray bits of sugar off the white areas (I know, I think I'm slightly OCD but I can assure you it's only where the cakes are concerned, don't ever look in my closet!) but soon realised I was fighting a losing battle.

Pick up is in the next hour or so, just hope she likes it!

Hello, Hello, is there anyone there?

Wow! I've actually done it! I've managed to create a blog for my cakes in 3 easy steps, who'd have known it'd be this simple?

Although, I suppose now it's going to get tricky whilst I work out a) what to babble on about and b) how to get some pictures of my cakes on here for you to see.

I'm not entirely sure how successful this is going to be as I was never one for keeping a journal or anything like that, mostly for fear of someone finding it and reading it and now here I am about to expose myself, well not literally and believe me that's something to be thankful for, but almost as I'm not the most objective about my own cakes, to the world at large or maybe just one or two of my good friends who will remember to check from time to time.

Alrighty, enough about what's hopefully to come for now. Let me tell you a tiny bit about me. I'm married with 2 beautiful daughters who are still in elementary school. I currently live to the north of Atlanta with said family although I'm originally from Scotland, complete with accent and UK passport - not like some of my new friends who are 6th generation American but who still claim to be Scottish - y'all know who you are :-)