From Beaky to Bear!

I've just spent the most wonderful weekend with my family, friends and the people I love dearly. My Nephew Dexter turned 1 year old today (6th of May 2013). We have all just celebrated not only his Birthday but his Christening too! I was honoured to be asked to be his Godmother and as part of that package he gets the cake :)

After sketching out a few ideas, his mum Sarah had the last say and this was the final draft. Before Dexter was born we all knew him as 'Beaky', now he is 'The Bear' and so I had the idea of incorporating a little beaky bird and a little brown bear. Blue is of course the choice colour for boys, but I mixed it with chocolate brown and white for a cute twist.

I always hand make all of my own cake bunting and cupcake pics so I chose some sweet blue flowery paper to complement the blue on the cake. And then tied little brown bows to the base of the flags.

Then I made all the little bits to make the bear. Have to say I'm not a big fan of making characters, but for my Nephew, I will make anything :) I used Sugarflair Dark Brown to do this one.

And then the little 'Beaky' bird. I didn't want him to be legless, so they came along later by way of a couple of cocktail sticks.

As there were little white daisy flowers on the bunting, I thought I would make a few little cutout daisies to pop around the cake. I used a simple plunger cutter and wasn't bothered about them looking too thin and real as this cake was more novelty than floral. The bird kept a beaky eye on the proceedings.

I cut simple little circles out of white fondant to decorate the top tier, and stripes to decorate the bottom. The whole cake was vanilla and raspberry jam with a vanilla butter cream.

I wanted to do some cupcakes for the children so I found some cute blue cupcake wrappers and made some raspberry and vanilla cakes to match. These ones have been brushed with a delicious raspberry syrup before being piped with a swiss meringue buttercream. Yum.

Here is the little bear. Think the cocktail stick slipped a bit over his left eye!

And the little bird :)

This is the lovely Louis, my cousins little boy. He couldn't get enough of my cupcakes. Him and his brother Finn think I am the second best cake maker in the whole world! I like to let them continue to think that :) They are my best supporters. 

Here is my Godson with his cake. I couldn't get him to look at the camera but never mind. He is looking super smart in his special outfit and enjoying every minute of all the attention.

My lovely Brother and Dexter's Daddy Andy did the 

cake cutting and speech.

And this is my Sister in Law Sarah with the little man. 

We all had such a fantastic day and it's so nice to eat one of my own cakes for once.

Happy Birthday and Happy Christening Dexter John David Hill. Love Auntie Rachie Godmamma xxxxx

Goldtastic!

This cake was a real adventure into the world of gold. Shabnam and Tauseef wanted something really impressive for their wedding day so after a good bit of discussion at their consultation I came up with their perfect design.

Shabnam had provided me with a folder of pictures illustrating all of her favourite cake elements from various cakes she had found on the internet. I then combined all the best bits into a cake she loved. We also decided that I would display the cake on a base of fresh cream roses to give it extra height and display matching cupcakes around the base.

I was really excited about making this cake, not only because it was going to involve using real edible gold leaf, but also because I got to go the flower market and visit my favourite flower boys!

The roses I chose were Avalanche. They have a lovely big head to them and after a couple of days in the warm they open up beautifully.

I started off by applying the gold leaf to the sides of the base tier. Now this is one job you do not want to get wrong. Obviously being gold it is not cheap, so you have to hold your breath when working with it. I find the transfer gold the best, loose leaf will just blow away at the slightest breath!

Being an Indian Wedding I wanted the cake to have a slight Indian twist so I took some design ideas from a fabric border and created a scalloped edge, then I added a cutout that looked like something you would find on a temple. With a bit of extra piping work the border really started to come alive.

I then started working on some of the floral embellishments for the cake and cupcakes. I also made an extra large wired flower for the side of the second tier. Lustre dusts and lots of sparkle helped to add an overall bling factor and gold richness.

I was really pleased with this random fantasy flower once finished.....I think I will be making it again for another cake soon....maybe in a different colour.

Here you can see a bit more of the detail I added to the bottom tier and some of the floral ruffle flowers I added to the sides. I used the same centres to these ruffles as I did on the large fantasy flower, just to make sure everything tied in nicely. I then got to work on drawing out the curves for the beaded work using a good old bit of grease proof paper!

And here are those lovely beaded scallops. This cake was going to be super heavy so I decided to take it in two parts and finish off the remainder of the work at the venue. This way it is much less stressful to drive across London and I can also just about manage to carry it. So I left the top 8" tier already dowelled and supported ready to take the last two on arrival. For those of you that don't know, dowels are the special rods we push into the cakes to stop them all crushing one another :)

Oh and I must not forget all the little cupcakes that were designed to match. These were baked and decorated within only a few hours of the Wedding to keep them super fresh. The sugar flowers I had prepared in advance and the final detail was added the morning of the Wedding. I chose gold cases to keep it simple and tie in with the theme, which was GOLD if you hadn't guessed already.

I like to take a few pictures in the studio before I deliver a cake. You never know what the lighting or backdrop is going to be like so if you have time (in between last minute cupcake icing)...it's always worth grabbing a quick shot.

Here are all the lovely gold embellished cupcakes which were to be displayed around the base of the cake. I have to admit I've never been a fan of gold cupcake cases but they suited this cake to perfection. It's a little hard to see by the photo but half of the cakes had a slightly beige coloured top and the others were cream. This helped guests to distinguish which ones were lemon and which ones were vanilla.

And finally to the finished cake, pre-delivery shot! The flower that was to go on the cake couldn't be added until I had assembled the cake properly at the venue, so I popped it to one side as a bit of photographic styling. The whole cake then got carefully boxed and driven off to Leyton Football ground 'Starlight' marquee. There are not many venues around that cater for 500, but this purpose build marquee certainly did the job.  I arrived to many people beavering around building the Indian Bridal Mughal, the perfect backdrop for the cake.

And here is the finished result. Displayed against some lovely wooden fretwork which set it off perfectly. You can just about see the double layer of Avalanche roses to the base and all of the little gold cupcakes adding to the display. It was a Gold Whopper. I hope you like it and enjoyed the story of it's creation.

Congratulations Shabnam and Tauseef. April 6th 2013.

Dorich House Wedding Fair

There are some really lovely venues out there and some real hidden jems. Today I attended a lovely Wedding event hosted by Dorich House.....a hidden jem.

Perfect for a more intimate wedding this stylish 1930's House is full of striking design elements and curious sculptures by Dora Gordine.

In 1938 Dora was hailed as one of the finest women sculptors in the world, much of her work being carried out at the house with many of her sculptures still decorating the rooms.

This house is now a shrine to her creations.

As a Wedding venue it provides some beautiful entertaining spaces. An amazing roof terrace with open views across Richmond Park, numerous dining areas and a manicured garden and orchard.

This room and these doors are my absolute favourites! I would totally love these Chinese sliding doors in my house, I would have endless dinner parties just so I could keep sliding them back and forth. :)

And what a beautiful dining space for an intimate dinner party.

Dorich House has a list of recommended suppliers of which Rachelle's is one.

And today I had the pleasure of meeting lots of them in this lovely space.

Pretty pink floral displays decorated the reception room, created by The House Floral Design.

My popular little blue cake sat perfectly against the bright pinks in the room.

With all the lovely stationary decorating the tables by Print Inc.

And Dora's sculptures and artworks look stylish yet quirky, scattered throughout.

Sketches and illustrations also adorn the walls, this house is an artists paradise, I can understand how inspired she was whilst looking at the breathtaking views from the windows.

My neighbour for the day was the lovely Tiffany Cartwright doing bridal hair and makeup.

And upstairs there were gorgeous bridal gowns and accessories by Daisy Day,

and delicious canapes by Elior and Truffles Catering YUMMY! I was well fed and watered throughout the day as I mingled and chatted with Brides to be.

This is Justin from Catered by Justin , they do the most fabulous Hog Roasts with speciality breads, fresh locally sourced salads and delicious desserts. I got a bowl of sauteed new potatoes with bacon. Amazing, bit of a shame it was a slightly rainy day, but it didn't stop us all smiling.

I rather liked the pools of molten rain that gathered on the roof terrace window lights!

So thanks to everyone for making such a delightful day, including the strange moustache man who was staring at my cakes all day! And if you want to see some more amazing pictures of the house, and the work of a great photographer, check out the work of Mel Wilde. She recently did a lovely shoot of the whole house in the style of your Wedding day, take a look here Mels Blog

Thanks for reading!

Rachelx

A Gingerbread Christmas Card

Back in October I was contacted by the lovely Ricardo, a photographer and creative.

His email was a little unusual.....he wanted to have a private class with me where we would create a special gingerbread house together.

I was to bake the facade of a house to his exact specification, then together we would decorate it.

The measurements had to be very precise!!

I love making gingerbread, the mixture is different from normal vanilla cookie dough, it also tastes delicious when warm and uncooked!

I also baked a few little accessories for the house which Ricardo could decorate.

The whole idea of this house was that it would represent the facade of his clients house. Ricardo was then going to photograph the family and the dog,.....and have them all looking out of the windows :)

This was to be the family Christmas card, what a novel idea!

With a little help from me Ricardo soon got used to using all the sugar craft equipment. And he was very precise too.

Everything had to be very exact, right down to the amount of sprinkles in the snow.

We had lots of lovely sweeties to choose from to embellish the house with. The drawing under the smarties was done by Ricardo, it provided the template to work to....and he was doing a grand job.

And all the little decorations were decorated very simply in a stylised manner.

Finally the house was finished, just the way Ricardo wanted it. All the little bits and bobs were packed up carefully to be taken home. Then all the pictures of the family were to be set into the windows to create the finished family Christmas card. 

And this was the final result! What an interesting project :)

A Shoe Cake With A Difference

So......several months ago I met a lovely couple called Nadia and Ben.

Nadia is obsessed with shoes.

It had been decided with the agreement of her other half, that the cake would be shoe inspired.

With the majority of that inspiration coming from the designer Salvatore Ferragamo.

 

 

When Salvatore Ferragamo died in 1960 he had realised the great dream of his life: to create and produce the most beautiful shoes in the world. His family was left the task of carrying on and fulfilling the plan that Salvatore had nurtured in his final years: transforming Ferragamo into a great fashion house.

 

Nadia had chosen some specially designed 'Ferragamo Shoe' stationary to illustrate her love of all things 'shoe'.......

 

 

And had asked me to put it on a cake!

The stationary was either illustrated on a black background or a white background, as seen in the picture below with the table menus. The little loveheart book was for wedding guests to write messages in. Cute :)

 

The wonderful thing was I was given free licence to be creative which is what I love.

 

 

The main icons on the stationary were shoes (of course) little daisies and beautiful colourful swallowtail butterflies. I had already decided to incorporate black into the cake in the form of some rich black velvet ribbon to trim the base of each tier.

 

 

And the cake was a rich dark chocolate cake with an orange twist. YUMMY!

So I started by making some little daisies using some lovely silicone moulds I found online.

 

 

These were to give a nice slightly 3D stylised effect to the sides, although I also wanted to top the cake with some much larger daisies which I made with a plunger cutter.

 

 

I found some little sugar balls that I dusted yellow and glued to the middles with a bit of glitter and sparkle. I like to dry my daisies in a bit of tin foil as a former to give a slightly more irregular shape.:)

 

 

Then of course I had to make some shoes!! The main element of the cake afterall. I had such fun making and painting these. Although I made up some of my own designs, I popped in a leopard print shoe for Nadia as requested......and copied some of the designs from the postcard too. The yellow spotty shoe was my favourite. I added texture to the shoes using a craft knife and a cocktail stick for a leathery effect.

 

 

The painting required lots of mixing in order to keep the colours bright and rich but not too gaudy. A bit of gold dust added some extra richness.

I was really in my element with this cake and spent the whole day adding little details and textures to the 'sugar shoes'.

Not only did the shoes need to look exotic....but there were fancy butterflies to make too.

 

 

And before you think I'm an alcoholic cakeaholic..the gin was for painting on the

food colour! 

So after all the little bits and bobs were made it was time to assemble. The fun part!

 

 

The daisies were popped to the top of the cake.......

 

 

The butterflies and shoes were arranged around the sides.....

 

 

And this was the final result!

You could call it a marmite cake....love it or hate it.

It would not generally be viewed as a  typical 'Wedding' cake, but it is unique, individual and totally original and bespoke to the Bride.

 

And I absolutely LOVED creating it! :)

I hope you love it too. Rachelxx