Cake Making Hen Day

It was a total pleasure hosting this intimate cake baking Hen Party for Ezster and her closest friends. She came all the way from Germany to have her cake making hen day with us. The girls really enjoyed the relaxed, informal environment for their private baking lesson and were thrilled with their fantastic red velvet cupcake results. To be honest it was amazing that they had enough mixture left to make the cupcakes they were so enjoying tasting the mixture as they went along! The red velvet cupcakes looked stunning with their simple white cream cheese frosting. They kept sprinkles to the minimum wanting to create an elegant end result. As most of our hen parties are cupcake decorating events it was a real treat getting to work with a hen do when they were doing their cake making from scratch. They were such a lovely bunch and obviously very close. I felt very privelidged to be a part of such a close knit get together.

Princess Cake Table

It was such a joy to make this cake for my Goddaughters birthday that when my own little girl said she wanted it for her 6th birthday I was delighted.

Princess Castle Cake

Although from time to time I work in fondant I try as much as possible to use buttercream or cream cheese frosting as to me it tastes much better. I also love the textural affect that it brings to your creation.

You will need:

Cake batter

Buttercream

Royal Icing

Fondant icing (Green and any other colour)

Italian wafer cones

Blossom Cutters

Hundreds and Thousands

Castle:

I started 3 days in advance by baking 2 round, Victoria sponge cakes (butter, sugar, eggs, SR flour, vanilla) ; one 6” and one 10’. I used a 6 oz(of each ingredient) and 10 oz of each ingredient) recipe for each tin.

Once they were cooled I crumb coated them with buttercream, placed the small on top of the large (in the centre) and put them on a turntable (cake not record!). I made up a quantity of 500g of unsalted softened butter and 1kg of icing sugar (3/4 I coloured pink, the rest green).

Cover the cake with icing. I used a petal affect where I piped a line of blobs then used a spatula to drag them to the right before piping another line of blobs and doing the same again (This is often used on Ombre cakes).

Turrets:

To make the turrets I made up a mix of rice crispy cakes and wrapped it in cling film then pushed it into the cardboard centre of kitchen rolls. You need to make sure you compact it down to make the shapes solid. I left mine over night and then used a rolling pin to push them out.

To make the roof: Make up a ¼ of a pack of royal icing with water. Dip your Italian wafer ice cream cones in the icing to cover then roll in hundreds and thousands that you have covered a plate with. Definitely make extra of these as they are very fragile. Leave to dry overnight.

Windows, Doors & Flowers:

Roll out some fondant and cut into rectangles that are large enough to cover the turret bases. Use water to ‘glue’ the fold at the back. Roll out more fondant and cut out smaller rectangles to be windows and an arched shape to be the door.

Use a cutter to create lots of small ‘blossom’ flowers. Place an edible pearl in the centre of each one using icing to secure it.

Garden:

Roll out a piece of fondant big enough to cover the cake base. Cut out a strip to be the drive. Cover this with left over Royal icing and cover with remaining hundreds and thousands.

To Assemble:

Place the cake on the centre of the green covered cake board. Place the turrets on the side and use icing to fix on the board. Use more icing to fix the ice cream cones on top.

Add the windows and doors.

Take a disposable piping bag and cut the end keeping to the shape of the tip of the bag. Fill with green buttercream. Use this to pipe your vines over the cake. This works particularly well to soften and hide the edges of the windows and doors. Now randomly place your flowers on the icing whilst it is still wet.

I embellished it this time with some fondant shapes that I made using a cutter I got free with a cake decorating mag which worked well as the blue windows. I also used a rose fondant mould to make the roses which I attached to the vines.

Covent Garden Hen Party

What a fun group of friends Isabel and her sisters had come along to her hen party. They were a really lovely group of hens. Despite the fact that they didn't all know each other they soon bonded over the  cake decorating as it is such a good ice breaking activity. We spent a lovely 2hrs together on their hen day at our fab Covent Garden venue 'Crusting Pipe' doing a cake class.  As you can see they were pretty chuffed with the results of their cupcake decorating efforts and amazed by how much they learnt in the cake making workshop.They were also thrilled to be taking their hand decorated cupcakes away with them to share with their friends and family.  It was a really great hen do and I'm sure they are going to have a fantastic time at the wedding.

Company Freshers Week Event

Our cupcake decorating workshop was the perfect activity for Capgemini's fresher week entertainment. The new recruits had been working hard getting to know the ins and outs of the company operations. So they were well and truly ready to have a few drinks and unwind whilst learning a fun new skill at this company event. They really enjoyed the cake making workshop and were thrilled with their results. We covered everything that we would do in a beginners cupcake decorating class. They soon got the hang of the buttercream piping techniques. As you can see they had really bonded over the buttercream and delicious cakes. They were soon laughing and giggling like old friends whilst enjoying a couple of drinks. It was a really fun team event and a lovely way to welcome the new recruits. I'm sure doing such a fun networking event really helped the new freshers settle into the company quickly and easy. 

Family Hen Day

Kathryn's Hen was a last minute booking made by her good friend Emily. She had no idea what we were doing and was over the moon when she realised it was a cake decorating workshop. Her outfit couldn't have been better co-ordinated with her apron- or her cupcakes! It was a small intimate group made up of a cousin and a childhood friend, her mum, mother in law and some aunties. It was very relaxing for me and I got the opportunity to get to know everyone a little over the 2hr cake class.  They all really enjoyed the workshop and created some really beautiful, jewel like cupcakes. Kathryn was very happy with her signed copy of my recipe book and delighted with her cake making. At the end they all enjoyed a glass of bubbly together. It was such a great occasion. I got to hear all about the outfits the mothers of the bride were going to be wearing at the wedding which was taking place in France. By the end of the workshop I felt like an honorary family member!

School Workshop for Parents

Sacred Hearts School in Barnes are obviously an institution with a progressive attitude to fostering community amongst parents. They wanted to treat them to a fun and creative experience to build greater bonds within the parent community. The mums who attended were hugely appreciative of being given such a wonderful experience. It gave them the opportunity to get to know each other in an informal environment whilst having fun learning a new skill. It wasn't any different to our usual networking events. In fact I guess you could say it was a client event were the parents were the clients. I think it bodes really well for the children's future if the kids and their parents are made to feel so valued by a school. The school administrator who organised the event had such a great time that she is now talking about doing a team event with the teachers and the rest of the admin staff. So I look forward to going back soon for more cake making fun!

KPMG Team Building Events London

Having worked with KPMG many times over the years it’s always a pleasure to hear from them. In the past we’ve created cake making networking and client events for them. This was more of an intimate company event as it was really an opportunity for this department to have fun and do some team bonding. The serious surroundings of the boardroom did nothing to get in the way of the fun and games of the cake decorating activity. The cake making workshop got off to a cracking start with all attendees concentrating deeply on my cake decorating demonstration. A certain amount of friendly competition arose once we got to the ‘speed cupcake decorating element’ although I am pleased to say that on this occasion there wasn’t any sabotage involved! At the end of the 2hr session all the participants were thrilled with their beautiful creations and took them home to share with their friends and family. Although the KPMG headquarters are pretty much as far away from our HQ as it’s possible to be whilst still in London, it was well worth the visit. Apart from getting the opportunity to meet a lovely group of people and teach them some cake making skills, I felt very privileged to have these stunning views across the docklands as our backdrop.

Team Building Workshops

This was a really fun cake making networking event that we did for Mayer Brown. As you can see they really enjoyed the cake decorating workshop company event. In particular they loved the  speed cupcake decorating element which led to much laughter. As they were PAs from various different companies they really appreciated the icebreaking element of this client event. They were soon bonding over the delicious cream cheese frosting and sprinkles and admiring each others edible works of art. At the end of the 2hr session they were thrilled to have their delicious handmade cakes packaged up for them to take home to share with friends and family. Or if they were very lucky even their co-workers! If you would like us to create a fun filled company event then email us: info@cookiegirl.co.uk or call us on: 020 3573 9135

Buttercream Flowers - Private Lesson

Camilla has only just moved to the UK but was keen to start her cake decorating education by joining a cookie girl cake class. Her mother had a bakery back home in Argentina so she had grown up surrounded by cakes and biscuits. The buttercream flower cupcakes were the style that she most wanted to become accomplished at. As she was only in London for a short amount of time she decided to opt for a private lesson, full day cake making class. We spent the morning baking red velvet and vanilla cupcakes to give her plenty of cupcakes to practice her piping techniques on. In the afternoon we focused on cake decorating lessons. As she was new to piping buttercream we started with the basics. My main priority was to ensure that she was confident piping buttercream swirls so that she could quickly move from the beginners cake class to the intermediate level. During the intermediate part of the class she learnt to pipe buttercream leaves without using a nozzle (it's all in the way you cut the bag) and to pipe mini buttercream roses and rosettes. In the last couple of hours of the class we moved onto the advanced level cupcake decorating. Although we had been working hard all day she kept her concentration levels high and achieved some fantastic results during the cake workshop. As you can see she was soon piping perfect carnations and stunning swirls. She was thrilled that during the 6hr class we had managed to work through all the levels to get to the advanced buttercream flower cakes she was aiming for.

If you would like to have a private lesson with me then just email info@cookiegirl.co.uk and let me know what you need and the dates you are available. Alternatively you can learn these techniques during a group class. On certain dates you can do as Camilla did and do the classes back to back! http://www.cookiegirl.co.uk/empty-land-1/

Made in Chelsea Hen Party

Emilys sister Rachael did a fantastic job getting 20 of her nearest and dearest to Londons Sloane Square for a fab cupcake decorating hen workshop. They had come all the way from Stoke to celebrate Emilys hen day in style in London. Instead of staying in hotels they had the genius idea of booking into a serviced apartment building to celebrate the hen night. That meant not only could they make there own meals but they also had space for me to host a cake making hen party there. The girls were from a variety of professions including police officers, teachers and bankers. They got the hang of the hen activity quickly. They perfected the swirl piping techniques and were soon decorating to a professional standard. They were such a fun group of hens and there was a lot of hilarity involved and even a little bit of accidental cupcake sabotage. They all had the most fantastic hen day and the ladies were over the moon with the end results of their cake decorating efforts. When I left  the hen party was continuing as they were on their way to get blow dries before their big hen night out. They were certainly making the most of their trip to the capital.