Knowing that 'The Real' Father Christmas was going to be at Linleys I couldn't resist bringing my kids in to say hello. They were thrilled to meet him and even happier to receive a tasteful wooden present each. I was invited to host a gingerbread biscuit decorating workshop for their family day. As Linley's is a very elegant furniture store i wanted to do something stylish and design lead. Due to the quality (and cost!) of the sofa's next to us I decided to keep risk of icing and sprinkle spill to a minimum. We managed this through creating rice paper costumes for the elves and fairies. The kids loved cutting them out and colouring them in with edible food colouring pens. I then fixed them on by using the royal icing like glue. Father Christmas was thrilled with the the biscuit we made to look just like him. He also came and serenaded us with the accordion and some ancient Christmas songs. he told us he didn't know anything written after the 19th century! There was delicious cream topped hot chocolate to warm everyone up as they stepped inside the shop. All in all it was a fun event full of Christmas cheer!
Christmas Press Event
When Stylist Magazine approached me about creating a biscuit decorating workshop for their collaboration with Pinterest I was only too happy to help. As we do so many cake making events it's nice to get the chance to work on something a bit different. The theme was neon. I have to say that this was great news for me as I find traditional green and red can look a bit dull and traditional. I baked a classic vanilla biscuit dough. I then used a variety of 'Christmas Bauble' cutters to create interesting shapes. I have been wanting to experiment with cake lace for a while so I thought this was a great opportunity to work with it. I used Katie Sue designs and mixture in a variety of colours. I also made lots of cute little cherubs out of fondant icing. I went for lime green, yellow, pink & purple. This worked really well and created texture as well as looking good. The participants used scissors to cut out the premade lace fit onto the shapes and then piped on icing and added the cherubs and rose garlands. The group were thrilled with the end results and amazed by what they had achieved in the hour long workshop. Everyone got to take home 8 biscuit baubles to hang from their Christmas Tree. If they made it that far before being eaten!
We love it when companies ask us to create a unique workshop to fit their needs. We have done these for product launches and brand launches, blogger events and press days. Not only is it a fun way to entertain your employees, guests or clients, but it also leads to great social media activity as everyone is so excited to share their baking creations with friends and family. Whether it is a conference, client event, networking event or just an opportunity to treat your staff to a fun filled workshop, our tailor made workshops will tick all the boxes.
Brand Activation For PlayStation
I had so much fun preparing for this cake making event. When I was asked if I could make edible lego bricks for this PlayStation bloggers event I jumped at the chance. Fondant icing is basically edible plastacine for grown ups. There is not a lot you can't do with it and there are a huge variety of molds available. I spent a few nights in front of the telly happily playing and creating a lot of bricks in different primary colours. As we thought that this brand launch would appeal mainly to boys we made sure there were plenty of football decorations and loads of blue icing. In fact we ended up with lots of girls and event more mums getting involved. The mums were particularly thrilled with the cake decorating as they didn't all want to spend the day playing computer games. As a result I met lot's of lovely new blogger mums whom I'm looking forward to checking out on social media. It really was a great product launch, as well as the cake making and cupcake decorating, there was yummy food by Pear Drop catering, fun arts and crafts, colourful golf and PlayStation games obvs. I had an interesting chat with Ellie from Scummy Mummy's (who I am a big fan of) about my one and only gaming experience. It was many years ago when I got my daughter (now grown up) a copy of a game called Jak & Daxter. I become obsessed. I could barely leave the house until I'd completed all the levels. I vowed never to play again..... She is a gaming journo and it turned out she had helped come up with the name and written the journal for J & D! She then told me that the new 'Crash Bandicoot' game, being launched at the event was made by the same people. I looked across the room and even from a distance I could see that it had the same appealing visuals. I tore my eyes away and reminded myself of the vow I'd made many years earlier. The trouble with those PlayStation games is they are just so damn addictive! I really enjoyed making the edible PlayStation logos for the kids to colour in. My job is basically creating an environment for both adults and children to play. I think we all need more of that in our life! My little girls came for the last hour of the event and had a fab time going home with fabulous Tote bags that they'd decorated themselves. We all agreed it had been a really lovely event.