Dinosaur Cake Class

When Morgan asked me if I could give her a baking lesson to help her make her little boys birthday cake I was thrilled to help. I thought that my dinosaur cake was the perfect model for him. I pre baked the cakes (one 4pt pudding basin and one 2 pint pudding basin) with a vanilla sponge recipe. (Here’s one I made earlier: http://www.cookiegirl.co.uk/blog/2016/9/20/dinosaur-cake?rq=dinosaur%20cake) . We spent the first part of the cake class assembling the sponged together (securing them with wooden skewers) to make a cute dinosaur shape. Morgan and I then set to work creating the eyes, tail, mouth and teeth out of rolled fondant. We made up a large batch of bright green buttercream and I gave Morgan a demonstration in using a palette knife to cover the cake with a thick layer of icing. We then added the eyes, teeth, mouth and tail to create a cute and friendly edible dinosaur. We managed to finish the whole thing within our 3hr half day private baking lesson. Morgan sent me a video of the cake which was a huge hit and she got lots of great feedback for her work.

Hawaiian 8th Birthday Party

I’d had the idea ages ago to do a Hawaiian themed party for Cosy Mae’s 8th birthday party. The combination of palm trees, pineapples and Hula girls just seemed like an inspiring combination for a cake table. Also, being June I thought we were pretty much guaranteed sunshine- ha! In the lead up to the forecast every report I read predicted rain all day which was hardly surprising as it had pretty much rained every day leading up to the party. By some miracle the sun came out and we were blessed with blue sky and temperate weather. It was a big relief as we had 20 kids coming and had recently moved out of a house and into a flat with a huge communal garden. It would have been really depressing (and very claustrophobic) if we’d been rained off and had to be inside. We had some brilliant games; limbo, hula dancing statues, Hawaiian treasure hunt and of course parcel parcel, as my kids call it (when will they grow out of it?!). As usual, like a nutter, I spent weeks planning the cake table and then a couple of weeks prepping and making the contents for the cake table. On it we had; Hula Girl Birthday Cake (Oreo flavour), Tropical flower cupcakes, iced biscuits (Palm tree, Pineapple, Mermaid and Ice cream), Hawaiian Hula Bark, Tiki Cake Pops, Sea and Starfish Meringues. I used an orange cotton fabric to make a sunset colour back drop and table cloth (I finally got a piece of foam board to use as a backdrop base.) I was pretty pleased with the over all effect although I do always wish there was a professional photographer on hand to capture my hard work before it is all devoured and demolished by ravenous kids.

Cake Making Birthday Party

Camilla wanted to celebrate her birthday by getting together with her best friends and having a cake making workshop. They had a great time. Firstly they learnt how to bake the cakes from scratch using organic eggs and real butter as well as fair trade sugar and flour. I explained how much better ‘mouth feel’ and flavour you get using real butter rather than margarine which I really don’t think is good for you. I try and use organic and free range whenever possible in my baking lessons. There was plenty of time do chat over a glass of bubbly whilst the cakes baked. We even put on Heart FM for more of a party vibe. They were a really interesting group of girls. All of them lawyers in different fields and at different companies. Some of them want us to go into their offices to host one of our popular cake making team bonding, client and networking events. We’ve worked a lot with law firms over the years. They seem to really like how well are events work as icebreakers and bonding experiences. Once the cakes were baked I showed the girls how to trim the cakes using a cake cutter (a bit like a cheese wire) and a bread knife. Then I demonstrated filling and crumb coating the cakes. Finally I taught them how to ice the cakes with a palette knife and some different styles of decorations they could finish decorating the cakes with. As you can see they each did something totally unique in the cake class They were really thrilled with the end results and excited to take them home to show to their family and friends. What a great cake making birthday party Camilla had. And who knows, perhaps I will be seeing her soon at a cake making company event in her offices!

Kids Cake Making Birthday Party

Jessie is a really keen baker, so for her cake making birthday party she wanted to bake her own cake from scratch! As you can see she did a fantastic job doing every step herself (with a little help from her friends) weighing, creaming, mixing & beating. She basically had her own private baking class. I then taught her how to create a stunning pastel watercolour effect on the finished cake. Whilst the cake was baking I had the opportunity to teach her and her friends and cousins how to pipe gorgeous ruffles and swirls in a kids cake class. They did a fantastic job with their cupcake decorating. Especially considering some of them were only 6yrs old! They loved the taste of the buttercream icing and cream cheese frosting in a variety of gorgeous colours. They were super excited by the huge range of sprinkles we have. The unicorn sprinkles were a big hit! The girls left the class with a good bag of their own cupcake creation to take home and share with their families. They behaved beautifully and Jessie had the best time having learnt cake decorating as well as having had her own private baking class. And she had the wonderful sense of achievement of having made her own birthday cake to take home.

Mermaid Birthday Party

As you probably know by know I love cake decorating and there is nothing I like more than creating a cake table. They are a lot of work though so I only do them twice a year. Once for Teddy's birthday and once for Cosy's. Luckily they are six months apart which gives me plenty of time to recover! For some reason my husband always seems to be away in the lead up to Cosy's birthday which is frustrating as it's when I need him most. This year he was at his brothers stag party and didn't get back till the night before the party. That meant that as well as effectively being a working single parent for the week I had to work cake making night and day to get all the treats prepared for the cake table. When I say had to obviously I mean want to but it does always turn into a big commitment on top of everything else. This year I did a couple of things I haven't got round to before. One is I printed off some mermaid themed 'food cards' from Etsy which my talented adult daughter wrote on in calligraphy. I think this really pulled the whole look of the table together and made it look more finished. The other thing is that I set the table up and photographed it before the guests arrived to make sure I got some good picks before everything got mauled. Also, I got a pic of the mermaid birthday cake in situ before whisking it away to bring out as a surprise for the magical moment when everyone sings 'Happy Birthday'. Unfortunately the mischievous birthday girl snuck a good look at whilst I was taking the pics. Next year I may need to arrange someone to take her to the park whilst I do that. Having done all this in advance did mean that I was able to socialise a bit during the party and have a few drinks rather than my usual rushing around like a mad person. I did indulge in a couple of bottles of Corona beer and relaxed whilst the kids did a great job entertaining themselves. In fact I relaxed so much that it wasn't till everyone had left that I realised that I'd totally forgotten to do the Pinata! Still at least I didn't forget the cake! The funny thing was I had thought I was so organised, wrapping the parcel for pass the parcel (or parcel, parcel, as my kids call it) and prepping the party bags in advance. There's still always something I've overlooked!

Private Baking Lesson

This was such a lovely lesson. David had never baked before and it was something that he'd always wanted to learn. After a life changing event he realised that there was no time like the present. He wanted to learn to make a cake with real wow factor. I thought that a chocolate and vanilla marble cake would be prefect. We spent a lovely afternoon together and he couldn't believe how quickly he got the hang of it. He had literally never attempted to bake anything before not event cupcakes or cookies. You can imagine how delighted he was by the end results once he'd finished off the cake with piped buttercream swirls. The finishing touch was an edible rice paper leopard print butterfly and gold sprinkles. When he got home his wife could not believe that he made the cake from scratch.

Unicorn Rainbow Cake Table

I was really excited about doing this for Cosy's 6th birthday party. Having thought there was no theme she would like better (ever since her princess party last year) i was a bit miffed to discover that she wanted a My Little Pony one instead! Having already invested in unicorn balloons, plates etc I dug my heels in. As you can see she couldn't have been more thrilled with the results. I made a Rainbow Unicorn Cake, Rainbow Cupcakes, Unicorn Bark, Unicorn Cake Pops. Recipes to follow....

Jess' Baby Shower

I literally adore my sister in law.

She is one of loveliest people I know.

In fact, I met here before my brother in law, on a hen in Ibiza.

She was performing on stage with Leftfield and we were 

hypnotised by her.

When she turned up at our villa later that night (or morning by then!)

I got chatting with her and realised that she is a great beauty inside and out.

I had one of those rare moments where you meet someone and just think 

‘Wow you're amazing. How do I get you in my life?’

And then my brother in law met her (not through me) a few months later and clearly

thought exactly the same!

They have been together a few years and are now expecting their first baby 

together. Very exciting. So obviously I offered to do the cake table. And also host

the party. It was a great event. There where probably around 60 or 70 people there.

I made a ‘Cuddly Toy Sheep Cake’, This was the same technique as I used for Teddy’s 

1st birthday Teddy Bear Cake. ’ Baby Vest & booty biscuits’, ‘Bottle Biscuits’, 

‘Baby Cakes’ and Bunting Cupcakes’. I also made some healthy fruit skewers.

It was a lot of work and a lot of fun. And I did have some help from my children. Although 

some would say more hindrance….

Teddy Birthday Cake

I can’t believe that it is already a year since little Ted arrived to join our family.

I also can’t believe I spent time trying to work out what to bake to celebrate this auspicious day. You’d think it would be obvious from the start. Teddy would have a 3D Teddy Bear Birthday Cake. I knew that this would be time consuming so I baked the cakes (chocolate mud cake in 2 x pudding bowls, one 1pt and one 2 pt) on Wednesday. I made the cake pops on Thursday, molding some of the mix to create arms, legs, feet, ears, nose and eyes. On Friday afternoon I assembled it and covered it in ganache. Once this had set I covered the whole thing in pink buttercream using a large grass nozzle to create a rough, almost fleecy fur effect. I think this took me around an hour to hour and a half. To be honest I’m not quite sure as we were skyping my sis and her family in Oz at the time. So all rather distracting!

It was fairly plain sailing apart from when my 3yr old Cosy insisted on helping. I let her help stir the pop mix and as I turned my back for a mo she picked up the bowl and dropped it losing half the mix on the floor. I managed to keep my composure and decided to top up with 4 tbsps Nutella which in retrospect really added to the flavour. I explained to Cosy that she musn’t pick the bowl up when she was helping me.

 Then I let her crack the eggs for the coconut layer cake I was preparing. She has a great one-handed technique, which works well as long as it is over a separate bowl so I can fish the shell out. She had cracked the 8 eggs I needed. I was just leaning behind her to grab a spatula when she tried to tip the egg bowl into the Kitchen Aid. 1 of the eggs went into that bowl whilst the other 7 slid down the kitchen cupboards before pooling in a puddle on the floor. Once again I told her that she was NOT allowed to pick up the bowl. I let her crack the eggs once again but left doing anything else until after she had gone to bed.

Sometimes it’s difficult because I really want to encourage her passion for baking but it does always make so much work for me and I am running a business. I try not to get cross though as it is always well intentioned.

In the end the layer cake turned out fine and I also piped some simple flower cookies and some pink rose cupcakes. I also filled a couple of glass trifle bowls with pink and white marshmallows.

 I was really pleased with how the cake table turned out with a few simple decorations.

Princess Castle Cake

Princess Cake

This is the Princess castle that I made for my Goddaughter’s 3rd party. It was a lot of fun to make and a real labour of love.

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.

This cake was definitely one of my favourites to make. What have been yours?

If you would like to create this or something similar in a one to one private lesson with me then call- 020 3573 9135