Sharing the cake love...

Just registered with a charity who... well, I'll let them explain;

Baking A Smile is a VERY special cake store, we are a not for profit organisation that provides FREE beautiful custom made celebration cakes to children with life threatening and life limiting health conditions throughout the UK and Ireland.

We are committed to providing a smile and a little happiness to children dealing with illnesses by providing the child with a custom made cake free of charge. We not only provide this service to children with life threatening/limiting illnesses, but also to the siblings of these children, as we understand that it can be tough on them too.

We believe in the power of happiness and smiles and the positivity it can have. If we can bring a smile to a child & their family then hopefully, just for a moment, they can have something happier to focus on.

Baking A Smile was established In December 2012. We have a large team of amateur & professional bakers on hand, donating their time, experience & money to provide amazing cakes for ill children and to fundraisers - which are not only full of yumminess but jam packed with love.

If you're a baker too, why not register and help bring some happy into the lives of people who deserve it!

http://www.bakingasmile.org

The many different faces of the humble cupcake

A selection of cupcakes, with various different finishes.

2D piping nozzle (closed star)

070 Ruffle nozzle

128 large petal nozzle

9FT French star nozzle

Fondant rose

Pallet knife swirl

Hand painted fondant disks

Various

Running shoe cake - April 2015

40th birthday cake for a lady with a passion for running.

Vanilla buttercream covered chocolate fudge cake with dark chocolate buttercream filling.  

The sides are piped rose swirls in orange and pink. The top I kept smooth because of the toppers. 

I used the upside-down method to keep it ultra-smooth and swirled the colours to compliment the sides of the cake.

The number 40 and flowers are wired.  

The running shoe is made from a Mexican paste core shape with flowerpaste details.

Happy surprise birthday party Abbi :)

Confetti and lace wedding cake - April 2015

A quick dummy cake as I had plenty of pink confetti pieces left over.

This cake was featured as an editor's choice on Cake Decor this month.  Woohoo!

Sweet sixteen pink confetti cake - April 2015

Birthday cake for a "Sweet Sixteen" party.

4" top tier: lemon and almond sponge (my favourite) with orange frosting 

and pink sugarpaste confetti.  

6" bottom tier: chocolate fudge cake with white chocolate frosting and white fondant covering.  

...completely unrelated to cake!

A bit cheeky I know, but we are trying raise some money to help our little man. 

 

We used to be foster parents to him when he was tiny.

He has profound cerebral palsy and quadriplegic dystonia which mean he is wheel chair bound, unable to control his limbs or hold his head up, cannot talk, or play unaided.  He can however laugh, love and feel.  

Inside this damaged little body is a bright little boy who is desperate to communicate and connect with the world around him.  

His new mum and dad are fundraising to get him an Eye Gaze Communication System so he can talk through a computer (Stephen Hawkins style) and a Terrain buggy so he can control where he goes as he gets older.  

Please share this link and donate anything you can.  The more people we can reach, the brighter his future could be.

We love him so much, please help us give him the life full of fun that every little child deserves!  

Xxxx Kass

https://www.justgiving.com/yimby/Bean/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Yimbyproject&utm_content=Bean&utm_campaign=jgdonation%3Asupport#/

White chocolate blossom cake - March 2015

Mother's day is coming!

White chocolate buttercream finished cake, 

because mother's are special and deserve to be treated...

...and they will give you a slice to go with your tea too!

Pink & gold buttercream finished cake - February 2015

Gold rose on a pink and gold smooth buttercream finished 8" three layer dummy cake.

Bomb cake - February 2015

Bomb cake for a secret agent birthday party. 

Obviously, putting a spherical thing on a flat surface has some issues when you want to pick it up and drive around corners.  I made the cake a slightly firmer chocolate Madeira sponge rather than my usual chocolate fudge cake.  I screwed a sharpened dowel into the board too.

I know some cake makers wouldn't split the cake but, while I understand the stability argument about not putting frosting inside, I'm not a fan of dry, 2 dimensional cake, and a cake should taste good above all. I think a cake needs frosting, cream or jellies to add flavour and texture.  This cake has 4 layers of cake, with 3 layers of real chocolate frosting in between.

I crumb coated the cake with a darker chocolate frosting to add stability to the sphere.  It looks pleasingly like a planet!

Covering the sphere in the oh-so-annoying-to-use black fondant wasn't as bad as I'd expected actually.  I just used a good quality paste, and some patience.

Thankfully, it's winter and not humid... If I have to do it again on an August night when there's a thunder storm outside I might have a very different experience! 

By the way, the bomb's fuse is a sparkling candle so should look pretty cool when lit! 

Star Wars cake - Christmas 2014

Star Wars cake for a lovely young lady who loves R2D2.  Erin's birthday is actually Christmas Day so she tends to miss out a little on her birthday celebrations.  

The cake itself is a three layer chocolate and vanilla with marbled chocolate and vanilla buttercream.  I cut the front off to create a slope, smoothed the buttercream, covered it in fondant and placed it on a covered board.

I marbled the fondant using black, white and grey to give it a sort of "space" feel.  I then airbrushed it with black, blue, purple and silver to even the tones, but add texture.

Meanwhile, I had been making an R2D2 to go on top.  I made his body with a core of polystyrene to cut down the weight and used wooden skewers to support his legs. 

I painted his panels with blossom tints and lusters mixed with melted cocoa-butter, which gives a much better (and less streaky) finish as it doesn't melt the surface like a alcohol mix. 

I also used cocoa butter paint to put stars and writing on the cake.  I learned with the shark cake last month that white paint that it water / alcohol soluble picks up the colour of the icing underneath, but a cocoa butter mix stays white!  I tried very hard to keep the text with straight lines on each side, but even though I changed my planned wording it proved very hard to keep it exact.  This is really bugging me now... 

The Star Wars lettering I cut out of fondant, then I airbrushed it a little with grey and silver.

So, Star Wars cake done, lessons learned, child happy...

...and safe to say I will never again be making a cake around Christmas...that's just crazy!