Male Birthday Card

A card I made a couple of days ago for Scott's Uncle. 

I got the design from a card I saw on Pinterest, (original is here) and thought it would adapt well for a male card. The owls are cut using a Stampin' Up punch, the balloon is Sizzix, and the cake is cut by hand.

Super Cheat Cake!

My sister told me a while ago about a super cheat cake, so I thought I'd give it a go to celebrate my birthday last week... I have quite a few photos of the process, thanks to Lucy, my 14 year old daughter taking 214 photos in the short time it took to assemble it!!! (Hmm...wonder who she takes after?)

So: Ready made flans (though next time I would make a Victoria sponge cake and use layers of that - more moist), Tins of Caramel (I used ready made condensed milk caramel), tinned peaches sliced very thin, double cream whipped up with some icing sugar (and I added some creme fraiche for the outer layer), and fresh fruit to decorate.

 Layer 1 with the toffee spread on, and a peach layer going on top of that. After that put on some cream, then the next flan case:

 Second layer ready for some cream:

 Third layer with the cream going on top:

 The whole thing covered...

 ...then roughly smoothed with a palette knife:

 Stick some fruit on, et voila!

 It tasted pretty good straight away, but was better after a bit longer, once the flan had moistened up. This is why I would use proper Victoria sponge cake - the flan sagged a bit as it got more moist, whereas I think the cake would keep its shape.

70's Birthday Cake & Lemon Cupcakes

 I had a busy baking week last week. I made this cake & cupcakes for two friends' joint 40th birthday party. It was a great night! I danced the night away in my 4 inch platforms (and paid for it the next day!)

The party was themed in green and purple - probably my least favourite colours, so I can't say I really love the cake, though I did like the little records! 

I used a new stencil set for the shapes, though it was a complete nightmare to get the shapes out the cutters. Thank goodness for plunger cutters is all I can say - I used Clickstix cutters for the alphabet, and these pop out dead easily.

I also had one of my very best friends, and her lovely family come to visit last week. It's wonderful to pick up where you left off, as though you had only seen each other the week before, when in fact it has been 4 years! 

I made some lemon cupcakes - real lemon essence in the cake,and buttercream, and lemon curd piped into the centres.

Easter Cake

I made a fruit cake some weeks ago (because I was mourning the last of my Christmas cake), and happily, its maturing coincided with Easter, so here is my Easter cake.

I only got round to decorating it last night after the kids went to bed, but no-one else likes fruit cake in the family, so actually it's just for me!

 It was my first go at what I would call a 'proper cake', so I covered the cake board in fondant (ready-to-roll) icing first, and had a go at making large roses, with CMC powder added to fondant icing, to make it a bit firmer to work with. The roses had set nice had hard by this morning. The cake has a layer of natural marzipan under the icing.

 I glued some cardboard flags to thread, and tied them to bamboo kebab sticks, for the bunting.

 And then the best bit... getting to eat it!

Baby Quilts for the Hospital

This past week I finished off a couple of little flannel blankets, as part of a project which the women at church have been doing - to make new quilts for the Intensive Care unit for premature babies at the local hospital. We made about 40 altogether, I think. One of the women donated all the fabric from her extensive collection (!), and I made the zig-zag one, another friend pieced up the chequered one, and I finished them off. 

 We had to bind them by folding over the backing fabric. I haven't done that kind of binding before, but it turned out OK, and I got to use my nice scalloped stitch to secure it.

All soft and ready to go.

A couple of bits

Nice and simple birthday cards for twins who's party one of my sons went to today. The alphabet letter stickers on the little tags are microscopic!! Didn't realise quite how small they were when I was ordering them!

I am swamped with tonnes of beautiful fabric at the moment. I bought several packages from America (don't ask me about the £40 customs fees...) and I am happily chopping it into little pre-cut patchwork squares packs, and also making die-cut appliques. I took delivery of a 25 metre roll of fusible webbing today, so that should keep me going for a while! I have been selling them.

 Some of the applique packs I made up today. (And my new Cath Kidston jug - took a nice little trip to their factory outlet shop yesterday!)

I was quite excited to see a couple of Youtube tutorials recently, on cutting out iron-on fabric shapes with a Cricut machine. You have to iron on the fusible webbing first, then some people lay it onto the cutting mat, fabric side down (though I think you would get through a lot if mats this way - they would lose their stick pretty quickly), and other people spray starch on the fabric, iron it, then it is OK to cut it fabric side up. I'm dying to try it out, but as luck would have it, my Cricut machine died last week! I managed to get a new machine today on ebay though, for £50, so I'll have the chance to experiment soon enough!

Mothers' Day Hydrangea Cupcakes

I made these hydrangea cupcakes for my Mum for Mother's Day - my family had a get-together today - 19.5 of us - great fun!

After the cakes were cooked, I scooped out some of the cake and filled it with jam, then piped on the flowers. I made up some icing, from butter, icing sugar, melted white chocolate and a little double cream. I split the mixture, colouring half in lilac, and half in the turquiose (it was meant to be blue, but the yellow of the butter changed it to a kind of toothpaste colour! I know that I could use shortening to keep the base icing white, but I really prefer the flavour of butter too much.) The two colours then got put in the same piping bag, and I hoped for the best! I quite like how they turned out.

More Pink Cupcakes and a New Stand

Tom had a friend over last night, and they asked if they could decorate cupcakes, so I made up a batch, and we all decorated some. I wanted to get pictures of the kids' ones (which ranged from pure black with orange stars, a French flag, a Scottish flag and some big fat fondant icing boulders) - only the kids took great delight in shoving them in their mouths before I could get my camera.

Here are mine anyway. I got to try out my new lattice embosser, and silicone brooch mould (both bought on ebay). I put on soft decorative balls, because I can't stand eating hard crunchy ones, especially when there are lots on each cupcake.

 These are my favourite! I love making the little rosebuds - using a star cutter for the little leaves.

 This is my new cake stand (also bought on ebay). I like that you can use as many layers as you need, it packs away flat, and you can fit between 25 and 52 cupcakes on it, and also see through each layer to the cupcakes below.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I thought I should try and expand my cake repertoire, so had a go at some Red Velvet cupcakes today. (I had this idea about 40 minutes before I had to do the school run, so they were somewhat hurried...)

I used a pretty standard recipe, similar to that in the Hummingbird Bakery book, and they were a lovely light texture, but I don't think the flavour is anything to shout about - I still prefer basic Victoria Sponge cupcakes, or chocolate ones. I topped them with a (very runny!) cream cheese frosting.

'Happy Temple Mission' Card

My Mum and Dad started their Temple Mission this week! They've been settling into a flat near the Preston Temple, where they will be staying 2 weeks out of every 8. Funnily enough, there aren't many 'Happy Temple Mission' cards in the local card shop, so I made my own! 

This is based on the colours over at the Daring Cardmakers this week. I like that the challenge asked for 'a touch of gold'! My touch of gold is the Angel Moroni on the spire of the temple. (In case anyone is curious about our religion, you can click the link to the right...)

Mojo Monday Birthday Card

A card based on the square layout over at Mojo Monday.

I love the matching stamp set for the Decorative Label punch from Stampin' Up.

Card Patterns Birthday Card

A couple of cards made using the Card Patterns design below, flipped upside-down.

I used Stampin' Up 'Heart to Heart' and 'Decorative Label' punches, and their 'Perfectly Penned' stamp.

Vanilla and Chocolate Cupcakes

My parents came on Valentines day, and the kids were on holiday from school. We had some cupcakes at lunch...

 Last night I went to a training evening, and made some cupcakes for the refreshments. I find it very relaxing decorating them, though less so clearing up the monumental amount of mess I have created afterwards...

I used vanilla butter icing, and a chocolate cream cheese icing, plus some rolled fondant.

 Here they are all tucked up in my new Cupcake Courier. The only thing I think lacking with the design of the carrier, is a couple of lowered points each side of the cupcake holes, for you to get your fingers in and lift out the cupcakes. Still really happy with it though.

 Another few cupackes I made, using a Cuttlebug embossing folder. I've also been trying to improve on my fondant rose making. I now cut out 6 or 7 circles, flatten them some more, and stick them together with water. The first petals I add curling inwards, and the last few curling outwards.