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!