Alice the baker

Victoria sponge for Sandra

2011-11-30T15:49:00.001Z

Instead of the usual batch of birthday cupcakes,
I decided to make a Victoria sponge for Sandra.

I used a Mary Berry recipe and filled it with vanilla buttercream and
strawberry jam, before dousing it with icing sugar.

It weighed about a ton, and had to be carefully airlifted into a tin
using folded sheets of baking paper.

Sandra delicately hacked into it without taking it out of the tin.

Here's Ruth M-J tucking into a slice.

And here's Sandra taking a trademark small bite.

Portuguese custard tarts

2011-11-15T15:16:00.000Z

I decided to make Portuguese custard tarts.

I couldn't find a recipe that didn't use ready made pastry,
so took the plunge and made my own rough puff.

You have to roll the pastry into a log and cut into spirals first.

I'd also never made real custard from scractch before,
so that was a new experience.

Here are the tart cases filled with the custard.

And here are the finised tarts!

I gave some to my friend Lindsey for her birthday.

She's a real "pastel de nata" aficionado,
so I was pleased when she said they tasted authentic!

Pizza night!

2011-10-30T20:30:00.001Z

We ♥ pizza so decided to make some the other night.

Dough and all, of course!

Here they are before they went into the oven...

And here they are after!

This one had mozzarella, anchovies, pineapple,
roasted red pepper and caramelised red onion...

And this one had smoked ham, caramelised pear and gorgonzola.

Freshly-ground black pepper and a sprinkle of rocket, and they're good to go.

Very tasty, though I do say so myself...

Pistachio macarons with chocolate ganache

2011-10-02T21:51:00.004+01:00

After those amazing macarons at Dan and Lucy's wedding and GBBO episode 4,
I decided to try to make my own...

These ones feature finely chopped pistachios and should really be green,
but I didn't have any green food colouring.

I sandwiched them together with chocolate ganache.

They didn't turn out perfectly, as they kind of look like mini burgers,
but weren't bad for a first effort and tasted good.

Chicken and mushroom pie

2011-09-27T19:30:00.000+01:00

So if I'm going to enter next year's GBBO,
I'm going to need to drastically expand my baking repertoire...

Not sure I've ever made a savoury pie before,
so I decided on chicken and mushroom, with shortcrust pastry.

After making the pastry I baked the base blind, made the filling,
and added the top, making sure to cut a few slits for the air to escape.

Sorry, please excuse the horrible foil pie tin, I didn't have a real one the right size.
Don't worry, Lakeland will be receiving an order soon.

And here's a slice of the pie, served with corn on the cob and carrots.

Eccles cakes and Lancashire cheese

2011-09-25T20:00:00.000+01:00

So Scott went to St John recently and had Eccles cakes and Lancashire cheese.

I'd forgotten how obsessed we were when we first tried them,
so decided to take the plunge and make my own.

You make a basic pastry with grated mararine, flour and salt...
chill it, then roll it out into circles.

The filling is made from currants, candied peel, orange zest,
sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. It smells very Christmassy when you warm it up.

So you add a teaspoom of the filling to the pastry and seal in inside,
before turning over and cutting 3 slits in the top.

When you bake them in the oven, the filling oozes out and the currants get caramelised.

And more importantly, here they are with some crumbly
Kirkham's Lancashire Cheese.

So. Good.

Dan and Lucy Forever

2011-09-11T13:00:00.003+01:00

So yesterday was Dan and Lucy Forever day.

♥

After an amazing wedding breakfast, they served cheese
and some of the tastiest macarons I've ever eaten.

Here's a selection: pistachio, lavender, lemon, and the piece de resistance...

Salted caramel with bronze dust.

Mmmmmmmm...

Eva and Nick, the Seven Year Hitch

2011-09-04T20:44:00.001+01:00

So here are some lemon and vanilla cupcakes I made for
Eva and Nick's wedding yesterday.

I made lemon buttercream icing and lime green fondant hearts
to match the cream roses and green chrysanthemum wedding flowers.

Here's the beautiful happy couple after the ceremony!

Back at the reception, here are my cupcakes next to
the amazing wedding cake made by Eva's mum.

And here are Eva and Nick cutting the cake!

It's back...

2011-08-15T19:30:00.000+01:00

Great British Bake Off, BBC2, 8pm.

Blueberry and polenta cupcakes

2011-08-13T15:00:00.000+01:00

Here are some blueberry and polenta cupcakes from my Primrose Bakery cook book.

The corn and blueberry is unusual flavour combination, but works, just about!

I'd suggest serving them warm at breakfast time.

Bankford wedding spectacular

2011-07-12T15:27:00.000+01:00

So I was incredibly proud when Libby & Jon asked me to make cakes for their wedding.

We got a big lemon and poppy seed cake from Peyton & Byrne, and added edible flowers.

I made piles of mini Victoria Sponges with fresh strawberries,
whipped cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

HUGE thanks to Serena, Catrin and Rachel for helping assemble them.

For more beautiful photos, check out Jade Lisa Photography.

Mini Victoria sponges for Tanya

2011-06-05T22:41:00.006+01:00

I made some mini Victoria sponge cakes for Tanya's birthday this weekend.

I used my usual vanilla cupcake recipe, cutting the cakes in half
before filling with whipped cream and slices of strawberry.

As a finishing touch I made little T stencils and dusted the cakes with icing sugar.

And I packaged them up in one of the brilliant leopard print
cake boxes Emma got me for Christmas.

Here's Tanya eating one of her cakes!

Haribo cakes for Roberta

2011-05-14T13:40:00.004+01:00

It was Roberta's birthday so I made some lemon buttercream mini cupcakes.

And here's the birthday girl with a cake!

Blackberry, blueberry and lime drizzle cake

2011-04-17T18:42:00.000+01:00

Here is another mega-berry lime drizzle cake,
like the one posted a few weeks back...

I read somewhere that you should coat the berries in flour and
sprinkle a few over the top of the dough to keep them from sinking.

I love the way the blackberries explode when you cut into the cake...

And here's a slice.

Dave's leaving buffet

2011-04-15T14:50:00.005+01:00

Unfortunately it's Dave's last day at work,
but that meant we all got to enjoy an awesome party buffet.

Trish made a truly amazing spread, which included a turkey snake roll,
raspberry Victoria sponge and courgette and tomato muffins.

Here's Dave doing his leaving speech...

And here he is modelling his "Global Meltdown" Fontis T-shirt.

Guinness & chocolate cake for breakfast

2011-04-15T10:45:00.007+01:00

I walked to the tube today*, so was feeling pretty virtuous...
So virtuous that I was about to buy a breakfast croissant from the cafe.

But thank goodness I didn't, because Nigel had brought
in an ENORMOUS Guinness and chocolate cake.

His sister Hilary made it for him for his birthday,
and it tastes absolutely amazing.

We are calling it the breakfast of champions.

*It's a 15 minute bus ride usually, honest.

Beetroot blinis

2011-04-10T18:37:00.000+01:00

So here are some beetroot blinis from a Yotam Ottolenghi recipe.

Served with creme fraiche, sugar snap peas, rocket and almonds.

Blueberry, raspberry and lime drizzle cake

2011-04-09T14:58:00.005+01:00

This is a cake my mum made the other week.

It's a super tangy lime drizzle with lots of fresh berries,
in this case, blueberries and raspberries.

Very, very tasty indeed and you could make it with any berries you like.

Mother's Day cupcake

2011-04-03T15:27:00.001+01:00

*Confession, I didn't make this cupcake....

Jez and I took our mum for lunch at The Brasserie in Ipswich.

And they were giving all the mums one of these super-cute cupcakes.

AnOther cake party at Selfridges

2011-02-18T15:15:00.002Z

So Arthur and I went to a brilliant party during LFW, AnOther magazine's
10th Anniversary bash at Selfridges.

There was an exhibiton of designer cakes upstairs in the Concept Store, but
we really loved the cakepops downstairs at the Wonder Room party.

As well as awesome face cakepops, there was candyfloss, popcorn,

exploding candy and weird butter caramel shots and fizzing margheritas.

And a someone jumped out of a cake.

By the end we felt thoroughly sick, but in the best possible way...

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T12:18:00.004Z

Sadly I was too slow to get one, but there was a huge box of these
super-cute mini cupcakes in the office today.

Thanks Rach, Nige and Leona for letting me photograph yours.

I'll just go hungry, it's fine.

Vanilla choc chip cookies

2011-02-13T15:25:00.004Z

Very simple, but very tasty, here are some vanilla choc chip cookies...

I roughly chopped a bar of dark chocolate rather than using choc chips,
as then you get nice big chunks of gooey chocolate.

I also added some chopped brazil nuts, almonds and hazelnuts
for added crunch and flavour.

Double choc cookies for Catrin

2011-02-08T10:45:00.000Z

Here are some double chocolate cookies I made for
Atb creative director Catrin's birthday...

The recipe is from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and
contains a mere 450g of dark chocolate for 12 cookies.

Yep, they're pretty hardcore... the perfect accompaniment
to a poster advocating excessive alcohol consumption.

Ever happy to pose for a photo, here's Cookieface.

Blondies for Rachel

2011-01-11T16:00:00.000Z

It was Rachel's birthday, so I made her some blondies.

That's right, blondies.

They are brownies but with white chocolate.

For good measure, I also added chopped milk chocolate
and crushed Dime bars.

A winning combination, though I do say it myself.

Stem ginger cupcakes

2011-01-02T15:37:00.000Z

I got the Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery book for Christmas so

decided to make some ginger cupcakes.

They are super-treacley and tangy, much denser and
stronger in flavour than usual cupcakes, so great for Christmas time.

They feature black molasses, treacle and stem ginger pieces,
so are not for the faint-hearted.

To finish, slather in ginger fudge icing and
sprinkle with demerara sugar...

Flu cakes™ for Sandra

2010-12-01T19:59:00.006Z

It was Sandra's birthday last week but unfortunately she
was off sick with flu...

As she is one of Alice the baker's most valued customers
I knew I couldn't get away with not making something.

So I made her favourite - lemon - but with a *hilarious* twist...
Edible rice paper crumpled up to look like used tissues.

I stopped short of adding a snot substitute
and was duly reprimanded by my highbrow colleagues.

Here is Sandra showcasing the attractive tupperware
box I transported the flu cakes™ in...

And here she is, delicately sampling a flu cake™.

I think she ate approximately five that day,
the highlight being the one she stuffed whole as she left the office.

Pumpkin pie

2010-12-01T19:47:00.005Z

We were going to make a Thanksgiving dinner, but my awkward
eating habits put paid to that idea, (I don't really like turkey, sorry).

Instead, I said I would make a pumpkin pie, so here it is!

Served warm with creme fraiche. Mmmm...

Mini cheese, shallot and chilli scones

2010-11-27T17:34:00.005Z

So here are some little cheese, shallot and chilli scones I
made the other day.

We ate them warm with goats cheese and salsa, so they looked like
classic afternoon tea with clotted cream and jam.

I meant to take a picture of them, but we ate them too quickly.

Lemon squares

2010-11-27T17:16:00.003Z

You make a shortbread-style base and bake that first, then
mix up a really sharp lemon curd and pour it on top.

After baking it again, let it cool, dust with icing sugar
and top with thin slices of fig. Though I think
strawberry or blackberry could also work well.

I love the way the lemon curd filling almost oozes out of the sides.

Cheryl Baker

2010-11-25T14:03:00.005Z

So Cheryl bakes.

Of course she does.

www.cherylbaker.net

Pizza cake for Lucy

2010-10-10T16:46:00.010+01:00

You might not believe it, but this is a birthday cake.

Yep, a birthday cake.

As savoury and meaty as the toppings look,
I promise they're all sweet.

Big thanks to Pinglewood for hunting them down.

And as if the whole thing wasn't disturbing enough,
we served it up in a pizza box. Cheers Il Bacio!

Here's birthday girl Lucy cutting the cake with a pizza wheel...

Eating a slice...

And there goes the last one.

Carrot cupcakes for Robin

2010-10-10T16:37:00.004+01:00

Robin's favourite cake is carrot, so I made these spiced
carrot cupcakes for his birthday.

They also have pecans inside.

And instead of cream cheese icing, I made a zingy
topping with orange zest, juice and icing sugar.

Mulberry Victoria sponge at Claridge's

2010-09-19T16:57:00.005+01:00

So I just got back from the Mulberry S/S 11 presentation at Claridge's...
a very nice way to spend a Sunday lunchtime indeed.

They were handing out these super-cute tote bags with
rabbit-in-an-Alexa-bag print, as well as a packet of carrot seeds.

But more importantly, tiny little printed boxes...

And what was inside..?

A perfect little Victoria sponge filled with cream and strawberry jam,

dusted with icing sugar.

Almond cookies with green tea cream

2010-09-12T13:35:00.005+01:00

My mum got me an amazing book for my birthday called

1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & Other Tempting Treats,
and these almond cookies with green tea cream were requested by Scott.

You make a basic sweet cookie dough and chill it in the fridge.

One half is rolled and cut out normally, while the other is rolled
with a layer of flaked almonds so they get embedded in the dough.

Meanwhile you make a thick cream by infusing hot milk with green tea,
before adding sugar, custard powder and cream cheese.

Then you sandwich them all together with the almond side on top.

My green tea cream is more apricot-coloured than green,
but it still tastes good.

Summer berry muffins

2010-09-05T11:54:00.003+01:00

I had loads of berries in the fridge,

so decided to make raspberry and blackberry muffins.

I really like how they look in the pale blue
and white polka dot cases.

We ate them warm with blueberry ice cream.

Sadly didn't get a photo as we ate them too quickly and the
ice cream was melting, but it was very tasty.

Istanbul canapes

2010-08-27T22:12:00.003+01:00

I love canapes, so was excited to see what Istanbul
fashion parties had to offer...

Check out the cheese, grape and pumpkin installation
at the newly opened Pera Palace Hotel...

A feast for the eyes, if not the palate.

But who could have known what was in store on
the Bosphorus boat cruise...?

Plus potato and grease croquettes modelled by Max Usher.

Obviously Istanbul is not all about silly party snacks,
there is a veritable feast of food on offer...

So thought I would end with this poignant image of the last
baklava that no one dared finish at Hamdi restaurant today...

So good!

Technicolor cakes

2010-08-17T16:11:00.006+01:00

Well, these are quite possibly the best-decorated cakes
I have ever seen...

It is Cesca's actual birthday today (see below's Burger cake post)
and she has brought in yet more treats to celebrate.

Alongside a classic red velvet from Hummingbird was this
box of delights, made by Cesca's brother's girlfriend.

Vikki, I salute you.

Your cakes are awesome.

Burger cake

2010-08-16T16:15:00.004+01:00

Wow!

Look at this beast of a cake that Cesca at work brought in today for her birthday...

Congrats to her very talented friend Zara Ferreira who made it.

I am very impressed.

C:HV cakes

2010-08-16T15:33:00.005+01:00

As Tom is a big Chev Chelios fan I decided to make
Crank: High Voltage double shot espresso cupcakes for his birthday*.

Those weird little bits of shrapnel are actually cola-flavoured
exploding candy, for that authentic high voltage kick...

Here's Tom (aka Lee Christmas) with an arsenal of deadly treats.

And here he is, shovelling his second cake...
just before he started grinding a picture of Corey Haim (RIP).

Big thanks to Greer McNally for the awesome pics.

* which was months ago, sorry.

Supcakes™ at Joey's hen night

2010-07-09T19:48:00.003+01:00

So, the Alice the baker creative team have been talking
about alcoholic cupcakes for a while now... great for parties etc.

And the working title is... Supcakes™.

And what better time to premiere Supcakes™, than at
Atb creative team member Joey Marshall's hen night?

We decided on Malibu and coke...

... and Baileys.

The perfect combination of nostalgia, tastiness and tackiness,
we think you'll agree.

Here's chief hen Poppy doing the honours, with a very fashionable doll.

(Don't ask...)

And here is the beautiful bride-to-be (and prolific blogger) Joey kissing said doll,
ably assisted by the lovely Lindsey D.

Happy Birthday T-Man!

2010-06-28T12:41:00.006+01:00

Today is officially T-Man Day, so I made some cakes.

Some tiny cakes...

On the left we have choc chip with choc icing and a Minstrel...

...and on the right are lemon with citrus icing and sour laces.

And here is the lovely birthday girl herself.

You wouldn't believe it, but she ate that whole tray...

World Cup baking

2010-06-15T15:39:00.003+01:00

We were invited to an England v USA World Cup BBQ at the weekend...

So I made an England-themed feta, onion, pine nut and red pepper tart to go with

the enormous piles of finger-lickingly good MEAT provided by Luardo's

Anyway, as we should have expected, the game was a distinctly uninspiring draw,
(thanks to some great goalkeeping by Norwich City's finest, Robert Green).

Maybe that signals the end of the World Cup baking...?

Eva's birthday cakes

2010-04-18T20:21:00.003+01:00

Eva celebrated her birthday this weekend, so I made her

some (almost) nutritious butternut squash cupcakes as she's

about to run the Edinburgh marathon.

I iced them with glossy melted white chocolate...

...And rolled out some red royal icing which I covered
with red edible glitter...

...Then I stamped out lots of Es, Vs and As using my
awesome new mini alphabet cutter set.

And here's the birthday girl with a cake,
hot and fresh out the kitchen...

Chocolate chilli macaroons

2010-04-18T19:35:00.004+01:00

And another first this month: macaroons.

I followed Hugh F-W's recipe for easy chocolate macaroons

in Guardian Weekend magazine, so these are a kind of rustic version

of le macaron... not quite Laduree standard.

I also took the liberty of adding a bit of chilli powder to the

macaroon dough and the ganache.

They tasted good, but are not the most attractive thing I have

ever made.... next time I'm going to try to make the real thing.

Au revoir Libby and Andre

2010-04-18T18:16:00.005+01:00

Elizabeth Rose Bankford and Andre CMS-Rickerby are both off to bigger

and better things, so had a joint leaving do at work.

I made them my customary au revoir gateaux...

Never one to make things easy for myself, I made 3 different types:

Rocky Road cupcakes

Lavender cupcakes

Lemon buttercream whip cupcakes

The rocky road cakes were made from chocolate-rich sponge

with big chunks of white and dark chocolate and mini marsmallows

both in the sponge and on top... as well as gooey chocolate ganache icing.

The lavender cupcakes were made by whizzing up the dried flowers

with caster suger in a blender, and using that to flavour the sponge.

For added lavender flavour, I also added some more ground flowers

to the icing sugar and dropped in some violet food colouring.

And to finish... a giant Parma violet!

And nothing new, but always a favourite: lemon buttercream.

However, this time I added lemon zest to the sponge rather than

vanilla essence (thanks Julie Australian Masterchef!),

and it worked really well.

Then you add more zest and juice for that zingy, buttery icing.

Easter hot cross buns

2010-04-18T17:40:00.008+01:00

I've never made hot cross buns, so thought I would
give it a go on Easter Monday.

I consulted Delia and here's what happened...

It's basically like making bread as you have to let the dough
rise twice, but what I thought would be a complicated

process is actually suprisingly simple.

The key ingredients are the ground mixed spice,

cinnamon, nutmeg, currants and candied peel, all of which give

the buns that sweet but slightly bitter, tangy taste.

Once you've let the dough rise for an hour or so, you knead it

again, divide the mixture up into 12 round buns, score a cross on the

top, cover, and leave to rise for another half hour.

Meanwhile, the best bit... making the crosses, which are a flour

and water paste, rolled out and cut into strips.

So cook them in a hot oven for 20 mins or so, and make a

glaze from granulated sugar and hot water...

Once they're cooked, brush them with the glaze and they're done!

I like them cut in half, toasted under the grill, spread with butter

and placed strategically near a Jack Wills mug.

Yum.

Zephyr baby shower

2010-04-18T17:30:00.007+01:00

So I made some cinnamon butternut squash cupcakes
with white chocolate icing for Emma & Joe's baby shower.

And as we were celebrating the impending birth of little

Zephyr, I piped a "Z" onto each cake.

I hope Zephyr liked them!

Lakeland launches in Dubai

2010-03-16T16:23:00.005Z

So I was very excited to hear about my favourite bakeware store's

latest venture.... a Lakeland store in Dubai! (Thanks Ange!)

Here's a photo of Lakeland MD Sam Rayner congratulating

the new Dubai store manager Juval.

So if you're ever in the UAE and stuck for cupcake cases, you know

where to go, (Mirdif City Centre Mall).

Oscar night cupcakes

2010-03-08T22:20:00.008Z

I made some gold sparkling mini cupcakes for
an Oscar red carpet party last night...

Just the usual, vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream....

And here are some of the red carpet arrivals!

Polka dot cakes

2010-03-01T15:28:00.006Z

For no real reason I made some vanilla polka dot

cakes at the weekend...

Maybe it was because I had just been to see Alice

in Wonderland...

which was brilliant, by the way!

Catrin joins the shoe club

2010-02-24T16:41:00.007Z

Now Catrin loooves shoes... we all know that... so what

better birthday treat than double chocolate dancing shoe cookies?

You make some chocolate-rich cookie dough, chill it in the

fridge, then roll it out and use a shoe-shaped cookie cutter.

Then you bake them, let them cool, and slather them with
melted chocolate. 85% cocoa if possible...

Then the fun part... who knew you could dye caster sugar

with food colouring? Thanks "Cupcakes Cheesecakes Cookies

By The Australian Women's Weekly". And thanks to Jez &

Tanya who bought me the book for Christmas!

You add some strategically-placed silver and gold balls,

then the coloured sugar... and then... because I'm obsessed

with edible glitter and sparkling vampires and they weren't

quite ridiculous-looking enough... I scattered a whole load of

holographic glitter all over them.

Catrin was very pleased to finally be a part of the shoe club...
And check out those Louboutins!

Thanks to David Reffell for the marvellously surreal pics.
Check out his other work here.

Lily's 1st birthday cupcake party

2010-02-24T16:25:00.007Z

Scott and I were very excited to receive an invitation to

Lily's 1st birthday celebration... a cupcake party no less.

I went for classic vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

icing, but loaded each one up with different colourful toppings.

After eating a few savoury snacks, our hostess was keen to get her

chops round a cupcake, so pretty much stuffed one in whole.

Toppings included fruity jelly beans, dolly mixture, mini

marshmallows, jelly tots and lots of glitter, but Lily's favourites

were the glittery foam ice cream cones.

Yum.

The devil eats food cake: Arthur's birthday

2010-02-24T15:56:00.006Z

Arthur is a big chocolate fan, so a rich devil's food cake was

the perfect choice for her birthday...

You have to cook a huge chocolate cake, whose 'secret' ingredient

is chocolate custard, then leave it to cool... before cutting into

layers. Next, mix up a huge batch of chocolate icing and then

cement it all together...

I wasn't sure if that was quite enough chocolate, so I added

some dark chocolate shavings for good measure.

The cake weighed about 4 stone, but I managed to transport it into

the office intact before it was attacked with Sandra's scary knife.

Most importantly, it went down very well with cake face.

Zomby cake

2010-01-29T12:26:00.007Z

So Pinglewood was interviewing reclusive music producer

Zomby for the Fader, and it turned out it was his birthday...

...so I made him a cake.

We made the icing look like Zomby's Kate Moross-designed logo.

Here's Zomby having a slice - thanks to Leonie Purchas for the pics.

Check out her website here.

The cake even got a mention in the Fader!

"As part of a monumental effort to get Zomby to show up for scheduled

sessions, photographer Leonie Purchas and writer Scott Wright enlisted

Wright's girlfriend to bake a cake frosted with black and white,

interlocking triangles, an image Zomby has repurposed as a sort of logo.

After exchanging 250 emails and text message (she counted),

Zomby and Purchas finally met. He liked the cake."

You can download the whole issue here.

Sandra's 50 lemon cupcakes

2009-11-26T16:30:00.014Z

So my boss Sandra recently commissioned me to make
50 cupcakes for her 50th birthday!

She's a big fan of my vanilla sponge with lemon buttercream cupcakes.

Because I piped the icing I had to make more than usual and
managed to get through 1.5kg of icing sugar.

But I used half-fat creme fraiche, so that evened things out.

It being a big birthday, I thought edible gold

glitter and stars were in order... which fitted in
well with the general children's party atmosphere.

I think Sandra ate her way through one box of cakes,
while the rest of the office devoured the other...

...pretty quickly.

Best of all, Sandra gamely posed with a lovely pair of cupcakes.

Big thanks to Catrin Cullen for the photos.

Chocolate chilli cupcakes

2009-11-17T14:41:00.009Z

I made these for Lindsey's surprise 30th birthday party.

Mini chocolate brownie cupcakes with a big hit of hot chilli powder.

I added the red sparkles for extra dramatic effect.

As you can see, Catrin was so taken aback (and loaded with Prosecco),

that the camera shook a little when the box was opened.

Pinglewood biscuits

2009-11-14T12:24:00.004Z

Old phone pic no. 5

Here are some little shortbread biscuits made with my awesome 101 cookie cutter kit.

They were soon eaten by a nasty faceless blogger man.

Espresso coffee cake

2009-11-14T12:00:00.005Z

Old phone pic no. 4

This was an Espresso coffee cake I made for my dad's birthday cake last year.

It's a marble vanilla/coffee liqueur marble cake
covered with espresso coffee icing and chocolate covered coffee beans.

Glossy double choc cupcakes

2009-11-14T11:52:00.005Z

Old phone pic no. 3

These were some double choc cupcakes I made for
Joey and Andrew's joint birthday a few years ago...

I think they were choc fudge cakes with a glossy dark chocolate ganache icing.

WARNING: Though silver balls look cool, they can take a tooth out.

Mini coffee walnut cakes

2009-11-14T11:47:00.003Z

Old phone pic no.2

These were individual mini coffee walnut sponge cakes from a recipe in You magazine.

Kind of impossible to eat, but really cute and very tasty.

Scarlet fever cakes

2009-11-14T11:42:00.004Z

I've just found loads of old photos on my phone,
so thought I'd share them on here.

Old phone pic no. 1

First up, some cakes I made for my boss Sandra
on her return to work after a nasty bout of scarlet fever...

...Nope, I didn't think anyone could catch scarlet fever any more either.

S-layer cake

2009-10-09T20:31:00.007+01:00

It was Lucy Furvert-Hunt's birthday this week,
so Pinglewood and I decided a Slayer cake was in order.

It was a vanilla sponge, sandwiched with vanilla buttercream
in the middle and slathered with thick black chocolate icing.

A sprinkling of black glitter created the magic,
while Dr Oetker provided the red and yellow royal icing.

Lucy seemed to like it.

And it took a while to convince her to cut into it...

But finally, she relented...

Thankfully for Fatrick.

More spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes...

2009-10-02T15:13:00.000+01:00

Glad to see the XL Recordings crew enjoyed

the spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes.

I particularly like the different way everyone has approached

the first bite of what is a tricky-to-eat cake...

Prism cupcakes

2009-09-22T22:47:00.000+01:00

So I was very excited when Anna asked me to make cupcakes

for her Prism launch party during London Fashion Week.

We even got a mention on Style.com!

"In fact, judging by the crowd at last night’s launch party for Prism,
the eyewear range designed by Anna Laub, even folks with 20/20
vision are keen to accessorize their eyes. Laub had taken over the roof
deck at London’s Soho House, and along with the lychee cocktails and
miniature cupcakes going around, there were pairs of glasses from the
new line there for the trying-on."

Style.com/blog

After an exhaustive tasting session, we decided to go for vanilla
cupcakes with four different types of icing to match the different finishes,
as well as the triangular Prism logo in rolled black Royal icing.

Above is the metallic blue, lime flavoured icing to
match London in Midnight Blue.

Cream and black vanilla and chocolate buttercream
icing to match Paris Zebra Horn.

Black chocolate icing dusted with matt black
powder to match Rio Matt Black.

And pale grey lemon icing to match New York Crystal Grey.

And here's Elizabeth Rose Bankford in her Crystal Grey Prisms,
with a lychee cocktail and lemon cupcake!

Spaghetti and meatballs cupcakes

2009-09-18T22:01:00.001+01:00

I made these for Ruth's leaving do at work.
At first glance, they look a little worrying...

But everyone seemed to think they tasted good.

Dolly Mixture birthday cake

2009-09-16T21:08:00.001+01:00

Vanilla buttercream frosted sponge
sandwich cake with Dolly Mixture...

...for Mum's birthday!

Labour of love

2009-09-16T21:01:00.000+01:00

Ok, so here's my FAILED entry to the

Woman & Home cupcake competition...

Thanks are also due to Tom and Catrin who were
on the creative team. There's always next year...

Joey and Andrew's birthday cakes

2009-09-16T20:56:00.000+01:00

And these were chocolate and vanilla

cupcakes for Joey and Andrew's birthday.

They chocolate icing was decorated with white chocolate buttons...

...and the vanilla icing had Milky Way Magic Stars.

Vanilla and lemon birthday cupcakes

2009-09-16T17:24:00.000+01:00

Here are the cupcakes I made for my mum's birthday party last year.

The floral cakes (above) were vanilla buttercream

and the dolly mixture (below) were lemon.

I displayed them on tiered stands covered with doilies
and put a few candles on the ones on the top.