For Better or For Worse...?

Quite possibly one of the worst cakes I've made.

Alright, I know it's not terrible. But it ain't great. People can say all they like that it was a great cake, but I know deep down they're thinking... WTF?!

This was for one of my best friend's engagement party. She is one of the sweetest people you will ever meet, and I feel so terrible for the way this cake came out. On their first wedding anniversary I plan to replicate this cake the way it should have been made so fear not! Hannah and Mark will get their perfect engagement cake one day! It should be noted that I'll also be making their wedding cake so I'll be sure to make that one perfect too!!

Icing on the Top:

• This was a replica of their proposal, which I cried at when Hannah told me (not because she had a diamond ring, because I'm genuinely happy for her!!). Haha, no being serious. It was Hannah's 21st birthday at Glastonbury 2011 and Mark took her up on Glasto Tor and after much fumbling about in his pocket for the ring that his mum had SEWN to the inside of his trousers, he managed to pop the question to our beautiful Hannah. So Hannah and I agreed on this design for their cake.
• The reason I don't like this cake is because there's too many inside layers of cake. Don't get me wrong though, you can argue that having too much cake is a pro, so I will argue that.
• Hannah and Mark really are just the sweetest couple and couldn't stop gushing about it. I even got a mention in the toasts, so I'm guessing they liked it.

Burnt Bits:

• It's shit.
• Normally, I bake two layers of cake and sandwich them together with buttercream. For some reason I was convinced that these layers wouldn't add enough height to the cake so I carried on baking and gave them a triple-layer cake on each tier. Unfortunately, this didn't work in my favour due to the amount of buttercream I sandwiched between each layer, and this led to it spilling out of the sides of the cake once I covered the cake in icing. The weight of the icing just helped push out even more buttercream, and gave this horribly bumpy edge to each tier.
• I thought that by adding a string of trees around the tiers it would help disguise this. It didn't, and I don't even think there are many trees at Glastonbury festival.
• I was under a lot of pressure to make this cake. I had stupidly agreed to also make my then mother-in-law's birthday cake for the same day, and suffice it to say, I put more effort into her cake :(
• I couldn't get the consistency of the royal icing right when I was finishing off the bottom of the tiers, and a lot of it melted into one another instead of maintaining their 'star' shapes.
• The 'Glastonbury' sign was supposed to be made out of flowerpaste, so that it would harden and I would be able to stand the letters up on the side of the tiers. I didn't plan this very well, and the letters I was cutting out were very wonky, messy, crappy... So I just printed off a picture of the sign and cut it out, layering the letters onto card and affixing them to the cake with cocktail sticks stuck to the back of the letters.
• Hannah and Mark are HUGE compared to the sign. Evidently not good to make out that they are in fact, giants.

I will now post about the other cake I made that day to make myself feel better about my cake-making skills. Boo me!

Happy Baking x

If I Ever Made My Own 21st Birthday Cake...

This would be it!

Unfortunately, it's not for me. No one will be making me a birthday cake in 3 weeks time seeing as I will be away in New York (yes, I will mention it again :D). This cake has been made for business purposes! My gorgeous best friend Abby has kindly offered to help me with the advertising side of my 'Cakes by Kirsten' business once it's up and running, and I wanted a logo that would help define the company and myself. This is me all over - pastel colours, girlie, and BOWS! (I have a bow tattoo for a tramp stamp.) So this will be plastered all over my business cards, leaflets and website when I buy a domain.

This cake is also being used as part of my degree. One of the module I'm studying requires me and other group members to create a 32-page magazine from scratch, and then it gets sent to the printers! We're doing an article on independent business women, and who else to interview but moi! So a good friend Jodie will be doing the photography of this cake with me looking spanking in heels and an apron a la Bree Van De Kamp.

Anywho, the cake is entirely covered in white icing, using lilac, baby pink and baby blue ribbons and polka dots to finish. This is the first time I've actually been really pleased with the outcome of my bows. My mum's cake was too thick and didn't co-ordinate size-wise with the ribbon to match. The bow on Grumpy's christmas cake cracked on the knot, making it look silly :( I used the ribbon cutter tool to make everything even, and inserted a cake dowel right through the centre of the three cakes to hold them all together, aswell as the usual dowels in each layer (this prevents them from sinking into one another). The bows are made out of a combination of sugarpaste and Gum Tragacanth which helps harden icing to make it easier to mould into flowers etc. I used a few odds and ends to help keep things intact until they set properly though... Apologies for the crudeness :P

Remember back last summer when I did a few posts on Wedding-related happenings? The bride in one of the pictures, Laura is now pregnant! I wonder if she'd like this kind of cake for her Baby Shower? One can only ask.... ;)

Any questions feel free to ask!

Happy Baking x

Look what I bought!

I am gettin super duper excited for Jim's 21st birthday now... I very nearly have everything for his cake, but couldn't wait until it all arrived. I thought I'd share with you the sorts of goodies I've bought so far, since it's not really the norm you'd find in your kitchen cupboards.
As I've already said before, I'm going to be making a cupcake tier cake for him. He has a blue/black/silver theme going on for the decorations and such like, so I've bought things to go along with the theme. My mum thinks that the colours are a bit gash together, but I like them :)

Okay, so what do we have here?
 - A 23-space cupcake tier stand, £12.00 from Amazon. I've found these elsewhere for more than double that price so snap them up quickly - they're the perfect item for displaying your yummy muffins and cupcakes.
- Silver wire. £2 from Lawsons. All will be revealed in about a month's time :D
- Blue, black and white icing. £2-3 each from Lawsons. Ready to roll, I'm going to cut little shapes out of the icing to stick on the cupcakes. Then I'll use writing icing to write little messages like 'Happy 21st Birthday' and 'Jim' on the cakes.

- Piping bag and large nozzles. £4 from Lawsons. Ever been to Mr Bun's Bakery? They have extra-wide buttercream patterns on their cakes, which are a lot simpler and nicer to look at then star-shaped nozzles. I'll be using these.
- Large circular silver cake base. £4 from Lawsons. I'm going to put the cake stand on this so that I get an extra tier out of the cupcakes - more for everyone! :D Plus it's all about presentation, haha...

- '21' diamante cake decoration - £5 from Lawsons. I know it's a bit girly, but I'm going to man it up a bit for the cake, don't worry.. I have faith in my designs!

As you can see, I've bought an awful lot from Lawsons. As far as I know, there's only stores in Plymouth and Tavistock. It's a great shop for kitchen items, and they specialise in making custom-made cakes, especially for weddings. They've got a great selection of examples in display, including a castle wedding cake, and a cake with tier pillars made out of dolly mixtures! They are reasonably priced, too. They've got a website if you don't live near one, check them out: http://www.lawsonshop.co.uk/ .

Stay tuned, this cake is going to be amazing :D

Kirsten x