WOW!! Old-fashioned till cake!

Sometimes you get asked to design a cake that you know is a complete one-off and you'll never do again. THIS is one of those cakes!

It was a 65th birthday cake for Stewart Mahon who runs North West Business Machines www.nwbm.co.uk which supplies retail businesses with tills & software.











His son Nick commissioned the cake along with Stewart's wife who wanted a rich fruit cake base to the cake being that it's nearly Christmas! The top curved part of the cake is made from Vanilla Bean Sponge Cake.

After looking at some pictures of old fashioned cash tills I set about coming up with the design. The cake was about 1 foot wide and 1.5 feet tall and it was HEAVY!!!














I went for a bronzed metallic effect on the sugarpaste which came out beautifully, especially around the imprinted details.
















The keys and the other details looked fantastic and really brought the cake to life!

It was finished with a personal message piped onto the board and painted with bronze lustre dust to match the rest of the cake.

Nick was really pleased with the cake when he came to pick it up as were his family when it was unveiled at the party so I was really happy with it!!

 
 
 

Fabulous Finding Nemo Cake!

Last week we went to the 2nd birthday party of Oliver, the gorgeous little boy of some good friends of mine. 

As Oliver is currently obsessed with Finding Nemo, his Mum asked me to create a cake based around the film.

I had so much fun creating all of characters including Nemo & Dory, Bruce the vegetarian shark, Peach the starfish, Squirt the baby sea turtle, Pearl the Octopus and of course, one of the seagulls perched on a rock!!

I then made lots of sea-weed and coral along with a wooden under-water sign which took pride of place at the front of the cake and it all came together perfectly!

At the party, it was the adults, not just the kids who loved the detail on this cake so I was really pleased with the result!

Anyone for Golf?!!

So this is something a little different from me, a 50th Birthday cake for a big fan of golf so I thought I'd keep it simple but effective and create a golf ball cake.

Made from two half-sphere chocolate cakes and sandwiched and covered in chocolate buttercream, this was one yummy cake.

Before putting the sugarpaste on, circles of cake were spooned out from all around the sphere to create the gold ball effect.

The cake was then secured to a cake board which was piped in green royal icing using a grass nozzle before the writing was added to the ball.

The cake then travelled down to Birmingham before being presented to Mike at his 50th birthday celebration!

The Naked Cake Returns!

Last weekend I drove over to Burnsall,North Yorkshire to deliver a wedding cake to the Devonshire Fell Hotel. The drive through the country was lovely with sunny skies and views of gorgeous Autumnal-leaved trees, the perfect setting for a wedding!

The Bride & Groom wanted The Naked Cake, first done for my brother and sister-in-law's wedding earlier this year.

 

Due to the simple nature of this cake, it's part of the Simply Antoinette range which is currently being developed. 

Simply Antoinette is  a range of beautiful and chic, gorgeous tasting cakes with simple yet stunning decoration for people whose budget can't perhaps stretch to a bespoke wedding cake.

The colour scheme was bright pink and turquoise and the room was decorated using a collection of fresh flowers dotted around in jam jars and bottles which had been painted and accessorised with pretty ribbon and fabric trims - I loved it so thought I'd post a couple of photos to share with you!!

Go Pink Breakthrough Breast Cancer Charity Cake!

Tomorrow at Automatic Cafe the team are all going to be wearing pink (yes even the Men!) in support of the "Go Pink" Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity. 

















They're hoping to raise plenty of money so I offered to make a special and gorgeously pink cake for them to raffle.


I'm really happy with how it turned out, the cake itself has four layers of pink vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream completely covered in white chocolate before being drizzled with pink chocolate and topped with a pyramid of yummy fluffy marshmallows!!

I made a solid pink chocolate heart which was covered in baby pink edible glitter which was stuck to the front of the cake and the Go Pink logo attached to it, also covered in pink glitter!!

I hope it raises plenty of money and to the lucky winner - enjoy every piece!!

Pink & White Prettiness!!

One of my new cake designs has been inspired by the arrival of my niece, Olivia Mia in September.



Although I haven't met the little nipper yet, I have been fortunate enough to receive plenty of photos and quite frankly, there's always lots of pink girly loveliness involved!!!














So I thought it only fitting to name this cake after her, it's so pretty and I love it. The ruffles, the pink and white candy stripe, the pink polka dots and the beautiful pink rose!!

I think it's perfect for a birthday, christening or a wedding and can be done in different colour tones too. I think a combination of different pastel colours would be gorgeous for a summer wedding!

Oh Miranda, Such Fun!!

So Miranda Hart was doing a book-signing today at Waterstones in the Trafford Centre and I seen as she's incredibly funny and my husband and I can't wait for the next series to start, I decided to make her a fabulous cake to take along for her to enjoy.

I thought of a cake that I reckoned she would love and got to work, it looked (and smelled) amazing and off we set Trafford Centre bound.

All was going to plan until we got near Waterstones and saw a HUGE crowd outside and were told that no more people were allowed in (even in to the shop!!).















After I stopped sulking about not getting to meet such a funny lady who has made me laugh out loud on many an occasion, I decided that the only thing to do was to bestow my lovely creation on a Waterstones employee who was trying to manage an ever increasing crowd outside (none of whom were going to get in I may add) asking them to pass the cake onto Miranda before she left.

So, hopefully, and fingers crossed, Miranda did receive her cake and is gleefully picking off chocolate dipped marshmallows off the top to reveal a delicious chocolate cake sandwiched with chocolate buttercream and covered in belgian dark chocolate and creamy white chocolate.

I love this cake and hope to make many of them for people in the future, it's a fantastic cake for a birthday or other celebration, and costs £40 (serves 10 people or 1 hungry chocolate addict!).