Before & After

I am always posting photos of my cupcakes

when they look all pretty & proud

sitting in their cases,

so I thought I would show you all a

couple of photos of when they are naked,

just out of the oven stage 

and then when they have been

frosted, covered and cut into!

A gorgeous chocolate cupcake 

topped in dark chocolate ganache

and covered with sugarpaste/fondant

.................Yum!!!!!..............

LITTLE MISS GIGGLES

Little Miss Giggles.

A lovely young man drove down from London this morning to pick this cake up....... he ordered this for his friend's Birthday. Her Nickname is Giggles and thought this would make a lovely birthday cake for her........how nice is that!!!!

The cake is Vanilla sponge with buttercream and fondant covered.

Set on a 12" cake board.

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk

"White on White" Wedding Cupcakes

"White on White" Cupcake design!

This is one of the designs I made for potential clients today

(which are quite similar to the ones I made a few days ago)

I haven't posted the other designs as yet,

because they were close to what they liked for their design and colour

so I will post those photos at a later date.

Flower & Swirl Cupcakes

Some of my "high-dome" cupcakes I made for Wednesday

when we went to visit friends!

These would look stunning on a cupcake tower

at any wedding....in any colour combination!

These beauties are a Vanilla Sponge,

topped with a very generous portion of creamy buttercream,

covered with a circle of sugarpaste.

Each one is decorated with a flowerpaste fantasy flower,

and sugarpaste swirls and pearls.

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!"

"Happy New Year Everyone!"

Thought I would let you know

 that although I have no new uploads as yet,

 I am currently working on

some new designs for

"2011 Wedding Cakes"

Some elegantly simple and some with more colour than my usual,

as bright colours seem to be a very popular choice,

such as:

Watermelon Pink

Oranges,

Purples,

Blues, etc.....

So as soon as I am happy with the sketched designs

 and have brought them to life

I will upload photos for all to see!

Hope you all have had a lovely Christmas

and hope you enjoy my "Diary of Cakes" for 2011

Nicola

x

Christmas Reindeer Cake

This is our families very Rich & Boozy Christmas Fruit Cake.

I left this very late to make

(as always)

but was advised by a flickr/facebook friend

(Abbietabbie)

to feed it with a very generous amount of brandy

while it is hot and just out of the oven......

and boy was this cake moist,

I would advise anyone to do the same

if time wasn't on their side.

I then fed the cake with brandy every morning

until it was time to marzipan it.

This deep 7" cake is covered with sugar paste

and decorated with hand cut sugar reindeer's

which are covered with edible silver glitter

and some various sized silver sugar ball scattered here and there!

The ribbons are sheer blue and green

in different widths.

"Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!"

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk

LEIGH & JOSEPHINES WINTER WEDDING CAKE

This is just part of a Wedding order for two lovely clients,

Leigh & Josephine.

A very appropriate theme for the current weather I think!

The order was for a 3 tier (stacked) cake

and matching cupcakes,

but as this was to be collected and taken all the way up to Leeds

I sent the cake as three separate tiers

so it could be put together and set up at the venue

by the very helpful head chef and caterers.

Unfortunately I haven't got any photos of

the set-up as yet, but hopefully have some soon.

The above photos show the top tier of the cake

which is covered in white fondant,

with some embossing on the front side,

which is highlighted with painted white/pearl lustre,

various sized sugar snowflakes (covered with magic sparkles)

and royal icing piped dots.

The cupcakes have half covered with embossing and highlighted

and the other half, plain with the snowflakes.

flavours of cakes were:

Top tier: Chocolate sponge with chocolate ganache

Middle tier: Chocolate/orange sponge with choc/orange ganache

Bottom tier: Zesty lemon sponge with lemon buttercream

Cupcakes: Chocolate sponge with chocolate/orange ganache.

FAIRY PEPPA PIG

Fairy Peppa Pig (3D) Cake

Peppa was made for the little girl Suzy who lives nextdoor to me

.......she is absolutely obsessed with Peppa Pig

and her mum wanted me to make her

a 3D cake for her 2nd Birthday.

The cake is vanilla sponge with buttercream,

the wand is a lollipop cookie with her age on

..........and with fairy dust (magic sparkles) everywhere.

Cake board is a 12 inch round.

The bottom picture is of some lollipop cookies made to

co-ordinate with the wand.

Everybody loved this as did Suzy

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/

Snowmen & Christmas Tree Cookies

Christmas Cookies

Shortbread Cookies cut in the shape of Christmas Trees and Snowmen

covered with sugarpaste and hand scored to give

extra detailing.

............

These cookies were made for friends as we were visiting them after

school today and as it's that time of year I

just had to make some festive treats!

....any excuse!

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

Can you imagine the squeals of delight

when I was asked to make another Little Miss (Mr Men) cake....

but this time being "Little Miss Sunshine!"

they are all so very cute!

..........

This is a Vanilla & Chocolate layer cake

cut to a size of 6.5 x 7" and covered in sugarpaste/fondant

and placed on a 12" cake board.

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/

VINTAGE SEWING MACHINE #2

I was asked to recreate the "Vintage Sewing Machine"

I made a while back as was very pleased to do so!

I am really pleased with the result

and thinking it is actually better than the first one I made.

..........

If you can recall the actual sewing machine part is Polystyrene

covered in sugarpaste (fondant)

and decorated to resemble the machine.

This is placed on a 3mm cake board which can be

removed and if wished....saved.

The machine box part is cake,

"Zesty Lemon Sponge sandwiched together

with Lemon Buttercream.

and placed on a 12" x 14" cake board.

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/

WINTER MAGNOLIA

WINTER MAGNOLIA

This is the new Wedding Display Cake I have made to go in http://www.susansofgosport.co.uk/ and if you live in the Hampshire area drop by Gosport and you will be able to view this and see how elegant this looks for real. Also have a look at the extensive selection of Wedding and Prom dresses........she has everything you could wish for and more......

This cake has deep tiers for the top and middle and standard depth for the bottom tier, but would look amazing no matter what depth each tier was.

Double covered with ivory sugarpaste for a clean finish and trimmed with ivory sugarpaste trim and ribbon which could be any colour to match your wedding colour/theme.

To finish the simplicity design, a sugar Magnolia is added and sligtly dusted with lustre (although on the photo the lighting gives it quite a glossy look) and the flower centre has some magic sparkles sprinkled on for a slight jewelled finish.

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/

http://www.smallthingsiced.blogspot.com/

GUITAR WEEKEND

I had two separate orders for this last weekend

and they were both for "Guitar Cakes!"

...what are the chances?

The Top guitar was made to look like the clients

son's own Yamaha Guitar so this was airbrushed for the effect,

I remembered at the last minute to put the

Yamaha writing and symbol on the Machine Head part

literally just before they rang the doorbell to pick the cake up,

unfortunately I didn't get any photos of that

but pleased with the photo's I have got anyway!

This particular cake was Chocolate sponge with

Chocolate Buttercream covered in sugar paste/fondant

and all the detailing is edible.

.......................

The bottom cake (photographed above)

was a Vanilla Sponge & Buttercream

and made almost identical but you will probably recognise it

from a cake I made quite a while back,

so this one is a replica of that.

Both cakes were set on a 24" x 14" Cake Board

For Prices see

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/

under Celebration Cakes

Walking Boot cake

65th Walking Boot Cake.

Within this cake I had to incorporate 4 children,

to represent the grandchildren,

a destroyer naval ship, cricket bat & ball

and a blue & white striped footy scarf.

Everything here is edible.

The cake itself is Zesty Lemon with Lemon Buttercream.

All placed on a 14" square Cake Board.

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

So........I know the photo isn't the best quality,

but lets face it, when the cupcakes taste really good

......who cares!!!

......

I made these from one of my cake recipes

and wanted to find out if they worked well as cupcakes!

the answer to that one is "OH YES!!!"

The dark chocolate sponge tastes really chocolatey

and yet so light in texture,

each one is covered in a thick layer of

chocolate glaze and when it's set it's still soft,

firm but soft!

and as for the taste, well.....my best yet!

sooo pleased with these!

Now all we have to do is eat them!

Oh my poor waistline!........tut, never mind lol!

Vintage Pearl & Rose Wedding Cake

This 3 tier Wedding cake would look gorgeous

at any wedding with a vintage theme.

............

Each tier has double the thickness of any regular cake

( I think looks a lot better for this style)

 has sugarpaste pearls around each base as a boarder

and the middle tier is completely covered in

sugarpaste strings of pearls

......of which I don't mind sharing with you,

"they took forever!!!"

but the result is well worth it.

The pearls are painted with a golden pearl lustre

& finished off with various sized roses in a graded peach colour.

.....................

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/

Masquerade Cupcake Tower

Masquerade Themed 40th Party

This order was placed as a surprise for the clients wife,

obviously she knew about the party

but he wanted to order her some cakes to tie in with the theme.

He already mentioned he liked the look of the

coconut covered cupcakes and more or less left the design up to me,

so this is what was designed.

The top cutting cake is a 6" Vanilla Sponge

with Rosewater Buttercream,

covered in white fondant.

The large Mask Topper is Sugar,

handcut and crafted, airbrushed and painted in Blue & silver

with a sugar flower and finished off with feathers with embellishments.

The cupcakes are a variety of

Vanilla sponge covered with coconut and topped with

a double bloom.

Chocolate cupcakes and Zesty Lemon cupcakes

are fondant covered with a single sugar mask

individually airbrushed then hand painted.

I got a message from the client this morning saying that the cakes were a great success!

I am so pleased, as these were a joy to make,

yes, they took me absolutely ages

but the result was well worth it!

For Prices go to

http://www.smallthingsiced.co.uk/