Saturday 28 February 2015

Shower Cake No. 1

Fact number one, my wedding is coming up in a matter of months. Before the May wedding date, I have a few showers planned because instead of having a huge shower with 80 people there, I chose to have a few more intimate groups and spend more one-on-one time with people.

The first round took place at the Church, with a great group of ladies whom I have known my entire life. We played games, ate yummy food, drank tea, and won prizes! It was a real pleasure to have this celebration with them because they have all been so supportive throughout the engagement and I'm sure they will help make everything in the church perfect.

For the refreshments at the shower, I made a cake (of course) using the recipe I will be using to make "Patrick's Half" of the wedding cake (more to follow on the one). Thinking back, you may remember I made Patrick a mint-chocolate swirl cake as a treat onValentine's Day, and because he enjoyed it so much I thought that this would be a perfect cake to represent him at our wedding (my Scottish side is having fruit cake!). I decorated the cake with our wedding's theme of the tree, representing family trees and putting down roots. At the end of the shower Mum and I handed out little "thank-you" bags which contained a slice of this cake to take home, a tea bag which I made using David's Tea's loose leaf La La Lemon tea (so yummy!!!) and a recipe for the cake. All the shower guests were asked to bring one of their family's favourite recipes to share with me, so in return I gave them one of mine.

The first cake of many to be made for this occasion...



 
 

 
 I know it's not typical for the Bride to know about the shower ahead of time, let alone make her own cake, but anyone will tell you I'm not typical... 

The Cake Materialised out of Nowhere!

Confession time: I love Doctor Who. I grew up watching it, being scared by the bubble-wrapped beasts chasing the Doctor and his assistants through far-off planets. Our parents would tape episodes of Doctor Who when it played on channel 57 and I thought that if I was talking when it recorded then it would also record my voice and I would be in trouble. It's low-budget monsters and recurring bad-guys were a familiar gathering as the Doctor and assistants saved planets and civilisations from ruin in wonderful retro fashion. Those who haven't seen Doctor Who wont be as excited by this blog post, so I suggest you take a few hours and do some Googling.

The title of Biggest Who-Fan in our family definitely goes to my sister. She will name you the episode, tell you which Doctor it was (there were several because he regenerated.... Google it), who the assistants were, the villain, the setting, where else they had used the set (low-budget, remember), and who produced the episode. You get the idea. So when it comes to making treats for my sister there isn't really much thinking required, and when you give someone a chocolate Dalek for Christmas, you know they'll love a TARDIS for their Birthday.

This cake was somewhat inspired by my lazy Susan, because the cake needed to be fully appreciated while it turned. Growing up, my Parents had coffee mugs that displayed a TARDIS on the side which was blue while the mug was cold. Pour hot liquid in the mug and the TARDIS faded to white, and therefore "dematerialised". (Perfectly normal childhood). What I hoped to create here for my sister was a dematerialising TARDIS on her cake. Luckily, she got it.

The little chocolate TARDISs (TARDII??)

 Top view of the fading TARDII
 
 
Now, imagine the cake is turning....
...step one.... 
...step two... 
...step three... 
...step four...

...see the effect?? The TARDIS even flies away too!
(I'll admit it, I had fun with this one!)

"Look Who's 21"

My colleague asked me to make a cake for her son's 21st Birthday. She's great to work with because she, being a creative person, always has great ideas, themes and colour suggestions, so literally all I have to do is translate it into cake and sugar. Hopefully this latest cake fit her vision and she and her family celebrated in style!


 

Sunday 15 February 2015

Love all Swirled Together

Most of my cakes are for other people to be honest, which Patrick finds particularly difficult when all these yummy treats pass him by and there are no samples for him to eat. Don't feel to badly for him though, because he always gets a special cake on the special occasions in our house. Such as for Valentine's Day when I wanted to make my Sweetie a special something only meant for him to enjoy, so I made him a mint-chocolate swirl cake with some pretty hearts on top.

This recipe and I go way back, and I always knew it would be in my life. Thank goodness I found someone who considers this one of his favourite flavours otherwise I would have to eat a lot of cake!

Happy Valentine's Day to my Sweetie!
 
Mmmm... minty swirlness :)

Editor's Addition:
Apparently, I had these photos tucked away out of sight when I did this original post. Here is the mint-chocolate swirl cake pre-consumption.

Saturday 14 February 2015

Roses Return

Tis that time of year again where stores are awash with pink and red, and chocolates can be found in every aisle. You wont find these ones, however! I am biased, I grant you but still, I love the concept of flowers and chocolates rolled into one delectable delight. Perfectly practical in every way.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all, enjoy a good cuddle!