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I thought I’d give the words a rest today and just stick with the pictures….if you want to see more detail on the things I love, click on the ‘Follow me on Pinterest’ red button on the right hand side. But here, my love of all things Tiffany blue continues with a Pinterest board devoted to the colour! x
Upside-down snowy hill
This is Holcombe Hill with Peel tower on the top (Peel as in Sir Robert Peel, founder of the Police force). I’ve lived within sight of this hill for my whole life from the age of 18 months old, barring 3 years at University in Leeds.
Usually the top is the bit that has the snow on, but driving home this week the hill was upside-down after the sun had melted the snow on the top but not quite reached what was further down.
This hill to me means home. And the view from the top is pretty spectacular too!
This week’s picture was taken on Monday evening when it was perishing cold! The frost was starting to form on the roof of my dad’s car and made this amazing pattern. x
Bit of a delayed one this week due to me being ill at the weekend (NOT as a result of this I hasten to add!)
My working week ended on Thursday, right about this time….
Hope you’re all have a good week. Week five’s post will be along very soon. x
Pinterest. Haven’t heard of it? It’s a wonderful site full of fabulousness and definitely worth checking out!
What is it? It’s basically a very large online pin board. Most people have postcards or magazine cutouts of images they love – well I do anyway! Maybe pinned up around your desk at work for that few minutes of escapism in a hectic working day. Mine are stuck inside my kitchen cupboards alongside photos of my little ones….for that few minutes of escapism when the dinnertime frenzy hits its peak!
On Pinterest you can see what the other users think is beautiful, and create your own pinboards too. In a similar way to Twitter you follow other people and they follow you too.
Why do you need this in your life? Well, it’s another form of social media. But it’s a beautiful one. And (I warn you!) a good way to while away an evening finding inspiration! It’s also a very neat and tidy way to collect things without them cluttering up your house!
Go take a look…..and if you want to see the things that I love you can find me here.
Those of you who’ve read earlier posts will know that I came to be a full-time cakey as a result of being made redundant from my day job. In my last life I was an accountant, and I’m afraid the bookkeeping mind never quite leaves you! This has turned out to be quite a useful fact though as a few weeks ago a friend told me she was in need of some extra help to get through year end and so I find myself with a part-time temporary contract. January and February have been quiet cake months in the past so this fits in quite nicely, and I’m enjoying the sociability of the office job….and also enjoying coming home to cake!
Anyway, after many mornings arriving in the office resembling a waterlogged rodent, the skies cleared today proving that it doesn’t actually rain all the time in Manchester! As I came out of the office at lunchtime today I saw this view and it made my heart lift.
On Sunday I attended the Egerton House Hotel bridal fair with our new spring 2012 designs. I love this venue – we had our wedding reception there in 2003 so I’m a little on the biased side to be fair! But it was great to be back exhibiting there with our friends from Little White Books and catching up with other exhibitors.
With this new collection of designs we’ve returned back to our more simple themes. Smooth icing, interesting ribbon detail, sugar flowers and some beading too. I love to make new designs. I love to make anything in cake! But I think my own cake-style is represented fairly well with this set. The decision to return to a more simple and elegant style was also designed to show that you can have an amazing cake without the fuss (and expense!) of lots of detail.
I had lots of lovely feedback on them at the wedding fair….cue warm feeling inside! Being behind the stand at a wedding fair can be quite daunting and it’s lovely to get such great comments. The designs are built in the isolation of my kitchen so showing them is a bit scary….I really liked this set so it was even more of a challenge waiting for the feedback! Each of the designs was a hit for different people which again really pleased me. Here’s hoping we can help some of those brides with their cake.
I love these – the strong colour is fabulous against the black centres. I just wanted to share them because they’re so bright for a dreary day in January!
The poppies are available in three sizes….and we can make the smaller ones in different colours as anemones too. Get in touch for details or check out our online shop to buy them.
A heart theme is still a popular one for weddings. I’ve had a number of people ask me about making a heart shaped wedding cake – and none of them have actually finally settled on a design that is that shape!
There’s a couple of things to think about if you’re considering a heart shaped cake. The first is that a 12 inch heart cake will give a lot fewer portions than a 12 inch round or square cake. We calculate portion numbers based on a slice of cake being approximately 1 inch x 2 inches. So for a 12 inch square cake you’d get 12 pieces along and 6 pieces down giving approximately 72 pieces from the cake. For a round cake you get fewer pieces as all the corners are missing. So for a heart shaped cake you get fewer still as there is more of the square cut away to make the shape. So for the same cost as a square cake, you’ll be getting much less cake.
The second is that it’s actually really hard to tell that a tiered (especially stacked) cake is heart shaped unless you’re looking at it from straight downwards!
I’m not saying don’t have a cake shaped like a heart….So….if you’re thinking about a heart-themed cake, you may want to consider these options.
A heart shaped top tier
This wedding cake has the bottom two tiers as square cakes and then the top tier as a heart shape. The top tier is iced in a highlight colour which helps to emphasise its shape. Hearts feature in contrasting colours all over the cake and then also in the beaded topper.
Heart details
This cake includes heart details on all three tiers – the hearts are made from icing.
We also made heart shaped shortbread biscuits as favours and used these boxes with a heart shape in them too:
Heart topper
Similar icing hearts feature on this design but on a cake with a very different look. The beaded cake topper is made from Swarovski crystals.
Heart cascade
This cake is full of hearts – but is not a heart shaped cake. Bold and striking in colour and unmistakably heart themed!
If you’re considering a heart shaped cake then have a think about these options….if you still want to go with a shaped cake I’d love to make one for you! Or a new combination of ideas. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss ideas or have any questions.
I get lots of lovely comments about my sugar flowers and they remain a very popular element on all sorts of cakes, especially as they keep indefinitely. So I thought you might like to see some in progress. This spray was made for one of our notonthehighstreet.com customers and features tea roses, peonies, Lily of the valley, sweet peas, freesia and foliage.
Every flower or leaf starts off as a piece of flower paste and a packet of paper covered floristry wires. Flower paste is a special kind of icing that sets hard – I have a favourite brand, from A Piece of Cake, which sets hard but does not break very easily! Although the flowers are all made from this paste, the wires in them make them inedible.
I use cutters and veiners to make the individual leaves and petals, along with tools to shape the pieces. Generally, each petal is made one by one and built up onto the full flower.
Each bloom and leaf is colours individually and then can be glazed too with confectioner’s glaze to give a sheen to the surface – this was done here with the rose leaves and the ivy.
Once everything is coloured, the spray is wired together – leaves are wired into stems first. The sprays can me made into different shapes – this one is mainly tear-drop shaped and was destined for the top of a wedding cake.
For more pictures, and different flowers, check out our sugar flowers page. And if you’d like to buy a spray you can find them soon on our online store and also right now on our notonthehighstreet.com storefront.
