The purple rose wedding cake

So here we are in 2012 and we’re starting the year with a bang. I was very privileged to be the cake designer for a very elegant wedding which took place this weekend at the stunning One Great George Street, a venue rich in history and located in the heart of Westminster just moments from Parliament Square and Westminster Abbey where Prince William and Catherine were married.

The cake needed to be classic with a contemporary twist and have enough presence to hold its own in a grand hall full of marble, chandeliers and gold.

To tie in with the purple and ivory colour scheme, 180 roses were hand moulded in three shades of purple, separating each tier of plain ivory. Pale cream grosgrain and deep purple satin from London’s finest haberdashery VV Rouleaux trimmed the tiers, adding texture and definition.

The finishing touch to this 7 tier beauty was a gorgeous posy of fresh flowers provided by Pesh Flowers, comprising of sensational memory lane roses, anemones, and lisianthus which had to be added with the aid of a step ladder as there wasn’t anyone at the venue tall enough to reach the top!

And because all cake should taste as good as it looks, there were 4 different flavour combinations: Belgian chocolate cake filled with bitter chocolate meringue buttercream, sticky stem ginger cake filled with Madagascan vanilla meringue buttercream, carrot and pecan cake filled with citrus trio meringue buttercream, lemon cake filled with lemon curd and lemon meringue buttercream.

This was a majestic wedding cake, taller than even the giant table centrepieces, and it was a fabulous way to start this year. Here’s to many more glorious venues and grand wedding cake designs!

Tags: purple cake, wedding cake, Westminster wedding

I’m dreaming of an iced Christmas

At around this time of year you can’t move for deep greens and berry reds but I’m always craving either a cool and crisp or rich and luxe colour palette when it comes to Christmas themes. Last year was all about the novelty festive cupcakes as I taught a class on how to make these at home- children will always choose a cute santa over elegant baubles- but this year I decided to abandon the novelty and stick to what I like best. Simple, elegant and cohesive. So here are some of my Christmas offerings, a snowy gingerbread chalet and glistening snowflakes to hang on the tree. Iced gingerbread are SO the new Christmas cupcakes!

Miniature iced Christmas gingerbread house.

 

Iced snowflake gingerbread Christmas tree biscuits.

Tags: Christmas, Christmas cupcakes, gingerbread, gingerbread house, iced biscuits, iced cookies, sugar cookies

Flamenco ruffled wedding cake

With the various social media Bake until Scrumptious is involved with, it’s sometimes all too easy to forget to share the latest cake on here too. So here is a recent wedding cake design, inspired by this photograph of a flamenco dancer and her shawl movement. Enjoy!

The Inspiration Image

 

Tags: wedding cake

Let’s call them cake truffles

Shortly after familiarising myself with cake pops and deciding that I wasn’t sure how I felt about them, irony struck and I was approached by a charming couple who had seen a photo of a cake studded with cocoa dusted truffles and fallen in love with the idea of cake pops. Their wedding was to be truly a spectacular event, held at the prestigious Royal Exchange at Bank, London and with 300 guests they wanted their wedding cake to encourage the guests to move around the space and interact.

The central bar was decorated with hundreds of lemons and the arches lit in colours to match the citrine and amethyst colour scheme.

The flavours too needed to be extra decadent and after putting together a selection of delicious combinations we settled on salted chocolate caramel, fresh mint and banoffee- all double dipped in dark chocolate and then rolled in three shades of finest cocoa powder. The cocoa powder helped to distinguish the flavours and add texture and tone to the final display. Custom ‘display cakes’ were made and covered in a textured chocolate brown and bronze paper before the cake truffles on their bespoke black sticks were individually inserted into the sides at the venue.

My lovely assistant for the day putting the finishing touches to the mirrored base.

There were two displays- one with cutting cake as the top tier- standing on clear plinths dripping with swarovski crystals and placed perfectly opposite each other at either side of the dance floor. At least 360 cake truffles were hand rolled, double dipped in chocolate and dusted with cocoa, a volume of cake truffles I would not rush into again lightly but am glad to be able to say I achieved single handedly! The result was a very unusual wedding cake which added individuality to an elegant and sensational wedding. The venue was a joy to set up at, the grandeur of the building together with the sound of the song the couple would first dance to, created an exciting atmosphere full of anticipation. I’m delighted to also be able to share a teaser trailer of Tina and Malli’s wedding day- a beautiful cinematic video which captures the mood of the day, the cake and the very stunning bride!

If your internet connection can take it, I fully recommend going full screen and HD, the production is gorgeous!

A special mention to the incredibly organised Jeannine de Sousa from Illyria Events, who made a spectacular wedding on a large scale come to life, Zenith Cinematography for the incredible video production and Chantal Flores Design for the beautiful flowers and display plinths kindly borrowed for the cake displays.

Tags: banoffee, cake pops, cake truffles, cocoa dusted, dark chocolate, fresh mint, salted caramel, The Royal Exchange, wedding, wedding cake

Cake International 2011

I went along to Cake International at the Birmingham NEC for the first time on Friday, with promises of ‘the world’s biggest consumer show for sugarcraft and cake decorating’ fresh in my mind. The place was huge, far bigger than I could have imagined and my anticipation grew as I got to the entrance. What delights would I find in there? Revolutionary sugarcraft kit that I can’t live without? Groundbreaking competition cakes that inspire and delight? Well for the most part what I found was the place heaving with women determined to push, shove and generally act like it was a giant jumble sale with their sharpened elbows! The products on offer were not generally discounted, the queues suggesting otherwise, and the selection was nothing you can’t easily order online. So, on the whole I found that the retail section could easily be given a miss, and you get to avoid being beaten up for picking the last set of cutters. The competition section definitely held more interest, with some extremely skilled cakes and sugarcraft on display. Personally, I was pleased to see some more modern styles creep in onto the tables, as tradition was firmly set in its way for most of the royal icing and novelty categories. And I’ve been dying to know, what is with the garish blue polyester table coverings? Surely the worst backdrop for cakes?!

Here are snaps of some of my favourite things spotted:

The exquisite Klimt cake, inspired by 'The Kiss'. The photos do not do this beauty justice- the level of detail and immaculate finish make this one of my very favourites.

This Alice in Wonderland cake is obviously inspired by the recent film and the superb rendering of the characters make this a novelty cake I can get on board with. Full of personality and perfect technique, I still can't get over the piped scrolls on the bottom tier!

Contemporary takes on the Christmas theme, these really stood out in the category. The one on the right has elements of my own ruffled cakes, and each layer was perfectly and neatly ruffled- I appreciate the work that takes.

Elegant cakes which grabbed my attention for being different. The couture black and ivory number on the left has clearly been inspired by Cake Lava and their distinctive tall and skinny cake tiers.

Lindy Smiths' stand stood out among the other retailers, boasting the biggest crowd, all the Lindy's Cakes paraphenalia and most importantly, striking display cakes that looked contemporary and relevant. The strong aesthetic won me over, and I'm not a Lindy disciple.

Display cupcakes showing the potential of Sugarveil. Beautiful, fine lace made from a special sugar mix invented in the US, this actually looks like really lace.

The Cake Craft World stand seemed to have become the 'Mich Turner Merchandise' stand... Their own stock seemed a token offering in comparison. I did also get to enjoy a lovely flower demo by an absolute pro.

I’m not sure I’ll return next year as I just felt it was geared massively to online sugarcraft shops selling their wares to giddy cake enthusiasts. I would have liked to seen more innovation within the competitions, but the standard was very high, and worth seeing if you appreciate skill and craftmanship. Perhaps my expectations were set too high, but Cake International 2011 lacked a bit of soul and inspiration for me.

Tags: Cake International