I can cook!

Sorry I’ve watched too much Cbeebies.  But anyway I can, it turns out, decorate a cake.  A few weeks ago we had a very special occasion in our house as we got little L baptised.  We went to the classes at church (yes I was a bit surprised) and then two months later we got our date in June. We wanted it to be a small celebration (not the trend nowadays it seems) with just the people that do and will play a big part in little L’s life there.  And as we have moved to a slightly bigger house we decided we would have the party at our house.

So I got my thinking cap on and planned to make various homemade decorations, invites, bunting, and lots of delicious food.  After having been to other christenings/naming days etc and seeing various cakes that had been bought I started to think maybe I could give it a go myself.  Add to that I had been watching “Ace of Cakes” on Really (fab programme Freeview 25).  Then finally add to that the price of these cakes, £100 upwards for a sponge cake, omg not even fruit cake,  my mind was made up I'd do it myself.

Now I’m not the greatest of bakers.  I mainly love eating cakes and looking at cakes in cook books.  But with planning and some help I had my iced fruitcake ready to decorate.  I got some butterfly cutters and flower plunger cutters from Ebay (much cheaper than in real shops, OK they did come from Hong Kong so took a few weeks to arrive but hey I ordered them months before). 

So I used ready to roll fondant icing and dyed it, using food colouring and a little/lot of icing sugar to stop the fondant becoming too wet.  You can do this in advance and keep it in the fridge wrapped in cling film.  I made probably over a hundred flowers, shaped them and then dried them in the airing cupboard (fondant icing doesn’t set that well so you need to roll it thinly and place decorations to dry in a warm place for a couple of days).  I also made butterflies which I dried on a V shaped piece of cardboard covered in greaseproof paper.  I made bunting with the letters of little L’s name on as these tied in with the invites.

So then to the assembly, the fun part, well a bit stressful really as if I bodged I had no backup cake or plan.  I used icing sugar and water mix as an edible glue and just started with the bunting, then glued all the flowers and butterflies on.  I stuck white and pink pearls (edible) in the centre of the flowers.  I also dusted edible shimmer dust on some of the flowers and butterflies. 

It looked brilliant, I think, and meant a lot more as I had made it myself for my beautiful girl! 

Bye for now