Little Things

It’s not been as busy recently. I suspect everyone is watching their budgets with Christmas in mind – but hey, people still have birthdays that need celebrating!

I know you can pop to the supermarket and pick up a cake for a tenner – or less – but think how much nicer it is to enjoy a home baked cake made with fresh ingredients – fairtrade of course – and decorated especially for the recipient.

I’ve been working on a range of smaller cakes recently – beautiful little things sure to bring a smile to the face of the recipient. You can see a couple of them above and there are lots more on my facebook page. While you are there why not click like?

Is there someone’s birthday coming up that you would like to order a little cake for? email linda@filledwithlovecupcakes.org

 

Cake is being served

There are photos of cake in the gallery, on flickr, and at Filled With Love Cupcakes  over on Facebook.

Sometimes however isn’t it nice to sit back and have the images brought to you? This time accompanied by some music courtesy of Tom Cusack – enjoy!

– Music written by Tom Cusack

 

Chocolate Offers

After a truly crazy few weeks the diary has settled down a little. Time to catch up on the admin, sorting the diary and the website and deciding what to do next!

At the same time, I took delivery this weekend of ten kilos of Fairtrade chocolate (yes – you read that right – ten kilos!) and five kilos of chocolate fondant.

So I am thinking – chocolate cake – and lots of it!

Browsing various supermarket websites I can see the dilemma for anyone wanting to buy a birthday cake. It is impossible for an independent baker to match the prices on offer. I wonder how they can charge so little but when I think about it perhaps it is possible if  you don’t use free range eggs or fairly traded chocolate and cocoa. If you use synthetic vanilla or other flavourings, inexpensive jam and a very thin layer of icing. And if you pay the people who provide the ingredients and labour very little.

As I write this I wonder if I sound harsh, and I don’t want that to be the case. Budgets are tight and every child (and adult for that matter!) wants a birthday cake.  Lighting and blowing out the candles is an important ritual that everyone is entitled to!

So I am wondering if I can offer a selection of smaller and simpler birthday cakes – starting with chocolate. The investment in those bulk purchases (ten kilos is a LOT of chocolate!) will help, and I have some other thoughts too.

For example – icing cake boards has become very popular and fashionable. And it does look lovely. But it is costly, so perhaps something to be saved for more significant birthdays?

I have also rediscovered my 7″ cake tins. A seven inch cake will cut into 10 – 12 wedges, and serve 15 – 18 if sliced all the way across and cut into rectangles. We don’t *really* need lots of leftovers – lovely as they are!

If you are interested in this cake please email linda@filledwithlovecupcakes.org For an initial limited period I will be offering a seven inch chocolate sponge, filled with chocolate buttercream and covered with chocolate fondant, on a plain board and with a simple piped message and flowers, for £20.00

You can “upgrade” to a chocolate fudge cake and a coloured cake “drum” (a more solid board) for £25.00

If you would like a cake similar to that in the photograph above the mini cakes are an additional £1.00 each.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Linda@filledwithlovecupcakes.org

 

More little people!

Any mums/dads/carers/kiddies out there been watching NickJnr and the brilliant Go Go Go gang?

I have! And to celebrate their success I thought that they deserved a little cake.

To be honest, I did get a little carried away…

 

Birthday Cake Offer

I definitely started this journey baking cupcakes! If you don’t believe me then look at the name of my business!
As time has gone on more and more people request large birthday cakes – and in spite of the initial fear and reluctance I have embraced the challenge with increasing enjoyment!

Now that I have something of a gallery to share I would like to encourage large birthday cake orders. I never thought I would hear myself saying that!

The options are an eight, nine, ten or twelve inch cake (for guidance on how many each of these serve take a look here)

The cake can be vanilla, chocolate, lemon, hummingbird or carrot cake. Filled and covered with complementary flavoured fresh buttercream.

A simple message and/or flowers can be piped onto this, but for a perfect finish it will be covered with fondant (sugarpaste).

The novelty figures are obviously an additional cost but the personal touch is always appreciated so do get in touch with your ideas!

For guidance on prices click here. And for the first five people to contact me in response to this post I am delighted to offer ten per cent off!

  

 

Happy Birthday!

Two birthday cakes today – and for both of them I used the lovely new M and B sugarpaste that I discovered at Divertimenti in Marylebone High Street.

Until now I have tended towards white or ivory fondant to cover my cakes. Today – perhaps due to the sudden springlike weather – I felt the urge to break out the daffodil yellow and baby blue.

The first cake is pictured here. The second needs finishing off tomorrow after which of course I will be posting pics – so watch this space!

And if you are interested in ordering a cake for a  birthday, anniversary, or some other special occasion please do get in touch. I would love to bake for you!

 

Birthday Cakes

 
I still have a bit of a love hate relationship with novelty cakes to be honest. I adore baking really good, home made, tasty cakes made with fairtrade chocolate, sugar, nuts, vanilla and spices. I enjoy frosting them and making them look pretty with flowers, leaves, and perhaps a message.

I can see however that novelty cakes are what people really want. Something unique and personal that reflects the personality and interests of their friend or family member – and I genuinely want to please.

This week was particularly challenging in that respect – as you can see from the photos. A can of lager and Fireman Sam – eeek! The yellow roses were easy in comparison.

I have another three birthday cake orders this week. If you would like me to bake for you then what I would say is please do get in touch as soon as you can. It’s good to have notice, time to plan and to make sure that you and your loved one are delighted with the finished result.

As ever I love to hear your comments – thanks!

 

Maybe I do then…

A while back I blogged about how I don’t do novelty cakes

Baking and Cake Decorating are very different skills – I know people who bake but would baulk at the idea of decorating a novelty cake (yes – that was me…)

I also accept that for cake decorators it is fine to use a dummy cake of some description – even if that’s a road I don’t want to go down.

So what am I? Well in my own mind primarily a writer! But the baking business gives me something to write about, especially when it comes to issues of justice and fairtrade.

After that I guess a baker – though it still feels a little strange to see myself described as a professional baker – even more to be asked to judge a significant bake off (more of that soon!)

The fact is though, if you are baking birthday and other celebration cakes people want you to decorate them. I’ve always tried to do this nicely but increasingly it’s novelty that is requested.

So here we are with novelty cake number three. I had a lot of fun – baking and decorating it and sharing it on Facebook. What’s the verdict?

May you all have a very happy and chocolate filled Easter!

Linda x

 

Celebrity Endorsement

I love Nigel Slater. Not in the way I love my family of course. But I love his approach to cooking, his quest to explore and experiment and find the very best recipes and ways of doing things – often with a bit of a twist.

This is very much my own approach, though I’ve a way to go before I’m in his league of course! I’m learning though and decided to tweet him a picture of the birthday cake I made using his absolutely delicious beetroot and chocolate cake.

I’ve made beetroot and chocolate cake before – it is what I like to call my reddish velvet cake. Being rather adverse to the idea of adding so much food colouring to all those free range, fairtrade, natural ingredients I rather like the idea of colouring my cake the way they used to do in the deep south of America.

This version however is vastly superior and from now on it will be the only one I use. It is a bit of a faff and takes time, care and a certain level of knowledge and know how – but it is well worth it.

The result?

The customer said: “The cake was SO delicious! Roll on the excuse to order again.”

And Nigel Slater said? You can find out here!

 

Novelty Cakes

 

When asked what I do for a living I now reply “Baker”. I love baking and the alchemy involved in combining basic ingredients to create something so sweet and comforting never ceases to amaze and delight me!

Increasingly I have come to realise there is a divide between baking and cake decoration, but it is a fuzzy, misunderstood divide fraught with confusion as to what it is that bakers do, and innocently ignorant of the skill set possessed by the cake decorators of whom I am in awe…

Let me explain. Baking and cake decorating are quite different skills. The ability to bake a decent carrot cake is distinct from the gift of moulding sugarpaste into a teddy bears. I know this for a fact – I have cried over more teddy bears than you would care to imagine.

Think for a moment of some of the great bakers we know and love – Nigella, Nigel, Bezza and the Silver Fox. They bake glorious confections of sheer wonderfulness, but they do not decorate cakes. Well not in the sugarpaste teddy bear way to which I refer.

I love to bake, and hugely enjoy making birthday and celebration cakes that will be cut into, devoured and delighted in. However I struggle to decorate cakes in the way some people clearly want. My response to the “Can you make a cake of Lady Gaga in this pose?” query was an unequivocal “No”.

That’s not to say I’m not developing my work and my style. The novelty cake above is just one example and if you are looking for a celebration cake you need to read this 

So whatever you are considering for your next birthday or celebration why not give me a call? I would love to bake for you and whilst your teddy bear may have a slightly manic grin on his face I can guarantee he – or the cake he is sitting on – will taste delicious!