What a week!

Occasionally I wonder if I should have some kind of signature style – the way that other bakers and cake decorators seem to have. Instead I often feel that I produce a pretty random selection of cakes and decorations – can you see a theme emerging? Please tell me if you can!

Every week seems to bring a variety of requests for cakes and cupcakes and wherever possible I try to meet the customers’ requirements. Occasionally I do have to suggest some slight changes but to date I seem to have been able to please most people – and whatever the cakes look like they are guaranteed to taste delicious!

This week has been particularly busy. I wondered at the start of the week if it would be possible to meet all these requests without pulling a few night shifts but careful planning and preparation made it possible. The last cupcakes were collected this afternoon after which I sat down with a nice glass of wine!

 

Catching Up

It’s been pretty busy – make that manic – in the FWL kitchen recently. I read something recently which said that home bakers totally underestimate how quickly they will outgrow their kitchen and I am certainly finding this to be the case.

When creating several large/novelty/bespoke cakes it would be wonderful to have the luxury of space to leave them ready for the next stage, rather than having to move them into a separate room.

That however is a dream for the future and meanwhile I manage – just!

Here are a few recent creations that didn’t make it onto the website due to the busy-ness – the first being to say goodbye to Alex of the Dial Up at Coco Cafe, Covent Garden, and Watford Palace Theatre. This is the special end of night show song and seemed an appropriate message for him as he heads to Jordan for new adventures!

Another special cake consisted of a giant cupcake and mini cakes – but this time for a chocolate lover! Great value if you are looking for something a little bit special that tastes better than supermarket cakes maybe?

And finally – a good value birthday cake that can be made to any recipe. This one is the recipients favourite hummingbird – pineapple, fairtrade bananas, cinnamon and Ndali vanilla, walnuts and the wonderful mellow yellow flat pressed rapeseed oil from Farringtons that makes all the difference!

 

A Different Kind of Busy

A baking business isn’t just about the baking of course, there are other things to be done such as shopping, admin, washing up and, of course, keeping the website up to date.

Every now and then however the website seems to need more than a quick tidy up, as photos look out of date and the quantity of material on here grows and needs organising.

I’m therefore pleased to unveil a bit of a re-vamp. And a purple re-vamp at that! Purple being a vampish sort of colour but also because the gorgeous Love Flowers in Rickmansworth tweeted that Purple Violets are in fact February’s Flower.

Once Valentine’s Day is safely behind us I intend to create some Purple Violet Cuppies and there will most definitely be a Twitter competition to win a box so watch this space!

I hope you find the new navigation easier, and that you can quickly find what you need to. Do take some time to browse and get in touch if you have any comments – thanks!

Meanwhile, I’m thrilled to say that Filled With Love is now on All Dishes so if you click the link or the logo above you may just get a sneaky peak at James’s Giant Cupcake, or even the amazing work of art that my daughter made for her boyfriend this weekend. Hurry as I am not sure how often they change their site!

That’s all for now – expect to see lots of hearts, flowers and monkeys this week – get in touch if you feel the need for any of those yourself!

Linda x

Ps: There was of course a bit of baking this morning – an extra large Hummingbird Cake and Gluten Free Lemon Drizzle are at Coco along with the Spiced Orange Spelt Sponge (try saying that after a couple of cocktails!) Silly me no photos again so here’s one I took earlier…

 

With a little help…

Two pictures to post today – neither of which would be possible without the lovely Little Miss Filled With Loves!

First up – an eighteenth birthday cake for the lovely Teddie and Coco Cafe.

After baking the Cupcake – which by the way isn’t quite a giant one – I struggled to get the teddy right. He was cute – but not quite cute enough! Thankfully Rachel came to the rescue and who could resist the amazing little Teddie above?!

The following cake I can take no credit for at all. I simply wanted to showcase the work of my other daughter Sarah – didn’t she do an amazing job on her first Giant Cupcake?!

By the way – if you’ve missed it the February newsletter is now out. Please do make sure that you are subscribed, or you can view it here.

 

Another Giant Cupcake

These are becoming something of a habit!

To think that the first giant cupcake I baked filled me with fear and trepidation and took several hours longer than the latest version. And I was nowhere near as pleased with it either!

If you would like one of these to tell someone you love them, to wish them happy birthday or anniversary, to say goodbye, or hello – please get in touch!

Baked with Fairtrade ingredients, free range eggs, and the best quality butter, sugar and flour, these cakes really do taste as good as they look!

 

Back to Basics

The last couple of days have been all about the cuppies. I love baking them and really played around with the sugarpaste this time!

Baking a batch of forty eight and posting parcels all over the UK did make me stop and think for a minute though. It’s less than a year since I started this business and at that time the thought of such large orders would have filled me with fear.

That is kind of how I feel about some of the events and weddings in the diary at the moment – as I pore over sites offering advice on crumb coating, dowels, drums and stacking boxes!

But then I remember my first giant cupcake – what an event that was! And think about how tomorrow I will be baking another one for fun. Well, for fun and for someone special but can’t give that away just yet!

Meanwhile here are a few of the cuppies I dropped off at local offices and shops today. Nice to treat staff who have served me well and of course hoping it will lead to some orders. If you like what you see and would like to place an order then do email me linda@filledwithlovecupcakes.org

 

Giant Chocolate Cupcake

If a picture paints a thousand words here are 4000!

Not sure what to add really – I am so pleased with Jess’s 8th birthday cake. When I think back to my first attempts at a giant cupcake, how long it took, the stress, the result – what a long way we’ve come!

If you would like to order one for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, a special birthday or anniversary then please email me linda@filledwithlovecupcakes.org

What do you think?

Linda x

 

Cracking the big cakes

Giant cupcakes.

When I first saw these, on other bakers’ websites and facebook pages, they didn’t look too tricky. Then I was asked to bake one…

The first try ended up blitzed with buttercream into a batch of cake pops. The next one survived as far as the frosting stage where I could have wept over the whirls as I struggled to line them up before patching up the gaps in the icing with a myriad of sugar paste flowers.

Then followed the black and white cake – a labour of love for a Newcastle fan – which brings us up to date and to the above.

Huge thanks are due to Jo Wheatley for her giant cupcake recipe. Simplicity itself and the cake baked through in good time and without the edge becoming too crisp.

Credit should also be given to Jo for the photo in her Passion for Baking book which gave me the idea of piping small, separate, rosettes of buttercream rather than trying to go round and round replicating what you might do on a regular cupcake.

I ice the board as a matter of course now – which gives a nice canvas on which to pipe the birthday greeting. For the first time I embossed it, as well as adding a few extra buttercream rosettes and sugar flowers.

I scraped icing round the sides – not wanting it to be too heavy. Don’t try and look for a pattern in the pink and white rosettes – that is just random. As are the tiny hearts, pearls, and hand crafted flowers scattered over it.

A labour of love but next time will be easier – anyone else have a special birthday for someone coming up and interested in ordering one?

 

Giant Cupcake

 

My first ever Giant Cupcake!

It’s not perfect – a few wobbly bits of icing (and a few more under some of the flowers!) but the recipient was absolutely delighted and that’s what it’s all about really!

First attempt at baking the base was erm… problematic. Ensuring it was cooked through without the edges getting a bit crispy is clearly the biggest challenge. Reducing the oven temperature and cooking it for slightly longer seemed to do the trick, and the first one was blitzed into the best ever cake pops!

Speaking of which – you can buy these at the lovely Coco Cafe – well worth a visit if  you live in Croxley or the surrounding area. In fact if you appreciate really good coffee and are looking for the best it would be worth a car journey, a long distance train or a transatlantic flight…