I’ve just about recovered from the whirlwind that was the Essex Wedding Fayre- Oh dear lord, it was hectic! Me and the recruits commenced baking on Friday afternoon. Several hours (and a few bottles of wine) later, 600 samples were packed up ready to go, along with all the displays and gubbins… oh and did I mention, there was a wedding going out on Saturday morning, yep- a wedding, so alongside the 600 samples, there was also a giant cupcake and 150 normal cupcakes baked, decorated and ready to go to the venue.

Falling into bed feeling pretty shattered, I was out like a light, and up early the next morning to make a load of decorations for one of the exhibition displays, following a dream I’d had where people were pointing and laughing at the original purple stars theme I’d put together (paranoid much? The overwork must’ve been getting to me!)

Then it was off to the show! (Mark was dispatched to deal with the wedding cakes, along with my younger bro- this weekend was a real family affair!). After a lot of nervous waiting for people to come to see us, where we were ensconced at the furthest possible point from the front door, we got BOMBARDED! The three hundred samples we’d allocated were gone in the first 2 hours, so one of the trusty assistants was dispatched to pick up the next day’s samples and my lovely mum got her pinny on and commenced baking another couple of hundred samples!

The second day was just as busy and everyone was SO chuffed with how it went- If you came over for a chat and a cupcake, hello to you- Hope you enjoyed the show and I really hope to hear from you soon!

xxGem

While all the fun of the Essex Wedding Fayre was going on (with many hands on deck from a band of willing volunteers- Basically if I promise free wine and pizza to my friends, they’re very much putty in your hand!), there was another wedding taking place- Never one to shy away from a bit of hard work, I’d somewhat ambitiously booked a wedding order on the same weekend- Nina and Dave’s wedding required dramatic burgundy roses to match their colour scheme, in delicate filigree wrappers, topped off with a giant cupcake to match

Mark and Una wanted a LOT of cake-  Una’s dad wanted to take the left overs into work with him after the big day, so as well as a cake for each guest, they asked for some extras. It didn’t help- I’m told the guests ate every single one (sorry Una’s dad!).

The wedding colour scheme was really fresh and summery- lots of shades of yellow, peach and pale green and I got given pretty much free range to do what I fancied (which I just LOVE!), so I went for a floral, country garden sort of feel- pale gold cases with swirls of buttercream with roses, leaves, tiny cherry blossoms and daisys and miniature hearts- The good thing about having that many cakes is you can really go to town with loads of decoration ideas and it doesn’t get lost. The whole thing was topped off with a flat iced fruit cake, decorated simply with a sunny yellow ribbon.

I’m a massive fan of a giant cupcake at the mo- be it for a wedding top tier, themed up to match the rest of the tiers, or a cutey little birthday cake, they’re fab. They’ll easily serve 15 and are lovely layered up with different flavoured jams- yummy! From £40, depending on the decorations

Today saw a trip out to Friern Manor, to deliver wedding cakes for Chris and Mabel- Dramatic red provided the colour scheme and with a strict ‘no florals’ brief in place, we finally plumped for a mixture of red heart sugar confetti, with red and silver mini dragees, plus larger pearlised red and white stars to provide contrast, on a mixture of chocolate and vanilla cakes, filled with cherry compote

Well, it is the 4th July, so to go alongside the pumpkin pie and all the other traditional stuff, we created these stars and stripes themed cakes, for a patriotic expat

How good is this? Cakes personalised with your favourite sweets- In Lauren’s  case, thats milkyway magic stars, maltesers, bits of curlywurly, rolos and
munchies, all squidged on top of what was at the time a prototype chocolate  sponge- It got a big thumbs up from all the staff at Lauren’s school, so I’ve  added it to the armoury- Its very moist, very chocolatey and will be brilliant  if you’re a fan of the ‘black forest’ flavour, with cherry jam in, or Mark’s  favourite filling of blueberry compote. Just pick ‘devils food cake’ from the flavours menu to try!

The finished article! Tade and Rob’s wedding cakes- A mixture of vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream and hot pink glitter and chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream and hand-made hot pink sugarpaste butterflies.

Some cakes inspired by the pretty floral prints of Cath Kidston, for a customer to give as a thank you gift.

This also marked one of my first forays into office delivery- there I was striding around the streets of London, cake box in  hand, feeling a bit like the milk tray man- Although I didn’t wait around to  deliver the cakes in person (I let the receptionist do the honors!), apparently the recipient was thrilled!

There are loads of things piquing my interest of late that are just demanding to be made into cakes- random bits of fabric (see the Cath Kidson post!), and a this really pretty brooch that I found knocking about in my jewellery box being the most recent

I had a spare afternoon, so I set to it with tweezers and dragees to create a sort of vintage jewellery box topping- sparkly accents and ropes of pearls, on pale blue, velvety icing- Super glam, wouldn’t you say?