Well….....after a late night and an early start I drove up the M6 very slowly….... to arrive at the NEC at 7.15am. We all de-boxed and set up our cakes on the tables provided (only the snail fell off in transit so easy to fix). Then we carried our cakes over and placed them on the judging tables.
Leaving my cake was really hard to do, I felt like I’d delivered a baby and didn’t want to go off and leave it with anyone that might not look after it.
The judges were very serious looking, and although I stood back and watched them looking at my cake I couldn’t listen in case they said anything that might upset me….....I love that cake, we know each other very well after spending sooooooooo many hours together.
The cakes were to be collected at 5pm on Sunday after the presentations, so I arrived at 3pm and went to look and see how I did, and I can’t tell you how surprised and very proud I was to see the little folded card that said I’d been given a certificate of merit. I know it’s not Bronze, Silver or Gold, but that doesn’t matter. The fact that they felt it was worth a mention, and a merit means everything to me and I am so glad that I had the courage to do it. The competition cakes people take there are amazing, they are from all over the world, and some are made by professionals, so getting anything is amazing. And I felt proud to burst and very humbled that so many people wanted to take the time to take photos of it, I stood for a while to listen and watch the visitors looking at it, and they were all saying such nice things about it.
For anyone that is thinking about entering, please do, it will be worth every eye straining minuite xxx
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog
Karen x

Well at last after weeks and weeks of working on it, my cake is finally finished.
I’m really pleased with the way it’s turned out.
The worry now is how best to transport it without getting there with a pile of dust!!
So any tips would be greatly appreciated.

The cake is called “An Autumn Wedding” and it really tells the tail of two weddings.
The first wedding is the farmers daughter, who has a cake with two mice as the Bride and Groom on the top.
And the second wedding is the wedding of the same two mice who live on Sugar Hill Farm.

The Butterfly fairy has found an invitation that’s floated down on the Autumn breeze.
He’s asleep in a pile of leaves, and dreaming of all the woodland creatures who are taking gifts along to the wedding.
The Vicker is a Hedgehog, who’s just caught the first drop of morning dew thats fallen off the top of a very special Toadstool in the wood. He has it on the pillow and he’s carrying it up through the door in the tree to the top of the cake where he will marry Summerset and Cheddar underneath the Toadstool.

I hope you like the photos, and if anyone is going to Cake International this weekend in Birmingham I’d love it if you would look out for it and wish me luck.
This is the first time I’ve entered a competition and although I don’t expect to win anything I’ve had a fantastic time making it.
I’ll put all the photos on my cake section so you can see more if you’re interested.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog

When I build a cake from my imagination I have to listen to the story the characters are telling me, and that sets the scene for the finished cake. My Mother always said I had an over active imagination.
But I suppose thats how Authors write books sometimes. They have to let the story tell itself and when it’s done they can “picture” the story.

It’s great to see it starting to take shape, although I have to admit that although I have a general idea of how I want the finished cake to look I never know what the finished cake will look like until the end.

Also this week I’ve been inspired to make some Autumn leave cupcakes. The hedge and boarders in my garden look like they are on fire this week. So I had to make some cupcakes along the theme of Autumn. And I wanted to try out a recipe for Ginger and Chai Latte cupcakes too. They were amazzzzzzzzing! rich and wintery with a ginger bite and a sweet velvety and exotic spice finish. I’ll deffinately be adding those to my range of flavours for Autumn/Winter. I’ll post the recipe asap if anyone is interested.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.
Regards,
Karen x

Also this week I’ve been trying out recipes and icing techniques for Christmas biscuits…yes Christmas seams to arrived early to my kitchen this year! I’m preparing ready for my Craft Stall later in the year and don’t want any nasty surprises with soggy biscuits or the taste not being just right. So I iced the biscuits and hung them on a wishing tree to make sure they look good and they stay on the tree for a good long time. The smell of spiced biscuits was just too much for my Westie Sadie, and she sat barking at the tree until I gave in and gave her a treat… big mistake! I’m putting together a Gingerbread house tomorrow, I’ve not made a large house before, so it could be tricky getting it to be sturdy enough, but I’ll soon find out.

And in amongst all of this I made an Octonauts Birthday cake and 3 dozen cup cakes for a 4th Birthday on Sunday. Aparently Octonauts is the new sensation on the T.V if your about 4yrs old! I’ve done my homework, and now I know most of the characters – the main man is Captain Barnacles and he and his “crew” have a blue submarine that finds out hurt creatures and protects the sea life and the environment.

It’s a refreshing change from the average kids program where characters fight each other for points.
And if the children are taught to protect and not distroy everything that’s a bonus (get me!- on my soap box!)
Anyway, that’s me for this week, I’ve put photos of the competition characters, the biscuits and the Octonauts cake on my cake photo section, I hope you enjoy them. Photos of Gingerbread house and more on the Competition cake to follow soon. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.