This week I’ve been on a two day course in East Sussex to help me fine tune my skills.
I’m self taught, and although I’m confident in making and decorating most types of cakes I want to give my cakes a really professional finish.

I’ve not had too many cakes ordered from clients with flowers on so far, so this course appealed to me because not only would I be building a bird cage cake, but I’d also be learning how to make roses look real too.
And as a bonus I was keen to see if there were any tips and techniques that would help me get that professional finish I’m looking for.

The course was brilliant!, Rachel the Tutor was amazing, great fun, and explained everything clearly making it easy to follow her instructions.
Everyone’s cakes were in different colour versions, some bright and some more bridal, but when they were finished they all looked absolutely beautiful!
I learnt so much, and picked up lots of great tips I know I’ll be using, and I can’t wait for my next opportunity to make roses!!
I chose a coffee shade for the base of the bird cage and lemon shades for the tea roses.
I’m really proud of my effort, and confident now that I can give all my cakes a really professional finish.
Hope you like my effort too x

This Beach hut cake was made as the centre piece for a Craft fair on Saturday. I made the seashell mould myself, so very pleased with my first try at using silicone moulding material, and had great fun making and hand dusting the colours on the shells. The sand is light brown sugar. Inspired by Neapolitan flavour ice cream the sponge inside is in layers of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry with vanilla buttercream. My stall was a holiday theme with ice cream cone cupcakes, pineapple and coconut beach party cupcakes, chocolate and raspberry stark attack cupcakes, Blackpool rock peppermint cupcakes, vanilla and chocolate fudge seashell cake pops and lemon shortbread fish and chip biscuits. The day went really well despite the torrential rain in the morning. In the afternoon the sun came out and I sold lots of cakes!!

I love the freshness in the tones of colour on this cake.
Makes me want to get married again….........nah…...not really xx

I was singing the theme tune to Bob the Builder all the time I was decorating this cake!!!
I have to say I was glad when it was finished…......but it came out ok.
I don’t think I want to watch it on T.V for a long while though.

This was a rich fruit cake for a little girl’s Christening. It was taken from the Invitation card for the Christening which had the Boofle character on. I was really pleased with how it came out, and I use part of it as my logo on my website and business cards now. Someone told me I should send a photo of it to Clinton cards so that they could see it. They really liked it and it guested for a while on their facebook page.ch

This cake was made for a young man called Jack who was mad about super cars.
I wasn’t totally happy with the cake because I thought it looked more like a Porsche than a Farrari.
But Jack loved it anyway.

When I told my Grandson it was ok to eat the Bunny he couldn’t wait to bite off his head!!

This mini Easter Bunny cake is a gift I will be giving to my Mother in Law on Sunday. It’s a Simnel cake recipe inside which I know she likes. I took the inspiration for it from a similar cake I found through Google images.

WISHING A HAPPY EASTER
TO ALL MY CAKEY FRIENDS ON CAKESDECOR.COM FROM KAREN FLUDE AT KAREN’S KAKERY IN LEICESTERSHIRE ENGLAND XXXX

This cake was made today for a Rugby mad fella who is going to be 30. The players are dress in kit to represent The Northampton Saints V’s Leicester Tigers (Tigers are in away kit).
The cake is Chocolate Fudge.

This is the 2nd cake I’ve made for Jonah’s Christening for those guests who prefer sponge to fruit cake.

This Christening cake was the top tier of a Wedding cake a while ago. Hopefully the weather will be nice for tomorrow so that Johan and his family have a sunny day for any photo’s.

These cake pops were made for a little boy called Myles who is 4 today. He wanted Spiderman pops for the boys and Disney Princess for the girls. I would have liked the girls to turn out a little bit prettier, but next time I won’t make the girls heads as long as the boys. There’s always something to learn. His Mum seemed to be pleased anyway, and I hope he had a good day at Nursery today. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MYLES !!!

This is my first attempt at a Naked cake.
Trying it out ready for a Wedding I’ve been asked to quote for.
I enjoyed making it, but I would like it to be a little neater next time.

I’ve spent this afternoon decorating some fruit cakes with a Gardening theme which I’ll be selling at a Craft Fair the first Weekend in March. I’m doing three different finishes, and this is the first ones completed. The others will be “Tea and biscuits” and “Sewing bee”. Hopefully they will popular themes.

This cake was made for Nicky, the Wife of Mick the Builder who’s currently turning our garage into a Granny flat for my Mum.

It’s Nicky’s Birthday tomorrow, and she’s been a Paul Weller fan right from his early days withThe Jam, into The Style Council and she still loves the music he’s still producing today.
The design of the guitar on the top is taken from a photograph Nicky had taken with an enormous guitar which was signed by Paul Weller, and I’ve attempted to try and sign his name in a similar way.
I don’t think he’d mind me forging his signature…it’ll be eaten by this time tomorrow anyway!!
The cake is a Victoria Sponge with Vanilla Buttercream and of course…......jam !!

Thank you Mick for making a fantastic place for Mum to live safetly close to me, but still be able to have some independence while she can xx
And of course – HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICKY !! (Shout it to the top !!....)

That time of year is fast approaching where women start to raise their expectations and hopes for the future and most men either run a mile or run to the card shop!! These cheeky little treats were inspired by some Bakerella cake pops I spotted recently.

I’ve had great fun this afternoon decorating Wedding biscuits ready to see a client who is looking for favour biscuits to go on my wishing tree. Hopefully she will be pleased with them as concept samples. The basket would be a lovely favour gift for the flower girls, or you could use it for Mothers day too. I’m planning to do the baskets full of egg,bunnies and chicks for Easter too.

This is the last cake I made in 2012. I made it for the lovely Ladies and Gentlemen who come along each month to my Afternoon Tea Dance in Lubenham Leicestershire. They are very special people who come along from the local Retirement homes for a sing along and very often a dance to music from the 40’s and 50’s.
I make a few cakes,tea and coffee and we all have a right jolly knees up!!
A lot of them have Alhzeimers so they are happy and comfortable to be back in time for a few hours.
And it gives me a lot of pleasure to see them so happy.

I can’t take all the credit for this one…..I was inspired by some cakes I’ve seen recently and love the idea of Santa having a comb over hair doo!
And I just know that next time I sing “Deck the Halls” I’ll have to be careful to sing the right words….
I couldn’t resist adding a little tattoo on his chubby little arm…...well – even Santa would have a soft spot for his Mum, especially if she had to keep him going with all those cookies and glasses of miilk between his visits xx

Merry Christmas Everyone!!
From Karen xx

Mini Christmas fruit cake with Air mail letter to catch the last posting time.
Mabe he should fly it to it’s destination…...it might get thee quicker!!