| Blog series by Kirstie's cakes | updated 13 days ago | 26 parts | 7734 reads | 25 comments total |
Part 1: New beginnings
Hi and if your reading this or looking at my cakes you will realise I’m not a pro and just starting out. So far I’m loving baking and creating cakes. The only problem I’m having at the moment is too many ideas lol I just want to make everything. I get an idea in my head of how I want it to look then put pencil to is per to design it and figure out what to use. So far it’s been hard everything doesn’t pan out smoothly but I see it as learning as I go along. I have...
Part 2: Sugarveil
I had started gathering all my cake essentials and came across a brilliant web site www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk and OMG I must be a rated customer now :-) its like toysrus for cake lovers. The product I took to straight away was the sugarveil it just looked fab and how right I was. While I eagerly waited for it to arrive I research the Internet for how to do it, what goes wrong which was good as the first time I used it, it turned out perfect. I now make sugarveil everyday. The start u...
Part 3: Dinky doodle airbrush
Now I’ve already told you I’ve become a shopaholic at thecakedecoratingcompany and this was another buy. A dinky doodle pink airbrush and colours :-)It arrived and it was like Xmas I just wanted to use it but then I read I needed cleaning liquid for it :-( I didn’t want to mess it up so I waited. The time came when I had chance to use it. I had decided to test my Wilton giant cupcake mould with my 6 year old. I covered the base of the cake in white icing and set to work spr...
Part 4: RKT omg fab :-)
Well what a productive day :-) I’ve managed to get my 4 tier baked 2 vanilla Madeiras a 2 chocolate Madeiras and they all turned out fab. The best was yet to come. For the cake idea I have in mind I needed a light weight cake as a topper but the while surfing Facebook a fab site Shereen’s cakes & bakes put a post up about having used something called RKT for modelling some large penguins on a cake. Not having a clue what this was I started googling and found out it was butter ...
Part 5: Not enough hours!
Well not had a productive day which is so frustrating :-( there are just not enough hours in the day. Managed to do some cakey research on my phone though :-)I’ve seen a fab recipe for elf biscuits on the pink whisk website and I have everything in already to make them, so that’s my AM plan make them for the school Xmas fair :-)I also need to ice my cake, don’t know how that will turn out I’ve never coloured icing before :-/ I can have a practice and if all else fails ...
Part 6: Xmas elves for the school Xmas fair
Well what have I been upto these past couple of days? The answer making Xmas elves for my daughter Xmas fair. I found the idea on the pink whisk website they looked fab. I had everything in already to make them so didn’t really cost anything. First I made the sugar cookie dough ad cut them out with a love heart cutter which made 2 elf heads as you cut them in half. I moulded them onto lolly sticks securing further with an extra blob of dough and set them in the oven for 15 minut...
Part 7: Hmmm not going well
This morning and afternoon went well got everything cakey I needed to finished. The disaster came when I started again at tea time. Note to self don’t bake when rushing! Plan and take time. I needed to carve a small triangle cake, lets just say it was more like a ski slope :-(So decided to try again in the giant cup cake lid hmmm think again it didn’t rise :-( all didn’t fail though I cut the shape I needed and stuffed the left overs into the middle and it set BONUS!Second d...
Part 8: Busy busy busy!
Well been upto my eyes in it this last week. I did go Xmas shopping and landed in tkmax to my joy I found had a cakey dept :-) I ended up with a blow torch, train cake mould, nice decorative cake stand, and loads more for 1/2 the price (I did also get some Xmas presents for people lol)I also got 1/2 my Xmas present form my mum a new mixer and its fab as it is a stand one that can detach as well 390w a lot better than my 120w hand mixer. I’m entering a Xmas cake comp so been busy trying...
Part 9: What would you do?
I’m in need of building a portfolio of cakes to show people but to do this I’m having to make lots of cakes and my families getting fed up of eating them as you would lolI had and idea of getting together the cakes I want to make and offering them to people in the new year for a one off £20 charge. Ok I know this will probably just cover the ingredients cost but I thought it would kill 2 birds with 1 stone. A: it gets my cake baked and photo taken and B: more people will get to se...
Part 10: Comp failure :-(
Right before I start close your eyes and imagin a 3 tiered Xmas tree with a stump covered in pretty lights red tasseled sugarveil for tinsel and isomalt baubles :-) that’s what my mess was suppose to look like. As you can tell it didn’t go to plan I know it’s my own fault in not practicing before the day I need it completing but another lesson learned at my expense and I’m gutted. The tree went ok top is plain Madeira the 2nd chocolate Madeira 3 lemon and trunk ch...
Part 11: Chocolate house
Normally at this time of year I have all the teachers presents sorted, normally something personalised or unusual but this year I bought a house mould from lakeland. I tested it out for my brother in laws 18 th and he loved it so decided that’s what I would do for my daughters 3 teachers As per usual I’ve left it till the last minute but I had been making my battlefield cookie cake. So this morning I made a start on melting the chocolate. All has not gone to plan :-( the first h...
Part 12: Chocolate house pt2
Well I got my little one to sleep and jumped up to start decorating the house and moulding the last one. The mould was still demo do I popped it in the oven for 10 minutes. Earlier I tried melting the chocolate and filling a piping bag, it worked fine filling the small areas such as people but seemed a waste of time for the large panels. I was back to the trusted plastic jug pouring, shaking and tapping till it was level in the mould. It’s was setting in the fridge do I decided ...
Part 13: New toys ( ok gadgets)
So if you’ve been following my blog you will know that over the past couple of months I’ve been getting a lot of new gadgets to play with :-) from cutters to cricut machines and sugarveil to isomalt Well I got 3 new ones today!The first is a New York skyline cutter my idea is to use it on my daughters 19th birthday cake the end of January so my brain is working overtime on ideas now. The 2 nd is a 3 inch sphere mould that I want to try out with isomalt as mini snow glo...
Part 14: Pulled sugar
I spent last night in bed trying to find a recipe for pulled sugar I thought it maybe cheaper to make my own than to buy isomalt sticks at £10.99 per pack of 12 which works out to be 12 tablespoons :-/I’m wanting to try my bottle mould so you can imagine it would be very expensive to use isomalt. Anyway I found a recipe seemed simple but where could I buy corn syrup????Thank The Lord for Internet as I found corn syrups equivalent in the UK is Golden syrup :-) so I’m heading to the...
Part 15: Review of today
Before I set off into town this morning I moulded some silicone plastic around a marble in the hope that it would give me a clean 1 inch bauble type sphere when it had set. As you can see from the picture above it worked I just need to get my little ones in bed then I’m going to test it out along with my beer bottle mould. While wandering round the shops today I popped into save the children and what should I find but a huge pot mixing bowl £2.99 what a bargain and x2 ca...
Part 16: :-( no kitchen CBT for me
Not been happy over Xmas that I havnt been able to get in the kitchen due to myself and everyone else been ill :-(That hasn’t stopped me planning though the photos above are what I’ve collected to make my daughters 19th birthday cake for the 20th of January. I have the idea in my head and on paper so I just need to perfect it in practice. I’m really looking forward to making this :-)
Part 17: New toys
These are a few of my new toys. The scales were an in expected Xmas present, I hadn’t even got around to looking for a new pair myself. I am over the moon with them, they even measure liquid which is brilliant for measuring my water accurate for sugarveil. My daughter bought me the 2 little tea pot cutters I thought they would look lovely at school coffee mornings in 2013And last is my A3 10L storage box I’ve got 2 of these from staples which are going to live ontop of my frid...
Part 18: Playing with sugar scarey!
Well today the last day of the 2012 was the day I got in the kitchen to play with sugar. The weighing was fine the mixing was fine but then came the boiling and omg it was bubbling red hot scalding I s#i# myself to put it bluntly!I used my thermometer to test until it rose to 160c I had my moulds already and a bucket of cold water to empty it out into. My first problem was with the small ball. The sugar was not hot enough and didn’t poor out so I ended up with a solid ball, my mould...
Part 19: First entry for 2013
Happy New Year All :-) Well it’s all starting now so far I’ve got 18 cakes to make throughout the year my head is buzzing with ideas and I’m loving it. I’m working in the 3 day ruleDay1: bake cakeDay2: ice cakeDay3: finishing touches to cake Hopefully this will work, but so far I have everything planned out in my cake diary. Some ideas I need to research are a knitting cake, Tiffany cake, John deer tractor, horse, whiskey bottle, windmill, so you can see why my h...
Part 20: Last minute
Well today is going to be a mad panic!It’s my dads birthday in Sunday and i was going to see him on Sunday with his birthday cake I’m making, but parents been parents haha and he’s turning up at mine today! tea time!Lets just say I’ve got a bottle cake to make from scratch including sugar glass, edible label the works :-( so wish me luck I think I may need it!It’s 6am UK time I’m about to start baking It’s now 9:30am cakes cooling its a long loaf t...
Part 21: Organise Sunday
Well today is organise Sunday. (That’s after the food shopping)My other half is sorting my kitchen ready for inspecting and I must crack on with my health and hygiene course. I had seen alot of posts regarding whether or not you needed a hygenie certificate for a small cake business from home, so I got in touch with my council and they said yes they advise it. I had also read about various online courses but not all are recognised as a proper certificate so again I got in touch with my ...
Part 22: The man from Natwest he say YES!
Oh Lordy oh Lordy lord the gods and goddesses are working in my favour After a stressful weekend of worrying about seeing my bank manager I can now confirm he said yes to everything :-) He thought my ideas and plans were fab and I even got a cake booking out of him, lets just say I have him the biggest cuddle and told him the cake was on me :-)Planning can commence I can totally put all my wheels in motion I know it’s not going to speed the process up but it’s going to make it a h...
Part 23: All good things come to those who wait
As the title suggest all good things come to those who wait :-)This is hard to so at times when all you want to do is get started, but I will get there. I keep thinking to myself am I good enough then I found this and its so true :-)Today I get to have fun in the kitchen I’m making my daughters boss a giant cupcake birthday cake. I’m looking forward to the weekend as its a trip to B&Q not very cakey I hear you say but it’s for my kitchen, I’ve decided that the blac...
Part 24: Omg! Way above my level :-/
My good friend had been in touch and asked if I could make a special cake for her grand parents 60th diamond wedding anniversary. They wanted the original wedding cake creating with an edible photo inset to. I started googling and came across the magenta picture above and sent it to them as an idea of how the picture would look. The next thing I new this was what they wanted this exact cake which is actually a photo frame not a cake :-/I rose to the challenge and started figuring ...
Part 25: Last minute forgotten birthday cake :-/
Sorry I have to state here it was all Mr Kirstie’s Cakes fault that this cake for looked over lol it was for his mum he should have reminded me haha although the main reason was the 50th birthday cake that got brought forward a week so I just carried on from original date in my cake diary :-/ Ok so 3pm and I realise its my mother in laws birthday (she screams)The plan for her cake was a knitting basket but that went out if the window.I knew her favourite colour was duck egg blue ...
Part 26: Ooh fab new supplier for covapaste £13.50 5kg
Hi all I wanted to share a fab new supplier I have found that so far beats prices ive seen anywhere else. https://m.facebook.com/pages/Tom-Anderson-Distributor-To-The-Food-Trade/227808243935330?id=227808243935330&_rdrThe company is called Tom Anderson they have been going for 41 years. They don’t have a web site you need to MSG and request a stock list which will be sent straight awayFrom cake boards to sugarflair covapaste now at a fab price of £13.50 per 5 kg box with next day del...
