My dear friend asked me to create a cake for her 50th birthday, requesting that it be ‘a bit mad’. This is the first time that I have attempted a 3 tier cake and also had a go at carving to create a ‘wonky’ effect. It did look a bit like the leaning tower of Pisa in places (advice on this please!) but it created quite an impact and she loved it. I made everything by hand and all elements are edible. She is an art teacher, so there are homages to Gaudi and Dali, as well as a gardening theme. She goes camping every year with her two children, hence the tent, and I wanted to represent her journey to the age of 50 with the road and speed signs. There is an artist’s palette on top, which I wasn’t that happy with, but ran out of time to do anything about it!

I made this for a bake sale at my daughter’s school. It was for a sealed bid style auction. I was trying to perfect roses and used Leslea Matsis’ wonderful roses as my inspiration. I still have some work to do, but was happy with my first attempt.

This was for a friend’s niece’s christening. The brief was for a modern cake, with clean lines and daisies used. The colour raspberry was requested. I had a terrible time getting the ribbon to stick!

This was my first attempt at a two tier creation. I used madeira but didn’t bother with dowels. I didn’t have a cutter or mould for the crown so fashioned something by hand. I entered it into a competition and got 2nd prize, which I was so pleased with!

My eldest daugther wanted to help decorate something for Christmas, so I made a chocolate madeira cake and we set about creating a snowball fight scene for the top. She was brilliant, making parts for the penguin and a scarf for the snowman. We took it to a party and shared it with her friends.

I saw a design in a cakecraft book and adapted it. I needed to buy an embossing mat, which I had lots of fun with, as well as edible glitter! It is now all over my kitchen…

I got the design by browsing on the web and saw a picture on flickr. Mine aren’t as rounded as the ones I was trying to copy; cupcakes are a new thing for me!

So basic – but I really wanted to concentrate on getting the covering right. Once I can do that, I can move on to more complex designs (I hope!). My mum loved it, which was all that mattered.

The book ‘You’re All My Favourites’ is a popular one with my three children, so was an obvious choice as the theme for a cake when we held a blessing and thanksgiving service this summer. I based the cake on some of the images from the book and went again to Laura at Cocochoux for a quick ‘how to’ on bear making! I was especially pleased with the smallest bear and the bullrushes, although some did break.
I did struggle with the writing however – the pen I used seemed to cut into the icing, so I need to shop around.

I tried this toadstool cake for my eldest daughter’s 5th birthday and was relatively pleased with the result. I was aiming to make it look as close to the photograph in the book as possible, as I was (and am still!) in the early stages of learning the skills needed and I had only made a handful of cakes up to this point. The Debbie Brown cakes in the Children’s Party Cakes book that I have attempted so far are fairly easy to replicate. I used modelling paste for the fairy arms and heads, but made all sorts of errors with the glitter. Tucking the fondant under the mushroom cap was a bit of a faff. I needed to roll the fondant thinner. At this point I was using supermarket bought fondant, which I don’t find that easy to work with.