Ramblings of a Cake Maker: April 2012

Saturday, 28 April 2012

Bridesmaids

Over the last 12 months I have researched bridesmaids’ dresses intently. I know exactly what colour and length I want, but just needed to find something within a tight budget which would fit ladies from size 4-22... Not easy I tell you! I had loads of highly unhelpful suggestions such as certain high street shops which tailor for up to size 14, but no actual physical solutions... Then I decided to go shopping on the high street where a certain department store has an all singing all dancing coordinating bridal range!

So off we went to Meadowhall and saw V my sister in law for advice on our makeup (shes an awesome talented make up guru). Then next on the agenda was go try on dresses… with 20 minutes to closing time I frog marched my girls through Meadowhall at 08:40pm on a Monday night, occasionally glancing at my chief girl (akaThe Wife) in-case she had an allergic reaction to her foundation and ended up looking like a puffer fish. We swept through aforementioned high street shop to the bridal section grabbed whatever we could in the right size, (colour not an issue, as they don’t have the right colour in store anyway) and bolted for the changing rooms. Two or three dress changes in 15 minutes and they stand there looking all smart and elegant in their multicoloured dresses... NOT! they were are all 2ft too long, too tight on the hips, hung off the bust, and generally were a weird shape!…. Who do they make them for? Pole dancing giants? Anorexic stilt walkers!? The Gruffalo's beanpole sister?

I have bought many a formal dress from high street shops without too many issues. So why was the bridal range absolutely well and truly geared out with anti-fit?

Cue stress out,
Cue nasty shop lady who unceremoniously turfed us out and escorted us off the premises, (shame on you nasty unsmiling mean shop lady – we still had 5 minutes to go!)
Cue mini strop,
Cue pi** poor service at a very popular fast food venue where the acne ridden kid serving me just lobbed my chicken sandwich on the tray and glared at me as if I ruined his life... I wan't Lovin It I tell you.

Once I had calmed down after the mean lady evicted us in a highly unceremonious manner from the shop, I went back to the drawing board. I already had a second choice which was a dress by a designer called Romantica of Devon, but was worried it would turn out pricey and I would end up blowing budgets on dresses... so I went on a mission to find a stockist who could give me straight answers and all the reassurance I could get! Two weeks later I had an appointment with a dress shop 25 mins drive from home – result!

I decided not to take the whole troupe with me to the appointment as I considered the possibility of it being a waste of time dragging them all across Yorkshire if it’s another wasted trip, so my little sister, Mum and "The Wife" came in tow.

At the shop we stood and discussed themes, colours timescales etc etc whilst eyeing up the collection of dresses they had eager to get going. When we finally started looking at the various dresses they had to offer, something dawned on me – I liked them all! They were all gorgeous! And then they pulled out this gorgeous dress (I wont say anything about the style, but it looked stunning!) We chose a selection of 6 different styles and sent my sister and "The Wife"off to go get changed and do some modelling for me. My sister came out wearing the one I was most keen on – it definitely did not disappoint! It was stunning! Very simple in design, but also detailed enough to give it an edge – I wanted it! So much that when the girls tried on the other dresses I just wasn’t interested. They were dull, cheap looking or too over the top. I wanted the first one!

One problem – it was in a complete different colour to our colour scheme – would it look as good in the colour we wanted? Only one way to find out....
Dresses – Booked!

That was 6 months ago, the dresses have since arrived and have been waiting for us to go view them for approval. I had been having flaps about them since booking... will they look ok? will they fit right? will the girls like them? I couldn't resist. Our next appointment was 2 months away, so I visited the shop myself to go for a sneak preview... Yuss!! I loved them! Panic Over! and when the girls tried them on a month later I was thrilled at how fabulous they all looked.

One less thing to have to worry about... Now back to the cake issue!

Oh, and heres a sneak preview ;-) x

Monday, 23 April 2012

Could This Be It?

I think I have had a moment... For some strange reason, I had an Eureka moment... Whilst watching some cake making programme I recorded on the digibox last year I saw a cake... Absoluetly b*gger all like anything I want, but it did have one aspect I NEED. The board had hanging crystals around it like a chandelier... I loved it!

This idea then proceeded onto another train of thought... Memories of a cake I once saw which I thought of as highly impressive, but not necessarily to my taste... Oh yeah Wills and Kates cake!

Each tier has a different decoration but it all ties in together... Also there are the different shapes and textures to take into consideration. This cake is truly fit for royalty! Well done Fiona Cairns!

Now I am not rushing off to duplicate the royal wedding cake, nor do I want a mirror image of anything as grand as this. I simply like the idea of each tier having its own decoration, mirroring an aspect of detail from elsewhere in the wedding, such as detail of the brides dress, shapes taken from the flowers and patterns or textures taken from the fabrics. That way aspects of the wedding would all be tied together in one place, which is what I tend to try and create when making a wedding cake anyway!

So, I sat there with a cup of tea, a piece of paper and a pencil and started scribbling...

Im a little excited now.... I may need to wee...

Could this be the first rough draft of my cake? (apologies - My drawing skills leave something to be desired)

Sunday, 22 April 2012

Mr & Mrs W Purple Butterfly Wedding

Mr & Mrs W were hitched in April 2012. They had a fabulous purple themed butterfly wedding and a good time was had by all!

They decided to have their special day at The Bridge Inn Walshford, just outside of Wetherby. Mrs W had me putting organza swags up on the morning whilst the groomsmen hovered around looking dapper and my daughter sashayed around in her flower girl outfit.

As Mr Mc was an usher, that kinda left me to my own devices for most of the day, so instead of hiding in the background, I made new friends! I sat down for the ceremony with my new "friend" and for some unknown reason developed the dreaded "inappropriate giggling". I couldn't actually explain why, but a sharp look from Mr Mc put me firmly back on track... just in time for the ceremony to start... Cue my little princess looking nervous coming in leading the way for the big bridesmaids, and then... The Bride herself... Nothing to giggle about here, because she looked stunning! Well done Mrs W!

Mr & Mrs W didn't have many clear ideas about what kind of cake they wanted. They knew they wanted heart shaped, and they knew they wanted white, purple & silver... That's it. So, I surprised them instead!

My ego was pumped that day! most of the guests approached me asking if I was the cake lady. To which I sheepishly replied "ys" and as the day went on, my head grew and grew with the compliments, and I suddenly became a diva by the end of the night....
"Are you the cake lady?"
"Yes I am! Would you like a business card? Oh no, sorry I have run out. Probably because of all the interest I have generated with my masterpiece! I make cakes don't you know?"

I think the wine also contributed to my new found confidence too :-/

However, swiftly moving on... The butterflies. As I mentioned before, I love patchwork cutters, and I bought a set of the butterflies, ladybirds and bees set to make the butterflies. I made bodies out of petal paste and wired them up. I then cut out the butterflies from the same paste and left to dry on some card I had made into a concertina so that the dried in more of "V" shape rather than flat.

After 48 hours I dusted them with some lustre dust in varying tones of pink, blue, lilac and purple. I then held them over a bubbling saucepan to steam them so that the colour set. Oh and I painted the bodies with a dust/rejuvenating spirit mix in a golden yellow.

I then left them for another 48 hours as the steam would have softened the wings a little and I didn't want to start adding the detail onto soggy wings as I would have had an outstanding amount of casualties!

The detail I added involved mixing rejuvenating spirit with appropriately coloured lustre dusts in tones of violet and indigo. I added edges to the wings, spot details and anything that took my fancy really... I also added a bit of purple glitter here and there for a bit of sparkle!