Decorating saviours

 

The abundance of good quality decorations is not very easy to find in Londontown, in Canada you can go to several bulk food places and find tonnes of cake decorating items at bargain prices but in the UK you have a SMALL selection and it is super expensive. I will never understand how these things work sometimes? 

Anyhow, the good old supermarket and cash and carry where I buy my supplies for Le Dolci does carry my favourite decorations made by Silver Spoon.  The brand carries the best decorations at a reasonable price and the lovely people at Silver Spoon also contact me every once in a while to see if I would like to trial their products, yes please! 

So, I received a little package in the post and used their decorations for a batch of cupcakes to go to some sweet little 5 year olds! The best part of this job is seeing cute kiddies enjoying cakes. And also the adults too! I did have 4 cupcakes for breakfast the other day (all for quality control purposes, of course!) but do think that this job could get dangerous as my metabolism starts to decrease. I will have to go to D's personal trainer soon to get me some abs of steel like he is getting - wow - a personal trainer does work and I have witnessed real abs on a non-gay man! 

Keep the cake addictions going people of England, just make sure you work it off by dancing or walking or doing the London Marathon (a fabulous event that happened yesterday!) Next year I should make cupcakes with little medals on them and hand them out to runners - they deserve it! 

Thanks again to the Silver Spoon peeps for sending me sweets - my customers have given it the thumbs up as have I.

xx

PM& PJ's rainbow cupcakes

Having the kids mix the food coloring in little bowls with white butter cream frosting is a great activity that they loved. They were also good at spreading the icing on and also very adept at eating many of them in the process! 

Photo shoot fun!

My wonderful friend Jake at Jake Green.co.uk was kind enough to host a photo shoot at his cool studio this past week. He usually does celebs and other fun stuff but he has a sweet tooth so the very cooperative subjects for the afternoon were cakes! Resulting phtoographs from the day are AMAZING.

If you ever need a photographer please call him and tell him I sent you (you may get a discount or a clever East End comment!) Jake has a creative eye and managed to make the cupcakes, cannoli and brownies look fantastic. More pics to be uploaded soon but for now enjoy these two and also read today's review of Le Dolci on Londonist.com written by the lovely Food & Drink editor Chris.

The greatest thing about starting a new biz is all of the interesting and kind people you meet, a lot of people are willing to help newbies and I am sure karma and time will allow me to help them one day too.  A big thanks to all of you who have pointed me in interesting directions and have offered me your time and advice!

x

No bribes! Cupcake feedback

I wish everyone would be as nice as this and take their time to email me feedback! And I didn't even have to pay him! Thanks Anthony, will slip you that tenner via Paypal ;)

From: Anthony Hawgood
"Kate gave me one of your cakes to try yesterday with my mid-morning cup of tea and I can honestly say it was heaven! I thought of the ad where the whole world stops because the person is eating a piece of cake...that’s how I felt! The cake itself was substantial without being heavy (there’s nothing worse than “too doughy”!) and the icing was real melt-in-the mouth (made with real butter?)

The other great thing about these cupcakes is that they’re not too sweet!

Thank you for the best cupcake experience I’ve ever had.

D&M wedding cake trialPics from the wedding cupcake trial this weekend. I got the thumbs up from the bride and groom to be, phew! I ordered a tray from Ebay over the weekend and am going to buy some more utensils to make the cupcake assembly line a little easier. Can't wait for the wedding!

We luv LoLaI got a lovely gift of cupcakes from Lola's Kitchen in Primrose Hill. I must say this is a wonderful gift to give and receive as it is great to get such yummy food in such a delightful package. It is also better when you can share something so wonderfully delicious.

Freshly baked each day these cupcakes not only looked perfect, they tasted divine and with so many different flavours in the box I had cupcakes for afternoon snack and dinner (and that is after sharing it with the team!) I think I even had a cupcake for breakfast the next day. Yes, the autumnal fat collecting on the body, which can be hidden with big sweaters, can commence!

What a lovely gift! I am now going to have to go into Lola's to have a look at and smell of the shop. Nothing better than the smell of fresh cupcakes!
Flavours are not your average chocolate and vanilla - they come in peanut butter, banana, mocha, caramel, pistacchio, strawberry, rocky road and more....yum!The always handsome BJT below showing off the cupcake package.

And this last pic of BJT is not food related but really liked it! I especially like the tag on the captain's hat. Always something interesting going on with the leg shaker!

Cupcake fanaticLittle Mr. Quinn Jr. loves to make cupcakes, if it was up to him we would make them every day. He especially loves to put the sprinkles on.

I think he likes the process of making them more than eating them. He mixes the batter, pours the water and oil and loves to help scoop them into their little paper homes. He is such a cooking angel. He says he wants to be a baker when he grows up.

Giving kids responsibility in the kitchen keeps them occupied and also teaches them about food. My sister is never scared to let him get his hands dirty and help with all the cooking tasks. He sometimes uses a knife too which scares me but he has been taught how to use it properly and knows it is something he needs to be very careful with.

Kids these days are amazing, just give them a chance and they will shine!

Cupcake Cake

Birthdays are supposed to be filled with fun for kids, but you know how adults love to do stuff that kids do and secretly love it. I recall a Ms. Norris's b-day last year where she rented a bouncy castle and surprisingly no children were invited to the party. It was a bit dangerous as there was a lot of alcohol mixed in with grown adults flying around the castle but, nonetheless - tonnes of fun!

So at a recent b-day party the extremely expensive Disney birthday cake with super-hero figurine on top (which usally just consists of whip cream) was replaced with a cupcake decorating extravaganza.

I'm telling you get into the kids' b-day party business, no longer are the days of pin the tail on the donkey and Twister, now kids have bouncy castles, parties at play places, theme parks and even have scientists, magicians and other entertainers come to thier homes for a hefty fee.

Anyhow, the cupcake decorating alternative was a hit, all the kids made their own creations, everyone ate their cupcakes, some took them home, it killed about an hour and only cost about $20 for the cake mix package and decorating sprinkles. Adults and kids loved it (SS was deep in decorating mode when I took this pic) and there are left over sprinkles and candies for another decorating spree, just need to buy the Betty Crocker cake mix for a few dollars.

Try it and spend the rest of your b-day budget on hiring out that theme park next year.

Happy B-day again little V! Loved all the cupcakes that I smuggled home in my handbag!