Cake 

"If the people have no bread, let them eat cake." Marie Antoinette

Cute cakes from Cake International

Some people are very talented in regards to what they can do with sugar paste. My skills are improving but just need more time and sugar paste (I dropped a large chunk on the floor tonight and had to bin it). I watched a few workshops at the show in Birmingham a few weeks ago and learned a few tricks too. Maybe over Christmas my nephews and I will experiment. Stay tuned!

Without Betty & blenderThe first chocolate cake I made without Betty Crocker! All ingredients were individually mixed, with no blender (my arm was hurting) and some Kiwis were laughing at me that I never made a cake from scratch. Who needs to make one from scratch when Betty Crocker's takes 3 minutes to blend and all you have to do is add 2 eggs and some water!? My mother was a working woman!

No ingredients came from a box and luckily there was baking powder or baking soda in the cupboard. It took WAY more time than using a ready mix but was interesting to try. It was delicious but am not sure it came out exactly right as it felt really heavy, not 'moist and delicious' like Miss Crocker promises. (Betty Crocker is a brand of cake mixes in America for all those peeps that don't know who I am referring to)
Stellina and the heckler (BH) enjoyed decorating it and eating it and it was worth all the hard work in the end. I think my next purchase is a blender. I probably have one arm muscle bigger than the other as this weekend I made a banana cake sans blender too. All these cakes are not good for my preparation for the beach in March but I guess that is what flowy sarongs are for.

Cynthia's chocolate cakeCynthia's chocolate cake made with condensed milk.

Condensed milk is made by removing the water from the milk and adding sugar which makes it suitable for baking. It is a thick, sweet liquid that lasts forever if unopened. This cake was made doubly sweet and delicious by this little addition to the mix.

A busy week for posting, but today went to a fantastic restaurant in Chelsea called Ziani's which I will have to post about later. A must visit and a place I will definitely return to, hidden on a back street off the Kings Road. It was like eating at Momma Dolce's!

Betty & I
With a little help from Betty Crocker and the Bunny rabbit, we made 4 cakes to create this 4-0 for Jappy's bday. It had a layer of white icing in between and was decorated with some lovely toppings that I bought at Waitrose.

There were a few glitches before the final product came to fruition e.g. cake sticking to the pan, the cakes exploded in the oven into pimple-like structures so some creative cutting was in order, icing and cake crumbs all over the kitchen, trying to open the door with chocolate frosting covered hands, general icing difficulties, finding chocolate icing on my arm at the club and more... but, the end result looked good and it didn't get jostled too much in the taxi.
Luckily the designer-extraordinaire was in town from Prague to make the '4.' It looked like it would be an arrow with a 0 cake before she stepped in to make a cutout of a 4. Thanks E!
Even the waiters loved it.
The delivery.The birthday boy