Fun – Baking for Therapy

Baking for Therapy, Celebration, Family, Friends, Fun, Health, Love, Wedding Cakes

Guess who gained a son in law?

September 5, 2022September 5, 2022 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

Yes! My daughter got married to her partner of almost 9 years at the end of July ❤️ The wedding was postponed from last year, so we were so happy that it went ahead without a hitch.

Katie and Josh met while at university doing their teaching degrees in 2013. When they qualified, they lived and worked in and around Liverpool for 4 years, a city that became very dear to them. So, even though they are now located in Bucharest, when it came to a wedding venue, it had to be in Liverpool!

Me, hubby, bride and groom, daughter in law Abi, and son James

It was an absolutely wonderful day and evening, with both ceremony and reception held at The Racquet Club, who went out of the way to make sure everything went to plan. Even down to washing the fresh fruit so I could place it on the cakes at the last minute!

Probably the most important cake I’ve ever made! Bottom tier Velvet Vanilla, middle lemon drizzle, top strawberry milkshake flavour *

Katie wore a custom made 50’s style dress in Ivory silk and lace, with a maroon sash, underskirt and lacy tights. Doc Marten boots with red roses on them completed this non traditional, but very ‘Katie’ look. The bridesmaids were also 50’s themed in black and red, with the same boots.

They all had bouquets made of silk flowers 🌺

Hubby was a little wobbly walking her down the aisle, but recovered enough to make a beautiful speech at the reception. Our son, James was best man and his speech was a little more raucous!

At the end of the day, although exhausted, I was happy to have been able to enjoy it fully, without having to disappear back to our room and miss anything. I did have to rest for about 3 days afterwards though!

I’ll leave you with a few more images from the happy day ❤️

Until next time

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

* flavours achieved by swapping caster sugar for flavoured icing sugar in the cake batter. Buttercream made with the same flavoured icing sugars. Full range can be found here: https://www.sugarandcrumbs.co.uk/shop/edibles2/natural-flavoured-icing-sugar.html

Baking for Therapy, Cake decorating, Cake decorating products, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration, Classes, Family, Friends, Fun, Inspiration, Jubilee, Learning, Novelty Cakes, Pets, Sugar and Crumbs

Jubilee fun!

July 27, 2022July 27, 2022 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

I know it’s been and gone, but we did celebrate the Queen’s platinum jubilee. Just a small gathering in the conservatory and garden, with myself and my daughter in law doing a bit of baking for the occasion 😊

Abigail’s red, white and blue cake, Sticky toffee pudding cake, Jubilee tower

As you can see, we had quite the selection! My daughter in law Abigail made the fabulous red, white and blue cake with chocolate shards, and the brownies.

I made the Jubilee tower, courtesy of a fantastic class by a cake artist called Claire Corbett for Sugar and Crumbs. You can find all Claire’s classes here https://www.sugarandcrumbs.co.uk/cake-decorating-classes/claire-corbett.html and some of them are on sale at the moment!

I also made the Sticky toffee pudding cake and the multicoloured rainbow cake, which was finished with purple to represent the colour scheme of the Jubilee. I also made the cupcakes which were a request from a friend. (see previous post re colour pop)

Hubby Glen and myself were joined by my son James and his wife Abigail, my Mum, Glen’s Parents, and Abi’s Parents. Oh, and Charlie whippet of course ❤️

I hope you all enjoyed your own celebrations if you chose to do so, and the extra day off work if not! 😆

Until next time

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

Baking for Therapy, Cake decorating, Cake decorating products, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration, Friends, Fun, Hen party, Love, My Favourite Products, Recipes, Sugar and Crumbs, Therapy

Lockdown Hen Party Cupcakes

January 8, 2021January 8, 2021 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

It’s been a strange 2020, and so far 2021 isn’t looking much different!

Despite that, my friend’s daughter Freya decided to get married on New Year’s Eve, and her mum, Elaine asked me for some cupcakes for a very cosy family hen party just before Christmas. It was so lovely to find some joy in the middle of the COVID-19 chaos, and I wish the happy couple a long and happy life together ❤️

At the same time, Freya requested 40 macarons. I’d previously used some as decorations on her birthday cake ‘Pretty in Pink’. I’d used Sugar and Crumbs cherry flavour Whipping it Up to make them, and she liked them so much, she wanted more!

Freya loves chocolate cherry flavours, so to make the cupcakes, I swapped caster sugar for Sugar and Crumbs Black Forest icing sugar in my cupcake recipe, then Black Cherry icing sugar in the buttercream. I used a Sprinkleicious blend called ‘Starry Night’ for decoration and some custom edible toppers from an eBay seller to finish off ❤️

As I said, I used Sugar and Crumbs Whipping it Up to make the macarons. It’s basically flavoured icing sugar with pasteurised egg white powder added, and is a multi use product that makes Swiss Meringue Buttercream, Mousse, Pavlova, Meringue, Shortbread, Macarons, Marshmallow fluff, Roulade and lots of other yummy recipes! It comes in lots of different flavours too! Much easier than separating eggs, then having to find a use for the yolks! Here’s the recipe for the macarons I used half the 500g bag and got about 50 macarons! Coloursplash pink was used to colour them ❤️

40 Black Cherry macarons sandwiched together with Black Cherry buttercream

This was almost my last request of 2020, almost! There’s just one more cute cake to tell you about in my next post!

Until then

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

Baking for Therapy, Birthday, Cake decorating, Cake decorating products, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration, Classes, Family, Friends, Fun, Gerry Chiu, Health, Learning, Novelty Cakes, Recipes, Sugar and Crumbs, Therapy

Pretty Cotton Reel Cake

November 20, 2020November 20, 2020 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

This cake was the third in a series of classes with the lovely Georgie Godbold…..online of course, but a live class nevertheless.

Unfortunately, Georgie had an unavoidable family situation so was unable to take the class herself. Rather than cancel, Gerry Chiu from Studio8Cakes very kindly stepped in 😁

Because this was a paid class, I can’t reveal the techniques we were taught, but I can show you the finished cake!

Cotton Reel Cake featuring Georgie’s trademark ‘sugar wobblies’ animals

I made this back in September and it was my Mum’s birthday cake. Mum loves sewing so it came just at the right time!

I used my vanilla cake recipe but substituted the caster sugar with Sugar and Crumbs raspberry ripple icing sugar. For the buttercream crumbcoat I used lemon drizzle flavour. I love the raspberry/lemon combination, it’s so refreshing…..like pink lemonade 🥤

https://www.sugarandcrumbs.co.uk/shop-by-brand/sugar-and-crumbs/icing-sugar.html

For the models and other edible items I used Renshaw flower and modelling paste, and to cover the cake I used Select Ireland Platinum sugarpaste.

The mould for the scissors is from Patchwork Cutters

All the participants, whether watching to do later or taking part on the day had an absolute blast! These online classes are so much more than just tuition. It’s a chance to ‘get together’ with my online friends from Sugar and Crumbs and share some much needed light hearted banter too.

I’d like to say a big thank you to Carol McFarland from Sugar and Crumbs for setting up these online classes with some extremely talented tutors including Molly Robbins, Gerry Chiu, Georgie Godbold, Oli the Choc, Dawn Butler, Do Griffin, Hannah the ‘Cake Illusionist’ and not forgetting the Cupcake bouquet, Buttercream Flowers, and Nifty Nozzles Classes that Carol herself hosts!

All the classes are available here 😀

I’m even more thankful for all the free Facebook live sessions that Sugar and Crumbs have been doing throughout the Pandemic 😷 This is in addition to the regular sessions, so there’s barely a day goes by that I don’t look forward to checking in with Karen Griffiths, Carol McFarland or a guest tutor to learn how to make something yummy 😋 With so many people struggling with their mental health at the moment, I can honestly say they’ve been an absolute lifeline, and I know that the rest of the S&C family will concur 🥰

Hopefully I won’t be making this much mess, but there are no guarantees 😆

Note to family: There’s plenty of edible Christmas gifts coming your way!

If you’d like to join in with the live sessions, all you need to do is find ‘Sugar and Crumbs with nifty nozzles’ Facebook page…that’s it! Easy peasy 😀

Baking for Therapy, Cake decorating, Castle Cake, Celebration, Family, Fun, Halloween, Inspiration, Learning, Novelty Cakes

Trick or Treat?

October 29, 2020October 31, 2020 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

Hi everyone

Much to my disappointment, I’m rarely asked to make Halloween goodies, and especially not this year!

But it got me wondering…..what’s your go to Halloween theme? Do you prefer ‘Trick’ (scary)

or ‘Treat’ (cute)?

As I haven’t had the opportunity to bake anything this Halloween, I thought I’d give you a few examples from each category 🎃

From the ‘Trick’ section, take a look at these terrifyingly realistic creations from ‘Epic Confections’, ‘How to Cake it’ and ‘The Lovely Baker’

For ‘Treats’ try these from ‘Cakes by Lynz’, ‘The Icing Artist’, and ‘Sugar and Crumbs’

And for a bit of both, how about these clever two sided cakes from Koalipops?

I hope you find something you like in there! There are so many to choose from the talented cake artists I follow 👻 🎃 🧙‍♀️

Like I said, I haven’t done many, but I dug through my photo archive and found these to show you 😀

I hope you have fun with your boys and ghouls today. I have my pic n mix ready just in case any local kiddies and their parents decide to do some social distanced ‘Trick or Treating’! (If not, I’ll just have sweeties for me 😀)

However you decide to celebrate, please remember…

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

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