Wedding – 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, Birthday, Cake decorating, Cake decorating products, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration, chocolate, Family, Friends, Hen party, Learning, Mindfulness, My Favourite Products, Novelty Cakes, Sugar and Crumbs, Therapy, Wedding Cakes

Guilty…….of neglecting this blog!

June 1, 2022June 1, 2022 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

I have reasons, of course I do. But I’m not going to get into them now. Too much time has passed. I’ll just say they were health related and jump back in!

So, I think for this post, I’ll just catch you up on what I’ve been making for my friends and family over the last few months.

Here we go…….

I’ll start with the two most notable events ❤️

Firstly, Back in November, my brother finally got married after postponing twice because of the dreaded covid!

Rustic wedding cake for my brother and sister in law ❤️
Bottom tier chocolate and Irish cream, middle lemon and top carrot cake. Flavoured with Sugar and Crumbs flavoured icing sugars from http://www.sugarandcrumbs.co.uk
All cakes ganache coated and covered with Renshaw coloured sugarpaste #sugarandcrumbsicingsugar #renshawbaking #weddingcake #rusticwedding #treebarktexture

Then in April, my daughter and son in law came over from Bucharest for their stag and Hens!

Us girls went to York on a Viking themed weekend. It was great fun, exhausting but fun!

In the lovely barn complex hired for the weekend

Everything else! From October to May 🤦🏻‍♀️

Callie:

Baptism cake for a little girl. Both tiers chocolate cake, made using Sugar and Crumbs chocolate milkshake icing sugar instead of caster sugar, then using same icing sugar in the buttercream filling. Covered in Select Ireland Platinum sugarpaste. Pink colour achieved with Coloursplash pink. FMM easy rose cutters used for flowers on top. Gold accents courtesy of Sugar and Crumbs bright gold Wonderdust mixed with rejuvenator. #sugarandcrumbs1 #sugarandcrumbsicingsugar #wonderdust #chocolatecake #prettypinkcake #baptismcake #cakesofinstagram🎂🍰

Jacob:

Mr Blippi birthday cake! Flavoured with Sugar and Crumbs delicious lemon drizzle icing sugar and covered in Select Ireland platinum sugarpaste coloured with Coloursplash blue, navy and orange #spongecake #sugarandcrumbs1 #selectireland #coloursplash

Ralph:

Birthday cake for a construction mad 3 year old ❤️ Main cake flavoured with Sugar and Crumbs velvet vanilla icing sugar, cupcakes in lemon drizzle and chocolate milkshake flavour. Covered in Select Ireland platinum sugarpaste. Digger made with Rice Krispie treats and Renshaw yellow sugarpaste. Also used renshaw red and orange #sugarandcrumbsicingsugar #selectirelandsugarpaste #renshawfondant #birthdaycake #vanillasponge #constructioncake #noveltycakes #cupcakesofinstagram #cakesofinstagram

Nick:

Birthday cake made with Sugar and Crumbs lemon drizzle icing sugar in cake batter and buttercream. Coated in white chocolate ganache using Brigids ganache kit. Covered with Select Ireland platinum sugarpaste coloured with Coloursplash blue and navy. Nick’s children wanted daddy to have tools on his cake, which were painted with S&C Wonderdust silver mixed with rejuvenator spirit #sugarandcrumbsicingsugar #sugarandcrumbs1 #brigidscakeroom #selectirelandsugarpaste #coloursplash #wonderdust #birthdaycake #lemoncake #noveltycake #toolcake

Zach:

I asked my lovely niece what theme 2nd birthday cake for my great nephew/grandson substitute! (My two refuse to give me grandchildren, so unfair 😆)
Apparently he likes Elmo and Woody from Toy story, so I did both!
Lemon drizzle flavour in the cake batter and buttercream, white chocolate ganache courtesy of Brigids Cake Room ganache kit, then covered in Select Ireland Platinum coloured yellow, and Mona Lisa red. I marbled what was left for the board and centre trim. I used Fractal red pen to do the check effect, and made a star shape for a sheriff badge painted with WonderDust silver. The toppers aren’t edible, just printed card on lollipop sticks!

Henry:

Yummy chocolate cake filled with chocolate buttercream, coated with ganache and covered with sugarpaste. Tractor base is RKT and models all hand made from modelling paste 😊#sugarandcrumbsicingsugar #monalisasugarpaste #selectirelandsugarpasteplatinum #saracinomodelingpaste #coloursplashgelcolours #birthdaycake #farmyardcake

James:

If you’re a Terry Pratchett/Discworld fan you’ll know how pleased I was with this cake for my son’s birthday.
This year’s birthday cake challenge is based on the second image.
I’m super happy with ‘The librarian’ orangutan!
The desk is the cake part and is chocolate fudge filled and crumb coated with S&C chocolate milkshake buttercream. Covered in Renshaw brown sugarpaste. The orangutan is made from Saracino modelling paste coloured with orange Coloursplash. Couldn’t resist blinging up the desk handles and decorative features with bright gold wonderdust mixed with rejuvenator.
I used the inside of the box to set the scene by sticking some images to the sides. The stone effect floor was achieved with crinkled up tin foil!
We celebrated my son’s birthday today and guess what? He said it was my best one yet! ❤️❤️❤️

Here’s a few more bits and bobs and then I think I’m up to date!

Until next time

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

I buy all my cakey products from http://www.sugarandcrumbs.co.uk I am not sponsored by them, they’re just a really great company!

Baking for Therapy, Cake decorating, Cake decorating products, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration, Friends, Love, Therapy, Wedding Cakes

My first ever Wedding Cake!

February 6, 2020 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

Oh my, where to start? At its conception I suppose!

So, last year, I was asked to make a wedding cake for Rebecca and Danny. I’ve known Rebecca and her parents for a long time as they are all part of the Pantomime Society I am currently Chair of. Her Dad, Edward was our Director until recently, as well as designing and helping to build the set, writing the scripts, choreographing and performing, and Mum Bev was our props lady, as well as being Edward’s right hand woman! Rebecca has been performing in the Pantomime since she was young, recently helping with choreography as well, and when she met Danny, he became part of the backstage team.

I was pleased to be asked to make their engagement cake, a very ‘sweet’ affair, a few years ago.

So when they asked me to make their wedding cake I was very excited! Especially when I learned that they wanted a peacock theme!

I arranged a cake testing session for them, and provided four flavours as per their request. Lemon, red velvet, vanilla, and mint chocolate. On the day they liked them all! Whilst discussing the design, I realised that because they wanted peacock ‘feathers’ trailing down the side of the cake from the topper, and cupcakes carrying on the theme around the bottom of the cake, there was no reason that they couldn’t have them all!

So, this is what we went with. A 10” round bottom tier in lemon, an 8” round top tier in red velvet, and a mix of vanilla and mint chocolate cupcakes to finish. I used Sugar and Crumbs flavoured icing sugars in lemon drizzle, cream cheese, velvet vanilla and mint chocolate for filling the layers/topping the cupcakes.

The topper was made using Renshaw flower and modelling paste coloured with Coloursplash Jade gel colour, then I added some Wilton leaf green to make a brighter shade, and precoloured Renshaw deep purple to layer the feathers. Gold accents were added using Faye Cahill shimmer gold lustre dust, which doesn’t show up much on the pictures, but had a lovely effect in real life!

I was so relieved when this cake came out well, I definitely started to feel the weight of responsibility the nearer it got to the wedding!

As usual, I made all the elements in stages. The two large cakes were baked and frozen 2 weeks before, and the feathers I tackled by just doing a few a day over a couple of weeks. I covered the 20” round cake drum a week in advance, crumb coated with white chocolate ganache 3 days before, covered with Select Ireland Platinum sugarpaste 2 days before, when I also baked and frosted the cupcakes. After dowelling and using royal icing to put the two cakes together, I added the ribbons, attached the topper and the feathers down the side with royal icing and boxed it up the day before, but I took the round ‘feathers’ with me on the day, and placed them on the cupcakes in situ.

All in all, it was a great, if a little scary experience but I’m now more confident in my abilities and looking forward to the next time!

Until next time

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

From sugarandcrumbs.co.uk

Lemon drizzle icing sugar

Cream cheese icing sugar

Velvet vanilla icing sugar

Mint chocolate icing sugar

Select Ireland Platinum Sugarpaste White

Renshaw flower and modelling paste

Coloursplash gel colour jade

Wilton leaf green gel colour (set of 8)

Renshaw deep purple ready to roll sugarpaste

Faye Cahill shimmer gold lustre dust

PME round cutter set

Cake cards 9” and 11” round

Cake drum 11” round

From eBay:

20” round cake drum

PME oval cutter set

Cake decorating, Cakes, Bakes, and Me

A very unique wedding cake

June 5, 2017February 9, 2019 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

Hi from a very rainy Lancashire England!

A few weeks ago, my niece recommended me to a friend who needed a small wedding cake. I subsequently met with the lovely Carole, after sending her a mountain of Pinterest images of single tier cakes! Carole is a very bubbly character, and soon picked out a heart shaped cake…..in purple! Now, although I confess that purple is my favourite colour, I hadn’t ever visualised it on a wedding cake, unless it was a steam punk or goth type affair. Carole definitely didn’t fit in either of those categories 😝 but her theme was purple, also her favourite colour, and gold. So why not? In my opinion, you should choose whatever you want on your wedding day 💜 After chatting, she also asked for some pink peonies with gold edged petals, chocolate cake, which was her groom to be’s favourite, and left the rest to me! Yikes! I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Carole. She’s the sort of person you like instantly. Bright, bubbly, like a ray of sunshine on a gloomy day. Well she brightened mine anyway 😊 I sent her off with a sample for the groom to try, and once that got the thumbs up, I started thinking about creating a unique cake for this unique lady and her chocolate cake loving man! 💑 This is the recipe I used. It’s lovely and moist without being too dense. How to Cake it is one of my favourite YouTube channels 😊

I wanted to do something special, while sticking to the remit. Ages ago, I’d bought a silicone lace mat, which had never been used. It features hearts so it was perfect. I found a YouTube tutorial on how to make the ‘lace’ coloured it purple, and set to. It was actually very easy, I had all the ingredients already, and I was really pleased with the finished product. This is how I made it 😊

I used this 2 ingredient chocolate frosting to fill the cake after creating three layers. It is soooo good. I had to stop myself from eating it out of the bowl. And no icing sugar! My Cupcake Addiction is another favourite 😊

After carving the cake into it’s heart shape, I then ganached the whole thing, and popped it into the fridge. All good so far 😊

The following day, (Thursday) it was time for covering the cake with that lovely purple fondant. That’s when the problems started 😖 Stupid fondant behaving badly again! Has anyone else noticed that the darker colours are always softer? Black, red and purple specifically? Of course it was a scorcher of a day too, which didn’t help. No matter how thick or thin I rolled it, as soon as I tried to get it on the cake, it ripped…..well fell apart would be more accurate. After a minor panic, I decided to add just a little Tylose to firm it up, rolled a long strip to go round the edges, and a heart shape for the top, and panelled it instead of trying to get it all on in one go! Heat and humidity are pure evil when working with fondant! 😈 After that I applied the lace hearts, dusting them randomly with gold and hologram white lustres, added a purple ribbon round the top edge with diamante pins sterilised with vodka, then the gold ‘bling’ sequinned ribbon round the bottom edge. Another hairy moment transferring it to the board (there’s always that moment when you just have to let go!) And then I placed the peonies and the lettering.

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‘Roy’ having only 3 letters, one side looked a bit bare, so I placed a small wired peony on that side. The butterfly was a last minute touch just because it was pretty ❤ Carole had supplied her own topper which was you to me bride and groom bears. I gave the groom a purple cravat and waistcoat button, and the bride a gold ‘dress’ and small fondant posy. I left a fondant shelf edged with gold on the back of the cake for them to sit on 💑

I have to say that I’m so grateful to Carole and Roy for trusting me to make this cake for their special day. I got the chance to put into practice the techniques I’d ‘learned’ on YouTube. Making a quilted board, peonies, cake lace etc, and if it hadn’t have been such a hot day on Thursday, it would have been a 100% pleasure. Still, it’s not the first time it’s happened and I’m sure it won’t be the last! Darn unpredictable weather! If there are any ‘cakers’ out there reading this, what do you do? Are there any brands which are better when working in heat or humidity? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter 😮

Anyway, many congratulations to Carole and Roy. I hope you had an amazing day, and a very happy future together.

Until next time

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤

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