I do love to be beside the seaside….

Who doesn’t like a nice beach? No one that I know, which is just as well as we live on the Cornish coast! Lots of stunning beaches. 

Although the wedding I did yesterday wasn’t actually on a beach, you could see the sea. It was in the grooms family back garden (field) with the most stunning views! And right in the next village to me, which was handy. 

The cake was a beast! So heavy it took the groom, his mate from NZ, a girl guest and a trolley to get it from car to marquee! All involved thought this quite funny, and photos were taken. It really was quite a sight. Especially as the trolley then had to be carried over the grass. So the cake arrived in some style! 

It was: Chocolate/salted caramel and ganache. Lemon and vanilla buttercream. And coconut/lime with pineapple buttercream. 

   
    
 

I’m alive!!!

Goodness I seem to have been quiet lately! It’s not for lack of cake making I promise. It’s more lack of time to sit down and post to you all. Forgive me? Please? I know you will, you’re all too lovely not too 🙂

So here’s what I’ve been up to!  

    
    
    
 

Not such fast food….

last week I got to do one of my ‘bucket list’ cakes. I’ve seen fast food cake towers and wanted to have a go. So I was delighted when I got asked to do one for a birthday. 
The subject was fast food, but making it into cake certainly wasn’t! It took me two full days. But the email I got from the client made it all worth it.

The cakes were a mix of chocolate and lemon, with vanilla buttercream. 

   
 

Making the Big Bang boys proud.

This weekend I did two weddings that would have made Sheldon and co proud. And I’ll confess I only knew what a Death Star was because Amy and Bernadete made them one on the show! 

Batman I did know. I’m of a certain age and remember the original series ( as a rerun on Saturday morning telly, I’m not quite THAT old yet!) 

I also learnt that travelling through Bude with a Death Star in your lap gets you very funny looks through the car window! 

So here they are. Batman was vanilla with black raspberry liquor syrup. Star Wars was half lemon, half red velvet, with cream cheese icing. 

   
   

Political clotted cream!

No really! I live in Cornwall, but near the Devon border. And this means being in the middle of the jam/cream cream/jam debate. Something that is taken very seriously in these parts. 

Today I did a cream tea wedding. Such a lovely idea, and it all went well. However. I had to do half the scones the Devon way (cream first) and half the Cornish way (jam first). And the Cornish ones went first! Several people commented, as there was family from both counties. 

So today clotted cream became political! 

  (Thats my mum. She helped with the cream distribution)  

  

Blooming Marvellous

I think I’ve mentioned before that when I left school (in fact I ran screaming) at 16 I went to train in horticulture. That was about a million years ago, but some things stick with you. My love of flowers being one. 

Now I don’t grow as many, instead I make them out of sugar! I’ve a project for a display cake in my head. And now the wedding fair season has stopped for me (until September) I’ve made a start. It involves a lot of flowers! And I’m in my element. 

You’ll be getting sick of floral updates, for which I’d apologise except I’m not sorry 🙂 

   

   

Behind the scenes…

Happy Sunday!!! And soggy bank holiday weekend. Well it is here in Cornwall. I’m right by the sea on top of some cliffs, so lots of sea mists. It’s all very Poldark……
Anyway back to the post! As it’s all very much not the romantic weather of said telly programme I’ve taken refuge in the Nook. My best friend decided the new cake room should be called the ‘Cake Nook.’ She’s American. Enough said.
It occurred to me that I show you my creations, but not where it takes place.
So welcome to The Nook!

Going national….

Well to Nottingham. Last week was a good friends birthday. She’s a batman geek and her parents asked me to make her a batman cake. No problem! Except they live in Nottingham…..

I have posted cakes a couple of times before, and they are fine as long as you wrap them really well. Of course fruit cakes are easier, as they are denser and less likely to suffer damage. But this was a chocolate sponge. In fact it was two chocolate sponges! As the birthday girl had ordered a cake for her dad, who’s birthday was a few days later, neither of them knew. I had to be careful what I said! Make sure I was talking to the right person about the right cake!

Anyway, they survived!! Both cakes arrived in time and in one piece.

A wedding footnote?

Yesterday I did another wedding fair. It was a lovely day in a beautiful location, and I met some lovely people again. There were four of us cake makers. And their cakes were stunning! Proving the artistry and skill that goes into creating a cake.
However I’ve been noticing a trend during my cake making journey. No matter what the occasion, the cake seems to be almost an afterthought in this country. So many couples passed by us cake makers, or muttered things like ‘oh mum could make that.’

We were all given a copy of a local wedding magazine. A beautiful publication with lots in. Except cakes. There was a single page about wedding cakes. And only a very few adds by cake suppliers. I also noticed that most of the real weddings features lacked any photos of the cake, although everything else was included. It’s incredibly frustrating, and not helping our industry! It only adds to the misbelief that the cake is just a footnote to the occasion.
Why is this? What have us cake makers done to deserve such sidelining?

With the popularity of The Great British Bake Off, and the proliferation of cake shows, you’d think we would be getting more recognition.

I’ve talked before about the frustration of customers not wanting to pay for ‘just a cake.’ But it’s no wonder they dismiss our skills when even the wedding/events industry seems to see the cake as an afterthought. I think a leaf should be taken from Americas book.

Our culture has always celebrated special occasions with food. And what better than a cake? Cakes are always happy things. No one can be sad when given a cake. Feed your guests with something special.

Laws of gravity….

And how to defy them! At least making it look that way.
I’ve been itching to have a go at one of these, and my husbands birthday gave me the perfect opportunity. He likes a drink…..

So I stole one of his empty cans and set to work. The cake inside is lemon with vanilla buttercream and lemon curd. The white fondant was airbrushed to try and get the effect of a glass mug full of beer. My airbrush fought back!

Anyway this was the resulting cake 🙂