Friday, February 26, 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Job One Done


So here's the story, my good friend Harriet (aka my agent/pimp) had a friend who was getting married, someone who needed cake! And after much research, and some negotiation I got my first comission! Not a long story but definitely important.

Jim had tried my cupcakes before and was having a small child orientated family wedding and thought of me! This make me happy because he wasn't a friend doing me a favour, he tried my cakes and liked them, he was the one who needed the favour and I was in need of a challenge.

The entire experience was a wonderful learning curve for me and enabled me to start doing some really exciting things, like thinking about doing this on a more permanent basis, creating a brand and experimenting with new decorating ideas.

I attended a fun decorating course run by Cookie Girl which gave me a more confident approach to some basic piping techniques, though I wish it'd been a bit more challenging, especially after talking to a friend who went on a similar course last week and learnt more for less money. Not a waste of money just definitely not for people already confident holding a pallet knife.

My good friend Laura Webster has created me a fabulous website based on the new 'brand' designed for me by Dan Kimmens! So Belle Bakes has been born! My blog will be updated to include many things including this amazing new logo! So many, many thanks to them both!

Back to the wedding...

I was commisioned to make 60 cupcakes made up of five flavours and a large cupcake on top, the wedding's theme was blue. Trying to include the five flavours and keep a running theme to tie them all together wasn't as easy as it first seemed but I think we need a good job of it. I chose four colours red, white, brown and blue to keep the cupcakes together.

 Peanut Butter - Peanut butter cake and chocolate cream cheese frosting with blue sprinkles.






 


Red Velvet - Red velvet cake with white cream cheese frosting, red and heart shaped sprinkles
Chocolate - Chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting, topped with a strawberry.

Vanilla - Vanilla cake with blue vanilla cream cheese frosting and white "hundreds and thousands."
Rainbow - Blue/yellow/green/pink vanilla cake with white cream cheese frosting and confetti sprinkles.
I am mostly pleased with how the cakes turned out, if I try not to be overly critical!

Harriet and I delivered the cakes on saturday morning, and set them up with the stand which was kindly lent to me by a colleague.

The finished result:


Red velvet/chocolatey cake to top, white frosting and blue sprinkles. Bride and groom topped it, climbing the mountain of cream cheese!


The cakes actually tied in together really well I am please with the balance between light and dark, and they looked great into the reception room.




All in all I'm really pleased!  Here's to the next one!

Thanks to Harriet and Omar for helping me bake/decorate/run around like a headless chicken/get snappy without saying a single word. Love.

Next week I am entering the Iron Cupcake competition for the first time. Excited!!

Sunday, February 7, 2010