Sugar Daddy // Tom Jones

Christmas Cake # 3, 4, 5 and 6

A marathon day of cake decoration. I managed to convince Jonny that he really wanted to stay and help.
A good day overall, though a brief nap was needed. I don't want to go into too much detail, as 12 christmas cakes is bound to become boring very soon.

3 - A bit too pink!



4 - All white - Couldn't outline the leaves as planned but I think it went down well.



5 - Becci's cake - snowscape. Nut free!



6 - Corporate order.. my work asked me to do a cake for our best customer. The problem came when the template Jonny had made was two inches too big. This was my fault. I got the cake size wrong. The design is our business logo, with a festive twist. I was willing to leave it as just the logo, but Jonny and my Uncle, and my Mother in fact, said it needed something more.

Swinging on a Star // Big Dee Erwin

Christmas cake #2

I was left in the house alone to decorate the second cake, which is my present to my Uncle, who is staying for the night.
Having the house to myself allowed me a bit of time to rock out, then get down to the cake dec. I was very relaxed about this one... and it went very well! The marzipanning and sugar pasting were the best I've ever done.
I was quite shocked by this and remained completely uninspired for the detail until J arrived.
And look at what we made!!!



I'm so immensely chuffed. It was so satisfying, removing layers of icing, filling in, removing, filling in. I imagine I'll repeat this design for one or two of the other cakes I have to do, the only change I'd make would be to put less colouring in so the blue is more icy.

Sugar Coated Iceberg // Lightning Seeds

Christmas Cake #1

I am half way through icing my first christmas cake - number one of twelve.

Started by levelling the top off - which I am always too generous with. This means that I end up with space at the bottom of the cake which will need generous stuffing with marzipan to level it up. I guess this is a good thing for those who love marzipan.
I got in from work and the decision to start icing tonight was spontaneous, which is leading to problem after problem. Firstly I don't have any apricot jam, only some kind of conserve - which I know is the same, and I'm being fussy.. but I like to have a cheap apricot jam so that there aren't any fruity lumps under my icing.



The fact that I had very little marzipan left meant I couldn't put the base on quite as well as I hoped. I can handle this, along as it is a comparitively smooth layer for the sugar paste, I don't really care what it looks like.

The final problem so far is that as my kitchen is stupidly small, I have all my cake dec equipment in tool boxes in my bedroom. This means that my room is getting messier and messier as I rush in and out.
I think I'm getting stressed out by nothing.

The next few stages should be a doddle as this cake is a gift, it doesn't need to be fancy, and they like a bit of ribbon bunged on. I'm a firm believer that ribbon shouldn't go on a cake unless it's completely ballsed up. So this gives me some space to go wrong...



...which I did. I was sort of gun-ho and just went for it and slopped my beautifully rolled sugar paste on to the wrong bit of cake, panicked and ripped it. In the end the patch up wasn't so obvious, but it got a bit jammy.
I had great fun using my new icing gun - a bit of a risky gadget. I'm using it to make ribbons for the bottom of the cakes, as I've decided royal icing and piping is too much of a faff. It works very nicely, but it's quite hard work on the arms, and I need to work out a way to block up the holes so I only get one ribbon.....



Finished with a simple glittery star and some silver and black ribbon - not much effort at all. Which is just what I needed to get me back into the swing of cake decorating.

Christmas Cake Photo post

Right-O here's Libbs' Christmas cakes in 5 and 8 inch tins? They are still 3 times wrapped in brown paper.

In taking these pictures I have discovered two new things. Firstly I can't add pictures into Libbs' posts so I'll have to coordinate better with her in the future. Secondly about the old saying "a bad workman always blames his tools", this is half right but I can't really blame my camera for the boring lighting on these cakes, it's my fault for not bringing my lights or even just a flashgun. It's more fair to say "a bad workman never brings the right tools for the job" but that doesn't trip off the tongue quite so well.

Anyhow I'll make good on the pictures of the cakes once they're iced and looking even more delicious.

I Can't Smile Without You // Barry Manilow

That song, is the only song on my cake playlist that does not directly reference any kind of food. It is the only song on my cake playlist that does sum up my relationship with food, especially sweet food.

I have started blogging as I have been told by a few people that I must 'keep my hand in' when it comes to food. I trained for a year with a team of the best pastry chefs in the country, with dreams of starting an amazing career working in the best kitchens in Britain.
This came to a difficult halt a few months ago when I developed a spot of the blues, and went a bit dippy. It took a lot of thought, but in the end it was clear that I had to stop working in the kitchen as I couldn't handle the stress and working very long days wasn't giving me the time to get better.

So I am now on the road to recovery, and have quite a bit of spare time. My current therapy is making eleven christmas cakes over the next few days. Once these are complete I can get down to the details - planning how I will decorate each one. I'm trying not to let myself get too excited about this bit yet, as they need all the time they can get to mature and be fed. But the planning will start soon.

The christmas cake adventure started a week ago, with the realisation that I had no vessel large enough to soak three and a half kilos of fruit. A panic stricken flurry around the house finally came up trumps and I filled up one of those 'really useful boxes'. This turned out to be a fantastic idea as you can clip the lid on and shake it up, and it's kept some of the fruit, that I haven't gotten round to using just yet, fresh and boozy.

The first batch I did - a 10, 8, 6 and 5 inch round - turned out to be way too big and had to be split into more mixing bowls than I was happy with.
I was up until 3 in the morning waiting for that lot to cook.

I suppose this is where I should post a recipe but I find that, of all recipes, the ones for Christmas Cake are the ones where people say: 'I use my great great great grandmothers recipe which has been exclusively used in our family for one hundred and two years.'
This is where I have a shameful admission - the recipe I use has not been lovingly passed down through generations, but is from a very useful website, which gives the amounts, cooking times and final weights for every tin size imaginable.
This is incredibly useful when you're making eleven cakes, and some people want enough for an army, and others want enough for two.
It makes a beautifully rich cake which I have never receieved any complaints about.

Imaginative Icing Site

Under Christmas ideas is an extensive range of evrything you could need for your festivities, as well as the amazing recipe.