Karma

Today has been a lesson in Karma, Let me explain; Those of you that have known me any length of time will know that I love all things VW well okay not everything but certainly the camper and the beetle, but you may not know that when I was told  I may never walk again one of the things that upset me most was the thought of not being able to drive my lovely beetle, luckily after a long time and a lot of tears I was able to drive again and now there is nothing I love more than popping the roof down and taking my car for a drive, funny what we take for granted isn't it?

Anyway I digress a few months ago I was looking on the net for a Birthday cake for a fellow VW fan and came across a camper by a professional cake maker, my first impression was that it looked terrible and when I saw they wanted £250 for it I was horrified and have to admit to taking the mickey out their cakes, well there was my error! I decided today that I would try making a camper cake as a friend has asked whether I'd be able to do one for them. It all started well I baked the cake, cut the rough shape and iced it no problems and then started added all the details, you know door handles wing mirrors etc just as I was finishing off I knocked the cake off my turntable! luckily it landed on the worktop and not the floor but it certainly lost it's wing mirrors and has a fairly major dent in the roof.

I have to admit to being disappointed because up until that point it was looking pretty good for a first effiort, still I have learnt my lesson and will not take the p*** out of other peoples cakes again.

Here is a picture for you to have a chuckle at just remember that is what got me into this mess in the first place.

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Between then and now

 I made the Pat cake in August 2011 some 8 months ago, So I thought I'd do a post to bring you up to date with my Journey.

After doing the Pat cake I really was fascinated by all things cake and really wanted to learn  more about cake decorating and sugarcraft so I signed up to an evening course. This was a pretty massive step for me as it was the first time since I'd been ill that I'd done anything on my own. I took myself off to the course every week and although the course wasn't what I was expecting I really enjoyed the social aspect and have made some really good friends which if I'm honest I didn't expect at all.

I decided not to continue with the advanced part of the course because the style of teaching didn't suit me and also because i was struggling with the pain that it would leave me in for days after.

Here are a couple of the cakes I did during the time on the course they were mostly gifts for other people either from myself or my sister.

Doing these cakes made me realise I really liked doing the models and decided that's what I would focus on.

What I hadn't even taken on board was the current fascination with cupcakes, now don't get me wrong I love a cupcake as much as the next person but they weren't something I ever really bothered making as I wasn't very skilled in the whole piping thing. All of a sudden though I started getting requests from friends and family to make them cupcakes so I decided to have a play with different piping tips and decorating techniques 

as you can probably tell I ended up making more cupcakes than anything else but I still need to practice my piping!


lastly before you all nod off, I'll leave with my two most recent and probably my favorite cakes a Cath Kidston inspired cake for my Dad's boss and my Sisters birthday cake.

So it started with a cake......

Some of you may be aware that recently my life has been overtaken by all things cake, this blog is a place to share some of the cakes I've been working on and to document my journey into the world of cake.

My cake obsession started with the approaching 40th birthday of a friend of mine, he is a postman and it is fair to say he loves his job and so I wanted to get him a postman Pat cake. I contacted a number of cake makers and was either told they couldn't do what I wanted or they wanted £75 upwards for the cake. This was out of my budget so I decided to do some research to see if I could make one myself. This led me to buy  a book from Ebay that showed you how to make a Postman Pat cake.

Once the book arrived and I read the instructions I quickly regretted my haste in dismissing the cake makers and was almost reduced to tears when reading the instructions, it was as if they were written in a foreign language. Luckily a friend of my Mums makes cakes and all sugar flowers so I enlisted her help, it made me feel slightly better when she also admitted to feeling slightly overwhelmed by the challenge. Undeterred we set a date, I ordered all the bits we needed and baked the cake, Here is the outcome

I was thrilled with the way the cake turned out and although there were lots of bits that weren't perfect I can't help but be a little proud of the results, the recipient was also pretty chuffed so all in all a success.

What I didn't realise was how much of an addiction this was to become.