hobbies and interests

Artist’s cake for 95th birthday

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Caroline called me from Oxfordshire and said she had been searching for the perfect rich fruit cake for her father in laws birthday. He is a very talented artist and she had been googling ideas and when she came across a picture of a cake I had done many years ago on this web page. She wanted an almost exact replica except with penguins (who knows?) and Sydney’s signature ‘S’ on the sides. Caroline sent her husband all the way down to the coast to collect it – I really hope that the birthday boy is pleased with it

Poppies and cornflowers

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Florence is celebrating a big birthday this month and this is one of the two cakes I helped her with. Florence’s neice made the fruit cake and the marzipan which I used to cover it. Then I iced it and applied the edible printed border that is round the edge (no, I didn’t paint it). But I did make the sugar poppies and cornflowers to go on the top and matched the print on Florence’s lovely dress.

Happy birthday Florence

Mike’s birthday

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I made a cake for Marilyn’s birthday a little while ago and now she wants one for her husband Mike. He was in the police force, has a lovely black Labrador and his Land Rover is his pride and joy. So an eclectic mix of sugar models to celebrate his 70th birthday on top of a proper old fashioned rich fruit cake

Gateau for a Golfer

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Martin’s favourite cake is a Black Forest gateau and his favourite thing to do is play golf. So for his 80th birthday lunch Sue asked me to make a proper squishy gateau with chocolate ganache, cherries and cream, on top of which I made a sugar 80 shaped like a tiny golf course. I hope it ticked all the boxes Martin.

Tiddler Cake

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Noah loves the Julia Donaldson book ‘Tiddler’ and Lucy asked me to make his third birthday cake featuring the characters from the story. Inside is a jam and buttercream layered sponge and all around are Tiddler and his fishy companions. I have three grandchildren under four, all of them discerning Donaldson fans and I was relieved when all of them instantly recognised the theme of the cake from this photo.. phew!

Happy Birthday Noah

Petanque anniversary cake

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The New Milton Petanque Club celebrated its 30th birthday last weekend. Because of the vagaries of the British summer they wanted a cake that could be put in the freezer if the necessarily al fresco party had to be postponed. So we went for a jam and buttercream filled number 30 covered in a simple buttercream with sugar petanque balls on the top. From the photos on their website, no-one needed to worry about the weather and a good time was had by all.

Archery chocolate cake

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Theo is 7 and was having an archery themed party this year. His mum asked for a chocolate layer cake with an archery target on the top with as many organic ingredients as possible. A nice easy one.. once we had made the arrows..

Lion King Cake

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Casey contacted me about a Simba cake for Nolan’s 6th birthday party. The children don’t like fondant icing much so we needed to find a way to make a passable Disney lion without the need to use too much. This is a jam and buttercream layered sponge cake covered in buttercream with just edible modelling paste used for ears and face. job done!

Dinosaur for Hugh

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Hugh is 4 this weekend. His grandparents showed me a picture of a cake with a dinosaur bursting out of the top and asked if I could make something similar. This great big dinosaur has a centre of marshmallow and Rice Krispie cake and is covered in sugar paste. Inside the whole cake is a layered Victoria sponge. Hope you had a lovely family party Hugh. Happy birthday.