Going to the Zoo, Zoo Zoo, You can come to…

I was lucky enough this summer to have my sister Beth from ‘Up Country’ come to stay and this mean’t without a doubt baking something weird and wonderful was on the cards. Beth may only be 15 but has the sugarcraft skills of a pro and I have no doubt that whatever she chooses in life she will make the most of it!  We decided to create some multi-coloured cupcakes that would be topped with a green grass buttercream and zoo animals – we had visited Paradise Animal Park earlier in the week and this was enough inspiration for us…

P.S. You can click on the picture below to see it in full screen glory! Claire

Ooo La La – Cupcake Camp Paris

Cupcake Camp is quite simply described as “an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and eat cupcakes in an open environment.” Cupcake Camp (2011)

The second annual event took place this past weekend and over 2600 cupcakes were sold and devoured! If you wanted to find out more information check out their beautiful blog over at cupcakecampparis.blogspot.com 

Below are a few photographs of some of the winning cupcakes;

Marie Grave won Best Fall Inspired Cupcake with her Apple, Nut and Maple Syrup cupcakes.

Rose of Rose and Cook won Most Unusal Ingredient with her Vitelotte Potato and Violet Syrup cupcake.

The big winner of the day, Rahima Mohammad a.k.a Fairy Cooker, won not only Most Parisian Cupcake and The Make a Wish contest, but she also won Best in Show.

If you wanted to check this out further with some enchanting pictures that really capture the day in all its colourful sugar filled glory please click here for the wordpress freshly pressed choice of the day ‘Colourful Concoctions at Cupcake Camp’

Claire x

Twit Twoo…

So I start this blog post with how do you go about making a birthday cake for someone who is an incredibly talented crafter, crazy about owls and one of your best friends? Answers on a postcard please, but first here was my solution, Hope you enjoy…

It was obvious immediately that the theme of the cake had to include owls…I started to look at making sugar owls and started out with these little guy’s…

Grumpy Owls

Now yes they look like owls, but can you hand on heart say they look like owls who wan’t to ‘hoot’ you a Happy Birthday whilst sitting proudly atop a cake? quite simply it was a no. The owls had to be much, much cuter.

The cake was a simple Victoria Sponge jazzed up with a little gel food colouring and layered into 8″ cake tins to create a rainbow effect when sliced into.  I used pink, purple and green to match the theme of the overall finished cake.

Twit Twoo - finished and ready!

A Wilton number 233 was used to create the grass effect surrounding the owls

When using your Wilton nozzle number 233 to create grass I offer the following tips (whether you use them is entirely up to you!)

1. When colouring your icing I choose a gel based colour (there are several different brands but the choice is yours!) These colours are very concentrated so you only need a tiny amount – start with the tip of a cocktail stick and then if you think you need it add more.  It is much easier to add depth of colour than to take it away!

2. Only half fill your piping bag so that you have better control and grip

3. Pipe the grass using a ‘lift and pull’ technique – do not squeeze too much buttercream or push down on the cake as this will not give you the desired affect and will instead result in ‘blobs’ of icing instead of grass.

And finally the rainbow effect I just know you all want to see…

Rainbow cake is revealed

yum...

And the most important thing in all of this? did the birthday girl love it? sure did – Yippee! If you would like to check out my aformentioned incredibly talented friend Victoria Thyer you can do so at www.fab-brick.co.uk