Still in the Cake Business, but only just.

Last Tuesday saw me in the kitchen baking a 21st birthday cake. It's the first commission I have had for months. I'm still not sure why I agreed to do it but I did, so, painful knee or not I had to get on with it. I haven't been actively seeking commissions now for some time and have slowly been disposing of my sugar craft equipment via Ebay.

The only cakes I did last year were a Ruby Wedding Cake in March for my friends Jill and Gordon who live in Spain. They came back and had their celebrations locally at the Dog and Doublet.

This pink Christening cake for my Nieces baby daughter, Lily, in June. It was my Almond sponge cake. So many people nowadays don't care for the traditional fruit cake. I find sponges are so last minutes and I have a dread of being ill and not being able to cope with them.

Finally there was John and Nancy's Wedding cakes last October in Canada. These were the first Cup Cake wedding cakes I had baked and decorated. I used a rich dark moist chocolate cake, coated them with poured white chocolate and decorated them with simple red or silver chocolate hearts.

So last Tuesday the birthday cake I baked was a sponge also. With a layer of jam and butter cream. This makes it much more difficult to get a smooth sharp base for the icing layer. Despite being badly out of practice I managed it reasonably well.
I had to clear my art materials away from my work space and drag all the cake decorating equipment out. As you can see it was an unusual theme for a 21st birthday cake. not the usual pretty, pretty cake. The birthday girl was a rugby fan which was also the theme she had for her 18th birthday cake I did 3 years ago. Maybe that was why I decided to tackle it.

The actual finished cake turned out slightly different to my computer generated design. I think It's called 'artistic licence'. I'm afraid it wasn't as crisp a finished as I would have liked but an acute attack of arthritis was giving me a great amount of hassel at the time.