Breakfast at Bethany's

Not a lot of people get the pleasure of designing and making their own birthday cake. Of course, unless my mum is really on the ball one year I get to sneak past her and spend hours pinning, drawing and making- a birthday present in itself! This year I turned 21, and to celebrate I had big ideas- four tiers of ideas to be exact...

The theme I chose for my party not only encompassed my favourite film, but my favourite place. I always said I'd go back to New York City for my 21st birthday- but time and money decided New York would have to come to me. I planned to create a four tiered cake, decorated with yellow cabs and New York/Breakfast at Tiffany's icons- from the Statue of Liberty to Tiffany's Fifth Avenue store- with a Tiffany's (or Bethany's) box to top.

So, here goes nothing..

After making my favourite lemon drizzle cake, and covering the four tiers with buttercream and fondant, I started with the basic building outlines- drawing my own templates on paper and cutting out fondant using a paring knife and rotary cutter. I then added the details tier by tier- starting with the taxis, moving up to the buildings.

The beauty of blogging is it is just that easy! Before you know it I'm adding the topper and voila! The finished article, from various angles...

I loved making it, even though the last few hours were cutting it a bit fine! The summer baking rush is all over.. for now!

B x

My First Christening

... well, not my first christening, but rather my first christening cake.. In between the mass of macarons I have been making for my degree show (see previous post!) I managed to find time to create a cute little cake for a little girl named Hollie. 

I thought the design was really cute- personally I might have chosen different colours for the bears but overall it worked well! Especially my lovely new font stampers.. :) 

B x

402 Macarons and the end of an era

Yep, you read that right- three flavours, three fillings, three colours- four hundred and two macarons. As my degree was mainly creative, we had the chance at the end to showcase all our hard work over the last three years in a degree show, for family and friends as well as professionals from industry. Our concept was 'DECODE'...

As I was on the committee, I was the first to pipe up and offer my baking services. Little did I realise that was so much easier said than done! I was taken up on this offer, and commissioned to make four hundred macarons, in three specially created FMB flavours- CocoNut(Shell), FMB Orange and Earl Grey Matter.

Although I am taking on more and more orders, I still work in a domestic kitchen, with limited space (thanks mummy!) which meant that I essentially took over the entire first floor of my parents' house with drying, cooling and filling these eight hundred and four macaron shells.

Not to mention carting them all, in their finished state, one hundred and three miles down the M1 to Nottingham!

They turned out to be a big hit, and really added to the number of people coming into our show- of course they stayed for the company!

B x