Cake Decorating!

My Mum's Snakes and Ladders cake!

Since I can remember my Mum has made amazing cakes, I remember having a different cake every year and her creativity always inspired me. Recently she has been venturing to classes and what's really great about it is that she is teaching me! I have artistic skill which helps me understand this different medium. Cake decorating is an expensive craft if you get into it seriously; The kit is huge and extremely expensive! 

The first cake I attempted was the simple cupcake with icing. I chose to do a chocolate sponge with a caramel icing (sugar overload!). Applying the icing can be pretty tricky if you want it to look professional but I just went with my instincts and the result is above (the decorative sugar flowers were my Mum's first attempt). 

My first Christmas cake since cookery school!

Last Christmas was my first Christmas with my boyfriend Dan who is a massive 'Grind Metal' fan. I really wanted to do something nice for him so, I decided to make him a metal inspired Christmas cake. We both love the band Napalm Death who are huge in the Grind scene. We both joked that this Christmas would be a 'Merry Grindmas' which made us laugh (yes, we are metal nerds, who laugh at our own silly jokes and listen and discuss metal like Hawking talks about the universe). Anyway, the cake was an absolute triumph! 

The chocolate cake with Mint butter icing and the 'Ghostbusters' icing design.  

I find the cakes in supermarkets absolutely depressing! The designs may be good but the cake itself is disgusting! Dan's 30th birthday was coming up and I really wanted to make him a cake! Dan loves my brownies, mint and is crazy obsessed with Ghostbusters! All three of these things made me happy because I happen to like them too ;-). The mint icing is pretty basic and scrummy. To mix, make a simple butter icing and add peppermint flavouring and green powered food colouring. I free handed the 'Ghostbusters' motif onto white baking paper and make sure it's perfect. Lay the design on to rolled out icing, use something small and blunt to draw over your design so it dents the icing and then cut it out.  Ice your cake and stick your design onto the cake using a little butter icing! The cake was a complete success and made Dan extremely happy. 

I am a great believer in do-it-yourself! Cake decorating is another great skill for you to have for the future. You can buy lots of great books on basic cake decorating or even sign up for classes which are great fun (according to my Mum ). My Mum has made some amazing cakes. I will post up more photos sometime in the future. I hope I have inspired you to get baking!