Lisa's Cake WIP

[Lisa]

I have started a 6 week long taster cake decorating course at college, for 2 hours on a thursday eveining, no lesson this week due to half term.

but yesterday i made the cake for the course. i didnt have enough butter, nor currants, but i added extra raisins and sultanas. and i forgot to add the mixed peel in

it took 4 hours to cook, and before i went to bed i popped it on the scales and it weighed 2.6kgs

i have used a wedding fruit cake, as the main reason for this course is so i can save hundreds of pounds and do my own wedding cake

anyway, so here is the cake, waiting for 4th June so it can get marzipaned



when i came back last week i said to paul i can make a cake or buy a polystrene dummy cake, his reply "but i cant eat that" guess that told me then

[Mabel Figworthy]

Good start, and Paul is absolutely right of course!

[Serinde]

Doesn't matter what proportion of the fruit, just so long as you have enough fruit. (I usually delete sultanas and raisins and add cherries...). Certainly looks good enough to eat, but you know what? I think that, seeing as this is your first cake, we ought to try it out. To make sure it's ok. Wouldn't want anyone to be disappointed, now, would we...

[Lisa]

thats what i thought serinde, so i added some extra sultanas and raisins, pauls not that keen on currants anyhow

edit: the cake mixture certainly tasted good

[~threadbear~]

That looks yummy Lisa!

[Lizzy]

Well if it tastes as good as it looks your onto a winner. Hmmm pity we cant try it

[coffee_freak]

yum!

[koolkitten]

What a great idea lisa - wedding cakes can be soooooooo expensive. Hope you keep us up to date with pictures of the cake as you decorate it. Like the others say, shame we can't all try a bit.......for research and feedback purposes of course.....

[mags]

Oh yum
I'll have a bit when the marzipan is on please

[kazzi29]

looks very yummy! (great taste in ice cream too lol)

[gelflin]

Hi Lisa,
I hope that I may be able to help you, I completed Level 1 2 & 3 (Competition Standard) in City and Guilds Sugarcraft, Sugarflowers City and Guilds, Patisserie City and Guilds and Proven Working Design City and Guilds. I went on to specialise in novelty cake designs, I still made cakes but not for profit only for friends and family the profit came from selling my designs on to big names in the sugarcraft industry.

Unfortunately I have had to give it all up due to my health but I am hopefully still a font of knowledge. I can help you with costing and designing your cake there are lots of different ways to go with wedding cakes that can look really impressive but be cheaper and easier to make. So if you need any help or have any questions please feel free to ask away and I will do my best to put my experience at your disposal.

I have managed to find a few photos taken when I was still studying at sugarcraft I will try scanning them later and adding a link to them. I normally am very modest but according to my tutor I was a natural and the college still has pieces of my work on display from 6 years or more ago. I also used to make cakes for charity auction do's and one of them went for a staggering amount of money which was fantastic as it was the hospice that looked after my baby sister before she died.

Anyway ..... *sigh* Oh my I do tend to babble a bit I was supposed to just say I am here if you need some help or advice.

Carla

[Lisa]

you may live to regret that offer carla

im really looking for to it, i love making cakes, my icing is something to be desired , but the ironic part is i don't like eating cakes much i eat a little bit at b-days and such. and FIL who is chief cake cutter knows to do me the smallest piece

unless it gateau, i could eat a whole one, especially black forest

[Busy_B]

It looks great, Lisa! I enjoyed taking cake decorating lessons. In fact, I ended up working at the store I learned for 4-5 years when I was in high school and college. So many people thought I was crazy for wanting to do my wedding cake since they thought it would add more stress. For me, it was wonderful. It gave me something else to do that I really enjoyed with my mom. The day before we got married, my maid of honor and I went to get our nails done. When we got back home, all of the groomsmen were there (one with his fiance). All of the guys left to check on tuxes while we started on the cake. My mom and I worked on the decorating while talking with my maid of honor and the groomsman's fiance (he was DH's roommate at college). There was no stress, and it was a lot of fun!

My only advice is to make sure you're comfortable enough doing the cake. If you have plenty of other people around to help with other last minute things for the wedding, you'll be fine. Just don't stress yourself out! Enjoy the classes!

[maggs]

Cake looks good enough to eat Keep up the good work

[Lisa]

thanks everyone

BB can we see your cake?? please!!

[koolkitten]

ooh yes please bb! Can we have some piccies?

[Busy_B]

Okay. If you click on My Photo Album in my signature, it will take you to my webshots album. I've made a cake album. These are only the pictures of cakes I have on my laptop (that I could get to easily). There are more on my desktop computer and a lot that I could scan in. My wedding cake isn't in the album yet--I need to scan the picture in.

The cakes in the album currently are either ones my mom did without my help or joint effort ones. If we're working on a cake together, my mom usually bakes & ices the cake. I do most of the decorating (especially flowers) and writing. Everything (except a few pieces on one cake) is buttercream icing. I know that beautiful cakes can be made with rolled fondant, but we don't like it--especially the taste and that you need to have a denser cake to work with it. I'll try to post a pic in this thread later this week of my wedding cake--things still haven't settled down much even though the yard sale finished yesterday.

[agi]

They are wonderful, Lisa!

[koolkitten]

Oh wow, they are amazing! They look so professional

My favourite is Elmo

[koolkitten]

Also, whilst on the subject of cakes, I found this:

http://www.sewandso.co.uk/cgi-bin/find/ ... ch_results

My favourite is 'cupcake' !