One step more

After making my sister's birthday cakes I wanted to take things one step further so I joined the local cake decorating class at night-school.  One evening a week I was to spend learning how to mix icing and the different nozels and tools needed to make some wicked cakes.

One of the first things we did was to learn how to use Royal Icing to line and edge a cake.  They produced some pretty retro looks which would work really well for a birthday party with all the traditional trimmings.

What got me started was

What got me started was my sister's 21st birthday garden party.  My Mum and I wanted to make small cakes as people were coming throughout the day and we wouldn't have have a specific point in the day to cut a larger cake.  Cup cakes seemed to be the right way to go.

We looked around the shops and some of the boutique bakeries and market stalls which are popping up but nothing seemed to to hit the spot or price range.  In the end, we'd looked at so many ideas that we thought we could do a good enough job ourselves.

My mum has always been a keen cook and baked many memorable cakes for me and my sister when we were growing up, many of which were fairy-tale themed, a rice-paper turreted cake and a real Barbie surrounded by a cake skirt spring to mind.

We got to work and produced some rough looking but pretty and much loved cakes.  The pink theme didn't affect the men trying them, particularly my great uncle who I noted tucked in first.