'tis the season to make cakes

Christmas time involves a lot of cake, obviously.

This year, for the first time, Christmas was spent at our place. Chris took charge of the cooking whilst I looked after the baking.

We had a full house, with 10 adults, plus Jack - so it was a cosy fit around the dining table, but we all had a merry old time, and ate rather a lot of cake as well as all the other trimmings.

Here are some pics of my Christmas cupcakes and cake pops. My father-in-law, Michael, also made a traditional Christmas cake which he'd spent several weeks previously dousing in rather a lot of whiskey and delivered to me a few days before to decorate - with bobble-hatted penguins and a (clearly vegetarian!) Polar bear...

Christmas cake



Christmas pud and Santa cake pops



Christmas pud cake pops




Jack helps out in the kitchen





Happy Hallowe'en!

Hallowe'en cupcakes

Hallowe'en - a great excuse to cook up some treats... and to dress your baby as a pumpkin.

Jules, one of my NCT pals, hosted a little Hallowe'en get together for our group so I made some spooky cupcakes, decorated with green, white and orange piped butter icing topped with sugarpaste witches hats, bones and gravestones, spiders, black cats, ghosts and pumpkins. Not quite as cute as the baby pumpkins below, although they did go down a  treat (boom!).

Smashing Pumpkins: Violet, Jack, Otis & Millie-Joy

what's in a name...?

Jack's Naming Day cakes

We decided to have a naming ceremony for Jack - really just an excuse to get a few close friends and family together for a bit of a knees-up, and of course as excuse to make cake... lots of it! 

This was my first attempt at a tiered cake. The bottom layer was a vanilla sponge with home made blackberry jam filling, middle layer was chocolate with a hazelnut and chocolate filling, and the top layer was lemon with a lemon curd filling. 

I also made mini favour cakes for guests to take home - with mini baby bottles, feet and vests on them - 150 of them! My kitchen and living room were turned into a production line with Chris and my parents helping to gather the mini cupcakes into threes and bag and tie them for 50 guests!

Unfortunately the guest of honour, Jack, didn't get to eat any of his own cake as he's only allowed boob juice at the moment, but everyone else seemed to enjoy them. I'll make it up to Jack when he's old enough to appreciate it!

all that jazz

Michael  plays his cake...

saxophone cake

My father-in-law, Michael, is a saxophonist and avid Jazz fan, so I decided to attempt a slightly more complex shape than my usual, and go for a sax cake. 

I used a rectangular tin and then sculpted a (sort-of) saxophone shape from that. I covered it with white fondant icing, painted it yellow with food colouring, and then sprayed over the top with gold edible icing. 

It turned out a little bit squatter than I'd have liked, but it was a hit with Michael! 

Marimekko-stylee cake & cake pops

My half-Finnish sister in law, Elisa, is a huge fan of the Finnish design house, Marimekko, so I thought I'd make her a Marimekko-inspired cake, ripping off their classic red flower print.

The cake was an almond and vanilla sponge with a vanilla cream and homemade blackberry and rhubarb jam filling. As there was a bit of leftover cake mix I also made a few matching cake pops, coated in white chocolate candy melts with sugarpaste Marimekko-esque flowers.

Elisa loved it, but judging by the pic Albie was even more impressed!

Hannah (and Jack!) make cakes...

I love making cakes. It started off as a hobby, making cupcakes and birthday cakes for friends and family. People liked them, so I made some more, and it soon became something of an obsession, as I began dreaming about turning everything into fondant icing and using any occasion as an excuse to turn out a novelty cake.

After having my son Jack, I found myself spending the majority of my time confined to the sofa with him clamped to my boob while I watched far too much bad daytime telly. As there's only so much Real Housewives of Orange County even I can watch (once on ITV2, repeat on ITV2+1, and repeat again the following morning), I soon found myself again dreaming (daydreaming this time - sleep is a thing I think back upon with nostalgia these days thanks to Jack) of turning things into fondant icing and wondering how I could juggle Jack and rustle up baked goods at the same time.

If there's one thing motherhood teaches you it's how to multi-task, so after investing in a good sling I found I could indeed make my cake, ice it, and eat it, and take Jack along for the ride. So here I'll post some pics and stories of our baking adventures.

I hope you enjoy, and would love to hear from any other hobby bakers, mums or otherwise!