Say it with cake - Baker Days review

On Saturday morning a cake dropped through my door... a letterbox cake!! When I told the hubby what it was his words were 'good look with that!'. I had to admit it did sound pretty crazy that a cake could drop through your door, make it in one piece and taste good! But thats what Baker Days do and very well might I add! 

Weather its personalised birthday cakes, Good Luck, Well done, congratulations or just last minute cupcakes Baker Days do it and can deliver so the cakes are with you the very next day!

It came beautifully packaged in a metal tin  along with some love hearts..

Wrapped up with super easy instructions of how to remove the cake in one piece...

I chose a cake for my husband just to remind him of how much I love him. I really like the bright side designs and my wedding planner was the same design so it reminded me of that :)

The cake was surprisingly moist and tasty. We cut the cake for 5 of us and the pieces were perfect sizes. And just to make it clear these are not like supermarket cakes, they are not dry or crumbly. They are all handmade, soft, moist and perfectly tasty.

Fresh, light and tasty just how we like them...

I would recommend Baker Days for any occasion, in fact I think these cakes would go down better than flowers.  I think they are good value for money when you take into consideration, the excellent packaging, next day delivery, the quality of the designs and the tastiness of the cakes.

This would definitely brighten up my day picking up one if these off the door mat with a special message inside. Or if your quick you could get one just in time for Valentines Day...

Atlantic #Barstool competition entry

Atlantic Shopping are currently running a competition and have 5 vouchers up for grabs to spend on their site. All you have to do is choose a photo that you would have a on bar stool and say why you choose that one. Entries can be made via facebook twitter or a blog post.

It's really got me thinking about what I would have. My favourite pictures are of my children but it just doesn't seem right sitting on a barstool with your children's face on! In fact I don't particularly like any furniture with people's faces on, I just think its abit tacky. Plus I don't think when they get to teenagers they would sit on the barstools if they had pictures of themselves on!

Its got to fit in with the kitchen and the decor as you change it over the years. Its got to fit with the seasons, a wintery image wouldn't cheer your days up in the summer and vice versa.

I thought about my bouquet of flowers on my wedding day, or pictures of my favourite places in Italy or of the Eiffel tower from when we visited, my children's handprints and fingerprints. The list really is endless of favourite things. Then I thought food...

Most of our time spent in the kitchen is because of food, either preparing, eating baking and cooking. So I thought images of my favourite foods. Or of the favourite cakes I've baked. I think they will fit just right in the kitchen.

These are my favourite cupcakes I have made,mainly because I love shoes! Food and shoes we're on to a winner really :)

I think the ET on this is possibly the best icing model I have ever made, I was so proud of it! So it would be a nice reminder of what I have created.

Do you ever grow out of Wallace and Gromit?

Yummy warm food, this is a favourite in our house too and fun food always cheers you up whatever the weather or the season.

Bright, fresh food to liven up the kitchen, I love this picture it was taken in the summer, its just bright and juicy. Of all the pictures this is really the one I can imagine best. I have a cream kitchen so with this on the barstools it would really brighten the place up and inject a nice bright colour.

All these pictures would really get my creative juices going in the kitchen not to mention my tastebuds!

Which picture would you choose if you had to choose on of these?

Comic Relief 2013 cupcakes with Jackpotjoy

When I got an email to say Jackpotjoy were running a cake competition, obviously I had to enter. They had so many generous prizes on offer a new the chances of winning a prize were pretty high. I didn't have time to make them until the day it closed, so I new I wouldn't be able to put my full efforts in, but with 150 x£50 runners up prizes I knew I was in with a chance. 

So the cupcakes had  to be comic relief themed and fun! Here's what I came up with:

Comic relief 2013 cakes

Although when I submitted the picture I had to miss the bottom 3 cupcakes out :(

BUT... I won £500.

This was an amazing promotion with the overall winner bagging £1000, 5 runners-up with £500 and 150 further runners up winning £50. Jackpotjoy donated £1 for each entry to comic relief and after looking on facebook at the other entries I don't think all prizes were won as there wasn't enough entries. Also a few people are complaining that the winners weren't comic relief themed or they were googled images. The competition was only open for a week and I only got an email about it about 2 days before it ended. I'm sure if they had it open for longer they would have got a lot more entries. Jackpotjoy are doing loads to raise money for comic relief and up to now have raised over £50,000, which is pretty amazing

Thanks Jackpotjoy!

Banana cupcakes

I made these banana muffins the other day mainly because with Millie having chickenpox she wasn't eating very well and she is a huge fan of bananas.  Also because we had black bananas left in the fruit bowl and I hate wasting food.  We waste far too much in our house and I've made a conscious effort to waste less over the past few months.  These are great because they stay moist for days here's the reciepe:

125g stork
150g light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
4 ripe bananas
250g self raising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Pre -heat the oven to 180C
1. whisk the stork and sugar together until pale and fluffy.
2. Beat the eggs and vanilla essence in a separate bowl then slowly add to the sugar mixture.
3. mash the bananas in a bowl then stir into the mixture.
4. sift in the flour and baking powder and mix in well.
5.spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for. 20-25 minutes

You can frost them if you want to but I didn't this time. This recipe does make 12 but we had already eaten some before I took a picture!

Lego, castles and sewing machine cakes

I love making cakes for all different occasions and people, i have never had any training I've just learnt tricks as I've gone along, I had some tweets and messages from people saying they liked my Wallace and Gromit cupcakes so I thought I would share some more with you.

This is the first cake I made and really got me going.I made it for my sister when she graduated.

This is the most recent one I made for Millie's 2nd birthday

 

I made this for my sister's engagement party, her fiancee proposed in New Zealand and the kiwi's are the New Zealand bird! Funny looking things aren't they!

I made these coffee cupcakes to go with them!

My eldest loved Lego around his 6th birthday and still does actually.

Sewing Machine cake!

This is definitely my most ambitious cake to date, it was so hard to balance the cake and the left hand side is held up by 1 skewer! Dad loved it (he is a sewing machine mechanic)

These were for my bug obsessed 3 year old's party.

 The very hungry Caterpillar

And this was his cake to go with it!

Although they take me hours (sewing machine being about 12 hours) I definately think homemade cakes are so much more personal to the person receiving them. I must have more pictures somewhere but can't seem to find them. It's my sister's birthday in March and I'm thinking of attempting a handbag cake.

Do you like making cakes?