Hello Kitty!

This week I was asked to make a Hello Kitty birthday cake for the beautiful Maddy's 3rd birthday. Being more used to pretty girly flowers and sparkles I relished the challenge and was pretty pleased with the result! Maddy knew exactly what she wanted (the right type of customer!) and so I set about creating her special cake. Rather than the image being put on top of a traditional square or round cake I cut out the shape from the backed cake and iced it so the shape of Hello Kitty could be seen. Being a 2D character made it slightly easier to re-create. Then I added the details in different colours and edged it all in black sugarpaste. I have to say, the black really bought it to life and I loved the finished effect. I knew I had succeeded when my husband, who is my harshest critic, told me it was my best cake yet! Perhaps he'd like a hello Kitty cake for his birthday next month!

The village fete

How exciting! Today I have been asked to plan the wonderful Emily and Raymonds wedding and I am so so excited about it. They asked me to help create a village fete theme for their big day next July and I am already getting rather carried away! Its such a fun idea and my mind is working overtime thinking of how I can help turn their theme in to a fantastic fun filled day. There are so many things I have planned from skittles and tombolas to splat the rat! I'm even planning cake baking and vegatable growing competitions with each guest being asked to bring an entry. Over the next few months I'm sure I will be thinking of even more fete related fun but in the meantime I'm off to practice my throwing skills for the Welly wanging!

Hooray for Harry!

I have to say a huge thank you to the talented Mr Harry Waine for my fabulous new leaflets. I love them! They are very pretty, very girly and very Buttercream and Dreams. I was very happy when the little box of freshly printed postcards arrived in the post and I got to see the final version. Now I just need to find some lovely people and places to hand them out to.

The great cake challenge continues

Seen as my last cake from the Hummingbird book was so delicious I thought I would try another. This time it was the turn of the carrot cake. I have my own (well my mums) delicious carrot cake recipe but I wanted to see how the Hummingbird version measured up. My mums carrot cake has always been a firm family favourite so this had a lot to live up to. We were going to Wales for the weekend with the In laws so it was the perfect opportunity to trial the new recipe. So the night before our travels I began baking. The recipe was similar to my usual but didn't seem to have as much carrot in or as many sultanas. Nothing wrong with this but I do like carrot! I have to say although the cake was nice it was nowhere near as nice as my mums recipe so this is definately a case of sticking with what you know. It was tasty and I happily munched through a few pieces but it was quite a bit heavier than my mums recipe and the cream cheese frosting was much sweeter which made it quite sickly.
I also combined the new recipe with some new decorations. Some lovely carrots!! Fun fun fun and they looked so sweet on the cake. They were really easy to do. Roll some orange sugar paste in to a fat cone and then score lines across with a knife. Then I cut thin strips from rolled green sugar paste and curled them as the roots. They were chubby little carrots but I liked them very much!
So the verdict was cake was tasty but not as good as my usual but the carrots were a triumph!

The great cake challenge

The great cake challenge has officially begun! I was set the challenge by my lovely husband Edd and consists of well, baking! Every week (or as often as possible) I am to trial a new recipe or a new and interesting cake decoration. Like many of you I have my tried and tested cake recipes that never fail and so have little need to change. However, despite their deliciousness it's time to try the new, if only for the excuse of eating cake! The first challenge cake was a Hummingbird cake from the fantastical Hummingbird Bakery Cook Book (my favourite!). Yum Yum is all I can say! The Hummingbird Cake is similar to a carrot cake in consistency but instead of carrot it is packed with pineapple, bananas and pecan nuts. It really is a fantastic combination. And to make it even better the whole thing is sandwiched and covered with a delicious cream cheese frosting. It was even a triple layered cake so had even more yummy frosting. It works really well as a nice desert style cake and was definately a favourite with my family. I have to say I am definately converted on this one and it is certainly a new cake that I will be adding to my staple recipes!
Apologies about the lack of photo. I appear to have just deleted it from my camera! I will just have to bake it again instead!

Slightly delayed post but I've been busy baking! Two weeks ago saw my cakes first debut at a fantastic gallery exhibition opening by the fabulous Mr Harry Waine. The exhibition, entitled 'A Fox among Hedgehogs' was a collection of beautiful paintings and some fun sculptures as well. My favourite was the animal stack full of an amazing array of animals in beautiful colours. As well as a fun day of art gazing I also got to practice my modelling skills by making a selection of cupcakes with cute little chocolates and of course, a fox! They dissapeared quite quickly! To see more of Harrys work go to www.thepaperstacks.com

Drum roll please....
My lovely new website is now live and I'm ever so excited. It took quite a while to decide on a style and layout but I got there in the end and I must say I rather like it. Lots of lovely big pictures and nice information about Buttercream and Dreams. I've decided its not easy creating a website. For one you have to actually make decisions on how you want it to look. Having worked in a creative agency for many years I had far too many ideas on how I wanted it to be and unfortunately some of my ideas were not to be due to technical limitations. Not much fun! I think the most important thing is to decide on a style and carry that through everything you do. As I already had my lovely logo it meant that I had a colour scheme and design style in terms of typography. This gave me something to follow and meant that I could try and link everything together. Then I had to make a plan of what pages I wanted to include. Being me I like to put lots of information in but realised I need to keep it simple. Mind you, I have included some fun things I like such as Adele's tea cosies! And the beauty of digital is that you can constantly change things so I know if I decide I don't like something or just want to change things around then I can. Perfect! Have a little look at the new site at www.buttercreamanddreams.co.uk

Oh I do love my new Kitchen Aid mixer! It makes cake baking so much more fun, and so much easier. I would highly recommend one to anyone who loves to bakes. Mine is a lovely deep red and looks just as fabulous sitting on the kitchen side. I've been coveting one for quite a while now and it was my treat for finally getting my cake business started. I've just been baking a batch of cupcakes to test it out and it's fantastic. Money well spent I would say! Anyway, just wanted to share how excited I was with the purchase!

Well, the lovely logo of Buttercream and Dreams has arrived. Fresh off the press from my wonderfully artistic friend Harry at the Paper Stacks. It is absolutely perfect and exactly what is needed to help bring my little company to life. I gave Harry a lovely, if rather rambling, little brief and this was the result. A good interpretation I would say. Perfect colours in the pale pink and chocolate brown. A touch of girliness mixed with a hint of retro gives real personality. This has now been added to my new website and I will shortly be able to share the site with the world. Just the final few tweaks and we are ready to go. So this is my little blog to say a big thanks to Harry and of course you are entitled to free cakes for life for your services to Buttercream and Dreams!

Wedding Cupcakes

Its been a busy few weeks here at Buttercream and Dreams. It started off with what I shall now term a research trip to sunny Salcombe in Devon. I call it a research trip as it was a good excuse to try all the lovely cake shops that dot the pretty high streets. A favourite visit was Totnes where we spent many an hour wandering up and down the hill looking in every cake shop going. From scones with delicious clotted cream to pretty cupcakes I saw it all (and tasted quite a few!)

Freshly back from our week away I got straight in to Andrew and Laura's wedding cupcakes. I have however decided that last weekend was a little bit hot for baking 200 cupcakes. 28 degrees plus a hot oven all afternoon does not seem the best way to spend an afternoon. However, it was all worth it when the pretty pink and green morsels were ready for transportation to the venue. They were delicious little vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream. A selection of sprinkles were then added including white chocolate stars, mini marshmellows and sugar strands. They really did look great and went down a treat with the hungry guests!

Next project is Zoe and Matt's wedding cake which will be a tower of cupcakes topped with a wonderful butterfly and spotty top cake. More details to follow.....

Tell me more...

What is Buttercream & Dreams I hear you ask? If you love cakes then you'll love Buttercream & Dreams. Those who know me may well have been lucky enough to sample some delicious baked goodies from the kitchen of Charlotte but I have decided it's time to share my skills with the world (well the shire at least). Buttercream & Dreams has been a little mixture of cake based plans for a while now and it's finally starting to take shape (or be baked if you prefer!). After years of practicing and a stint at a sugar craft course I'm ready to start creating wonderful cakes for a whole host of occassions. Talking of occassions, Buttercream & Dreams is not only a magnificant cake emporium but also a place where all your day dreams (of the event variety) can come true. I'll also be helping my lovely customers with all manner of events from weddings to birthday parties, hen parties to wonderful afternoon tea. Covering everything from flowers to the decorations to the photographer, and of course not forgetting the cakes. So in short I'll be providing delicious buttercream topped cakes and helping make dreams come true. Simple really.

Logo lovliness

Oooooh. I'm getting ever so excited today about my new company logo. Having a logo makes it all seem so real and Buttercream & Dreams can really start to take shape. Now, should it be pretty and girly or 50's retro? My heart is saying ribbons and swirls with dream like qualities but then a cute retro polka dot is always appealing. I think Buttercream & Dream needs to send you to that far away land of sleep indused dreaminess, without the sleep, where sweet little cupcakes dance merrily around your mind. In fact I'm drifting away now .... Might have to go and do some baking so that I can taste the lovely little cupcakes rather than just see them dancing. Anway, whatever I choose I shall be posting it here for all to see as soon as it is complete.

Let the baking begin

After months of deliberating and many cake based brainstorms Buttercream and Dreams is born (well conceived at least!). Here I will be telling the story of how one little girls love of baking led to a lifelong passion for all things cake.