Cake - A Little Wonky Train

On request I made a little wonky train cake which was incomplete (lol) ... the passengers were missing

The passengers entered the train at its next stop ... a birthday party. The kids created wonderful animal passengers

(photo courtesy of Antje)

Wishing you a lovely evening, Petra.

Cake - Sunshine & Tardis

Yippeeehhhh! Sunshine and lovely temperatures ... it felt so very much like Spring today. To celebrate the change in weather I think we all deserve a nice piece of cake (lol). 
A colleague of mine commissioned a birthday cake for his Dad, he send me this link and said: I want a similar cake for my Dad with writing and everything  (his Dad is to be a bit of a Dr Who fan) ...So I started to design, construct, measure, cut , glue

 and in the end it looked like this

 

vanilla cake with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream

I wish you all a lovely Sunday with lots of sunshine, Petra.

Sweet & Savoury

Yesterday was chocolate making and bread baking day. I made some little Malteser chocolates at home

 

to take them to a bread baking session  a colleague of mine had organised. The bread baking session was great fun. Everybody had a good time and we all learned a lot. I am very happy the way the bread turned out andwill bake some more soon

Wishing you all a happy Sunday, Petra.

Ken in Samba Mood & CraftBarn Extravaganza

One of my colleagues retired, she is now a lady of leisure - lucky her! - and his time on her hands for a little latin-american adventure: Ken with sombrero in Samba mood

 

It is all edible apart from the lovely rose in his hand and the sombrero. I could not find a suitable sombrero to buy so I crocheted it myself with cotton wool. The pattern for the sombrero was based on this one. It was great fun and I might make some more - such for the fun of it!

We (this is Lucy and I) had also great fun today at the Craft Barn Extravaganza for the opening of their new premises. It is really lovely, a very nice space with lots of lights. We also had the pleasure to meet some very talented crafters giving demos - Neil Walker and Helen Chilton just to name two of them. Helen was so kind to give us two of her creations and even signed them!

 

 Wishing you a lovely Sunday, Petra.

Sweet Treats - Cat and Dogs

At the beginning of the week I received a very short notice cake order for a 60th birthday cake for a very lovely lady, request: a '60' cake (pink and white) with one cat (a tabby one), two dogs (one brown, one black) and some writing .... not being able to model cat and dogs in advance I kept the decoration simple

 
chocolate cake soaked with Baylis syrup

filled with raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream

have a lovely weekend, Petra.

Mondrian Cake

A little while ago one of my lovely colleagues challenged me to make a Mondrian Cake. The Mondrain Cake is based on the paintings of Piet Mondrian.
My colleague sent me this link with a photo of such a cake. My first thought was: this is fine, the second one: oh dear how do I do this and the third one: oh no, this is not going to work. But a promise is a promise so I set out to make a Mondrian Cake last weekend. On the way there were various challenges: how much sponge do I need, the measurements, the colours, how to assemble. To resolve all of this I basically baked LOTS of sponge in various colours whereby I was not 100% happy with the red ... it was more pink-orange (sigh). But here it is

  The cake measures 6cm x 6 cm. I cut it all using ruler, tooth picks and a very sharp knife and assembled it with chocolate ganache. Unfortunately the ganache was quite soft when I cut the cake, so the chocolate smeared a little bit and the cuts are not quite clean. Oh well, it might be better next time (lol) Petra.

Mr Penguin

May I introduce you to Mr Penguin? A cake commission based on the following photo

 

... and this is my interpretation with woollen hat and scarf. Apparently it looked very life-like ..... Have a lovely evening, Petra.

  

vanilla sponge with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream

Sketchbook and Cake

Last week the Brooklyn Art Library came to the Canada Water Library in London to display the European and Australian Sketchbooks which had been created as part of the Sketchbook Project 2012. I feel so happy, I had the chance to go and see not only my sketchbook but also quite a few of the others. The sketchbooks are amazing and I am still excited about the trip! My camera battery decided to be empty ... oh what a pain ... but my DH rescued me with his phone camera!!!!

some of the nice library ladies with the sketchbooks in the background

 

me signing in and I am now the proud owner of a Brooklyn Art Library card

 

intense reading

 And guess what ... I signed up for the Sketchbook Project 2013 (big smile)!

Since then a lot has happened ... lots of visitors staying with us and a little birthday cake with a little cat which was outwitted by some little mice

Wishing you all a lovely start to the new week, Petra.

Teddybear Cake

To all of you who had a good guess, thank you so much. And here is the finished product

 

 cake: vanilla sponge filled with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream topped with soft fondant and royal icing

bees: soft fondant and flower paste

I received a colleague's request to create a teddybear cake a la Paul Bradford who makes the most amazing and perfect looking cakes, his tutorials and cakes are a true inspiration. The teddybear was to be one with 'proper' fur and bees and everything. This was so difficult. It took me a very long time to cut, sculpt and then decorate the cake - especially as Mr Teddybear was a bit unruly, the royal icing didn't dry fast enough and started slipping ... nightmare! In the end I think the cake bear looked almost a little bit like one of my teddybears (lol)

 Sue and Marjie went for Winnie the Pooh and Debbie was getting close after the first teaser post. Ladies, I will contact you for your snail mail address. Many thanks for all the lovely comments, have a lovely start to the week, now off to do some crafting (smile) ... Petra.

Cake Teaser 2 and a Little Tag

The cake is finished and has been delivered but I will only reveal it tomorrow (lol). So far Debbie got closest with her suggestion that it might be a doll. Here is a second clue ... the cake has something to do with these chaps 

... and, yes, it will have arms, ears, nose, eyse, ... any more guesses???

This is a little tag I made quite a while ago: Give Me 5 for one of Vicki's previous challenges

The tag has an inky backgorund (Antique Linen) which I then stamped on (Kaisercraft and Rayher) with some more distress inks. The focal point is this lovely sticker from K&Company which I layered on some transparency. To finish the tag I added some random machine-stitching and a little bling. Have a wonderful weekend, Petra.

Linked to: StampArtic - Tag

Cake Teaser

I have been working on a new cake almost every evening this week ... it's getting closer to be finished. It is a Christening cake for a sweet little girl called Violet. When taking the photos, I thought it might be quite good fun to give you a chance to have a guess what it would be once it is finished (lol) ... and whoever gets it right (or get very close) will get a little something! ... So here it goes

sculpted

 

sculpted, filled and covered with vanilla buttercream

I will show you the finished cake on Sunday. Come on let's play and have a guess! Wishing you all a lovely weekend, Petra.

Very Happy News and Mail and Cakes

I made the Top Three at Try Stampin' on Tuesday with my Silhouette Ladies for last week's challenge - yippeeehhh. This is just fab! Have a look at the blog, the sketches are so versatile.
And then the very happy snail mail. A few days ago I received a huge parcel ... but (for a change) I hadn't ordered anything and I got all worried, you know somebody maybe having hacked into my bank account or so ... so I phoned the lady from Glitter Perfect where the parcel came from ... and guess what ... I won. And it is a HappyCut machine from Artemio. How cool is this? The Crafts Beautiful magazine printed one of my cake photos (the one with chocolate and strawberries) and the accompanying letter ..... I still cannot quite believe it, this is so exciting and I am ever so grateful. It is such a wonderful surprise ... soon I need to have a proper play with the machine (lol).
 And I will have more time as I have finished a huge cake order: Christening cakes and cakes for a farewell. It was all good fun but also a lot of work. I quite liked how everything turned out in the end. Wishing you a lovely week, Petra.

Pink sugarcraft poppies for Christening cake and cupcakes

Christening Cake (Chocolate Sponge with cherry jam and chocolate ganache)

Chocolate Raspberry Sunday

I have been baking a lot of cake lately ... little ones and not so little ones. These were my favourites as they just the perfect size for a little indulgence

sugar cookies, chocolate ganache and raspberry

Wishing you all a lovely and hopefully sunny Sunday, Petra.

Birthday Girl

The little cutie is about 15cm in height, it is her very first night out. She has been invited for a birthday party, Petra.

 

Vanilla sponge, Vanilla buttercream, strawberry jam and sugarpaste

 

embossed cakeboard

frillies for skirt and cape

 

Lady Snow White

Here she is in her ballgown with frillies and pearls waiting for her Prince

 

 Vanilla Sponge, strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream

And now as all the cakes are done, I can go back to crafting (lol), have a lovely weekend Petra.

Let's Play

... a badminton match ... and the winner is: the birthday girl (lol), Petra.

 

a gluten free birthday with vanilla sponge, strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream

Friendly Plastic and Cake

You might think that friendly plastic and cake do not go together ... well, I went to a friendly plastic yesterday at the CraftBarn. Our wonderful teacher was Liz Welch - such a talented and so inspiring lady ... it was definitely a revelation! I wanted to play with friendly plastic for a long time but never got around doing it. I had no idea how versatile and non-wasty friendly plastic is. We had lots of time to learn and to play during the workshop

 

My favourite technique was ouzing that is incorporating different materials (blings, pearls, ribbon, lace, ..., the possibilities are endless)  into the friendly plastic. I love the effects

 

Now, what has this got to do with cakes. well, a very friendly lady brought some cupcakes to the workshop, you know for topping up our energy levels (lol). The last cupcakes I made were for work last Thursday: Strawberry cheesecake with a little hint of Easter ... and I realised

 that chicks can also be green (lol) - Happy Easter, Petra.

Cake Weekend and some News

 This weekend was a baking weekend with lots of little cakes

 

Orange-Almond

   

Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

  

Chocolate Sponge filled with Chocolate Ganache and topped with the first Strawberries  - yummy!

And the news are: a little while ago a lady from a Finnish University approached me asking whether they could use the image of one of my little projects for a children's project. In Minh's words: a project to develop a service for a National Park. Our service is about guiding children to make craftwork with all the materials they can find in the forest. 

Such a project is very close to my heart, it is really lovely and I feel truly honoured having been asked for this contribution. Have a lovely week, Petra. 

Snow White

... without the dwarfs (lol) - vanilla sponge with strawberry jam and vanilla buttercream filling - a complete Snow White doll inside .... for a little girl to enjoy .... have a wonderful weekend, Petra.

Thomas II and Weather

Earlier this week the first crocusses and daffodils were flowering and it was relatively mild for January. This has all changed! This morning the temperatures had plummeted quite considerably and this year's first ice flowers had appeared on one of our windows. A few hours ago it has now started to snow ...

... and the world outside looks more and more like a magical place, I cannot wait to see the snow in daylight tomorrow morning!
You might ask what has this got to do with Thomas the Tank Engine ... well, he set off for the birthday of a little Thomas the Tank Engine fan and has been lucky enough to arrive safely before frost and snow arrived

Stay warm and safe wherever you are! Petra.