A Special Birthday Cake - Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy

On Saturday my daughter Charlotte had a 7th Birthday party, her request for her cake was 'something pretty with flowers on', she is a fan of the Rainbow Fairies books and loves the book 'Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy' - unsurprisingly! Knowing how much children like cupcakes I made a pretty cupcake tower with primrose and petunia flowers with a special cake on the top covered in brush embroidered sunflowers and Charlotte the Sunflower fairy sitting on the cake.

As it was a surprise I had to wait until she went to bed to make the fairy, she was a delight to make and I was thrilled when her friends arrived and said 'Look, it's Charlotte the Sunflower Fairy'. Great fun!

ABC Inter-College Competition 2010

There was a hubbub of excitement at College in the run-up to the first ABC Inter-College Competition run by our Tutor - Dawn Pennington, at Bournemouth and Poole College. She invited all the colleges in the UK doing the same courses to take part. The competition was amazingly organised, with Eddie Spence as one of the judges, a guest appearance from Mary Ford and the Mayor of Bournemouth.

The display of cakes and flowers were stunning. Often when we are all in class we miss what other people are doing. It was also really interesting to see what the other colleges were creating considering everyone would have been given the same brief and requirement for each category, the variety was truly inspiring.

I was delighted to achieve a Merit for my Christmas Carousel, my first ever Royal Iced creation and a Gold Medal for my Paris Showgirls Sugarpaste cake.

It was also a honour to meet Eddie Spence and Mary Ford, both very inspirational people. After a long conversation with Eddie about my Christmas Carousel (apparently it was only 1 or 2 points off a bronze!) it was very interesting to see how much attention to detail and how the smallest things make a difference when it comes to judging. I will be getting my protractor and compass out for the next Royal Iced cake methinks!

Dragonflies for a Special Girl

My daughter Charlotte turned 7 this weekend and even though she is having her 'proper' cake, as she calls it, at her party on Saturday there is a tradition at her school that the parents bring in a cake, or cakes for them to share with their friends, which I think is lovely. They also sing Happy Birthday and get to blow out candles in assembly - great fun!

So considering that I am training in cake design I couldn't really pop to the shops and turn up with plain fairy cakes. Charlotte had asked for dragonfly fairy cakes (featured in the Planet Cake book). So I pushed up my sleeves and with a bit of lilac shimmer, petal paste wings and purple royal iced bodies created these.

I have to say I was really pleased with the end result, and when I dropped them off at school Charlotte was very popular with her friends. I just hope the other Mummies didn't mind the lilac shimmer effect that ended up on their lips making them all look like funky models!