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Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
Here at The Coloured Bubble Cakery all my cakes and cupcakes are lovingly hand baked and decorated to the highest standards and the tiniest of details. My blog is here to update you on my recent projects along with lots other exciting news about the Cakery. You can also follow the cakery on Twitter and Facebook for a more interactive way of staying up to date, if that's the way you roll. Cakes and Cupcakes are available to order for any occasion. Please feel free to contact me at thecolouredbubblecakery@gmail.com, through the contact me tab on Facebook or give me a call on 01242 698698, all enquiries are welcome, Rachel at The Coloured Bubble Cakery :) x NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON!!

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Wedding Cupcakes

This month I was lucky enough to be creating the cakes for a wedding taking place at The Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford.

The bride had chosen a selection of different cupcake and mini cupcake styles in purple and cream to match her colour scheme along with a little 6" cake to top it off nicely.



She had a little ceramic model done of herself and her groom for the topper... so cute!


I wanted to show you this too, it's a quick snap of the wallpaper inside the lift at the Theatre... how cool is that??! :)











The Nunney Castle Steam Train


I have a friend called Rob, we used to be at school together and I'm really rather fond of him.  Nowadays he lives in Costa Rica saving sea turtles from poachers and making sure they all have a good start in life.  It really is quite honourable if you ask me.  
Anyhow, all the way from Costa Rica Rob got in touch and asked me to make his dad a cake for his impending 70th birthday.  
He asked if I could make a replica of the Nunney Castle Train that used to travel through his dad's home town of Skewen when he was just a nipper.  
Well, it was a pleasure!  
To make this cake I knew I would need a length of wood to raise the cake off the board so I popped over to my crazy wood lady to have a nose around in her shed.  I took Rob's pictures of the train and my cake board so we could make sure that we got the right sized piece, and I'm glad I did as my crazy wood lady's husband just so happens to be a train enthusiast (this had apparently completely slipped my mind) and amazingly produced from a room full of train-y things a book full of train blue prints, including the Nunney Castle along with a miniature scale model of the EXACT train, he even had a tiny bit of track!  



He was kind enough to let me take these three precious information giving objects home with me to work from, on the promise that I would get no sugar type products anywhere near them!!  
I couldn't believe my luck, normally I would search the web to find as many photos of said object from as many different angles as possible along with digging out dimensions online too and create the cake whilst flicking through about a million different print outs trying to get every detail as accurate as I can but this time it was all there in front of me... it felt like it was meant to be...


Here's Ieuan's Nunney Castle Train Cake, it was made from traditional vanilla sponge and yummy raspberry jam!

According to Rob's information his dad absolutely loved it and was teary eyed!! 


P.S. If saving sea turtles from poachers pulled at your heart strings and you'd like to help the cause you can check out the project here.  You can even adopt a turtle!  I did, and I called her Luna, she had little babies which hatched under the safety of the project and were then set free to start their incredible life journey, the project hope to see the females again in 20 years time ready to lay their own eggs :)







Tuesday 27 November 2012

Prescott Hill Climb Cake

Sometimes it can be quite a challenge to create a customers requested theme in cake form and this cake was one of those times.

The customer ordered a cake based around the local race track, Prescott Hill Climb and he asked that it include two of the cars that the birthday boy had raced on the track.

Now, like all racetracks, Prescott has its own unique route with its own twists and turns and hair pin bends and I wanted to recreate the shape onto the cake but this meant that unless I made one HUGE cake, the cars would inevitably not be to scale with the track. 
I made the decision to make the cars on the track as small as I could without leaving out too much detail.  
So although this cake features Prescott Hill Climb race track with its bridge, a Hillman Imp and a Racing car, you will have to forgive the differences in scale!!




Cricket Bat Cake

For David's 50th Birthday his family ordered him a cricket bat cake. 

At first the customer was unsure whether the cake needed to be created around his own bat or whether it just needed to be a cricket bat cake in general but when David's wife was asked, she confirmed, saying "Oh yes, he loves that bat more than me!".  Typical man! ;)

 So I was sent photos of his bat showing all the details of the nicks and scuffs of years gone by so I could make his cake as accurate as possible.

These are the pictures I received...




The cake was filled with the classic vanilla sponge and raspberry jam and the ball was created from rice crispie cake also known as RCC's in the trade, it took me a while to decipher this abbreviation so I felt the need to share the knowledge with you!

There was quite a bit of hand painting and a steady hand required for the Newbery logo but it was worth it to get it spot on.

Here's the finished cake...


David loved it; according to the customer he didn't want to cut it, and instead ate the ball first!!


Monday 19 November 2012

Cherry on Top Cupcakes

I made these cakes for my neighbours daughter.
I love them so much and would love to offer them nationally as per all my cupcakes but I have no idea how to post them as their wafers would immediately break... if I come up with any clever ideas I'll update this blog!
But for now, feast your eyes on these...


The Red Dalek

Back in the 80's when I was a little girl Dr Who was probably the scariest thing on the telly that I was allowed to watch, but all I could ever do was hide behind the sofa, and I still can't do scary telly things to this day!! 

Years later Dr Who is still a national treasure with 99% of my friends of all ages watching it religiously including my friends little 8 year old boy Huxley who watches it pretty much on loop and could be classed as a walking Dr Who encyclopaedia!

So in order to write this blog post I decided to refer to my good ol' friend 'Wiki' for the facts about Dr Who and its history, and therefore would like to offer the following fascinating information that you might perhaps find interesting...

Dr Who first graced our TV screens in 1963 with the 1st incarnation of the Time Lord in the shape of William Hartnell, to put this in perspective for myself, my ol' dad was just 14!!
It originally spanned 26 years, included 26 series and 7 different Dr Who incarnations, famously Jon Pertwee & Tom Baker and one incarnation in particular that can currently be found surviving on a diet of rice & beans in the Australian jungle!!

After an attempted relaunch in 1996 it was 2005 that Dr Who won the nations hearts once again with the 9th Dr Who, Christopher Eccleston and it is hopefully and more than likely, here to stay.

The Daleks, created by writer Terry Nation and BBC designer Raymond Cusick were apparently intended to be an allegory of the Nazis (well, I never knew). They débuted in the 2nd ever season of Dr Who in '63, and have been the Dr's main antagonist ever since with their instantly recognisable metallic voices and their frequent remark: "EXTERMINATE!", so famous in fact that they even featured on a postage stamp in 1999!!


Due to the above facts and findings it is unsurprising that Dr Who and Dalek cakes are ordered today and why Gabriella's parents ordered her the Red Dalek for her 11th Birthday.

Here's Gabriella's Cake...





Standing about 14" in height on a 12" cake board and filled with delicious chocolate sponge and Nutella it weighed an absolute ton!!!
Gabriella LOVED it!!! :)



Wednesday 14 November 2012

Blue Hawaii Cake

For the lover of all things Elvis this is the perfect cake.
The birthday girl has a particular penchant for Elvis' Blue Hawaii album so her cake was based around the album cover.


I especially enjoyed making this cake as it gave me an excuse to gaze into a young Elvis' eyes while creating him from sugar, and what a lovely pair of blue eyes they are along with the fabulous famous 'Elvis do' including some incredible side burns!!





Kiddies Character Cupcakes

Featuring Thomas, Sam, Bob, Raa-Raa, Minnie and Pat!
(I'm on first name terms with them as you can see!)


Tuesday 23 October 2012

The Mad Hat Cake

As a lover of bright colours and random hair-wear I wanted to create something fabulous to match my fabulous friend Nay to celebrate her birthday last week.
For her present I knitted a hair fascinator of prawns on lettuce which she loved so I decided to fashion her a fabulous hat out of cake too.

I went into it blind with my only original design factor being brightly coloured pom-poms in the top!

Here's the finished cake...


and here's my lovely Nay modelling it...


and just in case you're wondering, here's a quick snap shot of Nays prawn and lettuce fascinator I made...


Monday 22 October 2012

Snow White

For her 6th birthday my lovely friend Nicki's little daughter Millie-Rose asked very sweetly for a Snow White cake, although to be honest, it was a given that the cake would be a Disney Princess of some description!

I've seen so many doll cakes in shop windows with plastic dolls unceremoniously stuck into a skirt of cake and wanted to have a go... without the plastic doll, and this was the perfect opportunity.

Using the same process as the shop windows I made a skirt shaped cake and then modeled Snow White from the waist up using fondant icing making Millie's cake entirely edible the way cakes should be.

Having an invite to the party I had the pleasure of lending a helping hand towards coping with 40 sugar filled 6 year olds running and screaming and even got thoroughly involved in the Hokey Cokey, I would've felt young again if it hadn't been from the previous late night  spent celebrating another friends birthday and by the end of Sunday I was seriously wondering whether I'd ever have the use of my legs again!!

Here's Millie-Rose's cake...


HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY MILLIE!!! xx

Jackson Guitar

Here's another example of the customisation of the guitar cake... this time a Jackson!


Shared Birthday Cupcakes


Cupcakes for the Racing & Cricket Enthusiast!


Saturday 13 October 2012

Munster Rugby Shirt

Here's a cake I made for a young mans 18th, clearly a Munster Rugby fan!

During the process of making this cake I learnt the Provinces of Munster... Tipperary, Waterford, Clare, Cork, Kerry and Limerick... pub quiz here I come..!





The Roast Chicken

Being a cake decorator I am privy to some pretty weird cake fantasies and this cake is no exception!

According to the customer:
"The reason for the chicken... hmm, well, my frien­­d Jen is a bit of an oddball and loves chicken so much that every year she asks us for a chicken cake for her birthday - by which I mean a cake made out of chicken. It's been a running joke for years so I thought it might be nice to get everyone to chip in and finally get one for her."

So, as I might've mentioned before, here at The Coloured Bubble Cakery, your cakey wish is my command  and the chicken cake was ordered.

Now, if there's one thing about cake making that I love the most, it has to be making cakes to look like food so I was super excited about this one, and if truth be told, I've been waiting for an excuse to make a chicken cake for a good long while!

I set about baking 4 large vanilla sponges, piled them with jammy filling and carved, as it turns out, this chicken is more the size of the Christmas turkey from the end of 'A Muppets Christmas Carol' but hey ho, the more the merrier surely!?

So the chicken and its legs are carved from cake, the roast potatoes are modelled from fondant covered rice crispy cakes and the wings and veg are fashioned completely from fontant icing.  Yum!

I used Badger the airbrush to 'cook' the chicken, potatoes and pigs in blankets and topped it all with a delicious glaze created using black treacle and granulated sugar!!  It's bizarre what you find to use at the last minute!!

Here's the finished cake...

Roast Chicken Cake

Peas & Carrots & Sweetcorn
Pigs in Blankets
Roast Potatoes

I'm trying to get my hands on some images of it's subsequent cutting... watch this space!! :)

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Halloween is coming around again!

Hosting a Halloween Party or off to a friends to celebrate??
Make sure the nibbles table is complete with a box of hand made Halloween Cupcakes...



Box of 6 - £18 + postage
Box of 12 - £30 + postage

Postage Costs:
Box of 6 - £4 or £7.50 next day (weekdays only)
Box of 12 - £6.50 or £9.50 next day (weekdays only)

Available in Chocolate & Nutella, Vanilla & Jam or Lemon Drizzle!!

To order email: thecolouredbubblecakery@gmail.com






Tuesday 25 September 2012

Jude's Fender

If you are a follower of the The Coloured Bubble Cakery on Facebook  or Twitter then you might already know that I am now officially the auntie of a teenager!
Yes, it's true, my wonderful nephew Jude has just turned 13 and of course he had to have a super cool 13th birthday cake to properly mark this moment in his life.

We'd been thinking it over for a few months but ultimately Jude knew exactly what he wanted from the start.  As a talented guitarist (and future rock star) he chose an electric guitar but he wanted it to be designed like an ace of spades because of his love for card tricks... I can confirm that he's always got a deck of cards in his pocket and a trick up his sleeve to amaze & wow us!

I based the cake on a white Fender Stratocaster (mainly because I love painting the Fender logo but also because of it's iconic shape) and set about creating the cake.  It's at moments like these that GCSE maths comes in handy (Jude, note to self!) as I used ratios to create a scale model of the guitar... ridiculously measuring the image on my laptop screen with a ruler and scaling up from there, I'm sure there's probably a more technically correct way of doing this but it did the trick!  Here's the template...


I had intended to buy the cake board in advance but as ever time flew and I was left with a choice of just one suitable board from my local cake supply shop which turned out to be 30" x 18"... it was HUGE!!

Jude couldn’t decide on a flavour so I took it upon myself to decide for him, making the cake a mixture of vanilla & jam, chocolate & Nutella and lemon drizzle & lemon curd, with flavours dotted all over the place so it was a bit of a 'cake flavour lottery' 
when cutting it!  Here's what it looked like naked...!!


And here it is fully clothed and finished...



Jude totally loved his cake...



and of course, cut it in his usual style...


Although he had already been warned about becoming a stereotypical 'Kevin & Perry' teenager, my sister informed me that his first word on the morning of his 13th was "ugh?"... as a joke... cheeky blighter! :)

Happy 13th Birthday JUDE!!!
lots of love, Auntie Rachel. xx
(sorry if this embarrasses you at school!!!)







Friday 21 September 2012

Personalised Guitar Cupcakes

These cupcakes were designed specifically for Mike's 59th Birthday.

His brother in law ordered them to be based around his 3 guitars, his Fender, his Gibson and his Guild using blue, green, orange and red.  
After throwing a few ideas around we decided to include personalised plectrums!



Tuesday 18 September 2012

The Dark Side of the Moon

As a total & utter nutter when it comes to music (both good & bad according to my sister!) I'm always over the moon to be asked to replicate iconic album covers.  
My only beef being that I'm not asked to do it often enough!!

The only time I've been asked for an album over it was for the super iconic Born in the USA featuring the lovely bottom of the lovely Bruce Springsteen!  I very much enjoyed shaping and modelling that one! ;)
This time around I was asked to create the also massively iconic cover of The Dark Side of the Moon... the 1973 Pink Floyd classic.

As you may already be aware, Pink Floyd have a MASSIVE following and I have many a friend that absolutely RAVE about them, in fact it seems that Pink Floyd fans are quite literally everywhere, I felt a huge amount of responsibility on my shoulders to make sure I did it justice so to make sure my mind was in the right place for the job I spun the album as I worked!!

As always, with every cake I make, I like to learn something along the way so with the help of the incredibly informative 'wikipedia' I can inform you all that "The original album artwork for The Dark Side of the Moon was created by Hipgnosis and George Hardie and features a beam of white light, representing unity, passing through a prism, which represents society. The resulting refracted beam of coloured light symbolizes unity diffracted, leaving an absence of unity.".  You just never know when you might need this kind of information!

Anyhoo, that's enough trivia, back to the cake...
It was made with my yummy traditional vanilla sponge filled with lashings of raspberry jam and decorated to celebrate Peter's 50th Birthday...



And here's a little 'taste'imonial from Peter's wife...
"The 'Dark Side of the Moon' cake went down a storm for my husband's 50th party last night! Thank you so much for an amazing looking cake and an incredibly delicious tasting one! Will rave about it to all. Shame we were a little worse for wear to put the CD on!"






Wednesday 12 September 2012

The Ferrari of the Tractor World...?!

Now, I'm no expert when it comes to tractors but after discussing this cake with a friend he kindly informed me that this tractor is no less than the Ferrari of the tractor world!!
So with that in mind I would like to present to you the...
Fendt 936 Vario!!!





Made from vanilla sponge and yummy raspberry jam, the Fendt 936 Vario is completely and utterly edible!!

Tuesday 11 September 2012

The Sugar Buddha Cake

I'm super excited to tell you all about last weeks Sugar Buddha Cake!
I had so much fun making this one.
The customer was brilliantly specific with their order.  They wanted a square vanilla and jam sponge with a golden laughing Buddha and a bottle of red saying Happy Anniversary Mum & Dad, 60 Not Out!  

So, I set about fashioning a Buddha out of sugar, which I have endearingly named The Sugar Buddha.  
And this is how I did it...

Using white fondant icing mixed with a little CMC (a powder that allows fondant to have more elasticity and set harder) I modelled him starting with his magnificent belly...


...then I added his legs, creating his feet and toes along the way, then covered them to create his lounge pants...


...next I modelled his breasts (for want of a better word) and his arms and hands which started off looking like this...


...again I added more fondant with CMC to create a lovely robe to cover some of his modest breasts and his arms, and then roughly rolled out a ball for his head...


...with one of my faithful modelling tools I sculpted his fabulous laughing mouth, nose and eyes and attached his brilliantly over sized ear lobes...


...next, with black food colouring I painted in all the dark areas and details...


...and finally I sprayed him using the amazingly effective PME Edible Lustre Spray and left him to dry...


We became quite attached during this process and I was sorry to see him go.  He sat on my side until I was ready for him to be stationed on the cake and every time he caught my eye his expression made me chuckle!

Anyhoo, this cake isn't all about Buddha (although that was my favourite part) I also created a tiny little bottle of wine and hand painted 'Pinot Noir 2012' on the label....


All that was left was the golden lettering...