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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!!

Saturday 28 April 2012

The Giant Cupcake!!


As promised, I've put together a bit more of an in depth blog post all about the Giant Cupcake!! 
This was mainly due to my excitement at the prospect of carving the shape out of multicoloured sponges so this is where I will start...


It's really easy to bake coloured sponges, it takes a little extra time but is definitely well worth it when you see the finished effect.  I use the same food colours that I use for all my decorating, they come as a paste and are perfect for mixing with icing, cake mix and even to paint with (watered down with vodka to avoid dissolving the sugar in the fondant!).

This is how the sponges looked once they were cool and ready for use...


I think you'll agree that they're really horrible colours, but fear not, me & my carving knife can fix this...


Now, for a giant cupcake cake you could always use one of these baking moulds... but where's the fun in that??!


Nope, I much prefer my trusty bread knife!

I decided to make this cake in two tiers to make covering it simpler.  I've no idea if this is the way other cake decorators do it, but this is my way.
So after jamming the sponges together I kick off by carving the bottom 3 colours to look like the cupcake case...


then I did the same with the top 3 colours to look like the frosted topping...


Just for my own personal curiosity I put them together to see the full effect of the spectrum of colours...

Coooool!!!

Ok, curiosity satisfied... Now it's time for the butter cream.  Yum!  

Butter cream is so easy to make and there are a huge amount of recipes online to help you on your way.  I can recommend 175g of icing sugar to 85g unsalted butter.  I like to heat the butter slightly to help it mix with the sugar, add a couple of drops of vanilla essence and you're off!
I normally add a dash of milk too as it's mixing, 1 full cap from the bottle normally does it...


Then get it on...!  
I used a piping tube to apply it as the cake was fresh & crumbly then I smoothed it over with a small palette knife.


I didn't butter cream the top of the bottom tier as I used dowels and a smaller thin cake board to place the top tier on, but I forgot to take a photo of that bit so you'll just have to take my word for it! :)

Next I wrapped the bottom tier in blue fondant, again leaving the top clear.  The best way to do this, I find at least, is to roll a length of fondant long enough to go around the cake, then slice off one edge to make it straight, roll it up gently and then unfurl as you apply it to the cake with the straight edge against the cake board... trim the top excess off with scissors or a sharp scalpel (watch your fingers!).


Then, with a large palette knife I carefully lifted the butter creamed top tier onto the bottom tier (on top of the dowels and thin cake board).  I made sure it was positioned correctly before rolling out and applying the pink fondant onto the top...


Using my fingers and palms I traced the the fondant into the grooves of the carved top to make sure it was all properly in place, an instant improvement in my eyes.
This was the first time I was able to properly see the job I'd done at carving the frosted top and I let out a massive sigh of relief as I stepped back to take a look!

Next, with a sharp scalpel (watch your fingers!) I trimmed the excess off the bottom, tucking the pink into the blue at the join, leaving little globules for icing drips... ta-da!


Now you can add any decoration that takes your fancy.  
My fancy today was taken by red polka-dots, a big fat strawberry and hundreds and thousands...

Here's the finished cake....


If you enjoyed this, found it interesting or informative then let me know on the facebook page and I'll try and do them more often :)

OK... quick Giant Cupcake update....
IT'S BEEN CUT!!!!
& here are the photos...





Wednesday 25 April 2012

Sunday 22 April 2012

Decks Cake

This month, my friend Caz got in touch about her son Lewis's 21st Birthday Cake, now I might be wrong, and I know full well how quickly the years pass but I am sure that he was only 14 last time I saw him!!!  Where do the years go...?  Any answers to this question very welcome!

Anyway, Lewis is massively into his music and I was given a choice between making his Drums or making his Decks into a cake... I chose his decks as it's something I've always fancied creating as a cake.

I was told exactly what to google and set about it immediately only to find that they weren't the decks I was expecting, but then I suppose my image of decks is rather old fashioned in this digital world that we live in!

So, just so we're all 'singing from the same song sheet' (it's amazing what phrases stick in your head after 10 years of working in an office!) here's the picture I found online to work from...
lots & lots of buttons!!
The cake itself was vanilla with jammy filling, and when preparing to decorate I made a note of how many buttons & sliders of each shape I needed to make... it turned out to require 99 buttons/sliders of 11 different shapes, in 3 different colours, not to mention all the different icons on each button, I'm glad I'd put some kind of system in place to make sure I got them all in the right place!!

So here is the finished cake... Happy 21st Birthday Lewis!!!





Friday 20 April 2012

Ariel aka The Little Mermaid

As some of you out there may already know, 'your cakey wish is my command' and this is no exception when it comes to little family members, so when my soon to be 5 year old niece Maeve (also, endearingly known as Mavis or Maevy Gravy) requested an Ariel cake I got googling!!

I'm not massively up with my Disney Princesses, so was confused to find that Ariel is actually, in fact The Little Mermaid, which I've heard of.
I must admit that I like to think that Maeve's request was due to Ariel's uncannily resemblance to me... OK, well maybe just the red flowing locks... my fin is a completely different design, but I can see similarities!!  :) 

So a vanilla & jam sponge Ariel cake it was, and a bit of a last minute rush too.  
Flounder's tiny expression could look a little less shocked but as I've said, time was against me!  
I had to have two attempts at Ariel's shell brassier as the first attempt could only be described as a 36EE and was totally inappropriate for a 5 year old birthday party, also her welcoming arm posture wasn't exactly planned, but works... I think?!   According to Disney's design, my model of Ariel possibly could've lost a few pounds too, but I don't like to promote anything but healthy curvaceousness in a female... it makes me feel better about myself, what with all the cake I manage to consume!  
All of the my creative criticisms were completely dissolved when Maeve set eyes on her cake though which is why I love my job!

So, here's the finished cake in all its hurried glory... along with some close up shots of the detail...

Ariel Cake
Ariel's Fin Detail
Smiley Ariel & Flounder

Ocean Floor Detail
And, finally, the little Birthday Girl herself and her reaction to her cake... 

Love at first sight?


Happy 5th Birthday Maevy Gravy, lots of love from, Aunty Rachel xx





Friday 13 April 2012

World of Warcraft Cupcakes

For this order my customer wanted to send his friend World of Warcraft Cupcakes for her birthday and it just so happened that the icons used in World of Warcraft fit beautifully onto a cupcake!
These cupcakes are decorated with fondant icing and then individually finished with a dash of hand painting.
My favourite has to be the scary staring eye!!!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY NESS!!

Tuesday 3 April 2012

New Website Coming Soon - Update...

I thought it was about time I let you know where we are with the Cakery's up & coming website.

My totally creative web designer is currently working on the revised visuals after the initial designs were critiqued by myself and my trusty bunch of creative minded girlfriends and decided on a few necessary tweaks.
I really, really want to add the image of the initial designs to this blog post but my heart tells me to keep it quiet until the fantastically fabulous final design is live and online.  I hope you don't mind?! :)

There is sooo much to think about when putting a website together... navigation, image labels etc etc but at the moment all I can think about is the visual side of things!  I've tried to piece together pro's and con's of other websites I use to attempt to avoid niggly issues and my online 'pet hates' to make the Cakery website as fun and user friendly as possible.

In the meantime I'll be keeping the blog page updated with the latest cakey projects and seasonal designs that are available to order, with the blog continuing as part of the new site.

If you want to keep up with the latest designs and my random, daily comments of Cakery life then the facebook page is here to help too... along with the twitter page, although I should admit that I'm still working out Twitter and its weird and wonderful ways!  

If you're interested in ordering a cake or cupcakes or just want to inquire about possible cake orders, quotes or availability then please feel free to email me at thecolouredbubblecakery@gmail.com or give me a buzz on 01242 698698, I can guarantee you a happy & helpful friendliness from me... your cakey wish is my command after all! :) x