My first attempt at Wedding Cake

If anyone has been through the experience of organising a wedding, or going through as I am, you will know that whenever you mention the 'W' word the price increases dramatically.

So in my attempt to try and save costs where possible, I wanted to try and make a wedding cake.

Of course a massive wedding cake is a little different from the usual cupcakes that I make, so firstly I had to do some research via google. Thankfully I found some really good sites and a couple are worth mentioning;

• http://www.designer-cakes.com/ is a scottish guy that has a number of free online courses and a range of great looking cakes.
• http://www.lindyscakes.co.uk/ ...and one day when I'm working I'll be able to afford to do one of this lady's cake courses. Absolutely amazing! And great tips in the blog comments.

I decided to try a lemon Madiera cake. Not the easiest thing to make as I've mentioned in my previous blog, however when I did get the courage to cut it into 3 layers it actually looked quite good. 

Next step was the lemon curd buttercream that I smothered in between.

Layered Madiera Cake with Buttercream

I could have stayed with the buttercream to do the outside, however I wanted to try a white chocolate ganache.

Now with the White Chocolate Ganache

And then was the fondant icing. Damn hard to work with when you have a tiny kitchen and a rolling pin that's not big enough.

Now with the Fondant

Next step was the fun bit... making it pretty. I stuck to the flower decoration as I'd like them flowing down the tiers if I end up doing this for my wedding.

  

Of course that isn't the final step... Taste Test.

Yum

The fact that H has gone back a few times for more cake must mean it's ok. I wasn't particularly happy with the fondant as I couldn't get it looking all nice and smooth like the professional ones, but let's see I may just have to make my own wedding cake.

What to do on a little chicken day...

Baking of course!

And if you don't know what a 'little chicken' or 'chicken little' day is... 'the sky is falling in, the sky is falling in'. In other words... an overcast, dull, dreary day with no blue sky.

One of the things on my to do list has been to trial a wedding cake. I'm debating whether or not to bake my own to save money. So yesterday I tried a Madiera cake. There were so many tips on how to cook it online i.e. place a bowl of water in the oven, wrap the tin in newspaper, scrape the batter away from the middle before baking.  I did try these, however it has come out quite crusty on the top and right now I'm too scared to cut it, so will leave it for a day.

After that I trialed Golden Cauliflower Soup with Moroccan Spices which I found on Foodily. A healthy and yummy soup if you're after something different.

  

And finally I decided to make H's favourite Lemon and Poppyseed cupcakes. This time I decorated them a bit differently... 

  

  

Now I think it's time to put my feet up with a glass of wine!

Back in Blighty

Holidays don't last long enough...

We spent our last couple of days in a hotel on the Bay of Bengal. It's called Vivanta and while it looks lovely, other than a gorgeous dinner in the seaside restaurant on the Saturday night and a treat in the spa on the Sunday, I wouldn't bother going back. 

It was that bad I wrote a review on Trip Advisor. The breakfast hall gave me flashbacks to the time I was at the Singapore Night Zoo with Mum, desperately trying to protect some elderly Aussies from being stampeded by holidaying Indians.

The hotel room

A free dessert from the only nice restaurant

These were scattered all around the spa

Now its back to reality in Blighty...

H is back at work and I'm joining agencies in the bid to find some work when I head back to Oz for the few weeks before Xmas and our big day.

The invitations have finally gone out and I now just have to sort out the photographer (I'm not paying the thousands that these people seem to want) and entertainment.

More soon...