Father Christmas cupcakes

I made it to the local baking club this month - I have missed the last 2 months for obvious reasons ( the birth of my son Henry) but made it to the last one of the year and took Henry along with me. He was so good he was in his car seat under the table whilst I made a Father Christmas cupcake. He didn't cry once and just dozed and occasionally opened his eyes, babies are so portable at this age (he is 8 weeks old). At the end of the session I got him out and lots of people had cuddles with him most of them had forgotten that he was there as he was so quiet!

Father Christmas Cupcake!

Back to the cup cake - this is something that I would NEVER attempt so I was really pleased to be having a go , the reason I wouldn't attempt it is that you have to have a lot of patience (and time) which is something that I don't have!!!!
The class was taken by one of our fellow bakers who has her own cake business.

The main frame of the cupcake is 2 cupcakes upturned on each other covered in butter cream and then covered in fondant icing. We had such a laugh doing this everyone's Santa's came out differently and a few of them fell over with heavy heads.

Tragedy! a head fell off!

A collection of Santas

Mine on the Left with a friend

All the Santas together

This one on the tin is the instructors Santa isn't it good

As always with the baking group everyone is encouraged to bring along something they have made that we can enjoy at the end of the evening, as it was the groups first birthday it was suggested that canapés were bought along. I didn't have time to make any but enjoyed everyone else's - We had sushi, apricots with cheese and nuts, salmon billinis and a variety of goats cheese/ red onions/sun-dried tomatoes in pastry cases - there was so much to choose from and of course I had to try it all! I had such a fun time and really looking forward to next months session.

I was looking through some photographs the other day and came across the Owl cakes that I made for Bonfire night ! I made these thinking that they would be really easy and wouldn't take long to make at all - how wrong I was!!! They took ages to decorate and by the end of it all I was losing the will to live ! And I made too many of them (is that a bad thing??) Unfortunately they also suffered a little smoke damage as they were outside with the bonfire but my friends I made them for thought they were lovely and that is all that matters

Kitties and Piggies!

Its so hot here at the moment!! I am trying hard not to complain about it as I know that this good weather can't last! I made some animal cupcakes for a village fete this weekend and had great fun creating them! I knew that I definitely wanted to make a cat one as I am slightly obsessed with cats ( have 2 and a half of my own - the half one isn't mine but thinks she lives with me and my other 2 don't seem to mind her having a sleep over!) and the pig was a photograph that I saw on the internet when I was trawling through pages and pages cupcakes looking for inspiration. I am very pleased with the outcome , the cakes were lemon sponge with lemon icing - the only downside was that as it was so hot they did start to melt a little bit .... but I'm not complaining!