DIY'ers

Thriftygifty

bexsmum wrote: »

Rubysmummy - yes I am a cake maker. I used to make for a shop many years ago (BC - before children!) but I've kinda started again. I'm making a naughty 30th next week. My wedding cake was all dummy cakes (cheating but hey-ho so shoot me) it was UNBELIEVABLY stressful as I had the same comments of "oooh we expect so much" "cant wait to see what you do" "we expect it to be amazing" - there were tears shed over that cake!!

But in the end I just knuckled down one day and it flowed... but look on line, grab some ideas, post some pics on here and I will help out on what you need to do it and we'll have you making something fabulous in no time.

Oh and my reasoning for the fake cakes - well OH takes full credit for this not me - you make this amazing cake, then they come along and dismantle it and chop it up ruining the cake and the table its on and everything. So we decided fake cake and make cutting cakes instead. That cake is also going the journey to recoup some costs but really - is there any point in keeping a cake in the loft when am I ever gonna use it again?!

So yes do it yourself, but dont pressure yourself too much over it, its really not worth it!

I made a fruit cutting cake, which everyone raved about including the venue who said it was the best cake they'd ever cut (huge praise indeed). I also made a sponge, they were just brought out with the evening buffet.

Cake of Cheese - I bought it from Northumberland Cheese Co. I made the mice though

Definitely use envelopes for the invites. They WILL get ruined by royal mail - or worse not get there and then you will have wasted all that fabulous good work. I love your invites, so classy, love the colour scheme, well done!

Off to post you ladies some more pics :rotfl:

Bexsmum x

Hey Bexsmum,

Was wondering if you would be able to help me, your cake looks fab. I'm going to be making ours thinking half fruit half fake! But how did you get the depth in each tier, arent the dummy cakes 3" high? Also do you have any good recipes? I've seen the cake I would like to make but have no idea on the size of each tier! Thanks

bexsmum

Rubysmummy - ask away and I will help with anything I can x

VickyVics - I love your bouquets. I have offered to help a friend with hers for next year so I may be back to ask for help at a later date if thats ok?

Thriftygifty - the fake cakes were about 3" high, I then put them on normal thick cake boards exactly the same size as the fake cakes. I then covered them with as much icing as I would a normal cake and they came out about 4 - 4 1/2" tall which worked for me.

And recipe - I'm a bit useless and I can never remember which recipe I used last so I always end up googling for cake recipes. This one I think was off bbc site and it was about the time everyone was doing their xmas cakes so there were tons of recipes out there. It was a simple soak the fruit (I soaked them for a week lol), add the dry ingrediants and put it in a low oven for about 4 hours. Then I added the rest of the bottle of brandy over the next month which made it a tad alcoholic :rotfl:

Bexsmum x

bexsmum

Thriftygifty wrote: »

Hey Bexsmum,

Was wondering if you would be able to help me, your cake looks fab. I'm going to be making ours thinking half fruit half fake! But how did you get the depth in each tier, arent the dummy cakes 3" high? Also do you have any good recipes? I've seen the cake I would like to make but have no idea on the size of each tier! Thanks

Just thinking, post a pic on here of the cake you like and lets see if I can talk you through it

Thriftygifty

bexsmum wrote: »

Just thinking, post a pic on here of the cake you like and lets see if I can talk you through it

Hey bexsmum, that would be fantastic. http://www.cottonandcrumbs.co.uk/wedding-cakes/ its the one right at the bottom on the left the Rose & Hydrangea one. I've bought everything to make the roses which i'm going to make now well in advance. I was thinking of the bottom one being fake as there will be loads of other cake. Thanks for telling me how you got the depth, my fruit cakes normally come out at 3" so thats good that I should be able to get them to about 4 - 4.5" high . Thanks for your help

frazzled22

Thank you everyone, some great ideas I'll steal
I don't have enough free time to make everything but I'll try and do as much as I can, I'm a bargain hunter and can't bear to spend more than I have to! x

VickyVics

bexsmum wrote: »

VickyVics - I love your bouquets. I have offered to help a friend with hers for next year so I may be back to ask for help at a later date if thats ok?

That's fine, I loved making it and even now love looking at it. x

bexsmum

Thriftgifty - your cake will be absolutely gorgeous!

If you need any help with the roses give a shout out, but one tip make too many as I've been known to drop one/break something and get into a complete flap...

Are you using ice lace or real fabric and ribbon and agree that fake base will work with another 3 to eat. Don't forget to dowl the fake one as the last thing you want is the weight of the 3 above sinking into the fake. It shouldn't but I wouldn't take the chance!

Bexsmum x

frazzled22

Hi Bexmum, where did you design your invitations? I can't find a design like that anywhere and I love them! The gold like vine/ leaves pictures xx

Thriftygifty

bexsmum wrote: »

Thriftgifty - your cake will be absolutely gorgeous!

If you need any help with the roses give a shout out, but one tip make too many as I've been known to drip one/break something and get into a complete flap...

Are you using ice lace or real fabric and ribbon and agree that fake base will work with another 3 to eat. Don't forget to dowl the fake one as the last thing you want is the weight of the 3 above sinking into the fake. It shouldn't but I wouldn't take the chance!

Bexsmum x

Thanks Bexsmum. Any advice on making the roses would be great, i've made one today, it's ok but not quite like the photo of the cake but not bad for my first attempt! http://www.flickr.com/photos/93235585@N02/8477263872/in/photostream
hopefully that photo upload works!

Ideally I would like to make the lace out of icing. Yeah totally agree about using the dowels. What size would you say each tier is looking at the photo? I havent a clue! But like the proportion in the photo.

bexsmum

frazzled22 wrote: »

Hi Bexmum, where did you design your invitations? I can't find a design like that anywhere and I love them! The gold like vine/ leaves pictures xx

Hi There,

Sorry I didnt get it from anywhere in particular - at my last job we had photoshop and one of the graphics people made it for me... But before I managed to get that I googled "gold swirl" and "scroll" and ended up changing the colour of a green one to gold (but it still wasnt quite right) so one the girls made that one for me.

Sorry that's not a huge help, but google and images might have something. I would offer to send mine over but when I left my last job I lost the jpg as I didnt get everything off my machine and I only have a pdf of my invite that I found on email

Bexsmum x