I just had to put this one on too as it's soo cool!

This is a gorgeous apple cake called 'Felix's apple cake' which is my eldest son's name (well, he's called Felix not Felix's apple cake). I made it with apples from our garden which made me feel very homey, like a 40s housewife in a Janet and Alan Allberg book.

I did my first Saturday stall and, as predicted, it was bloomin scary. I was so lucky to start where I did on the market next to lovely Brigitte and Michael and it just wasn't the same in my new spot. I do have very funny Horse the German sausage man next to me (he may well be called Horst according to my friend Heidi but it sounds like Horse to me) - he speaks just like Arnie - but he is too busy to talk as no-one, and I would include myself if I ate meat or he did veggie sausages, can walk past a stall with a hunky man selling hot salty food on a cold day without buying some. He, hilariously, buys rolls which are at least half the size of his sausages so they stick out either end and look like something you would see in the Beano but no-one seems to mind as they walk off wolfing them down. That's on my right and on the left is the earnest and knowledgeable record seller who recreates the film 'High Fidelity' in front of your very eyes. He gets a lotta nerds on that stall who have searched for the New Seekers first edition of something printed only once in 1969 by 'insert obscure record label name' and he brings them real joy by finding what they're looking for. Should say just for legal purposes that he also gets normal people buying records but I was looking away when they were there :) I also nearly froze to death, didn't go to the loo for 5 hours (after 2 Americanos, half a flask of tea and a bottle of sparkly water) and ate at least 3 slices of my own cakes when the little rush had subsided but that's another story..

Beautiful coffee cakes for a lucky person's birthday on Friday :)

I had a couple left over so I put a creamy topping with grated chocolate on which look fab (I think!)

Lemony cupcakes from last week. I'm doing my first Saturday stall this week which I am equally excited and scared about. I'm in a different spot on the market not with my usual little gang. I'm going to be next a sausage stall which could be a mixed blessing. In one way at least I'll get hungry people passing by, but it will smell of sausages oh dear. But cupcakes make a good pudding after a big German sausage or at least that's what I'll tell people :))

I'm doing lots of big cakes on the stall now and this is one of them! I'm also working on autumn recipes for cupcakes and tried apple today but they didn't quite work out and sunk in the middle. I tried adding a spoonful of homemade apple butter in some of the cases and then stirring it in to the sponge mixture but it didn't work very well in either case. Perhaps it was my apple butter which was sort of a made up recipe from all the hundreds on the web. Some say do add butter, some say don't, some say use cider so in the end I used a very old recipe by Marguerite Patten but halved the sugar. All very complicated and I'm sure I'm over complicating it..

I also made these 2 pretty cakes this week for 24 year old twins - I think they look lovely in the bags with ribbon. 
These were cakes I did for a 13 year old's birthday. She didn't want any writing on the cakes but just a range of pastel colours and some pretty flowers. The sponges were all chocolate apart from one gluten free cake which I made for her sister and put in a separate bag tied with a ribbon. I was really pleased with the way the way they looked and I put them on the stall so that people could see them whilst I was waiting for the birthday girl's dad to come and pick them up! 

This was a cake I did this weekend for a little girl's birthday. I should have done the writing in red really to fit in with the colour scheme but it seems ok with the blue. This cake is chocolate underneath with a chocolate filling which is very yummy. The cupcakes below were done for a coffee morning and then I made a couple of extra ones for my daughters. I've made a carrot cake, a madeira cake and a lemon drizzle cake for the stall tomorrow and I'm going to do Hummingbird cake for Wednesday. I'll take some photos of those cakes too but the cupcakes seem to be more glamorous and lend themselves to photo taking more naturally :))

These look so good! I put raspberry jam in some of them, pureed strawberries in others and the rest were vanilla. I really enjoy making and decorating these. As I said in a previous post I'm still searching for the perfect listening to go with icing a cupcake (so far in the top 10 Woman's Hour, Meatloaf singing Bat out of Hell, Leona Lewis or Count Arthur Strong - although when I listen to him I shake because I'm laughing) and I'll put together a definitive list. I have to say that as I am a old lady, Radio 2 and 4 will feature pretty heavily...

These are a few of the 30 cupcakes I did for Cambridge University Press this week - the strawberry ones looked really good although there is a bit of juice from the strawberries on them. It didn't seem to stop anyone's enjoyment of them though I'm pleased to say :) 

This is how they look in the box tied with a ribbon and I delivered them to Emily who was very happy with them :) 

I also made these today for an 18th birthday party. I really like the colours together. I also put them in my new boxes which are much nicer than the old ones as you can see the cakes within! The first thing people want to do when you arrive with cakes is have a look at them - naturally - so it's great having them on display like this and they look really pretty. I need to do some boys' ones too though! 
I'm not sure what the best thing to listen to whilsts decorating cupcakes is but Barry Manilow on Desert Island Discs has got to be up there. That's what I was listening to whilst making this little box of cakes for a man to give to his girlfriend. First of all he wanted 2 strawberry ones and the 'happy birthday' ones but then decided on one big owl and one little owl. I have no idea why but I think they look adorable and I hope she likes them! I said if they were really effective then I would do his wedding cupcakes :))