I've just made Italian meringue buttercream!! You have to heat a sugar syrup to a certain temperature whilst brushing down the sides of the pan whilst at the same time whisking egg whites to soft peaks and then beat the syrup into the meringue for 10 minutes eek. I used my Kitchen Aid and, even though it is a beast of a machine, I could hear it wanting to give up towards the end.. But the end result is silky, vanillary, meringuey gorgeousness :)

I'm going to use the Italian meringue for some of the cupcakes tomorrow but I'm also going to make Lime and Coconut cupcakes with a mascarpone and lime frosting - sounds good!

Cakes from this week - I am soo proud of the hen party ones especially the hand drawn tiaras! I was so pleased with the way they came out - the only difficult bit then is tying the ribbon around the box (which of course involves carefully sliding the ribbon under the box eek) without dropping the whole lot.. Luckily my daughter Daisy was at home and helped me :))

The other cakes are the ones I took to The Larder this morning - the hearts on the chocolate sprinkle covered Oreo cakes are hand made. You pipe hearts or whatever shape takes your fancy onto greaseproof paper and then put them in the freezer for 15 minutes. I think they look really cute :)

Cakes from this week's stall. I was particularly pleased with them this week - they are vanilla with a gorgeous homemade raspberry and rhubarb jam filling and I topped that with pink buttercream and melted white chocolate. The one with the sweeties on top is Oreo filled with chocolate and the ones with a banana chip on are banana and chocolate chip with a fluffy peanut butter frosting. I also had peanut butter cupcakes with strawberry buttercream and they went down a treat!

And my cakes are now appearing in The Larder deli at Burwash Manor Farm - I'm soo pleased :))

Some photos of cupcakes made for a rainbow fairy film festival at the Arts Cinema. I'm really pleased with the way they've turned out and pleased that the man who works there managed to wobble his way upstairs with four boxes (does he have no consideration for my nerves eek..) piled one on top of the other and not drop them.

Here are a couple of pictures of rainbow cupcakes - as I was making them the rain poured down and then an enormous rainbow appeared in the sky so perhaps it was meant to be.. They weren't as popular as I thought they'd be, perhaps because they don't look quite real. The most popular ones on the stall yesterday were the peanut butter cupcakes with a strawberry buttercream topping. They were really delicious and nicely stodgy which is what on a day when the weather is turning and you feel the autumn chill setting in.

You can see some of the paraphenalia (spelling?? no idea..) that goes with making an icing rainblow on the top photo :)

A variety of cakes this week - some cupcakes for a 17 year old who was starting at a new school. Bringing in a box of cupcakes (especially made by me!) has to be the best way to win friends and influence people :))

The other pictures are of a mermaid cake for a little girl who was having her party at Carluccio's - I used a doll and piped fins on her after various hilariously bad attempts to make a mermaid out of royal icing.. And the christening cake was for my partner's new nephew.

Today was pretty good on the stall - although we're in the hinterland between the foreign students leaving and the Cambridge students arriving which means Cambridge is a bit like a ghost town in the centre - but I had some lovely office workers who need a boost of something sweet for the afternoons and Daisycakes is here to provide just that boost!

The chocolate cupcakes I made today had a homemade chocolate ganache inside and I have to say it was bloomin delicious.. Also good were the Cookies and Cream (vanilla cake with crushed Oreos and a fresh cream filling) and the brown sugar pound cake which I filled with Dulce de Leche - they were fab! And here are some photos..

I've mentioned that I'll be having Brown Sugar Pound cake cupcakes (long name for small cake) this week but I'll also have Oreo (always a favourite), Plum, Chocolate as always and Baclava muffins! Photos to follow..

I've badly neglected the blog recently due to the summer holidays but am back now ready to start baking again! Well, I have been baking during the holidays but not the glamourous kind that usually appears here :) So I'm just going to post some photos of cakes that I've made recently and cupcakes from last week's stall. The top picture is a cake for a friend's daughter who wanted rainbow icing and the ones below are apple and blackberry crumble cupcakes using apples and blackberries from my own garden, very homely :)

This week on the stall I'll have brown sugar pound cakes, delicious!