Cakes for a birthday. I really like the effect of the different colours together - they're different flavours too underneath: these ones are strawberry, Oreo, vanilla and chocolate, delicious!

Very lovely chocolate swirls and a cake for my friend who works on the flower stall next to me for her husband's birthday (her daughter chose the words). It was windy and cold on the stall this week which is never very nice - I wrap the cupcakes up in tissue paper before I put them in the paper bags that people take them away in and this week holding the tissue, bag, cake and the money without it flying away was a challenge to say the least... So cafe watch continues and we carry on with the countdown towards our cafe opening day (as soon as there is a definite official countdown I'll post it on here and I can't wait!) and it seemed that bit more attractive to be inside without having to battle the wind, rain, cold, pigeons... I could go on..

This cake just goes to show that you really can't beat a vanilla sponge filled with jam and cream - it was the cake that I was the most reluctant to hand over to the recipient!

A couple of pictures of a lovely cake I made recently. Slightly wonky writing on the cake but I don't think anyone noticed. I used to not like buttercream at all when I was little but now I can't get enough of the stuff - the recipes nowadays make it much lighter and fluffier and with a teaspoon of vanilla extract it is delicious (too delicious as my control tights will confirm..) The vase behind the cake is a huge pink and gold one that one of my sons bought me for my last birthday - it looks gorgeous but you have to have a huge bunch of flowers to fill it so it usually languishes on a shelf. I'll post a picture of it where you can see the flowers just because it looks so good and it's a rare event :)