Cake Making & Baking Group

[Emmy1987]

This is the topper I made this morning for Daisy's birthday cake -

The party stuff I want to match it to -
https://www.wishuponaparty.com/store/images/WUAPImages/SweetAtOneGirlTopPic2.jpg

The topper -
https://i948.photobucket.com/albums/ad323/Tiggylou/Untitled-3.jpg

 

[lambchops]

Thanks Jo.

I am sooooo annoyed!!!! As I may have said before, I just make cakes for a hobby, for family/friends/friends of friends etc and I charge to cover my costs/most of my costs, so not much at all.

A friend of my husband wants me to make a cake for his daughters communion and wants a chcolate cake to feed 30 people and 40 cupcakes. They only have 35-40 guests, so I am quoting for an 8" cake (as my choc cake is a truffle torte, very deep and rich, so that will do 30 portions) filled and coated with ganache and then covered in sugarpaste and then the cupcakes, which will be a mixture of swirls and fodant on top with little toppers. Plus a home made stand made from cake drums/dummies.

I really want to make this cake and my husband mentioned the chap is tight so I said just tell him it will be £40, which will cover most of my costs and my husband said 'well he won't pay that'.

I've said if he won't pay that then he can try and find it cheaper somewhere else. Grr, some people are sooooo annoying, especially when it's my husband who can see how much work goes into things!!!!

Sorry, rant over...

£40 for the cake and the cupcakes?! you're mad!!!

I only just found this section, I LOVE baking and i regularly make cakes and cupcakes for all different occasions in my spare time. For a normal person I charge at least £1 per cupcake. so you're talking £40 for the cupcakes alone! If he wont pay it, do what ive now learnt to do (after spending months grafting hard over hard cakes for not even breaking even for fear of upsetting people charging the right price) say, 'well fine, if you think its too much then its probably best if you have a shop around and see how much it will be for someone else to do.' They'll either end up with 6 for a quid from the shop, lookin rubbish and not tasting as great, or go to a cake shop and die of shock when the cake shop wants to charge upwards of £1.50 per cupcake, and the rest. The nights ive spent crying over a cake going wrong or trying to make it look fab for not even one penny, it makes you angry in the end. Always remember Cheap cake is not good cake, Good cake is not cheap!!

 

[midori1999]

Laura, that is brilliant, I love the cupcakes. By coincidence I ended up doing some car cupcakes also for a second birthday for yesterday!

Emmy, the Zebra topper is fantastic and will be perfect on the cake, it matches brilliantly!

Lambchops, the way I see it is I only make for family, friends and friends of friends. I am not a business and this is my hobby. any other hobby (eg. horseriding/owning horses) would be costing me money and also taking a huge amount of my time. This way I get to cover my costs, make lots of cakes and my friends get nice cakes to eat! If I ever do it as a business then obviously my pricing will change accordingly, but at the moment I am not worried about that.

Here are my recent ones:

https://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e201/midori1999/cc1e1cec.jpg

https://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e201/midori1999/f409fd70.jpg

https://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e201/midori1999/8c2a927f.jpg

 

[Emmy1987]

^^They're brilliant! How do you cover your cakes so smoothly?!

 

[midori1999]

^^They're brilliant! How do you cover your cakes so smoothly?!

Thankyou.

I think I'm terrible at getting a good finish on cakes though... al I can see when I look at them are lumps and bumps!

 

[Reedy]

Laura - those cakes are fab, bet he loved them x
Emmy the zebra is amazing well done x
Morri - OMG I want that twilight cake its ace x

I really really need to start baking again - pregnancy sickness & the heat has kept me out of the kitchen x

 

[lambchops]

Lambchops, the way I see it is I only make for family, friends and friends of friends. I am not a business and this is my hobby. any other hobby (eg. horseriding/owning horses) would be costing me money and also taking a huge amount of my time. This way I get to cover my costs, make lots of cakes and my friends get nice cakes to eat! If I ever do it as a business then obviously my pricing will change accordingly, but at the moment I am not worried about that.

Aw im sorry, i thought you did it as a lil money makin hobby too, yeah deffo cover your costs, an they arent cheap are they once youve spent on all boards boxes, ribbons etc, it doesnt half add up doesnt it!
Your new cakes look fab, lovin the car cupcakes!!

I'll add 2 pics of my last 2 big cakes i did, one for a friend from schools wedding, she had a mocha theme going on and wanted that and pearls to tie into the cake design so presses into the swirls if you can see them are some Ivory pearls, and the second one a christening cake for my friends niece xxx

 

[midori1999]

Now they are neat cakes! They are beautiful!

I'm still learning, I see something wrong in every cake I do and it irritates the crap out of me... I am thinking of doing it as a business one day and obviously if I do I'll price accordingly.

Heard of a localish cake business today and looked at their website and they are charging £18 for an 8" decorated sponge and £40 for an 8" decorated fruitcake. Don't know what they taste like, but their cakes look of a decent standard coverings wise. That is madness! I'm assuming that theya re doing it to attract custom as there weren't that many cakes on their site, but surely that then creates problems when putting prices up, which is inevitable.

 

[lambchops]

Now they are neat cakes! They are beautiful!

I'm still learning, I see something wrong in every cake I do and it irritates the crap out of me... I am thinking of doing it as a business one day and obviously if I do I'll price accordingly.

Heard of a localish cake business today and looked at their website and they are charging £18 for an 8" decorated sponge and £40 for an 8" decorated fruitcake. Don't know what they taste like, but their cakes look of a decent standard coverings wise. That is madness! I'm assuming that theya re doing it to attract custom as there weren't that many cakes on their site, but surely that then creates problems when putting prices up, which is inevitable.

I still do something wrong on every cake I do, ive just got better at covering up the mistakes haha, a little swirl on a fold of icing, a nice ribbon or a piped something or other works wonders! I sit for hours watching people on YouTube, sounds sad but you pick up some great little tips and hints for all kinds of bits on there!

£18 for and 8 inch decorated for a shop is really cheap! Some sites i look at im like HOW MUCH?! The cake I did for the wedding, I did with a cupcake stand aswell for later on with 30 cupcakes on and i charged £120 for the lot with the stand, and that included me going to the venue setting it all up and decorating the cupcake table. I seen a pretty identical wedding cake minus the pearls in a cake shop in Liverpool in the window for £450! Obviously these people have overheads and reputations and so much experience to do them but some prices are so high, now I know how much it costs i think im going to end up doing my own wedding, christening, babyshower cakes!

 

[Laura2919]

Lambchops! Amazing cakes Gorgeous huns..

Midori, great as ever.

Emmy, well done it looks so sweet.. Just shows what some time in the kitchen can achieve.

 

[Emmy1987]

Lambchops they're lovely!

Got to go pick up a cakey delivery at the PO today, missed the delivery yesterday but I've finally treated myself to some Tappits! Forgot what else I ordered lol

 

[Reedy]

Girls I need your help x I have told my neice I will make her some cupcakes for her birthday (a week saturday) & she wants a moshie monsters theme anyone done them before or any tips?? I have no idea lol x

 

[tannembaum]

I only seem to come on here once a year
But I wanted to share the toppers I just finished for DD1's 2nd birthday cake next week. I am SO pleased with them, I keep going in the kitchen to look at them lol

This is just after I had finished them so they still had a lot of corn flour on them but its all gone now

 

[Laura2919]

They are cute!!

I haven't done them before but I am sure you can get a mould or something on Ebay! lol Ebay is fantastic

 

[Laura2919]

Oh and ladies, Sainsbury's have icing sugar, caster sugar, flour and some Baking Mad books on 3 for 2!

 

[lambchops]

Has anyone made any In the Night Garden toppers before? Ive got a cake in 3 weeks to do and she wants them on it, im not down with the kids yet haha theyre still cookin so ive only just been able to google them to look, am i gonna have my work cut out do you think, im not usually one for toppers i try to avoid them!

 

[KiansMummy]

Wow the cakes on here are fantastic!!! I'm a complete newbie to baking haven't done it Since i was at school, but I'm hoping to get into it, has anybody got a simple recipe for making around 12 cupcakes, and how do I get that swirly icing on the top? Thanks c

 

[Laura2919]

You need a piping bag and a wilton 1m nozzle.

My recipe is:

8oz butter
8oz caster sugar
8oz self raising flour
4 eggs
--------------------
For the topping:

1 block of butter (Lurpak 8oz)
16oz Icing sugar

 

[CarlyP]

Hi everyone,

What is the difference between butter cream and frosting?

I went to our local village hall on Saturday for Jubilee, and this lady was selling cupcakes, they were very fancy and my son wanted one, so of course I had to test it Her icing was amazing, my icing never tastes like that, it was thick and very creamy.

I was quite jealous ha!

OH told me to ask her how she made it but I didn't dare.

So was just wondering if it was butter cream or could it be frosting or are they the same thing?

Also any tips on how to make yummy butter cream x

 

[midori1999]

My name is Kirstie and I am addicted to buying cakey things... I got told off by my husband yesterday for spending too much on cake stuff online, but I needed it of course....

I have been inspired by Emmy and order the Tappits Funky letters. How are you getting on with yours? I have the mens accessories set and found them easy, so hopefully the letters will be too.

Laura, your cupcakes must be HUGE! I must be stingy...

For 12 cupcakes I use either a 2 or 3 egg mix depending on how domed or flat they want to be. So, either:

2 eggs and 4oz each of stork, (block stork!) self raising flour and sugar, plus a dash of vanilla, or 3 eggs and 6 oz each of stork, SR flour and sugar, plus vanilla. Bake at around 170C for 15-20 mins.

CarlyP, buttercream is a type of frosting, but not all frosting is buttercream.

I use the same buttercream recipe as Laura above, any butter though, not lurpack, but sometimes add a bit more icing sugar. I also add vanilla extract and it's really important to get a good quality vanilla, otherwsie it can be very bitter/synthetic tasting. Neilson massey is a good brand.

You can get all different typs of frosting though.