Wedding cake tasting - Cupcakes and Afternoon Tea

This year I am making the wedding cake of a friend I used to work with. Their theme is bright and colourful, and they have asked me to use classic 100's and 1000's on their cake to fit in with this. Two tiers will be completely covered in buttercream with the 100's and 1000's attached, and the other two will be covered in white fondant with circles of fondant with 100's and 1000's. They are having a different flavour for each of the four tiers so I wanted to have a tasting for them to show them what the decoration would look like and also to check they were happy with the flavours.

I started by making the fondant circles, leaving enough time for them to dry. I made different sizes so we could see how the sizes would differ when they were covered with the decorations.

I then covered each circle with a layer of edible glue...

...and pressed them gently into a plate of 100's and 1000's.

This is the result of one dip and as you can see they look a little thin. It worked well on the smaller circles, but with the larger ones I found a better way was to place the disc with the glue upwards and pour the 100's and 1000's over the top, pressing them down as I went.

I wasn't sure the glue was going to hold them on, however when I checked they were holding firm! There were a few that had escaped (mainly all over the kitchen floor when I was trying to decorate them) but I think that's just their prerogative!

As well as the circles I also wanted to emulate the buttercream tiers, so I used the carrot cake cupcakes that had risen well to be my guinea pigs.

I covered the domes with a layer of butter cream...

...smoothed it a little...

...and then dunked the cake straight into the plate of 100's and 1000's, moving it around to the edges so I made sure all of the butter cream was covered.

These stuck in a much thicker layer than the edible glue, and actually felt fairly sturdy.

Once they were dry I tried shaking the cakes to see if they would all fall off, however to my surprise again they all stuck firm! I imaging in transport I may loose a few, however with that many, I'm hoping the effect will still be lovely.

Lemon drizzle on the left and vanilla on the right. I hate it when cupcake cases fold in on themselves, grrr!

Vanilla buttercream was piped on to all of the cupcakes to prevent a transfer of flavour. When the cake is stacked all of the flavours are so unique I don't want them to merge into one. We decided that vanilla butter cream was the best way to do this and to keep a consistent look across everything.

I filled the Victoria sponge cakes with strawberry jam before replacing the top and piping over it.

I then added three fondant decorations to the Victoria sponge cakes...

...a medium disc to the coffee and walnut...

...and a large disc to the lemon drizzle.

All together they looked really pretty, but I still had to label them to make sure that I remembered what was what.

To make the cake tasting extra special I put on a little afternoon tea spread on our coffee table with a nice flowery tablecloth and baked some sultana scones as well. You really can't beat a freshly baked scone, and it was lovely to have them as a tasty extra for the cake tasting as well.

We went through all of the details of the sketches that I had done previously and checked that they were happy with all of the flavours. We confirmed the cake topper and I was delighted to hear that the only amends they wanted to make was to change the carrot cake for the largest tier as they liked it so much and more coffee in the coffee and walnut cake. I'm feeling a lot more confident about the design now I have practiced some of the elements, and I'm looking forward to the first week in May when I can get started!

Wedding table centrepieces - Vases and Candlesticks

The little bits of any project are often the most fun, and to give ourselves a bit of a break from the big scary and expensive bits of wedding planning, we decided to look at table centrepieces. Originally we wanted to go with tall candelabras with floral decorations, but when we costed them up with the flowers and took into account the height of them, we decided to style the tables ourselves.

Our first purchases were four candlesticks from Marks and Spencer in their sale. They are the copper / rose gold coloured and clear glass candlesticks to hold pillar candles. We then went on a raid of the charity shops in Olney and found some fantastic bits. 

The lilac-tinged glass candlesticks were £3.00 for the pair in the Willen Hospice shop!

The cut glass vase was also £3.00 from the Willen Hospice shop.

This pair of silver candlesticks were found in the Mercy in Action shop. They've got lovely detailing around the bottom and a lovely elegant shape.

We then went for a wander around the Olney Antiques centre, and found a huge range of beautiful antiques that would have looked amazing on the tables, but would have blown the budget completely! Instead we found a C1880 Flower / Celery vase (Who had to choose between flowers and celery to display!) for £16.00 and two lovely spotted mirror pillar candle holders for £10.00 for the pair! I was so please with our little haul, and packed them up to take to my parents to store in their roof.

Whilst we were up in the roof we rummaged through all the heirlooms and collections that mum and dad have accumulated over the years, we found all of the vases for the tables and more candle holders! This gorgeous cut glass cake stand will be the perfect setting for a collection of different sized and coloured pillar candles.

A collection of small vases will be perfect for smaller flower arrangements and will look lovely with tables with more candles on. 

One of the vases was given to my parents as a wedding present on their wedding day and is engraved with their names and the date of their wedding which is a lovely personal touch.

Mum and dad used to use these candlesticks in the lounge, and I love the art deco details. They're a little different from the other pieces we have found, but really like the eclectic mix-match of styles. The little glass sugar shaker is just a pretty decorative touch that will add a little sparkle to one of the tables.

This lovely little bowl is just that, it will look great filled with flowers and the lid can be set to one side for added decoration.

Waddesdon Wedding Inspiration Day

A couple of weekends ago, my mum, maid of honour Holly and I went to the Wedding Inspiration Day at Waddesdon Dairy and The Five Arrows Hotel. It was our first outing to wedding plan just the three of us and I was really looking forward to going. Waddesdon is a gorgeous venue, and to experience it looking lovely for a fair was fantastic.

The Wintergreen was a long space, part conservatory part orangery with stone urns and lots of natural light. 

The table settings were one of my favourite parts and they gave me so many ideas of colours, textures and flowers. There was a whole mix of suppliers who had contributed which was great, as it gave you the chance to experience what each of them could do. I loved the decorative charger plates and coloured glassware.

Although it was a chilly day, the Pavilion was set up for a civil ceremony. The Dairy looked out over a lovely tranquil lake with ducks and swans swimming past and modern sculpture nestled in the trees. I loved the use of the foliage covered hoops for decoration and the draped wicker heart at the top of the aisle.

I also got to see the designs of Harriet Wilde up close and in person. I have loved her designs ever since I discovered them on Pinterest, so it was great to see the shoes up close and in person. The floral metal detail was as intricate as I had imagined and just as pretty. She also had some other styles to show and it was great to see what else was available. 

Outside in the drinks and canapé marquee the styling continued and tall poser tables were made out of old trunks and suitcases with vintage luggage labels.

Their chalkboards to direct you around the various sites were great for inspiration for different typography styles, designs and wording to use for our own signs, and made me think that I better start practicing! It's not until you see a really good chalkboard that you realise what a skill it is.

Rose gold has been a huge trend in jewellery, but on this table display it had spread to the cutlery. It doesn't particularly show up well on my photos but the pink-hued metal against the green and cream was lovely. 

Xander and Thea - http://xanderandthea.com had a beautiful display in the Wintergarden with a beautifully styled table with tips on what to ask your photographer. Their shots were beautiful and the colours worked so well together. I love the muted and vintage shades and how everyone looked so relaxed. This is exactly the kind of style I want to emulate in our photographs of our big day. Their website is so lovely and contains some gorgeous sample shots of beautiful couples.

White Cottage Weddings - https://www.whitecottageweddings.com had a lovely stand showcasing a handful of their designs that they can create. They were giving out packs of samples with lots of original and unusual ideas and all of them were so inspirational, for their designs, wording, paper stock or layout. They have given me lots of ideas of what to include on our invitations to make them quirky, personal and unusual. Plus their website is beautiful and I love the bespoke map section that they provide!

These information cards were left dotted around the decorated tables with the information of those who had contributed. It was great to see so many companies working together to show what they could do not just on their own but collaboratively to produce a beautiful outcome.

The links to their website are below;

The Bespoke Wedding Company - http://thebespokeweddingco.com

Elite Hire - http://www.elitehire.co.uk

Duchess and Butler (I love their logo!) - http://duchessandbutler.com

Signature Flowers - https://www.signature-flowers.co.uk

On Cloud Nine Stationary (Absolutely love their map designs and the 'Save the Date' paper aeroplane!) - http://www.oncloudnine.org.uk

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Make do and Mend - Navy blazer update

This weekend I have been working on a 'Make do and Mend' project on my navy blazer. It was looking a little sorry for itself with buttons hanging off and a couple missing. I wanted to give it a facelift and one of the quickest and easiest ways to do this with any garment is to update the buttons.

I wanted to keep the military theme of the blazer so after a quick search on eBay I found these lovely gold buttons with a raised coat of arms design in exactly the right size for the front and for the sleeves.

I gathered my sewing kit together and made a start!

First of all I used a stitch ripper to carefully and neatly remove the old buttons from the jacket. Always make sure you are cutting just through the threads holding the button on, and never through the actual fabric! This will make a quick update into an much more laborious and difficult task if you have to stop and darn a hole.

To mark the exact location of each button after I had removed it I added a tailors tack in white thread so I could see exactly where the new button should be positioned. You can generally see where they have been from the previous sewing holes, but I wanted to make extra sure!

Once all 12 button positions had been marked, I started to sew them on using the matching thread. These buttons had shanks on the back, which make them a little more fiddly than flat buttons, but they are well worth it to create a great look. If your button has a design, like the coat of arms, make sure that you are very careful to get it the right way up and try and line them all up in the same direction. If they all display in different directions it will look cheap and rushed, so make sure that you take your time.

My finished jacket looks so much smarter and the decorative gold buttons are the perfect finishing touch, even making it look a little more expensive! They were slightly heavier than the old buttons so give a lovely weight to the garment. I have an event coming up in a few weeks time that I can't wait to wear this for, and give my updated and refreshed jacket a spin!

Crafters bunting and a February treat!

After a couple of weeks away from the blog, I have been catching up on some of my existing projects. I have now finished two sets of my crafters bunting with sewing themed fabric, and here it is all ready and complete. I think this would look lovely in a study or a craft to provide inspiration and decoration when needed.

During the course of making this I realised that my ironing board cover was looking a little worse for wear. It was stained in places from leaky irons and had been used so much that there were holes in the cover! More from crafting I hasten to add than from actually ironing clothes!

So I treated myself to a lovely Cath Kidston patterned one and doesn't it look snazzy! Sometimes you need a little inspiration to help you through an ironing mountain, and I think this will be the perfect pick-me up. Plus it looks so much better in my craft room / the spare bedroom so I won't be ashamed to have to leave it out when we have people over to stay!