Side Wedding Cakes

These three, six-inch cakes are also destined for the wedding cake table. The reason for their existence is so the bride and groom can cater for specific dietary requirements and have the more 'traditional' fruit wedding cake, which would not have been able to be stacked on top of the red velvet sponge of the main cake.

These cakes consist of:

The traditional, rich fruit cake.

This is the same recipe used for the Rich Fruit Celebration Cake, but smaller. The fruit cake was made well in advance to ensure that it was 'fed' the brandy to make it extra special. The fruit, instead of being soaked overnight in tea or orange juice, was also soaked in brandy.

The groom has also asked that marzipan is used under the top layer of fondant.

I understand that the bride and groom will be keeping this tier for themselves as a celebration cake at a later date.

The Fondant Free Cake:

This cake explains itself. The groom's brother and his best man, who flew home from the States with his wife, absolutely hates fondant. So this cake has been made for his dietary needs.

It is a red velvet sponge with a simple buttercream covering, made to compliment the main cake as far as possible. This cake was made fresh then frozen so it would be safer during the 235 - 250-mile journey from home to the wedding venue. But by using butter and not margarine, the cake should be quite robust.

The Gluten Free Cake

The recipient for this cake is fully aware that, whilst a 'deep clean' of my work area is carried out prior to creating this, 100% gluten-free cannot be guaranteed - the cake may contain a trace.

Having said that, this cake is also a red velvet sponge and decorated to compliment the same cake. The food colours and fondant etc are all certified gluten-free from the manufacturers

Rose Dome Cake Stand Decoration

This, positively amazing piece of craft work, was commissioned by the Groom's Aunt as a gift for the Bride and Groom for their wedding.  Oh how I wish I could claim the credit for this, but, alas, I cannot.  

At the time of publication I did not have the crafter's details, as soon as I do, I will add it here.

This is the whole reason that the handcrafted cake stand is being made.  This is going to live under the main cake, surrounded by ivy and rose petals.

The lights are perfect too and will bring delight, and serve as a beautiful reminder of their wedding day of the happy couple for many years to come

Minecraft Birthday Cake

This Minecraft cake is for my grandson's 10th birthday. He loves Minecraft so, what better way to celebrate entry into the double digit age than this time-consuming masterpiece.

He was the one who named this blog for me too.

It started life as a vanilla sponge and a chocolate sponge, sandwiched with vanilla buttercream.

I trimmed the sides of the cake to make it perfectly square, I used a piece of thin card for this. I then used the same piece of card, trimming it smaller each time, and cut the cake into squares.

When cut, it well have vanilla and chocolate cubes inside.

Once crumb coated and chilled, I did my best with the buttercream, to get the sharp edges, but I's hopeless with square cakes. (Work in progress below)

Each fondant square was hand cut and fixed onto the white fondant under layer.  I have no idea how many there are, and I don't think I'll be counting them.

The decorations were handcrafted some time back. Click here for details on how to make your own Minecraft sword and for how I made the name and numbers, click here

He was away for his birthday, as it was the bank holiday, this is why it's a little later than expected.

Budget Wedding Suggestions

No matter where you live, when and where you are about to be married, your wedding is going to cost! No matter how much you want your dream wedding, perhaps somewhere, you'll want to make some budget savings.

Check out the cost of weddings without a budget here

These are certainly not the only money saving suggestions out there, if you think you have one, an idea, or you did something to save you some money, please feel free to add your suggestion in the comments box below.

I don't know how much either of both my sons weddings cost, but these are a few things that have been, subject to budget, shared out amongst the family and some friends.

My biggest piece of advice for you is, call in the cavalry, call in or ask for favours, beg, dont steal, or borrow, whatever you can.

So, let's have a look at how both my sons saved on their weddings and what suggestions I can make that might be of use to you ...

Outfits:

• For my one son that married first, I made his outfit. He wanted Thai Fisherman Pants / Trousers, a linen shirt and that was all he needed.  I searched online for free patterns and got right on it.
• His wife, my fabulous daughter-in-law, needed the wedding dress, but couldn't find what she wanted. So, she purchased a wonderfully, simple, ivory vest top dress and added lace from the hem (above the knee) to the floor. It made a perfect train and enabled her to repurpose the outfit afterward. This saved her hundreds from her budget.
• As the mother-of-the-groom, I chose a dress I'd be comfortable in and, quite honestly, waited until it was on sale and then blinged it up with a little costume jewellery. My whole outfit has saved me £100's 

The wedding cake:

• My second son to be married, wedding due this month, Crafty Welsh Grandma to the rescue, only this time, I'm being Mum. I'm not a professional cake baker, I just love this as a hobby.
• I've managed to get some practice in with a two tier naked engagement cake for my niece and a three tier, fully decorated cake for my friend - whose wedding was also on a budget. Each of these cakes saved these ladies hundreds of pounds / dollars.
• The current cake I'm working on is five tiers and also includes "side" cakes for dietary needs: fondant free and gluten free, plus a rich fruit, brandy laidened cake. A five tier cake can knock you back anything up to, and maybe more than £800 - £1000. 
• If I include the ingredients, trimmings, boxes, boards etc, I've probably spent about £200. To save further on costs, the top two tiers are dummy cakes. 
• The personalised ribbons have been commissioned from an eBay crafter, the roses on the main cake have been made by a florist, then then other rose decorations have been made up by family members after buying the artificial flowers from a warehouse.
• You can also save on your cake decorations by buying them ready made from either eBay or Etsy.
• If you dont have anyone to bake the cake for you, consider seperate tiers from your local supermarket and then buying cake toppers from crafters.
• The main cake topper was a gift and brought over from America and, another decoration was a gift and commissioned from a crafter on Facebook.
• If you know what you want, you can pretty much find it anywhere.

Cake Stands:

• Cake dummies sprayed and covered in diamante bling roll look very expensive,  it can cost you a fraction of the cost of a shop bought one. An awesome resource for this DIY would have to be YouTube. You'd be surprised what you can find there.
• If you have a very handy friend, call in a favour and see how they can help.

Wedding Invitations:

• Handmade wedding invitations are becoming a 'thing' so, check online and YouTube as there are free templates available if you need help and ideas.

Wedding Place Cards:

• Again, handmade ones are becoming popular, but if you find you don't have the skill or the time, check out some low cost printers or online printing companies - they sometime have special offers on

Button holes, corsages and other flowers:

• Yes, you can get these done at the florist, but save yourself some money and do them yourself. Again, YouTube and the internet have many resources on how to do these. If you do them in plenty of time, why not have a few friends around and make an evening of it.
• Bridal bouquets are also becoming very simplified enabling you do make them for yourself, gone are the days of huge teardrop shape bouquets, in are the rustic bouquets - check them out, the look amazing.

Decoration:

• Organza fabric can be found at very low cost if you want to decorate the chairs at the venue, or hire them as part of the venue package, they might offer that.
• Swags from organza are simple and very effective.
• Sometimes, you can purchase low cost artificial flowers that are already arranged in their own bouquet, use these, add them to some florist oasis and a bowl or vases for some stability.

Photography:

• One of your mates will always be happy to be a photographer, check out the wedding photography etiquette before hand to see if they can help.
• The local college might be running photography classes there, ask them if some of the students can help out. The costs will be slashed and the students will welcome the opportunity .
• For the evening, add a disposable camera to each table, get the guests to take photos and pic the best ones out for your album

 The Car:

• Expensive or what?! But do you know someone who has a really nice car, maybe their 'summer' car or a 'classic' hiding away in the garage for just the right day? Ask them. Many people will be glad to help. Even if you don't know them, pluck up some courage and ask.

The Honeymoon:

• Now I know there are budget holidays everywhere, do your homework and have a look.
• Perhaps you're getting married at the height of summer when holidays cost a million, hold off your honeymoon until later in the year.
• If ever I get married, again, I'm off in my tent for my honeymoon lol

I think I could go one forever with this entry, but I'm going to leave it here and ask you to add your suggestions in the comments box.

If you want an idea, let me know, I just might be able to help suggest something for you.

Cookies and Cupcakes Dripped Cake

This tiny little six inch cakes is packed with goodies and wants the world to see that it's making a huge statement.  

The classic, four layer, vanilla sponge is marbled with purple and contains a 'secret chamber' packed with Crispy M&M's. 

Outside, it's fondant free, just the classic vanilla frosting with some colour 'dabs' blended in during the smoothing out process. Over the top was drizzled brilliant white candy melts and allowed to drip down the sides very 'organically'

To decorate, I have used:

• Homemade mini cupcakes
• Kinder Bueno
• Mini chocolate covered cookies
• Mini chocolate chip cookies
• Mini double chocolate chip cookies and
• Crispy M&M's 

And to top it off, a laser-cut purple glittered 'happy birthday' pick.

I hope the recipient likes it, I think it's rather awesome looking and I know it's going to taste goooood!

Business Cupcakes #2

This a the second batch of business cupcakes I made for delivery today.  

These ones, also for a local business, are scrummy vanilla once again. Vanilla because, well, it's always a good place to start. Topped off with the company logo, made from rice paper and printed with edible ink, which nestled perfectly in the middle of the vanilla frosting swirl. 

The rice paper topper was purchased from an company that specialises in personalised printed cupcake toppers, but these ones were cut to shape as I felt there was too much white on the paper disk.

In addition to the white frosting, you will notice a generous hint of blue and a dash of yellow, although, this does not show up so well in the photo.

Business Cupcakes #1

These cupcakes were made for a local business.  

They are yummy vanilla cupcakes with complimenting vanilla frosting and topped off with part of the business's logo and colours to match their vehicle livery.

The toppers are rice paper disks and printed with edible inks.  These can be found on eBay when searching for 'personalised cupcake toppers.'