Mr & Mrs Whitaker

What an absolute pleasure to make the wedding cupcakes for Simon & Eve Whitaker for their wedding on 27th December at Matfen Hall.

Eve was such an organised bride and knew exactly what she wanted which made it very easy for me to design.

This was the first time I've used cupcake wrappers and I must say they did look amazing.

Congratulations to you both X

Christmas Cupcakes

With the growth of my business 'marketing geni' and my husbands business 'geni' this year we had a fair few Christmas gifts to deliver and what better way than homemade cupcakes.



After last years Christmas trees I wanted to make something a little different so opted chocolate and cinnamon cupcakes topped with holly, berries and a log, and vanilla topped with red stars.

Logo Mince Pies??

I had a festive enquiry from Christian Cerisola, MD of Quay 2 Media in North Shields.... "Heather, we've seen your logo cupcakes....do you think you can make us 240 logo mince pies"





Well never a one to turn down a challenge off I went on my mission to make the best mince pies topped with soft white fondant and the logo of Quay2, placed in beautiful silver boxes and wrapped with ice blue ribbon. They were gorgeous and very well recieved by their clients :)

National Cupcake Week

2 weeks ago I ran a 'twitter competition' for National Cupcake Week. Entrants had to tell me why their workplace should win a 'yummy box of 12 logo cakes'. The response was fantastic but their could only be one winner....hmmm not quite there were two who recieved their boxes on Friday.

The first box went to @callagentsuk - a business set up after being made redundant from CJ Garland & Co. Rachel & the team thoroughly deserved their box of cakes after enduring months of hardwork to get their business up and running. Well done x



The second box (pictured above) went to @codoherty who applied on behalf of The Sick Childrens Trust in Newcastle. I had the great pleasure of personally delivering Carolines cakes and meeting the fantastic team at Crawford House. What amazing place and an amazing charity. Enjoy x

Logo Cakes

Logo cupcakes have been so popular recently. I love to make them and the companies I've made them for have always had fantastic feedback.

Here are some I made recently for Exel Elevator based in Sunderland

Weddings

I've had the pleasure of making the cupcakes for a couple of weddings recently. The pressure of making something quite perfect for somebodies special day is quite stressful, but being part of such an occasion can be emotional - especially if you an old romantic like me!

The picture here is from a wedding last weekend and my first 7 tier tower. The wedding was at Kirkley Hall in Ponteland. The brides theme was white and purple and the room looked simply stunning as the colour co-ordination was down to absolute perfection.

The pressure of setting them up (and not dropping them) far outweighed the end result, which for a perfectionist like me I was pleased to say I was very happy with.

Vanilla Extract

I'd been using Supercooks vanilla extract for ages and recently changed to the Nielsen-Massey brand. What a difference!

As soon as you open the bottle the smell is so much stronger and the vanilla aroma from the baked cakes and icing is amazing! At the weekend I made 150 cupcakes for a wedding and the next morning before delivery, the house wash awash with the most amazing Vanilla smell.

It is more expensive than Supercooks but I would definitely recommend it.

Baby Girl Cupcakes

One of my lovely friends Jayne has just had a little baby girl called Gracie. I'll have to wait a while for a baby cuddle as they live in Kent. Fortunately Jayne's mum lives locally so she was able to take these off my hands to deliver in person for me as she's off on a road trip to meet her 5th granddaughter. Lets hope they don't get eaten before reaching the South of England!

The baby decorations are so easy to make. I bought the mould from Design a Cake (one of my favourite cake shops) in Washington. Take same amounts of sugar paste and flower paste and kneed together. Add a little bit of colouring and kneed till all blended in. Take a pea sized amount and push in to the mould. Leave over night and gently pop them out. Brush over with lustre dust to give them a lovely shimmer. Voila!

And now I've received news my good friend Lucy has just given birth to a gorgeous little boy called Daniel.....better get making some blue decorations then.

Cupcakes for Wear Red To Work Day - British Heart Foundation

I can't believe I've not blogged since December, what a disgrace! I can only 'blame' it on my real work...we have been so busy with our business GENI and the launch of our new business marketing-geni that 'cupcake blogging' came bottom of the list :-(

What gives me great pleasure is when I'm asked to make cupcakes for charity fundraisers. These gorgeous red heart cupcakes shown in the picture was for a 'Wear Red to Work Day' held in March for British Heart Foundation.....the cupcakes were sold out in 1 hour! Another charity box was made for a raffle prize for an amazing charity, FACT - Fighting All Cancers Together and then my most recent batch and so close to my heart, for my grandma's nursing home fundraiser.

Promise to blog more next month :-)

Heather