Pink & Lilac Fairy Cakes

On Saturday I made 20 pink & lilac fairy cakes for a 2nd birthday party. A light vanilla sponge topped with vanilla buttercream and various sprinkles, and of course plenty of glitter.

I was determined to take some nice photos, so here are my favourites:

And as they only wanted 20 cakes I had a few left over for experimenting & play! Where I discovered my new favourite way of piping buttercream:

Making Cookies

I had a go at making cookies for the first time this week. I found this post by Vanilla Bakery and found a recipe online (apologies, can't remember where I found the recipe, so if it is yours feel free to let me know.)

Cookie Recipe

Ingredients
175g Butter
200g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1tsp Vanilla Extract
400g Plain Flour
1tsp Baking Powder
1tsp Salt

Method
1. Cream butter & sugar together with a mixer until pale.
2. Add eggs & vanilla extract, then beat until combined.
3. Sieve the flour, baking powder & salt together then add to butter & egg mixture.
4. Mix gently to form a dough. If it's still a bit sticky, add a bit more flour.
5. Split the dough in half, wrap in clingfilm & put in fridge for 30 mins.
6. Roll the dough to 5mm thick & use cutters to cut out shapes.
7. Bake in oven preheated to Gas Mark 4 for 8-12 minutes until firm & lightly browned.
8. Leave to cool & decorate as required.

Note: I got around 24 cookies out of 1 half of the dough & they took closer to 12 minutes than 8 to cook.

For pictures of my first cookies check out the Cookies album on my Facebook page.

Welcome to my new blog - minirhi bakes!

After a lot of baking, soul searching & being told to get on with it I have finally decided to start selling my cakes. This is really early stages at the moment, so I'll be blogging about the setting up a business process over the next few weeks.

A little bit about me

I have always enjoyed cooking, especially making cakes & deserts. They're always a bit special and I love the reactions you get when you bring out a gorgeous cake or a stunning pudding. They can be a bit naughty or fabulously light. So two years ago I made a cake for a friends birthday. Looking back now it was a bit crap, but they loved it, and it went from there. Last year I found a beginners cake decorating class in Port Talbot, which me and my mum went to. It was great & we were shown how to cover a cake, how to make figures, roses and bunnies. Then we went onto advanced sugarcraft where we made acorns & oak leaves, sweet peas and poinsettias. And I loved it!

In real life I am a marketing/web designer, and spend a lot of time on Twitter. I found myself following lots of cake making people and got jealous of their pictures, their tweets, their job. So when my husband went in for an operation I took a few days off work to look after him & started looking into what I would need to do to start a cake making business in my spare time. I phoned the environmental health people at Swansea Council - who were very helpful - and I have now registered by kitchen as a food business. I know I have stuff to do to make sure it meets with all the rules & regulations (by 1st June), but it's a start. I am meeting with an accountant (who happens to be my uncle) soon for some advice on who else I need to register with & what financial records I need to keep.

I am really excited! Wish me luck!