Cake Commission

Hello lovelies!

I hope you had a fun weekend, and your Monday hasn't been too miserable! 

I mentioned last week I was planning to spend the majority of this weekend in the kitchen baking up a storm, and that's exactly what I did. A friend asked me to bake a Peppa Pig cake for her little boy's second birthday this week, and a batch of assorted cupcakes for the grown-ups.

Just a small selection of the many, many ingredients - including FIVE blocks of butter. Mmmm....

Yesterday morning I baked three huge trays of Victoria sponge, twelve Better Than Sex Chocolate Cupcakes, eight chocolate orange cupcakes and nine of my signature lemon meringue cupcakes. The last two flavours are from Susannah Blake's "Cupcakes"- although I added some Curaçao to the orange cupcakes; they are for the grown-ups, after all. It was a bit like being on Cupcake Wars; except I was wearing a Batman Apron instead of a t-shirt emblazoned with my bakery name. Although, now I think about it, if I started my own cake shop I'd totally call it Batman Bakes. 

The un-iced cakes. Cupcakes (l-r) lemon meringue, better-than-sex chocolate and chocolate orange

Then I started what I thought would be the fun bit- icing them all! Icing the cupcakes was fun, actually, but Peppa Pig... Oh my. There were several points where I was this close to crying. But tears do not solve problems with stupid icing sticking to the stupid counter no matter HOW much icing sugar you sprinkle underneath, nor do they solve ripped icing with jam coming through the holes like Peppa Pig is haemorrhaging to death. 

So, I soldiered on and (finally!) after nine hours of baking and decorating, I was finished. Yes, there is something a little weird and lumpy going on with the bottom of Peppa Pig's dress but, as Tom said, if anyone is looking up her dress they're a pervert and don't deserve cake anyway. He always knows the nicest things to say :p

Shark-infested chocolate orange cupcake. Nom nom nom

They're not quite better than sex, but they do taste like a chocolate brownie and a cupcake made a very delicious baby. Which I think we can all agree would be the best possible result of sex, ever.

Whilst part of me now hates Peppa Pig and everything she stands for, I'm really pleased I got the cake done and looking vaguely like her. And I finally got to use my food colourings in something other than my breakfast. 

I'm actually proudest of the chocolate orange cupcakes, purely from a design perspective, because I came up with the idea of making shark-infested cakes with slices of a Terry's chocolate orange :p I covered the top half of each slice in purple icing, and then attached the fin by stabbing the bottom half of the orange slice straight into the cupcake. 

My original sketch for the shark-infested cupcakes. I ended up making orange-infused chocolate cupcakes for the base instead. 

Have you made any recent commissions (edible or otherwise) you're particularly proud of?

Katie xxx

P.S I'm linking this post up to Lakota's suitably scrummy Ta Dah Tuesday :)