Doing it properly

It's been the perfect bank holiday weekend. The sun continues to shine on our beautiful isle and we have been making the most of it by spending time at our friends beach hut in Frinton. Whilst a lot of our time has been spent out doors, attention must be paid to the Blue pop up shop that we are providing High Tea for this week.

The Blue pop up shop is being arranged by some up and coming British designers Lorna Syson & SJ Guest who create the most gorgeous interiors. In honour of the Royal Wedding and the current trend for Blue interiors the ladies are holding a pop up shop in Clerkenwell to showcase their wares. La De Dah Cakery were comissioned to provide cupcakes for the High Tea, and of course the theme is blue!

With our website near completion we thought it would be good to get some professional photography done and who better than to use the utterly fabulous Sussie Bell. We are big fans of Sussie's and today we spent the morning with her whilst she shot some of our cupcakes. Take a look at her page, peek at the gallery and you will see why we love her so much. Being a complete novice photographer I felt it best to leave the design and photo taking in her capable hands but she shot some behind the scenes pictures to show you. Once the images from the shoot arrive we will share them with you.

Whilst with Sussie she told us about the i-phone app  Hipstamatic. When we got home we got it and took our first shot. We think we need more practice but really like the look it provides. It shows us in production.

Inspiration Day

With a few large and complicated orders coming up we have been spending our time looking for items to inspire us. As an avid blog reader I keep coming across pages of inspiration which has been keeping me lovely and busy and filling up the think tank.

I often go the lovely Amy Atlas page. Her designs are so well executed and so beautiful. She has a real flair for detail and she is my design hero. She too often posts items for inspiration. Last year I remember her posting an item about IKEA...yes, IKEA! I wanted to share with you the details.

IKEA have a baking book (who knew!) and anyone who knows me knows I love a baking book. In fact I think I would say I collect them. I cant help it, sometimes I dont even bake anything from them but just look at the photos. I love food photography and the images from the IKEA shoot are incredible. I dont currently own the IKEA bake book but Im on the hunt. Havent seen it for sale in the UK so will search the usual domains to purchase one.

Im love with the deconstructed element of the ingredients and how they are styled is beautiful and so clever. If I ever publish my own baking book ( a dream I might add) I want a section on deconstructed cupcakes. I just knew that couldnt be the only person to have thought of this so off I went googling.

Oh my, I found the most amazing image..The Anatomy of the Cupcake:

When making cupcakes for my up and coming orders Im going to make a deconstructed cupcake art piece. Watch this space.

Spring has arrived

Hasn't the weather just been glorious recently? Our tulips have just flowered in the garden, our vegetable patch is ready to be planted and the temperature has been creeping up and the washing is on the line. There is something so beautiful about spring. The blossom on the trees, the first blooms start arriving and everything seems so fresh and new.

We were recently asked to make some spring like cupcakes for a little girls birthday. We needed to keep them simple but pretty and fresh. We already had some lovely cupcake cases and toppers from the gorgeous Meri Meri A team of British designers who make simple, yet effective cupcake cases as well as party accessories. Sometimes it's not all about the sugarcraft, and sometimes there's a need to keep costs down. With Meri Meri cupcake kits you can get maximum impact for a very simple cupcake.

We loved how the primrose toppers were tied with a gorgeous satin bow. A detail we would of had to make and add ourselves. However, as mentioned, we had these in stock and the client had seen them on a previous cupcake of ours and asked for us to use them. 'With pleasure!'

We made some spring blossom and used the grass nozzle to create a spring meadow. Keeping the buttercream lower would look more grass like but we wanted a meadow effect so kept it a little longer and subsequently giving more buttercream on top of these chocolate cupcakes.

To personalise these already cute cupcakes we made some fondant toppers and embossed them with a floral embosser sheet. We purchased this sheet from the excellent Purple Cupcakes Already making beautiful cupcakes themselves, they have an awesome online shop in which you can purchase the equipment to make cupcakes. The service is impeccable, the stock is great and they are very reasonably priced. Where possible, we only source from them because they are so reliable. 

Pretty cupcakes for a very pretty and lucky little Freya. We love this colour scheme and it, along with the style of cupcake, would be great for mothers day or baby shower. The grass nozzle, which can also be purchased from Purple Cupcakes, is fast becoming one of our favourites. Now looking for an excuse to make more cupcakes with grass!