Some of our favourite things

Crikey! It's really been 4 months since we last blogged? Tut tut tut. You'll be pleased to know, however, it's because we have been busy making cakes!

September brings the Autumn and our first wedding fair. It's a local fair at a gorgeous golf club called Stapleford Abbots Golf Club in Essex. It's suitable for intimate weddings in a local and beautiful spot. We are starting here as it is a venue we know, it's local and should generate some interest for Brides.

So, planning...It's hard to know what kind of displays to put up and what will have the maximum impact. Anyone that know us know's we love a bit of bunting and in particular flags for cupcakes. As big fans of Etsy we came across the gorgeous Vintage Twee and we are a little bit in love. We are planning a shakespeare themed cake, which harks back to our previous life of treading the baords. Weve ordered some of Vintage Twees love quotes

Weve also added some complimentary 'I DO' flags. We cant wait to add them to cupcakes and adorn them in rich and decadant flowers. Decadent is certainly the vibe Im getting from this cake. Vintage Twee handmake all of their products so there is a turnaround, but a quick one! 7 days is all. I can hardly wait.

All in a rich purple which is the main colour theme for the cake. Im excited to be designing it and bringing it to life and will share with you the finished product. For now, whilst we are busy preparing for the wedding fair, why dont you pop over to Vintage Twee. They have a facebook page too...

It's Fete Time

We love summer and we love bunting. These two combined can only mean one thing...it's FETE TIME! The La De Dah Cakery is going to be exhibiting at a number of summer fetes in the weeks to come. Knowing what kind of cupcakes to make (flavours, colours, styles) and of course how much of it is the main question.

As we like all things pretty we have scoured the internet for inspiration and ideas. As big blogger fans also, cake blogs are where we go first. One of our favourite and inspiring blogs is Glorious Treats It's a great blog for gorgeous treats and party styling.

We came across a really beautiful and very easy tutorial for some Hydrangea cupcakes. Now, Hydrangeas are our absolute favourite flower. There were at our wedding, they are in our house and we have even tried growing them (we are hoping the cupcakes turn out better than our attempt to grow them!). We love the variety of colours they come in and their cloudlike fluffy petals. In particular we love the two tone blooms and then, we came across this on Glorious treats blog

An easy 4 step guide to making hydrangea cupcakes

Obviously the styling adds the impact and the photography is gorgeous but I think you'll agree these cupcakes are totally darling. Gorgeous treats offered a wonderful tutorial on how to make these.

We just hope we can do them justice and that our customers appreciate them...and buy them of course over the summer.

It's been a very busy time in the La De Dah kitchen of late. Some memorable events and commissions, which will follow in future blogs, and of course our glamping trip with Mr C and the baby C's.

Most notably is our website going live. We have been using facebook which has, and continues to be a great tool for us and an exhibition place for our most recent creations. We do need a website and we are pleased to say that we are live and kicking here We are very pleased with it, and hope it will develop and grow as the business does the same.

So, we said we had been glamping. We spent a week at Jolly Days in North Yorkshire. We were blessed with dry, and at times sunny weather so it wasnt a chore at all to spend a week in the great outdoors. Ok, so it was glamping. We had hot running water by means of tap and shower in the tent. Yes, in the tent. We slept in a four poster bed and had a rather lovely styled interior to make us feel like we were at home. Overall it was splendid.

Yorkshire was gorgeous and our second trip in as many months has affirmed our love affair with the county. We are in love. Fact. It is such a beautiful place and there is so much to do that we feel another trip coming on later in the year. We just cant get enough of the place. It helped us indulge in our passion for cake too. The whole vacation was cake themed, but not intentionally. Cake is like a homing beacon. We are drawn to it and hunt it out in all of its guises wherever it may be. So, there was Bettys tea rooms, with a rather long que and a newly discovered bespoke cupcake company who have a tea room in Harrogate. Oddly, wasnt inticed by either. 30min wait in the rain for Betty's and nothing in the window to convince me it was worth waiting for and then no display at all for the bespoke cupcake company. No effort so we didnt make the effort to stay. Shame, we really like their web site.

We did eat an unhealthy amount of cake at the camp site. Some cake was made to take with us. Some recipes from the  Camping Cook Book book assured us that our Breton Cake would last a good few days. It was delish and didnt make it past the M25!

 Luckily, in the reception tent at camp there was daily cake. Never ascertained if it was homemade or sourced locally. Either way it was scrummy and we frequented the reception tent...well, a lot! The vintage china it was served with was just a beautiful bonus.

We are full of cake but now back to work, in our kitchen. 

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!

All in aid of charity

With the British weather at it's peek, the charity cake sale I held on Saturday couldnt have been better planned. With a little bit of bunting, an event tent, a tea urn and plenty of cake, my garden was transformed for friends, family and neighbours to descend and help raise some money.
For those that know me well, I have been training for the 2011 London Marathon. My chosen charity is MACS www.macs.org.uk A very worthy charity for blind, and partially sighted children. Unfortunately, due to injury it looks like I will need to defer my entry until next year, but Im still very keen to raise money for this little and unheard of charity.
So, cake is where it's at. It's what I do and I know everyone loves cake so a cake sale was the perfect opportunity to raise sponsorship. Shamelessly it was also a good opportunity to spread the La De Dah word. Not many of my neighbours knew I had ventured into the world of cake and it was also an opportunity for friends and family to sample some of my cupcakes.
I made other types of cake too, including a gorgeous Lemon & Thyme Cake by Nigel Slater which I adore and went down well too.
The day was lovely. People trickled in, a lot of people took cake away, and with the help of a lovely donation of Patisserie boxes from my local Waitrose they were able to do so. Some people stayed, enjoyed the sunshine and had tea and cake. Those that brought their children were able to stay and play. Overall it was a splendid afternoon.

Cake sales raised £500! A little more fundraising will bring in a bit more taking the overall total to £700. Not a bad afternoons work. 100% of the profit will be going to MACS. I didnt make a bean but feel much better that all the hard work will be going to such a worthy charity.