After a decade of baking I can assure you that not all fruit, sponge and chocolate cake recipes are all the same. Speaking from experience I does take time to find the right recipe… So get practicing, I am sure that there will be plenty of family and friends to help with the taste test!

You also need to line your cake tins correctly, with the right recipe in a lined tin you will have a perfect canvas for your master piece ;o)

If you want to know how to line your tin like a pro, check out my tutorial

 I was a DIY wedding cake bride, having attended a few night classes in previous years, I was determined to make my own cake. This was long before I had even dreamed of doing it as a full time career. I was a retail manager and cake decorating was just a past time. However I did know the basics, how to bake and ice and how to make my choice of wedding flowers. My Nan had introduced me to sugarcraft at a young age, so what I wasn’t sure about I was confident I could quiz her or even rope her in somehow!

I started making my flowers a few weeks before hand, spending most of my evenings making calla lilies. The week of our wedding I booked an extra couple off work days of to give me the time needed to make and decorate my cake. Then the day before it was fitting in finishing it off while trying to do everything else and deliver it to our reception venue.

Don’t get me wrong, I was very proud to have the cake I had made for our special day having so much attention, it took a lot of time and some skill to achieve. Having been making cakes for friends and family before, I already knew which recipes to use. You have to ensure you can comfortably fit it in so it doesn’t become a unnecessary stress. With plenty of time over the months before to practice baking, icing and decorating.

Over the month of May I will be offering you some top tips on making your own wedding cake, including how to avoid the most common of mishaps! Each blog post will have a top tip’s tutorial to guide you in the right direction to becoming a DIY wedding cake bride.

Want to be a DIY bride…. Watch this space, I will share some of the essential secrets with you.

So when it came to choosing my wedding day perfume, it was really tricky. I remember been out shopping with my mum, she is a Channel no 5 lady. That just wasn’t me, we sampled more perfumes than I’d tried on wedding dresses, we should have been high from the fumes!

I knew what I wanted it reflect, my summer wedding, my elegant ‘Hayley J’ dress, my personality. I didn’t want anything too heavy or floral.

Then I found it, who’d have thought finding my right perfume would have been more difficult that finding my perfect dress! Armarni Mainia, well the title wasn’t quite my vision of elegance, but the fragrance….. Gourgeous! Not too heavy but a soft sent that suited me to a T

I still love it 7 years later, although times do change and I must confess that Armani Diamond would be a close contender if I had to do it all again.

What did/will you wear?  

However me being me, I asked for feedback. I always looking to turn a negative into a positive! Also that constructive criticism will help you on life’s learning journey so you will always do better next time! (yes it took me two attempts to pass my driving test, this philosophy has been with me for many years)

After having a chat via SMS with my self employed friend about my week she replied with this:

‘The problem is us self employed people don’t get 1:1 reviews, bonus packages or appraisals. We get a bit down on ourselves as no one is around to motivate us or tell us we are great’

She is so right! As a nation we are so quick to grumble, moan and criticise, myself included…. but having delivered lots training in customer service in my pervious job, I always make sure management know when someone goes out of there way. But what about the rest of us? What about the service we provided, the quality of our product…. how often do we tell each other ‘do you know what, your amazing at what you do!’

After my first 2012 marketing buddy meeting I received an email summerising my goals for the next few months. The first paragraph was about me, what I do, what I am good at… it really made me feel good about myself and my business! I am thinking about cutting it out sticking it to my wall as a reminder for my bad days! Since that meeting I have another new goal for 2012, I want to tell someone every day that they are great at what they do!

So….who will you tell?

Carrie asked me for a Oscar Wilde, Emily Bronte, Lewis Carroll and of course Jane Austin!

Brief as follows: 

 Jane Austin cupcakes

Refined, elegant – of the 19^thcentury/Regency style (high waisted natural style dresses, gloves, masses of curls over the forehead) Have seen some cakes with a wedgwood design or a silhouetter of her head and shoulders. I think the colours need to be quite soft.

I decided the cake needed to be light and elegant flavour….. lemon and poppy seed, then for the decoration well soft pink with a pearlised cameo. She looks beautiful!

Lewis Carroll

Famous for Alice in Wonderland and his nonsense poem ‘The Jabberwocky’. This cupcakes needs to be a little crazy and possibly have a stripy tophat on it?

 Well after a discussion we decided to turn this on its head slightly! It had to be a chocolate cake for starts, then the buttercream well I popped in some different colours, quick spin and ohhh…… very nice, a rainbow of colour! Perfect. We couldn’t stop there though, this needed to be topped with popping candy, edible glitter and a scroll with quotes from the Jabberwocky!

Oscar Wilde

known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversation – he was a well loved personality of his day. He had wonderfully thick and flowing dark hair, wore a cravatte and fur collared coat.

Oscar Wilde, he is a most deffinatly a butterscotch cupcake, a well loved classic flavour! In a black cupcake case topped with black buttercream, and finally, a sprinkle of edible glitter!  

Emily Bronte

Author of Wuthering Heights – a romantic and wildly passionate cupcake, reminiscent of the Yorkshire Moors

Emily, a delicious mocha sponge, which could only be finished with a piped buttercream rose. Then just to finish a little red rose just for a little extra romance!