Amber's 11th birthday cake

I was asked to make a cake for a former colleague's daughter who was about to celebrate her 11th birthday. Tina and I worked together for several years but had sadly lost touch since then. Through the power of Facebook, we have thankfully been chatting and catching up again. It also turns out that both our daughters will start the same senior school in September this year so it looks likely that we won't be losing touch again.

Amber had specific requirements for her cake. It had to be white with bright coloured decoration and just HAD to have a bow! Not one to let a birthday girl down, I rose to the occasion with this two tier vanilla cake.

The top tier was a 6" round and the bottom was an 8" square. The bow was made from fondant, which was rolled very thinly and folded, supported overnight to hold its shape.

Laura's Zebra Cake

Carol is an old work friend of mine going back some 20 years. Laura is her daughter who was celebrating her 16th birthday and wanted a zebra striped chocolate cake with 12 matching cupcakes.

The colours were black and white with a contrasting fuchsia pink, and we all know that a birthday girl's gotta have what a birthday girl wants ;-)

Happy to oblige, this is what I made her. I loved making the zebra cake. I'm on the lookout though for fushcia pink gel paste though now to properly colour my buttercream.

Layla's gymnastic cake

A special request for this cake. It had to be dairy free so that Layla could actually have a piece of her own cake.

Vitalite was used in the sponge and Lactofree spread in the buttercream icing between the cake and the fondant.

Layla's a very keen (and very good) gymnast who practices alongside Tia, which is the other gymnastic cake I made that week. So she just HAD to have a cake to celebrate her achievements in gymnastics.

Her mum told me she loved the cake and was excited to be able to eat a slice as it was specially made dairy free just for her. Every little girl deserves a birthday cake that she can have a slice of, don't you think?

Tia's gymnastic cake

Tia is a fantastic gymnasts and Tia's mum is a friend of an old school friend of mine, (Savannah's mum, hence the recommendation).

This was the first of two gymnastic cakes that were made in the same week but I wanted them to be very different to each other. Not just in colour, but also in general style too.

My first attempt at making fondant people. They do need some practice and further work but you can tell its a human!!!

Hannah's giant make up cupcake

Hannah is the daughter of one of my daughter's teachers. She was just about to turn 17 and has the ambition to become a make up artist; hence the theme of her cake.

The brief included purple and gold as well as being trendy. Mum was pleased with it when she collected it, and Hannah loved it too, which is the reason that I make them; to bring joy to someone on their special day.