AMorning all. :-)

Hope everyone's ok. Good luck at the doctors tiddy.

There's something wrong with my phone, haven't been able to get on the internet or any of my apps. I thought it was my internet but my mam is using my wifi no problem so it must be my phone. Just popped in to say hello - and goodbye - while my mam is here. :-)

Morning!!!

Well, all the late nights caught up with me.  I fell asleep watching tv late afternoon yesterday and hubby let me sleep for well over 2 hours!  However, that meant that come bed time, I wasn't tired.  So I ended up going to bed at nearly 1.30 this morning!  So I was tired when the alarm went off and just turned it off and went back to sleep! LOL!  When I did get up, I woke up with a really 'fuggy' head...  So no pilates for me this morning!    I'm going to go to the gym later to try and make up for it.  I'm putting off dress shopping for as long as possible, but don't really want to leave it much later than end of October....  Really, really need to get at least another half a stone off.  Prob won't do that by end of Oct, but the party isn't until December, so...

I bet cake makers are the only people who breathe a sigh of relief for Mondays???

Morning Suzanne!  Yep know that feeling - had a late night on Saturday as went out to dinner with friends - didn't get home until nearly 2am.  Then yesterday went out for brekkie to the Toby Carvery (won't be doing that again) and then set to because I had 11 people for a late Sunday lunch.  Got to bed late again but had to get up at 6am for work boo hoo.  I seriously need to lose some weight - toying with going back to SW......  wish I hadn't thrown out all the books now.

Kathy

Kathy - was the breakfast at Toby no good then?  Boys have been asking to go...  Have been to the one (Red House?) by Redbridge Roundabout...  it was OK, nothing to write home about.  Kids eat free which is a bonus, I guess.

Hope you have an easy day at work and can have an early night!!!  x x x

Morning Suzanne :)

I'm with Kathy being nosey, what's the party? Do you have to be very dressed up? :D

Falling asleep in the day is such a pain. Lovely when you're doing it, but then you wake up, feel pants for a bit then are wide awake come bed time! Get some cups of tea into you and you'll feel better :)

My head is still so 'heavy'....  and I can't put my hands on any paracetamol at the moment.  I've not had anything to eat or drink yet, so that's probably not helping.  Ithink a cup of tea and a slice of toast is definitely called for.... and I've just put a huuuuuge pot of veg soup on to cook.

The party is my son's Bar Mitzvah.  The "dress code" is lounge suit and party dress (not black tie) but I'm going to have a full length evening dress like I did for my elder son's.

Kathy - we're having at the Holiday Inn at Newbury Park.  Lovely function suite there!!

AOmg, she is outstanding, aw she's abit good isn't she? On the same level as Emma Jane's cake design, she is just amazing!!!

Suzanne, sounds lovely. Will you make your son a cake? I made a cake in the shape of a house for two sisters joint Bat Mitzvah. They are both fans of Sherlock Holmes series on tv so I recreated Sherlock Holmes' house. 

Full length evening dress- sounds lovely! I've never been to an event where that kind of formal attire was required. Maybe one day :)

Arghhhh! Stairparts are doing my head in! I have no idea what I need, I just know we have to have a banister and we need it as cheap as possible :(

Definitely have a drink Suzanne! Veg soup sounds gorgeous, I could just go for a big bowl of that. 

My hubby's work used to do a Summer Ball which was black tie. It was lovely to dress up for it, but they've cancelled them now due to the tw*ts who work with him behaving disgustingly. One person's husband was paralytic last year and started having a go at one of the company directors, at which point the woman (a manager at one of the branches) waded in. This was shorty after a couple had been removed from reception (honestly, reception!) for, erm, lewd behaviour. Not sure how I can describe it without being gross, but lets just say it's something normal people wouldn't consider appropriate anywhere outside the bedroom! I just can't get my head around why people think it's acceptable to get rat ar*ed at a works do?

Perhaps we should all turn up to CI in ball gowns 

Mia is a bit amazing isn't she?! She's honestly so lovely too though, and her cakes are just as good in the flesh.

I love the sound of the Sherlock Holmes house Jean, have you any photos?

Thanks petitecat.  Yes, but it'll be a fruit cake bottom tier and anything else will be dummies!  I'm not staying up until silly o'clock the night before!!  That reminds me....  I'd better decide what cake he's having and think about baking in the next few weeks!!!  How lovely to have made a house!!  I presume they were twins??  Was there any reason they chose a house cake? 

Matthew (elder son) didn't have a theme for his party.  But Daniel's is going to be themed....  but I'm torn because I'm not sure I want to go all out with a novelty cake.  But it's the perfect opportunity to and might actually look odd if we don't....  decisions, decisions.

This is the cake I made for my elder son - very 'old school', LOL!!  The Hebrew says 'Mazel Tov' which means congratulations!
 

Suzanne - that's a beautiful cake - I love the topper made to look like the headwear - is it a kipa???  (I'm not sure if I'm right so apologies in advance) and the shawl.  I am now in the throes of organising our works Christmas D&D - it's usually a real opportunity to get glammed up - not black tie either.  I am now not sure if I can wear a dress from a previous year as I don't get the chance to wear them at any other time....nobody's going to remember.....are they?

Oh - and belated Happy New Year!  

Kathy

Lizzy, gosh I really don't understand how people can manage to drink so much alcohol that they become so uninhibited. Thankfully I've never ever got to that point! 

Suzanne, no they weren't twins. The eldest girl is my daughter's best friend. The mum put the eldest girl's bat mitzvah on hold due to sickness (the girl got ME) and finances. So they she had a joint bat mitzvah along with her sister. We were discussing the decoration for the cake and when I asked the mum what the girls interests were she said Sherlock Holmes. I started looking at ideas online (ie, Sherlock themed cakes on google LOL) when it just hit me- make the house. No one else seemed to have done Sherlock's house yet as a cake so I thought- well for once I might just be original! The mum loved the idea and kept the design a secret from the girls as a surprise. 

I have shown it  here before (I think) but here it is again:

Suzanne, sorry I'd forgotten to comment on your cake- it is beautiful and I agree with Kathy about the hat. Your work is so clean and neat! Thanks, yes the girls were really happy about the cake. I'm not sure how long it took because I did bits and bobs everytime little one was in school. Lots of prep work that's for sure to get everything to scale, then a lot of RI work- windows, balcony railings and so on. Then gumpaste work too. The roof is a bit wonky and the tiles took ages too! If someone wants this kind of cake I won't be charging less than £150 (I think). 

While we're on the topic of this cake- one of my biggest problems was getting the chimney parts looking sharp/ square. As you can see they are still rounded at the edges. I used everything I had- smoothers, two smoothers, etc but couldn't really figure it out. Any ideas? Just for my reference in future!

Jean - that's a lovely cake you know.  I think you should pitch a lot higher than £150 personally.  I don't think you could get this done in under 20 hours.  I actually quite like the "rounded" edges on the stacks - I feel they look right on the cake as a whole.  You could try RKT if you want a sharper edge maybe......

Ooh Suzanne - you could do an East London Monopoly - you know Leyton, Chigwell, Newbury Park, Stratford - replace some of the more traditional names....sounds exciting and looking forward to seeing the end result.

Kathy

Thanks Kathy, never thought to use RKT for the chimney. I used RKT for the roof though! 

If anyone is interested www.sugaredproductions.com is running a promo- $3 for one month's access, after that $10 a month. Can be cancelled anytime so I assume when the month is up or nearly up you can cancel and then you don't  need to pay for the $10 for the next month. They have tutorials on all sorts. I haven't joined yet, I will do when I know I'll have a lot of time for one month's video viewing! I don't really want to subscribe every month. Not bad for £1.85 eh? The promo code is 3MONTH. 

AHope everything went well at drs tiddy, the donuts look great I made donuts once before and they turned out ok a little burnt but the sugar covered it lol The cakes look fab

Suzanne, I'm sure you'll find inspiration for the cake soon. Maybe, like you said, just pay homage rather than a full blown monopoly cake!

Kathy, yes I can't figure out how long it took. I should have taken note really but its probably better to err on the more rather than less side of time! 

Hi Chezza, not seen you here for a bit!

AThat is fantastic jean, really really brilliant!

Your son's cake is beautiful Suzanne. Again! :-)

I know, it was eww. Thank goodness we only heard about it from my friend!

How about doing a hotel on one of the squares for a monopoly theme? Ooh, you could do it with the chance card that has 'it is your birthday, collect #10 from each player' :-D

Thanks Lizzy! I just read your reply on 'things not to say/ask a baker' thread- what you said!! I've just replied too. 

I've not played monopoly for decades (ahem) and can't really remember how you even play it so I can't help with it Suzanne- I'll leave it to the monopoly experts!!

A

Been unwell

This illusion on this cake is AMAZING!!! If you don't like flashing images, don't watch it!

http://sfglobe.com/?id=14415&src=share_fb_new_14415

petitecat -- wow wow wow "i've officially seen it all" pretty much!

petitecat -- let's put this into focus  -- so say i painstakingly copy that set up -- takes me months right -- so i turn her on for her maiden voyage and i get it going faster and faster and faster and all those dang little things start flying off like so much sweet shrapnel -- omg could you imagine --- ahhahahahahah but still it makes we wanna make one -- but i'm sure i can get over it  

I have something worthy of cake wrecks in the oven (or even the FB page we were discussing at the weekend). It would be hilarious if I didn't have to clean the oven once the cake is done... I've cleary converted the recipe wrong and ended up with too much batter for the cake tin. I'm just hoping I can trim it once it's cooled and still use it to practice the SMBC and ganache.

And I can't do the chocolate pieces either! I've definitely been completely overambitious with this project. Back to the drawing board on the decoration front or time to tell the couple to arrange something else, I think