Thank you nannycook121 and chezzabelle. I baked at 180 and it definitely didnt come above the top of the tin. I did take it out of the tin after just 5mins so maybe i should have left it in longer to settle? im pretty sure i used exactly what was called for in the recipe but maybe i could have been heavy handed with the soda and baking powder but i dont think so.  Thanks so much for replying.

Morning all - and what a beautiful sunny, frosty day here!  Hope it's sunny where you all are too.  Chezza - go and get "Starting a Cake Business from Home" it's not too expensive and Amazon do it.  My daughter got it for me a while ago and it has lots of information and advice - even if you don't take the advice, it's a good starting point.

Lillyanne - haven't a clue what happened but welcome!

Good news Kelsey!  Glad your brother and gf are on the mend.  And another little chubby to cuddle - how lovely.

Maisie - I hope your eye is getting better.

Thanks Roxy - I am just starting to feel better - don't think I coughed last night but I can snore for England apparently!   

Jean - did I miss something?  Party??  I am sure tomorrow will be great.  Unfortunately tomorrow, my husband is having an MRI scan at 22:20h.  Yes - it's not a typo.  We couldn't believe it.  The letter even says that he could wait anything up to 2 hours for his turn!  I rang them up but they said it's correct.  We usually go to bed around 10 - it'll be a hard job staying awake!

Sorry Barbara I must have missed you saying about all your cake orders.  That's the trouble when I check in on my phone - looking forward to seeing the pics.

Now - can anyone recommend a place where I can get a couple of dummies from?  Different shapes would be great.  Tiddy - is that something you might do?  How's your husband now?

Sorry if I've missed anybody out.

Kathy

Kelsey, what lovely news- a new nephew! Congratulations to your brother and his gf. 

Kathy, it's just a small party. We're a bunch of mums who are part of an antenatal group and try to get together with our kids every now and then. foamcutting.co.uk are great for dummies. If I recall correctly, they are also one of the few who supply 4" high ones (if you're interested in those!).

Lillyanne, 180C in a fan assisted oven is too high. I would try 160C. 

ALilianne - I used to make this recipe a lot it used to be my go to chocolate cake recipe and I can honestly say I never had any problems. I always baked it in two separate tins. I would suggest maybe checking your oven temp and lowering it slightly.

Lovely to see you Kuuushi, Happy New Year to you too. Glad your brother and sister in law are ok and congratulations on your new nephew.

Roxy thank you about the cake.

Jean car part has been sent out today so fingers crossed it comes tomorrow. I was thinking about the profiteroles maybe the chocolate sauce that came with them had a bit of caffeine in it. I struggled to sleep last night it was 3am before I finally dropped off, not sure what the problem was, I'm hoping Im able to go to sleep earlier tonight. Hope your party goes well.

Cheryl I second what Kathy says get yourself a cake business book and have a good read of that, I've got a really good one. I really need to push on with promoting and marketing myself more this year.

Kathy hope the MRI goes well and you're not made to wait too long. I think they do late appointments at our local hospital for people who work and to keep up with demand and busy periods but I've never heard of an appointment that late before.

Nanny looking forward to seeing all your lovely cakes.

Jobs today for me are sorting the mountain of chocolate we have received over Christmas and lots of tidying including my cake cupboard which is a tip and all the bedrooms. I need a brew first though and I might have some Christmas cake with it too.

A[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3316718/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

Hoping this picture does it justice, kinda happy with it.

Kathy really hope hubby'S scan goes welive, you could do with some good news.

Congratulations kelsey.

Glad to hear your Bro and girlfriend are better.

Love the meerkats Barbara - not seen that before.  I like the lettering on "simples" - do you know which one it is?

Thanks for the good wishes - it's to do with his hearing. We couldn't believe it.  He has lost 60% hearing in both ears and they want to do the scan to eliminate something sinister. 

I'll check the site Jean, thanks.

Kathy

AHope it goes well then Kathy.

Thank you, apparently the lady in question loves Meerkats and she has bought cakes from me in the pastop, so this is a surprise for her from her friends, she is 75, but doesn't like her age,hence no age on there.

The letters Kathy are the FMM, alphabet cutters, upper and lower case, from Amazon.

Kathy that's a late appointment I know they do them on sundays now but didn't know they did them that late at night. Hope it goes well.

Love the meerkat cake nanny its fab she will love it.

ALove the cake nanny, the meerkats are brilliant and love how it says simples. I have the lower case tappits but haven't used them yet, I've finally managed to get on with the funky tappits so may progress onto them next. Lol.

I have them to but haven't tried them, I didn't get on with the script ones but got some tips off the lovely ladies here so will have to try again.

AHope you and your hubby don't have to hang around to long and that all is well.

Nanny great cake meerkats look good.

Kelsey cro grants to your family , it's lovely having a new baby in the family isn't it?

thanks to all who liked my Nashville cake, very kind of you all.

Kathy, 10pm...!! Crikey that's a late appointment! Hopefully nothing serious is wrong. do keep us posted x

AHello :-)

Glad to see everyone had a good Christmas, ours was lovely although dad wasn't great.

Maisie, poor you! I hope your eye clears up on the double, and that your sil makes her mind up! Honestly, if she was a customer she'd be paying me for all the late changes she's made!

Your meerkat cake is brilliant nanny, another cracker!

Happy belated birthday Jean! I had the same with the cake frame, ordered one and got two - bonus! :-D

Good luck at the hospital Kathy. I wouldn't fret about the time of your appt, my friend had one for her back at 7am on a Sunday. There wasn't a soul in sight when she got there!

Lillianne, if you take the cake or after only 5 mins it's highly likely to collapse, I reckon that is your problem. It needs to cool enough that the internal structure will hold, and that takes more than 5 mins. I often leave mine in the tin to cool, or if I take them out while warm I'll have left them at least 30 mins to cool just to be on the safe side. I learnt this the hard way when I made my sisters wedding cake years ago and ruined a 12" tier :/

AFlying visit girls!

Very belated birthday wishes, Jean. Sorry I missed it. Lovely holly cake - was it a Maisie Fantaisie design? I was a bit shell-shocked after the wedding then straight into Christmas prep next day. Sore throat started on Boxing Day so my get up and go seems to have got up and gone. :-(

Maisie, hope your eye is improving and cake is going well. Lovely meerkat cake Barbara. Well done on the country cake Lelly.

Tried out the CakeLace Snowflake mat using the soft silver Cake Lace. The fondant is SK dove grey mixed with a bit of white, then sprayed the cake with PME pearl spray. [IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3316805/width/350/height/700[/IMG]

AThanks cakey mates.

Love it Lynne, such a classy serene colour, fab mat, are they all separate? Stupid question I know.

AOh lynne, just had a look, that's a lovely lovely mat, I may have to have that soon I think, or next yr at least.

A

http://www.thecakedecoratingcompany.co.uk/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/1/3/138444436881641g.gif

It's this one Barbara. It has a mix of separate snowflake designs as well as a scroll (which I didn't particularly like, but I guess on the right design would be o.k.)

Nanny your meerkat cake is fab! 

Catsmum, I don't know who Maisie Fantaisie is. I just thought of the cake design and decided on white on white! I love your cake- and you've got your tree in the background as well. Those snowflakes are gorgeous. Is SK sugarpaste pretty good then?

AI like the SK sp, Jean. It handles well and comes in some lovely colours. I don't use it all the time. For day to day cakes I use Tescos but my last wedding cake was Covapaste, which I also like but no colour choice. I think the SK is worth a try if you need other things to get past £25 so you don't pay delivery.

Lovely cake Catsmum very pretty and elegant.

ALovely cake Lynn. Very pretty. Kathy

Morning all!

Lynne and all the others who use tesco SP for covering cakes- how on earth do you do it? I'm fine kneading and rolling it, but as soon as I start to place it on my rolling pin to place on a cake, it starts to tear. I'd say I'd only ever be able to cover a 4" cake with it, just. Anything bigger than that, forget it. I think someone said they add tylose to it? I tried that when I covered my dummy but it didn't do much good either. I don't really want to add tons of tylose. 

AMorning everyone,

I just tesco SP too Jean. I sometimes get a bit of tearing but no more so than any other brands I use. I think it's just me to be honest! I don't add anything to it but it can go super soft if you add certain kinds of food colouring I've found. Some brands of gel seem to be fine but then other times I've only added a tiny bit to make a light colour and it's gone so soft. I always use tesco though and don't have too many problems that aren't caused by my own clumsiness!

Thanks sugarluva. I wonder why I can't get any joy with it. Maybe other brands might work for me- waitrose or sainsbury's!

AMorning all. :-)

Just had a catch up- normal service is resumed I see, I've missed loads!

Lovely cake Lynne, I'm living cake lace.

Live the meerkats nanny, they're so cute. I said the one looks like the advert didn't i, and you've put "simples@, brilliant! :-)

Congrats on tge new nephew Kuuushi.

Can't remember much else.

Oh I can. I use tesco when I haven't got any decent stuff Jean, I find it tears- and I get a lot of elephant skin. I'm loving the culpitt ATM.

I'm so behind with my cakes. What I've done I'm happy with but I'm just so behind. I went to the doctors yesterday, I've got an ear infection, swollen glands and conjunctivitis. :-( All on tge left side, my face would look comical if I wasn't feeling so sorry for myself! And I' woke up this morning with the headache from hell.

My top tier is done and I'm happy with it, if they all turn out like that I'll be delighted. I've got to level fill cover and decorate the other two. I'm running out of time aren't i? I've also got a tin of normal getting ready for a wedding stuff to do. :-(

AOh Maisie that's horrid you are in the wars.

I love Maisie Fantasie - I recently watched her baking tutorial on pretty witty cakes and I have to give her all the credit for the mermaid cake. It was delicious and I am not a great baker usually. I use tesco so and have no issues with it. However my daughter was moaning about it tearing and then I found her rolling out on cornflour. I never do that and the problem was solved! Normal service resumed. I have a new phone so my posts might read a bit strange until I can sort out the predictive text! Kathy

Morning 

Maisie you poor thing I hope whatever the doctor has given you kicks in very soon and it clears up quickly. Glad to hear your cake is going well and your happy with it so far can't wait to see it.

Petitecat I've not used Tesco SP but had the same problems with the Asda one, as soon as I put it on the cake it would completely rip in half. I find that if you don't knead it very much it is fine but if you knead it like you really should it falls apart. I used my mini mat to cover the last cake I did it was the first time using it and I had no problems at all with tears or elephant skin using the asda one it makes it so much easier to move the SP onto the cake. I am waiting for the home mat to be back in stock to get that.

AOh maisie, sending out big hugs to you, you really don't need all this :-( xx

I can't bear tesco paste either Jean, it tears and I get elephant skin. I roll out to 3mm thick and my spd has no issues - when I ran out of it (thought I had a box but didn't!) I had to get an emergency load from tesco and ended up with no choice but to put a second layer on it was so bad. It used to be the only one I used, but then they went and improved it :/It smells lovely though, much nicer than it used to.

I do still buy it, but exclusively for covering boards as it's a bit cheaper.

Maisie fantasie do beautiful cakes, and may Clee cadman seems like a nice person from what I've read. I know that means nothing really but I like it when very successful people don't appear to be ar*es :-D Have a look at the website though - like lvcc and Jane asher she can't half trade on the name of the company for prices!

I never use cornflour to roll out either Kathy, evidently it can react with any moisture on the cake and go mouldy :o

AMaisie hope you make a speedy recovery Kuushi congrats on becoming an auntie again

Whats wrong Chezza still not fully recovered from your op?

I have just fell in the garden coming back in from putting the recycling out and managed to land half on the brick step across the metal door jam and half on the tiled floor. Don't ask me how I managed to do that but I'm very sore now and have already started to bruise.