Lovely Tom's 21st

Before I start, my name's Louise and I make (am obsessed with) cakes, and it turns out i'm not too shabby at it.  I thought it might be fun to document the cakes i make to inspire anyone else who loves to bake, and if you dont care to bake then just look at the pictures :)

So this week I was handed  the task of creating a 21st birthday cake for my good friend Tom with little guidance other than 'it MUST incorporate fireworks'.  With a brief like that (and the promise of generous payment) it's almost impossibe to refuse.  I'd never made a cake for a fella before and decided to stick with blue/turquoise (boys like blue right?) and gold, since that meant I got to play with edible glitter again- hurrah. I think the end result looks kind of like my imagination exploded onto a cake and as usual I didn't stick to my original plan, but I think it turned out pretty okay.

1)them ingredients 2) exactly why you ought to wear a pinny 3) turquoise and gold buttercream 4) crumb coating the cakey-cake and i finally mastered a paper piping bag 5) a second and smoother layer of buttercream 6) i sprayed on gold glitter spray and then brushed on gold glitter powder to give a lovely gradient effect 7) the finished product in terrible lighting 8) a lil' close up 9) you asked for fireworks and I delivered.

Big up to Paul and Mary (Hollywood and Berry respectively, obvs) for their sponge recipe which has become my safety blanket for basic sponge cake and is lifted straight from the 'Great British Bake Off' book.  The cake is made up of three layers, with strawberry jam and buttercream in between the layers.  The buttercream itself is just a combination of icing sugar, milk/cream and butter and you should probz consult Mr Hollywood about that recipe too.  The gel food colouring i used is the best! it's from lakeland and is a mixture of a 'sky blue' and 'moss green'.  I only had to use a little and the colour is crazy vibrant. The gold glitter spray i used from a co-op i believe, the edible gold glitter cost me an arm and a leg (£2.50) for a teeny tiny vile from Fenwick.

PS: A thousand appologies to my wonderful flatmate Toby for putting up with the trail of destruction my baking leaves behind, and i hope the photo's are okay- i'm still playing with my new camera :)

Louise x