Cake Creations

I've always been interested in baking cakes and decorating them so here are a few of my cake creations...

This was the first cake I made experimenting with icing. I made it for my little cousin's 6th birthday. I baked an 8"victoria sponge cake and a little cake in a glass bowel to create this castle look. I then used edible paper to make the towers and I bought sugar decorations. 

I made this cake for another cousin's 11th birthday. This was the first time I used fondant icing. I rolled it out to ice the cake and I then used the left over fondant to create little shapes and a dress. To change the colour I just mixed in some food colouring but for the dress I painted the food colouring on top. 

I made these fairy cakes for Croydon Youth Theatre, a song and dance show. I just used royal icing (pouring consistency) to ice them and tubed icing to for the detail.

Here's another castle cake I made for a friend's 20th birthday. To make the towers, I used ice cream cones and just covered them in buttercream icing then added sugar decorations. 

For my 21st birthday, I wanted to make my own cake. I started sketching a few ideas and decided to incorporate interests of mine. 

Here are my hunter wellies and a basket of yellow roses. 

Here is my twine tin.

Here's a red packet that are traditional in chinese culture. I also love putting candles in wine bottles so I decided to make a mini wine bottle to hold a candle. 

I stuck yellow rose all around the cake. 

The red lines are all balls of yarn that join to create a music stave. 

Here you can see the balls of yarn falling around the cake. 

Here's a cake for my friend's 21st birthday. I bought her knitting needles and red wool to make a scarf for her previous birthday so decided incorporate it into the cake. She loves Charles Dickens so I decorated the cake with some of her favourite novels. 

My cousin got married so I decided to make their wedding cake as they were only have a small gathering to celebrate. I knew I wanted to create something simple but elegant. 

These flowers (roses) are all hand made and took me about 6 hours to make enough! They look beautiful on the plates. 

For the bottom cake I iced branches and leaves and added the flowers. To create a border, I just placed roses all around the top of the cake and I think it looks quite sweet!

I'm quite proud of this rose in particular.

For the top cake I simply placed roses around the cake to create a simple but effective look. The blue ribbon just makes the cake look so beautiful.

I then placed rose on the top to create a border, added two medium roses on top and of course placed the bride and groom in the centre. I had a bit of blue ribbon left so I just draped it on the cake.

And here is the finished two tier cake standing tall! I'm so relieved it didn't collapse and it looked beautiful surrounded by flowers. 

I will be baking many more cakes in the future....

Knitting Projects

I just thought I'd do a blog about some of the knitting projects I've done. Most of these have been following a pattern and learning new stitches.

I knitted this needle holder when I first learnt how to stitch a heart pattern... I didn't use instructions and just simply knitted a rectangular piece in a stocking stitch and incorporated the hearts creating an little pocket at the front (to hold little needles). 

This knitted back pack was a bit of a challenge when I knitted it! It was the first pattern I followed using all the shortened language (like sts, p1, k2, rep from * to end). It was also the first time I used a cable but I'm so pleased with the results. To finish it off, I used bright red buttons to hold the straps and a cute purple button to hold down the lid.

Of course, the socks were next on my list and I'm so happy with these fair isle patterned socks. To make these socks, you only need to use two needles (as oppose to three) and the pattern is quite simple to follow. They are very warm and snug too!

I'm working on pink ones to give as a gift to my Auntie... hopefully they'll be finished for Christmas...

And... SCARVES!! I decided to knit all of my younger cousins scarves for New Years (2011-2012) and this was no light task as I had to knit 12 scarves in total! For the girls, I used fluffy wool with plain wool to create a thick warm scarf. I had lots of different colours and textures already so I just experimented with the two types of yarn. 

I then added hand made tags wishing each a Happy New year... They look quite sweet. 

For the boys I decided to do an alternating knit and purl stitch to create a square effect. I did this for two of the boys...

I love these earthy colours. 

For this child's scarf I did a garter stitch and then folded it in half (long ways) and stitched along the edge, lining up the button hole. This will sit nicely around the neck and the button will keep it in place. 

I did a garter stitch for this scarf but didn't fold it in half. I again sewed a button on to keep it in place around the neck. I think the button looks so cute when knitting scarves!

These are just a few of the projects I have been doing so I hoped you enjoyed looking at them!

Henna

My cousin is getting married next week and our tradition is to have a henna party (NOT to be confused with a hen party!). For this, all the woman meet, we eat, talk and get henna on our hands. The bride to be, gets henna all over her hands the night before the actual wedding. 

As it's a tradition, I wondered whether there was some type of symbol that henna represented as it is always present for weddings and eid. I asked around and this was my interpretation of this art. 

Years ago, henna was used as a way for females to decorate themselves and look attractive. As the henna dyes the hands in many different beautiful patterns it was seen as a way to express femininity. Now we have nail polish and other ways to adorn our hands and feet but henna is still used for special occasions. 

The place the henna goes is also said to represent specific meanings, similar to how a ring placed on a persons left ring finger represents engagement or marriage. If henna is on the palm it shows openness and offering (for the bride offering herself to a male). Henna on the back of the hand represents protection. Henna on the left hand represents female and on the right hand it represents male (so putting it on both symbolises a pairing or joining of two souls). And on the feet it represents a human and earth meeting, seen as a holy junction. 

As I see henna as an expression of artistic creativity, I was excited to get it on both my hands.

My turn!

I also asked for an elephant on my wrist for luck!

I decided to get both hands done, so they look more even. The girl said that to make the colour darker you can mix juice from a lemon with sugar, put it in the microwave for a bit, dip cotton wool in the mixture and put it on the henna over night. I did this and looked like I'd injured myself!! 

Here (above photo) they are before I went to bed...

And in the morning after I washed the top layer off. 

I love henna and will defiantly be buying some and trying it myself!