Everyone loves a cupcake!

SO I thought I'd do a little picture blog of some of my favourite cupcakes that I've been commissioned to do in the past year.

I really do enjoy the miniature element that comes with designing and creating cupcakes, I'm not really sure how I manage the fiddly little things as I have the biggest hands I've ever seen on a woman, but there you go!

These are a selection of the most fun, funkiest ones I've done!

I hope you enjoy!

These are my cupcakes made for a little girls 10th birthday 'Mad Hatter's tea party' They were great fun to make because I had total freedom to just go as mad as I liked, and as there were 40 it was nice to mix it up a bit!

Funnily enough I was asked to make some 'Muppets' themed cupcakes quite a while before the new film came out, so these have been great to have in my portfolio as I've since been asked to create a load more! These were especially apt for me to make as my fiancee is a HUGE Muppets fan so we have tons of Muppet stuff knocking around! The kids loved seeing these being born!

Sometimes I get asked to come up with an idea for a theme that I don't know a thing about!! These 'Sailor Moon' cakes were made for a lovely lady who is anime and just Japan mad! But I have to be honest I had to do hours of research before coming up with a design, God bless Google images!!

How anyone could bear to eat Frank and Molly?? These loveable pugs were commissioned by one of my customers who will order cupcakes for any and every event! I will go as far as to say she is addicted! These were for her Mother in law's birthday, who loves nothing more than her pet pooches!

This little chap is my version of my best friend's husband! He is a diver and there is nothing he loves more, other than his lovely wife of course :)

In a kitchen far, far away...these bad boys were made! I love super geeky orders like this, mainly because I'm a bit of a sci-fi nerd myself...

Hopefully you'll recognise this little guy. And don't worry...he wasn't eaten, just the yummy cupcake underneath!


So there you go, there's a little snippet of my 'babies', and there are MANY more to come!

Big loves, Kate x

A very vegan wedding.

Last September I was contacted by a lovely lady who wanted me to create her wedding cake.

Sara (the bride) had a very specific feel in mind for her cake, her and her husband were having quite a vintage theme and Sara herself is a bit of a rockabilly lady so the cake had to mirror this.

After their very romantic engagement in New York, Sara realised she didn't want to wait to be Pete's wife and they planned the whole wedding in only six weeks! Of course top of your list of wedding priorities is always the cake so Sara visited a City Centre cake shop to book her dream cake. The shop in question obliged (at a rather hefty price) and then Sara mentioned the fact that she was a vegan and so would need a vegan friendly cake. The shop said impossible.

Hmm....I guess this is what impossible looks like then!

Sara panicked when she left the shop thinking 'well if they won't do it, no one will!' Convinced that she was going to have to pay hundreds of pounds for a cake she wouldn't even be able to eat! Then someone told her about The Hippy Hippy Cakes.
I pride myself on my vegan, diabetic and gluten free recipes, which I have carefully come up with through trial and error but I have to admit I had never attempted a 3 tier vegan wedding cake. I accepted the challenge, mostly because I was miffed that this cake shop hadn't even given making a vegan cake a second thought, just because they are a little more tricky. It took a few attempts, but in the end it worked!

Sara gave me another little task on top of all that...she decided to not tell her guests that the cake was diary and egg free, so the texture, flavour, everything had to be JUST like a 'normal' sponge and do you know what? not a single person noticed!


My favourite part of the cake and the bit which made it totally unique and personal to the couple was the sugar crafted bride and groom. I had photos of both their outfits and how they were styling their hair so the resemblance was uncanny haha! Even the pair's 2 pet cats got to make an appearance on the cake!

The sugar rose bouquet matched Sara's in colour and shape. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

We decided on using lace to add texture and really give it an old fashioned feel, along with the pearls, which in my opinion every wedding cake should have!

The end result was sort of simple and unstated with lots going on at the same time, very much like Sara!

Overall this cake has been one of my favourites to create and even better I've made a good friend whilst doing.

So I guess the moral of my story is, if someone says it's impossible, go speak to the Hippy Hippy Cake lady!

x

I don't like the word failure, but...

Hello all!

Well, I started this blog in May 2010 when I was all excited/petrified of moving to Surrey and starting my degree as a dietitian.
You know when you have that 'really bad feeling' about something? Well I was kind of like that for the whole build up to moving. It was a nightmare to get there, jobs for my fiance were non-existent and house after house fell through, but eventually, somehow, we got there.
And the weather was all sunny, and the trees were all green and the birds were singing, the lambs were leaping and the squirrels were happily flirting with each other whilst swinging through the trees and it all seemed like a fabulous plan after all!
And we all lived happily ever after.
The End.

Well, not quite! I hated the university, I hated the area we lived in, I hated the school my children were at, I hated the whole concept of a childminder, I hated Surrey's stupid bus services, I hated commuting on the train, I hated the snow and the worst winter to hit the whole country for a long while, but most of all I hated being away from home.
I was incredibly home sick, something which I've never really felt before, but I was truly miserable and all I wanted to do was go home.

So we did.

And here I am, back in Hull, which isn't half as bad as I've been moaning it is for most of my life. Back where I belong.
And although I do very much miss the study and it still is and always will be my biggest passion, the dietetics has taken a back seat. I know that I will pick it up again at some point in the future, but for now other things and people are more important.

SO...I'm not really the cake making dietitian anymore...I'm mostly just the cake maker!

My business The Hippy Hippy Cakes has gone from strength to strength and I've been so amazed at how much support I've gotten from people and how much faith they have in me and my work.
I did a little count today and I've completed approx 230 orders so far, madness!

So this is my new (old) blog, which will mostly be chatting about the cakes I make, the troubles I have, both cake and life wise and hopefully somewhere where I can make friends and get/give advice.

Lovely to have you back ;-)

Katy x