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

England Is Melting!

Jesus H Christ, it's warm innit!

Possibly the hottest it's ever been in this country in the history of forever and I have been stuck in the kitchen or at work (I work in an oven where old people and stroke victims are kept, also known as a nursing home).
Not really fair.
Everyone has a tan.
I am even whiter than usual as my skin is absorbing 3 grams of icing sugar every day.

GAY!

Today I am making a Hello Kitty castle, not sure why Hello Kitty has a castle as, for one she is not a princess, and for two she is a cat, but whatever, I do as I'm told! The customer is always right and all that!

I've also made 45 little bitesize cakes that are going to be topped with little chocoate swirls and chocolate love hearts (I'm so cute!)

Joe is still in London, but at least I have my little people back! I'm pretty much a single mum at the moment and I'm kind of kicking arse at it, the kids are immaculate and shiney happy, got to school on time and I even remembered to write in Ruby's reading record, oh yeah just call me Super Mum!

My little man (Chance, my son) and I have had a very musical day, we've listened to Velvet Underground, Kings of Leon and we've been shaking our little (not so little in my case) tushes to Beyonce, Chance has more of a ghetto booty than I. Little bit jealous. He can do that whole 'my arse is a shelf, watch it move up and down independent from the rest of body' dance, bit odd for a 2 year old boy, but what can I say some kids were made for the stage (possibly the Birdcage stage in his case!)
He has also spent a considerable amount of time riding up and down the garden on his electric quad bike wearing a corked aussie hat. The kid's got style!

Hope Joe gets offered a job in London today, if it was a job that paid £25,000 and the job title was 'Film Director' that would be massively awesome.

In the words of that one eyed Gabrielle, 'Dreams can come true'!

Right, I have castle turrets to make.

Toodles, Katy x

All by MMMMMYYSEEEEEELF!

Oh, lonely, oh so lonely!

So I have spent less than 24 hours all on my lonesome and I am going INSANE to the membrane.
My dear Joe has gone off to London for his brothers stag do and the children have stayed out at their Grandmoi's to give me a little 'peace and quiet' and give me a chance to 'get on with things'. Well the peace and quiet has led me to hear every bump and creak (not to mention 'Ghost Baby'-the strange woooing noise that blows through our walls) and instead of getting 'on with things' I have sat on Facebook, looking at pictures of myself and oogling at people I have never and will never meet!

Why am I so useless on my own?

I'm not a boring person. Yet I HATE HATE HATE my own company!

I'm going all Lord Of The Flies, if Piggy was here I'd smash his glasses!

I did manage to get something done yesterday tho, I made sweeties! Two of my bestest friends are getting married in 4 days and I have volunteered to make a truffle tower. This inolves...
Brandy Truffles
Orange Crunch Truffles
Coconut Ice
Marshmallow Chocolate Fudge (which is a bit too sloppy!)
Millionaire Shortbread
Walnut Chocolate Brownies
Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cremes!

Ooooo, and the result of making all these sweeties (around 400 petit fours all together) is that I've put on 2 pounds in 2 days!
I'd love to blame those blasted airbourne calories but the fact of it is, is that I licked the spoon...on more than one occasion.
And that is all it takes! No need to scoff my face with boxes of chocolates to pile on the pounds, ho no no...3 licks of a chocolately spoon will do it!!
Heaven forbid I might have a little taste of these sweeties on the day of the wedding...I'll burst out of my bridesmaid bress like the Incredible Hulk with pretty hair!

Right, I'm gonna go DO SOMETHING, anything. I say this but tenner bet I've done nothing by the time I go to work at 4pm.

Oh to be proactive!

Katy x

Welcome!

Oh! Look! I have a Blog!!

This has taken me an age to set up as I have to keep stopping to break into song and dance...I'm watching 'Somewhere over the rainbow' and just as I 100% believed "I could be NAAAANCY" I truely believe I could be Dorothy too...hmm, we'll see!

I often wonder if other people sit videoing themselves singing just to listen back to see if they actually CAN sing? (And of course to see the weird faces they pull when hitting those high notes!)
I think, all in all, I'm not half bad, now I just need the balls and the face to get out there and actually do it in front of someone other than my little dog Sinbad!

So, anyway, I'm the cake making dietitan, or at least I will be in 4 years time when I graduate!

My name is Katy, I'm 23 (24 next month [I'll expect an influx of cards, thank you please]) I am a mother to 2 absolutely adorable children, and I have a fiance who goes by the name of Joe, those 3 people are the lights of my life, and I would be completely lost without their laughter and smiles!

In September this year my little crew and I are making a massive 230 mile move to Surrey from Hull so I can start a Dietetics degree at the university of Surrey...

"The way I see it, if you wanna see the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain." -Dolly Parton.

GAH! My least favourite Dorothy won..pooh! Ah well, with Sir Andrew by your side anyone can be ace!

So yeah, we're off to see the Southerners, the 'wonderful' southerners of...erm..Surrey! Might have to work on that one! And I'm (for want of a better word) POOING it!
So this little here Blog is my way to vent my angst, my argh, and my oh crikeys!

I also make cakes...like LOADS of cakes! I'm not sure how, but I kind of have my own little cake making business, I'll put up some pictures for you all (my imaginary listeners) to see, that'll be nice won't it!?

"I like smiling, smiling's my favourite!" - Buddy The Elf



Good bye for now, cyber chums!

Katy x