She Who Bakes...

She Who Bakes has moved! You can now find all of my classes, recipes and my blog over at www.shewhobakes.co.uk

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Vegan Shortbread

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Rice Krispie Treats

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Vegan Chocolate Brownies

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Victoria Sponge

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Chocolate Flapjacks

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Millie's Style Cookies

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Banana Bread

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Dairy & Egg Free Vegan Banana Bread

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Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes

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Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

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No-Spread Sugar Cookies

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My First Book!

I am *SO EXCITED* to share this news with you all! Very soon I will be a published author of my first book!

It’s called Cakes, Bakes & Business and it’s a practical guide to starting your home baking enterprise!

Those of you familiar with my blog may know that in 2015 I wrote a little ebook digital download called How To Start A Cake Business From Home. Over the past few years it has helped thousands of hobby bakers turn their love of cake into a career. Earlier this year I signed a publishing deal to turn my little ebook into a real life proper book! I spent months writing and perfecting it and I am so proud to share it with you all! With over triple the content of the old version, brand new chapters, lots of stories and with many more pages of help and advice, this new for 2017 updated version if the perfect gift for anyone who wants to make money from their cakes and bakes.

This easy to follow, useful and practical guide shows you how to start a cake business from home, from someone who has done it. I ran my successful award winning home cake business for many years and now I’m passing on all the advice I learned over to you.

Written with the UK market in mind, but with helpful tools and tips for those wanting to start a business outside of the UK, this book covers all the topics you need to know to get your business up and running. From the rules surrounding getting your kitchen ready, registering as self employed, insurance, advice on pricing your cakes, and marketing advice that is both relevant and easy to implement, this guide is the ‘one stop shop’ for your information.

Stay tuned for more information about the book including the Amazon release date and pre-order link very soon!

Happy baking!

Britt xo

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Happy Halloween 2017!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween is my favourite time of the year. Falling leaves, pumpkins invading, dressing up and baking sweet gory treats! Every year my fiancé Tim and I throw a Halloween party. We spend weeks getting the place ready and have been throwing more and more into it with each passing year! This year we had a spooky graveyard entrance, a haunted stairwell, a SAW themed bathroom and a crime scene party area! This year, Tim and I dressed up as Gomez & Morticia Addams! I was feeling the gothic look!

Each year I also make a tasty centrepiece. Be it a tower of cupcakes or a decorated tiered cake. This year I went with a three tier, red madeira, slasher extravaganza!

I originally saw this design on Pinterest back in the Spring and I have been trying to track down the original cake/baker for months. I have used Google reverse image search, tried all number of keywords and asked people in the know. I cannot find the original to credit them. All searches come back to Pinterest boards or lists of Halloween cakes. If anyone out there knows the original design or baker, please let me know so I can credit them here appropriately!

Here’s how I made it!

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I wanted a bright red sponge inside to contrast with the white icing on the outside, I also wanted a crowd pleasing flavour everyone would like so I went with a classic madeira cake recipe and coloured it red using Sugarflair Red Extra. I wrapped the cakes in clingfilm and let them sit overnight. Then the following day I split the cakes and filled them with a contrasting white vanilla buttercream.

I then crumb coated the cakes with buttercream and covered the tiers in a thin later of Ruby Red Renshaw Sugarpaste and smoothed them with Flexi Smoothers (I’ve got an article about them here). I then let them firm up overnight.

  The next day I painted the tiers in a thin layer of piping gel and then covered the cakes in a layer of Renshaw White Sugarpaste. Then, once I had smoothed them, I used a scalpel to slice out ‘claw marks’ of the white icing, peeling it carefully away to reveal the red icing underneath. I then used a dresden tool to shape and fold the white icing surrounding the claw marks. I did this on all three tiers, changing the angle of the marks each time to make it look like the whole cake had been swiped by Wolverine from the top to the bottom. The bottom tier I only took out small slices out of white icing. I then let this firm up completely overnight.

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Once this was set, I dowelled the bottom two tiers and stacked carefully, sticking together with royal icing. I then made up some red food paint using red and a tiny amount of blue dust colours mixed with a little vodka. I made it quite watery and with a paintbrush and a palette knife, I flicked red food paint all over the cake to look like blood splatters.

Then, to make the oozing blood, I mixed a few spoons of piping gel with Christmas Red and a little Royal Blue Sugarflair concentrated food colours to make a dark red blood colour, I put this into a piping bag and piped the gel into the tops of the claw marks, letting it run down the cake. I finished the cake with a 15mm white satin ribbon stuck around the cake board at the bottom with thin double sided tape.

I am SO pleased with how this cake turned out. It was the perfect centrepiece for our Halloween party and was very well received by our guests!

Check out below for more pictures from our Halloween party and have a look at my Instagram for all the videos!

Happy Halloween!

Britt xo

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Depressed Cake Shop Pop Up for World Mental Health Day 2017

This week onTuesday 10th October  was World Mental Health Day 2017. A day to raise awareness for mental health issues, to talk and to share. To know you aren’t alone and help is out there. I make no secret of my past battles with my own mental health and the terrible darkness I felt in. You can read more about my story here.

One of the biggest parts of my recovery was baking, and one of the first projects I did was making a cake for the Depressed Cake Shop promo back in 2013. You can read more about The Depressed Cake Shop and my involvement with them here.

Amazing bakers and volunteers all over the world run ‘pop up’ cake shops to raise awareness of mental health issues as well as raising money for mental health charities! Sharon Manship, who runs Depressed Cake Shop – Medway was putting on just such a treat extravaganza at Canterbury Christ Church University Medway Campus to raise money for the charity Mind. I really wanted to go along and help, chat to people about the project and show my support.

With cupcakes, cakes, cake pops and cookies all on offer, the stall looked amazing and it was so good chatting with the students and faculty at the university about mental health and how baking can help – it certainly helped me. It was such a fun day and I want to thank Sharon for organising such a great event and to Jacqueline, fellow Canadian who chatted with people and got them involved with the Mind Apples Tree! In total, the pop up raised over £80 for Mind.

Britt xo

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Rainbow Kitty Cake - Happy Birthday Ciara!

One of the best things about being a baker, I believe, is that you can make tasty treats for your friends and loved ones. Sometimes the best type of tasty treat is a surprise one. It was my friend Ciara’s birthday last week and she was popping over to see me for a chat and a takeaway on the Friday night. But I had a sneaky little surprise in store!

I’ve known Ciara since primary school and I couldn’t let a milestone birthday go by without something special. So on the days that preceded her visit I made a rainbow kitty cake I knew she would love. I made a bright coloured tie dye rainbow sponge with a pastel watercolour rainbow buttercream exterior, topped with rainbow roses and a handmade 3D white kitty (whom I named Winston).

In this blog I break down how I made it!

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Firstly I made up the madeira recipe I always use which can be found here. Then I Split the mixture into six bowls and coloured them using Sugarflair concentrated food colouring.  You only need a little bit of colour as it’s very concentrated so it goes a long way and lasts ages! I’m using the following colours;

Sugarflair Red Extra, Sugarflair Egyptian Orange, Sugarflair Melon, Sugarflair Party Green, Sugarflair Ice Blue and Sugarflair Grape Violet.

Once the cake was baked I left it to cool on greaseproof paper upside down. I do this to get a nice flat top on the cake (which becomes my base). I then trimmed it a little to make it nice and even and to try some too. Bakers perk. Look at the lovely colours!!

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I then used a cake leveller to split the cake into three sections. I made up a batch of white vanilla buttercream as I thought the white would be a lovely contrast to the rainbow colours once you cut into it. Once the cake was filled I chilled it for 10 minutes to firm up. Then I did a layer of buttercream around the outside to crumb coat it. Chilled again briefly and then a ‘tidy up’ layer of buttercream and left it out on the side.

The rest of the buttercream I split into six bowls and coloured rainbow but this time with the pastel versions of Sugarflair. I then spread different colours of the buttercream around the cake and using a large scraper, went around the cake over and over again until the colours blended together in a lovely watercolour pattern!

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Then with the leftover rainbow buttercream, I spooned them into a piping bag fitted with a 2D nozzle and piped roses on the top of the cake. Added a few piped ‘stars’ and sprinkles and it was done! I put the cake onto a small pink iced board with a wash glitter tape edge.

For Winston the cat, I made him out of white, pink and black Karen Davies Sugarpaste (which I love for modelling). I even made him a tiny little pink bow. I was in my own little world modelling him so I don’t have any step by step photos but if you want to know how he was made, leave a comment below and I will endeavour to make a tutorial at some point!

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Once Winston was dry I placed him on top of the cake and it was complete! Ciara absolutely loved it which made me so happy. Seeing the joy on someone face and knowing it’s you that has made that smile is one of the great joys of baking.

Happy birthday Ciara. I’m so pleased you liked you cake.

If you try any of these techniques let me know how you get on either on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Happy Baking!

Britt xo

Check out my ebook How To Start A Cake Business From Home for everything you need to know about running a successful baking business, including pricing, marketing, insurance and much more!

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Don't Butter Me Up

Back in December 2015 the price of a 250g block of unsalted butter was 85p.

By October 2016 the same block of 250g had risen to £1.10

Today, October 2017 the price stands at £1.60 for 250g. That’s over a 50% increase in less than two years.

Similarly to butter, since November 2015, 100g basics milk chocolate has increased from 35p to 50p.

As a baker, the price of ingredients has to be reflected in the price of cakes. But what do you do when a staple ingredient has doubled in price? I have already this week seen two bakers I know post on their Facebook pages saying there will be an increase in their prices to reflect the rising cost of baking and fortunately their customers have all taken it well.

The increase in butter is due to a supply issue where there isn’t enough milk production to keep up with the demand for butter and cream. Because many dairy farmers have gone out of business in recent years, cream supplies are down.

So what does this mean for bakers?

No one is sure what will happen to the price of butter, wether it will continue to increase or eventually fall once production levels have been met. My advice is to re-asses your pricing structure (you can read more about that here) to make sure the increase in butter is included in your figures, buy when it’s on offer (and buy a lot if your fridge can handle it!) and to shop around. I have read updates from fellow bakers finding butter bargains in shops like Aldi and Lidl as well as offers in independent stores.

The price increases may not sound a lot, especially if you’re only making one or two cakes a month, but for those who are baking 5 or 6 cakes (or more) a week, it has really impacted their business. I hope there is a resolution soon and this isn’t a taste of what’s to come for other ingredients.

Has the increase in butter price affected you? Share your comments below.

Happy baking,

Britt xo

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National Cake Week 2017

Happy National Cake Week! A week to celebrate all things cake. If you’re a baker, a cake eater or like me a nice mix of both, you’ll love these cake recipes. From your classic madeira to a delicious rich chocolate, traditional Christmas cake to a brightly coloured rainbow delight! Below I’ve listed my favourite cake recipes, simply click on the picture to be taken to the full recipe and method.

If you want to turn your baking hobby into a career, check out my ebook How To Start A Cake Business From Home for everything you need to know about running a successful baking business, including pricing, marketing, insurance and much more!

Give it a try and let me know how you get on either on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram.

Happy baking!

Britt xo

Classic Madeira Cake in Vanilla, Lemon & Chocolate!