More cakey goodness

Well... I was having another trawl through my photos looking for a specific couple of cakes that I am particularly proud of. Unfortunately they are proving elusive, so I'll have to save them for another time, but I did come across a few other photos of cakes and general chocolatey goodness, which will have to do in the meantime!

So first things first - a couple of shots of a birthday cake I made for a friend who is a keen diver. Don't panic - the 'sand' is brown sugar so there were no unexpected crunchy bits when it was cut and eaten. The royal icing I used for the waves was a little bit too soft, and the "Stormy Breakers" look kind of flopped but I was pretty pleased with the marbled water and rocks.

As well as making the snowman cake I posted about below, this year in the run up to Christmas I made a whole bunch of sweets which I then turned into handmade selection boxes for friends and family. I'm still not really tuned in to this business of taking photos as I go, and of the finished item before I inevitably give it to someone as a pressie, but I did get action shots during the making of 2 of the types:

Firstly I made apricot and marzipan 'hedgehogs' - so nicknamed because of their shape. I used a holly leaf cutter to stamp out the marzipan, which I topped with finely chopped dried apricots and dipped into milk and dark chocolate. I really wanted to give them little white chocolate eyes, but a combination of lack of time, and fear that my friends would think I had finally lost it made me restrain myself. Maybe next time tho...

Next I blended up madeira cake with dried cranberries and mixed it with butter icing in order to form a pliable doughy consistency. I rolled the mix into little balls, dipped them in really dark chocolate and sprinkled them with finely shredded cranberry strips.

Sadly unphotographed, there were also little flowers stamped out of fruitcake and dipped again in dark chocolate, and toffee marshmallow crispies, coated in white chocolate and sprinkled with pink sugar crystals. These got such a good reaction that I'll definitely be making them again, and if I'm lucky will remember to snap some pics along the way!