I had an order to make a batch of Rock cakes to give as Thank you gifts. I made a batch of 12 rock cakes using the Mary Berry recipe which includes chopped apricots and has a lovely fruity taste. I packed the rock cakes into paper bags with lavender colour gingham waxed paper. The bags looked really cute and the customer was very happy.

I had an order to make a mixed batch of vanilla and coffee birthday cupcakes. I used Jane's patisserie recipes, and I filled the vanilla cupcakes with raspberry conserve, topped them with vanilla buttercream and finished them with Happy birthday themed toppers and the coffee cupcakes were filled and topped with Coffee buttercream and decorated with walnut halves which I had dusted with gold, chocolate coated coffee beans and hearts. They looked beautiful.

We ran our annual Macmillan coffee morning today. We had decorated the Church Hall and it looked fantastic with balloons, green tablecloths and our stalls. We welcomed a lot of people to the Hall and did really well with the fundraising collecting £670 for the charity. I made sugar cookie biscuits, rock cakes, a chocolate sponge cake, ginger cake, lemon drizzle traybake, gluten free cake and a coffee cake. I also made knitted flower coasters, daisy, sunflower, poppy and f

I had an order for a simple chocolate sponge cake for a special birthday. I used a Delia Smith recipe. I filled the cake with chocolate buttercream and Nutella chocolate spread and then topped the cake with more chocolate buttercream, a Happy Birthday message, some silver chocolate beans and chocolate vermicelli.

I entered a Barm Brack loaf and a jar of Lemon curd at the Autumn Flower show and managed to get a 1st and 2nd respectively. I also donated an Apple and Cinnamon crumble loaf cake to the Tea room which seemed to be successful with the customers.

I had an order for 2 dozen mini vanilla cupcakes. The cupcakes were to celebrate a 50th birthday for a Chelsea fan. After baking the cakes I filled them with raspberry conserve, topped them with vanilla buttercream and then finished them with sugarpaste toppers, rice paper Chelsea FC emblems and sparkly 50 picks. They were a great success at the birthday party.

I tried this new recipe from Jane's patisserie as I had been given some Bramley apples to use. Tastes absolutely lovely with the cinnamon sugar running through the sponge along with pieces of chopped apple and then the crumble topping finished with cinnamon icing drizzled across the top. A big thumbs up from my testers and tasters.

I saw a sponge cake recipe using blueberries and pears and thought it was a nice combination so decided to give it a go. The pears (2) are peeled and cored and then cut into 5, once the sponge batter has been made the pears are placed on top with the rounded side upwards. After baking and cooling, the sponge is filled with vanilla buttercream, but I added blueberry conserve as well and the cake is topped with vanilla buttercream and then decorated with blueberries which I s

I was asked to make a celebration cake to be cut at the unveiling of a special garden bench at Weston Acres, Royal Alfred Seafarers in Woodmansterne. My customer has researched and written the history of Weston Acres. She brought all these elements together and then needed a special cake for the unveiling event. I made the standard vanilla traybake cake which I decorated with a printed edible icing sheet with a photograph of Weston Acres. The print was framed with vanilla

I've been making this cardigan/jacket as something completely different to the other project that I'm working on. I used some Lauren Aston super chunky yarn and a King Cole knitting pattern. It's a patchwork effect for the body and sleeves and I used a twisted rib for the collar, button band and welts. Very pleased with the finish but I won't be wearing it yet awhile as our temperatures are still in the 20's.

I was asked to make a special birthday cake with a very specific decoration needed. The 'birthday girl' had worked in DR Congo as a missionary so the cake needed to include a map of the country in the colours of the flag. Once I had got my head around that I also needed to make a dozen birthday cupcakes. Flavour of choice vanilla so I used my standard traybake cake recipe along with the vanilla cupcake recipe that is my go to. Really pleased with the finished result for t

Taking a bit of downtime from the baking this month as I have a big craft project going on in the background. I did find time to try this recipe for an Apple and whiskey soaked sultana cake which I found in an edition of Country Living Magazine. Truthfully, you need to play around with the variety of eating apple you use as I didn't find that my choice provide enough of an apple flavour and it could probably have done with a little more whiskey but a nice looking cake and

Another Flower Show on Saturday, I entered 3 craft classes (a crocheted organiser using an old wooden coat hanger as the base, an embroidered straw hat and 3 photographs of my tree peony), and a batch of lavender shortbread hearts, along with an orchid plant too. I was working in the tea room and took along some cupcakes as my donation. I did really well with my entries - 4 x 1st place with 3 blue ribbons and a Certificate of Merit and a 2nd place as well. Feel very lucky t

Another cupcake order for a special birthday - this time it was the 21st birthday of the son of a friend. I used the basic vanilla sponge recipe, filled with raspberry jam, topped with vanilla buttercream and a selection of sugar paste Happy Birthday toppers made using LissieLou stamps and embossers, which were then painted with gold dust. I added gold stars too.

As England approached the semi-final of the World cup I made another batch of cupcakes for The Coffee House in Tadworth. It's history now, but unfortunately we didn't get through to the Final, but a beautifully decorated cupcake might help to ease the pain a little. The cakes were vanilla flavour sponge, raspberry jam centre, vanilla buttercream topped with a selection of themed toppers.

On a beautiful sunny evening the BVIB (Banstead Village in Bloom) volunteers met at our Allotment for a social evening and also to celebrate the 80th birthday of one of the group. We had a lovely time, the Allotment looked fabulous, our sharing table of food was very tasty and we all enjoyed a slice of courgette, hazelnut and lime cake with cream cheese and lime filling and topping that I made to celebrate the birthday.

My neighbour had arranged a summer party in his garden at the weekend, so I made him a batch of vanilla and salted caramel cupcakes to add to the refreshment table. The vanilla cupcakes were filled with raspberry conserve, topped with vanilla buttercream and a sugarpaste topper. The salted caramel cupcakes were filled with salted caramel sauce, topped with salted caramel buttercream and decorated with honeycome nibs, fudge chunks, chocolate curls, chocolate vermicelli and b

During record temperatures I was back baking in the kitchen to fulfil an order from one of my regular customers for some birthday cupcakes for his daughter. I made a selection of vanilla and salted caramel cupcakes and decorated them with sugarpaste toppers and sprinkles. Really pleased with the finished result and so was he.

It wouldn't be my birthday without a decorated cupcake or a cake, so I used a few plain cupcakes that I had frozen earlier as the base for a small batch of pretty little cakes to celebrate my birthday. In particular I used a new mould that I bought recently with a sequin finish - just add some glitter dust to the mould before adding the sugarpaste and when it is turned out you have a lovely sequin effect. Perfect. I can see this will be a popular addition to my collection

Another Flower Show and I decided to enter a mix of items. I entered 2 baking classes - 3 decorated cupcakes and 3 French Madeleines and on the horticultural side - a potted orchid, a potted flowering plant and a flowering shrub. I had a good result with my baking being awarded a 1st and a blue ribbon for the cupcakes, a 1st and a certificate of merit for the madeleines a 2nd for my orchid and 2 x 3rd for the other items.