I have been making another knitted blanket, 48 knitted squares using various stitches and techniques all finished with a moss stitch knitted border. The pattern was designed by Nicola Valiji, I made a couple of tweaks by adding additional tulip squares and outlining some of the tulips with chain stitch where I felt the colour didn't have enough impact. I entered the blanket at the first BHS Flower show of 2026 in the Seasonal craft category and was really pleased to get a 1

I was asked to make a selection of cakes to celebrate the special birthday of the Rector at St Peter's Church when the congregation met for coffee after the Sunday morning service on 22nd March. I made a coffee cake, decorated with chocolate coffee beans, portioned for easy serving. I made a double lemon trybake cake drizzled with lemon glace icing and lemon curd and finally a Chocolate GF cake topped with vanilla buttercream and decorated to reflect the special birthday.

I made a Simnel loaf cake following a recipe in the Woman's Weekly, the fruit was soaked in tea, a tablespoon of apricot jam, mixed spice and chopped marzipan was stirred into the cake mixture rather than putting a layer of marzipan through the centre. Once baked the top of the loaf cake was brushed with apricot jam and then finished with marzipan, I crimped the edge and also added a few sugar paste daffodils. Lovely recipe which I will be making again.

I delivered a batch of very pretty vanilla cupcakes to The Coffee house this morning to sell for Mother's Day. I made my usual Jane's Patisserie vanilla cupcake, added Bonne Maman raspberry conserve to the centre and finished the cakes with vanilla buttercream and a selection of sugar paste toppers which I made using LissieLou embossers and stamps along with a selection of sugar paste blooms, butterflies, kisses and the word Mum, and leaves (all KatySue moulds) I also piped

I delivered my first themed bake of the year to The Coffee House Tadworth this morning, Valentine cupcakes, 12 vanilla cupcakes with raspberry conserve centre, vanilla buttercream swirl decorated with valentine themed sugarpaste toppers in red, white and pink. I also made 6 chocolate cupcakes with a black cherry conserve centre, chocolate buttercream swirl decorated with chocolate hearts, sugar paste flowers and sprinkles. They all looked beautiful, too good to eat but I ho

Another special birthday to bake for, this order was for a birthday traybake cake combined with cupcakes. The traybake cake was butterscotch flavour with salted caramel and vanilla buttercream. The cake was for a guy, the colour theme for his evening event was dark blue and gold. I made chocolate decorations - hearts and mini chocolate bars - in dark blue and also choco-caramel which I used along with gold and blue chocoballs, blue sparkle sugar and a blue sugarpaste plaqu

I had another order for birthday cupcakes, these were for a 14th birthday and for someone who is football mad. Had great fun creating the sugarpaste toppers and also managed to find some Spurs - the team of choice - wafer paper toppers that I could combine with the football boots that I had made. I baked a batch of chocolate cupcakes which were filled with chocolate / hazelnut spread and then topped with a chocolate buttercream before decorating with the toppers, spritzing

First order for 2026, 42 vanilla cupcakes, pink and silver colour theme for an 18th birthday party. I used the Jane's Patisserie recipe for the cupcakes and buttercream and I added a raspberry conserve centre to the cupcakes. I made 32 sugar paste toppers combining Happy Birthday, cupcakes, birthday cakes and flowers with white, and various shades of pink. I used silver glitter dust to paint the text and add highlights. The cakes were presented in pink, striped and floral

Over the last few weeks I have been crocheting a Christmas stocking designed by Lindsey Newns (Lottie & Albert - Curate Crochet Box). The stocking had a candy cane style top and was covered with peppermint swirls, bobbles, white 'icing' hills and valleys and finally a lovely red bow. It was perfect to be displayed with the Gingerbread house blanket that I had crocheted last Christmas (also designed by Lindsey), the pair make a lovely, practical, Christmas decoration.

This year I used a GF recipe for my Christmas cake for no other reason than I really liked the combination of fruit in the mix. I followed a recipe posted by The Gluten Free Alchemist back in October. Then I wrapped the cake in baking paper and foil giving it a very occasional feed with some Cointreau. I was undecided about how to decorate the cake when I saw a FB post by Karen Davies (Karen Davies moulds and sugarcraft) which used a knitted fabric mould and a Christmas bau

I donated a batch of mini cupcakes to the refreshment table at our local Carol Service at St Peter's Church on 21st December. I made a batch of orange sponge cupcakes which I filled with lemon curd and then topped with a lemon buttercream icing. I decorated the cupcakes with sugar Christmas toppers from Culpitt and Waitrose as well as some home made holly decorations, finished with a spritz of white glitter. I also made a batch of toffee sponge cupcakes which I filled with

I had an order to make 40 cupcakes for an 18th birthday just before Christmas. From the cupcake menu the customer selected Espresso Martini and Salted caramel flavours, the final choice was Ferrero Rocher cupcakes. As the cakes were for an 18th birthday party/gathering I used the Salted caramel sponge cupcakes as the base for some sugarpaste decorations to celebrate the special birthday. Starting with the Espresso Martini cupcakes I made a coffee sponge adding 3 chocolate

So just for a bit of fun I've counted up the amount of cupcakes etc that I have baked this year and here are the results:

I used a Delia Smith recipe to make a ginger cake to share with my garden volunteer buddies on Friday morning after we finished our work in Banstead village. The cake uses ground ginger and chopped stem ginger and the syrup plus black treacle to give a beautiful ginger taste. I topped the cake with the remaining cinnamon buttercream and vanilla buttercream from my earlier bakes in the week along with some more ginger syrup. I brushed mini gingerbread men biscuits with gold

I made a fruit (sultana and dried apricot) traybake cake to share with the regulars at the Thursday morning community cafe held at St Peter's Church Hall. I brushed the top of the cake with apricot jam, topped it with a sheet of fondant icing and then decorated the cake with Angels (made using a Lissielou stamp and cutter), Golden bells (PME cutter) and a golden NOEL (Patchwork cutter Christmas greetings set). I used gold stars to fill the fondant sheet , I topped the piped

Another charity bake of sorts - I made a spiced toffee traybake (Mary Berry recipe) topped with cinnamon flavoured buttercream and then decorated with a Christmas tree made using a Karen Davies mould. I also added some bauble sprinkles along with red bows. I added star sprinkles and some sugarpaste holly decorations to finish the traybake. I also made a batch of vanilla cupcakes which I filled with fruit mincemeat and used some of the cinnamon flavoured buttercream to top t

I made a batch of vanilla cupcakes for The Coffee House in Tadworth. I filled the cupcakes with raspberry conserve and topped them with red, white and green vanilla buttercream before adding sugarpaste cupcake toppers and sprinkles. The cupcake topper designs were Penguins (Combocutters), cut and painted and then added to a sugarpaste disc to sit on the buttercream, Merry Christmas (Lissielou embosser) painted with gold dust, Mitten (Lissielou embosser) design painted with

Another order - I was asked to make a Christmas cake which was going to be gifted. I used the last minute Christmas cake recipe from Delia Smith's cake cookbook. This recipe combines fruit mincemeat with mixed fruit and nuts. I soaked the fruit mixture in cold tea before making the cake. After baking I left the cake wrapped in baking paper and foil for a couple of weeks. I then brushed the cake with apricot jam and covered with a layer of marzipan. I put the cake on a c

Another order for a traybake cake. This particular cake was to celebrate the Diamond Club (a social club for the over 60's) which has been held at my local Church Hall for a number of years. The couple who have organised the club since it started have decided to call it a day so I was asked to make a Thank you cake for them. I made my favourite vanilla traybake cake, with a raspberry conserve glaze, fondant icing sheet decorated with sugarpaste text, buttercream rosettes an

I was helping at the Christmas Fair at my local Church today. I spent yesterday doing some baking to add to the cake refreshment stall which I was running. My contribution was a batch of sugar cookies decorated with sugarpaste santa and snowmen toppers (I used Combocutters to make the designs). I painted the sugarpaste toppers with glitter dust and coloured sugar paste. I made a batch of Christmas sprinkle cookies, a recipe I found on the Jane's patisserie website. The c