Christmas Cupcakes... Put one out for Father Christmas!

Hey Christmassy Cupcake-blog readers!

After a short break I am back and I bring you photos of Little Cake Factory's latest creations:

With Christmas fast approaching (and with Little Cake Factory needing to hibernate for a short while during the festive season), don't forget to pre-order any New Year cupcakes soon!

Check out the website for details of our opening hours during Christmas week - if you're quick you can still place and order AND have cupcakes with your turkey,

Take care all,

LCF Girl

Little Cake Factory is fully refreshed and ready to bake after mini-break!

Let Christmas Cupcakes commence...  despite having lovely jetlag, Little Cake Factory is open after the quick break to NYC.  I checked out the competition and have to be honest, I think I could give them a run for their money (or cupcakes...).  I'll upload pics soon - it was all in the name of "research" - honest!

December seems to be the month to get the wedding cupcake orders in - I would advise brides to book now to avoid disappointment, the weekends are getting pretty busy for summer 2010.

LCF girl

Wedding cupcakes at Godalming Town Football Club

The above photo was taken this morning at Godalming Football Club which is hosting a wedding reception this afternoon.  I am so quick off the mark in getting photos up I should have been a 'pap!

Kept it quite simple, the usual decorations but incorporated the bride's pink/purple/silver theme into the cupcake cases.  I also made the cute little (edible) silver stars on top to perk the whole thing up a bit!

Hope the bride and groom have a wonderful day and thank you for choosing Little Cake Factory to do your cupcakes.

I also made Pudsey Bear cupcakes for DD's nursery (making up for the fact that I forgot to send her in wearing fancy dress today - oops).  As yummy as they are, hopefully they'll also raise a bit of money for Children in Need!

Now, the next photo needs explaining I'm afraid.  I owed someone a bit of a thank you for a favour they've done for me and so made up these "corporate cupcakes".  The problem was that after I'd baked them I discovered he doesn't work in the office much so they have been posted to his home address - I expect he may think I am nuts for doing that!  I enjoyed making them anyway ;-)

Must stop procrastinating over sorting out the huge pile of paperwork sitting next to me on my desk....

Bye for now, LCF Girl

Giant cupcakes... they make the normal ones look tiny!

Straight out of the tin (two halves)

The assembled cake!

After figuring out how to use the enormous cake tin I have finally gotten round to baking a giant cupcake!  Not quite as straight forward as cupcakes, the timing needs to be adjusted to account for the sheer size of the thing - I think allowing nearly 3 times the normal baking time works fine.  I used Wilton's "Cake release" spray, a mixture of what looks like liquid butter and flour.  The two halves came out perfectly.  One half needed to be levelled off slightly but that can be sorted out very easily by not over-filling the tin before it goes into the Aga.

Take a look at the photo of the first larger-than-life cupcake (I've placed a normal sized one next to it for scale!)

I think they actually look less "twee" when you use a cake spatula for the icing (it isn't all icing BTW  - the cake tin is shaped like a dome).  

They'll make wonderful cutting cakes or novelty cakes for people searching for something a little different.

Enjoy!

LCF Girl

Oh by the way, I'm baking Pudsey Bear cupcakes for DD's nursery on Friday - I've used the edible food photo printer and they've come out REALLY nicely - will post a pic when done!

Edible ink cupcakes!

Yay- my new toy arrived yesterday and I tested it out with the LCF logo.  Not bad eh?

Loads of possibilities with this - funny photos, corporate events etc etc.

Yes the ink is EDIBLE don't worry - cartridges filled with food colouring I guess?

Enjoy,

LCF Girl

Christmas cupcakes have arrived!

Jolly Holly...

Little Cake Factory has gone for a bit of a contemporary holly decoration - the photo doesn't really do justice to the cupcakes - the holly leaves have a bit of a green lustre finish!  These cupcakes are gingerbread-flavoured however I know that some people just don't "do" the traditional Christmas flavours so I can decorate any of the usual flavours if required :-)


Visit the Little Cake Factory Christmas cupcake page  for more information.


I am now feeling a tad amount of (possibly inappropriate) early Christmas cheer - woo hoo, bring on Slade...


LCF Girl

Edible photograph cupcakes...

Coming soon!!!  I have been deliberating over whether or not to invest in a printer (that is capable of printing edible ink onto icing sheets) for a very long time now and have finally decided to go for it!  I really want to be able to provide an additional service to my customers, there are loads of possibilities, company logos, photographs and so on.  I can't wait for it to arrive now!

Check back for pics - I'll be testing it out with the LCF logo I think!

Welcome home mum and sis...  missed you :-)

xx

Peter Pan cupcake-alert!

Peter Pan and his elfin friends provided much inspiration for these birthday cupcakes for a 6 year old this weekend.  The hats were pretty easy but the fairy wings refused to stick upright and I had to give up on trying to make the hooks stand up!  You get the idea though - a fine line between exciting the kids and scaring them off with too-evil hook-hands  ha ha.

I'm currently devising my Christmas Cupcakes (in the oven as I type).  I think Gingerbread will be a bit of a hit so I'm giving it a go.  If my huge order of goodies from the Sugarcraft supplier comes through soon I'll be able to add all sorts of pizazz.

Must go open the oven door
LCF Girl

Christmas Cupcake switch on (er, Christmas lights in Guildford)

No, I'm not really switching on the  Guildford Christmas lights this year (although Gethin Jones is doing the honours on 19th November if you're interested).  Little Cake Factory is however taking pre-bookings for Christmas cupcakes and offering 10% discount to the end of November for all deliveries or collections in December.

Get your order in now to take advantage of this special offer.

Right, on with the sample-baking...

LCF Girl

Subscribe to Little Cake Factory's weekly newsletter!

Little Cake Factory wants you to be the first to hear of new happenings in the world of cupcakes.  Subscribe to the newsletter to learn of upcoming promotions, new flavours and general cupcake-chitchat!

Send an email to orders@littlecakefactory.co.uk with the subject "Newsletter subs" and you'll be added to our list.

I'm working on ideas for the Iron Cupcake Challenge, this month the challenge is "Apple" and I have a tasty idea in mind... stay tuned.

LCF Girl

The Marshmallow and Jaffa Cake experiment...

Jaffa Cake Cupcakes...

Marshmallow Cupcakes...

Okay, so let's just say that the first attempt didn't quite go to plan.  Despite looking a bit raggedy (is that a word?), they tasted pretty good.  I think I made the mistake of filling the cases with too much mix after dropping in the marshmallow or jaffa cake... needless to say they overflowed and needed a bit of cupcake "pruning".  The marshmallow also caused giant sink-holes to appear in the cupcake - not sure how to get round that other than fill them in with icing :-)  The jaffa cake actually stayed jaffa-cake like even when baked but the marshmallow pretty much disappeared into chewy goo which, in my opinion was quite nice!  I thought I'd also take the opportunity to try out a different icing nozzle having seen it elsewhere, it looks pretty neat and doesn't detract from whatever else you're dolloping on top!

If nothing else, I hope these pics give you a Tuesday laugh...

LCF Girl

Little Cake Factory is now on Flickr!

I'll be posting pics on Flickr so please stop by to have a look (yes, even the bad ones!).  You can see a snapshot of what's there on the right hand side of this page -->

Just added Little Cake Factory to my Local Business Network run by the Chamber of Commerce - didn't have to pay a penny http://surrey.thebusinessnetworkonline.com

LCF Girl

Iron Cupcake London

What the... I just discovered a whole new parallel cupcake universe in the UK

http://www.ironcupcake.co.uk/

Yes, of course I've joined (although not quite sure in time to do the spice cupcake challenge, maybe December?)

LCF Girl

Hen party cupcakes

Hi cupcaking fans,

I thought I ought to post a pic of my latest "order". I was asked to bake a batch of cupcakes for a hen party last week. The customer specified "naughty bits" so... of course I obliged. I was giggling away to myself as I moulded fondant into certain shapes. Being a family-business I don't think it would be appropriate to post an un-edited copy of the photograph so I have bleeped certain bits out!

If you like the look of these and would like to order something similar then please get in touch - they don't have to be rude either. I thought it was a really original gift to give the hens and I hope they enjoyed them! Oh by the way, the "L-Plates" should be obvious and the others that are visible are ball-and-chain :-)

And now I need to make a call to BT Business as they STILL have not got my order quite right...

Back soon,
LCF Girl

Halloween cupcakes at Little Cake Factory

Boo!

Go on, surprise someone with a scary cupcake this Halloween. We've taken tips from cupcake guru Karen Tack and recreated some of her most popular decorations. Take a look at the website for further information or just email us at orders@littlecakefactory.co.uk.

Okay, so Nightmare on Elm Street might be a bit more frightening but who could resist a spooky chocolate ghost or a sweet little pumpkin?

Get your orders in fast because the next two weeks are sure to be busy at Little Cake Factory.

Eerily yours,

LCF Girl

PS - Seriously, PLEASE no more calls asking me to advertise in every single publication going, you know I can't say no AND my advertising budget is now less than zilch!

National Baking Week - 19 - 25th October

National Baking Week is nearly here!

Take a look at the website to see what's going on in your community and perhaps you can make something to raise money for a local charity or just to provide a smile to those who need it most.

Back to the kitchen...

LCF Girl

Kei's Restaurant - first outing of wedding cupcakes!

Hello!
What a whirlwind weekend. There's something very satisfying about seeing your creation come to life after quite a bit of hard work. As you'll see from the photographs, the cupcake stand for the Chinese wedding on Saturday looked fantastic - even if I do say so myself. I really hope the bride and groom liked it - it turned out to be a bit of a centrepiece in the dining room (or at least it was when I left the restaurant!).

I'd gone along with intentions of adding ribbons and other decorations but there were so many cupcakes on the stand it really just spoke for itself. So, I can safely say that I definitely "do" do wedding cupcakes now. I consider that one a difficult challenge with the double happiness character decoration and if I can do that then anything is possible so please do get in touch if you have any wedding cupcake requirements!

Oh I forgot to mention that I also baked a huge batch of cupcakes for a 21st party on the Saturday also, compared to the wedding cupcakes that was easy!

Back soon,
LCF girl

Double Happiness, flowers, Squires think I'm nuts

Hello cupcaking fans,

BUSY is really the only way to describe this week! So much going on both on the home front and business front. Probably spending way too much on advertising - I actually said NO to someone yesterday for a change. Nice orders still coming in which is great and a few bigger jobs pending.

I now know what the Halloween cupcakes will look like, I just have to get baking so that you can see what you're buying. Once the wedding cupcakes have been delivered this weekend I promise I will get onto Halloween. I am really pleased with how the decorations have turned out - who'd have thought it possible to do 50 Double Happiness decorations and 50 flowers in half a day?! I may end up finding myself a very niche market of catering cupcakes to Chinese weddings - who knows, I can't wait to see the finished cupcake stand in all its glory. What I do know is that I think I am the only owner of the double happiness cutter in the UK... AND I've figured out how to use it! I've got a few great pics that I'll post after the event, I don't want to ruin the surprise in case the bride should happen to be reading this...

I've also realised that people don't always need a specific reason to mail out cupcakes - there are a lot of very kind families and friends out there who just want to say "Hello" with a cupcake and the recipient is always so pleasantly surprised.

T - I am thinking of you at the moment and cannot wait to meet what was the bump very soon.

Check back soon,
LCF Girl

Send a Boo! in the post...

October. The month to shake the moths out of your winter coat, sweep up the leaves, sigh at the Christmas selection boxes already in the shops and ORDER YOUR HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES!

Over the next week or so I'll be creating and photographing my Halloween cupcake "collection". I've already posted a hint of what's to come on the Little Cake Factory website. If you're having a Halloween party or really just want to make someone smile, get in touch with Little Cake Factory and place your order now.

Don't forget - if you come up with a new and novel cupcake idea (including Halloween) that we say wow to, you'll receive a batch for free. Email orders@littlecakefactory.co.uk with your creative suggestions!

Happy cupcaking,
LCF girl

The big Little Cake Factory cupcake bake-off...

Well here we are on Friday 25th September. Have to say that I wasn't quite sure whether I would still be in a state to blog before yesterday was through! Over 100 cupcakes baked and frosted for today's Macmillan Coffee Morning. Despite the hard work and smell of vanilla cupcakes forever engrained into my olefactory memory I am so pleased to have been able to support this event with my cupcake donations.

Yes, I realise I gain some publicity from it however the more I baked, the more I really thought about what it was all for, ultimately. Every penny raised from this morning's coffee events all over the UK will help Macmillan carers and patients and I don't think there's anyone who has not been touched by cancer or by someone who has cancer at some stage.

When asked what he thought the green decoration looked like, DH said "a handbag?". No, it is a coffee mug as per the event logo... of course! Cupcakes have either pink Awareness ribbons or green coffee mugs - I'm not sure I'll ever need to use the mug-cutter again but it served its purpose I thought.

So, as I type, people are hopefully donating money in exchange for a yummy Little Cake Factory cupcake all over Guildford!

Right - HALLOWEEN... Ideas anyone?

Have a cupcake-tastic weekend everyone,
LCF girl

The dark side of the cupcake...

Hello Cupcakers!

I've had a busy week with new orders and loads of potential orders for weddings, birthdays and so on. Finding a Chinese "Double Happiness" cookie cutter for decorations was perhaps the most challenging thing I have had to do in a long time!

I wanted to share with you what happens when you forget that you've got something in an Aga. As fellow Aga-owners will know, you cannot SMELL when something is burning until you open the oven door... No I did not pass these off as crispy dark chocolate cupcakes!

I've spent much of the day making the sugarpaste decorations for the tops of the Macmillan Coffee Morning cupcakes, involving "fashioning" a mug-shape out of a circular cookie cutter - it worked! If you can't find what you want in the shops then you have to be a bit inventive. I'll be posting photos of the cupcakes later on this week.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to visit www.littlecakefactory.co.uk for your cupcake fix.
LCF girl

Cupcakes are a Go in Guildford

After my mad dash around town earlier this week to spread the Little Cake Factory cupcake word, I've been here fulfilling orders! What a fantastic feeling that the hard work is now paying off. In between fending off various sales people all wanting a hefty amount of money for advertising (which I simply DON'T have so please stop calling me!), I've been donning the oven gloves and er, "cupcaking" as our friends across the Pond would call it.

So thanks to everyone, friends, family and all for the interest so far and may the cupcake orders continue to roll in.

Don't forget, if you suggest a yummy new cupcake flavour and it is so tasty that I add it to the regular cupcake menu, you could win a batch of your new flavour for free. Email me at orders@littlecakefactory.co.uk to be in with a chance.

New customers also receive 10% off their first cupcake order when quoting "LCF0909" - valid to end of September '09.

Now fake that bake and head to www.littlecakefactory.co.uk

Thanks for stopping by!
LCF girl

Little Cake Factory is open for business - homemade cupcakes for all!

Yes, back to school and back to business - the day has arrived, Little Cake Factory is open for cupcake production! The flyers have gone out, samples delivered to local offices and businesses and the word is being rapidly spread up and down the country. I have been given many cupcake-related good-luck gifts, lucky me!

I have to say, I wasn't going to include mini-cupcakes on my regular menu however now that I've been preparing them for the sample boxes, they do look really quite cute and provide a nice little mouthful (or at least I manage to fit them in in one go). I'll post a photograph soon.

Please take a look at my website for loads of information and to place a cupcake order.

This week I'll be focusing on promoting the business locally and ensuring that my cupcake presence is known at a local level - netmums.com is the ideal portal for my business so check out my ad which should be going live soon.

Come back soon,

LCF girl

TGCCF (thank goodness its cupcake Friday)

Hello LCF cupcake fans!

I have to say I am pretty glad it is Friday now, and a Bank Hol WE! I think I am in need of a well-earned bit of R&R before the big LCF launch on Monday 7th September. Everything seems to be in place, I guess I'm going to have to order one or two last minute things whilst I'm away but that is the genuis of the internet :-) I've been preparing a couple of last minute cupcake packages for my brothers-in-law but from 7th September NO MORE FREEBIES ha ha. Gotta start making a living somehow! I seem to have rallied support all over the UK and have to thank my very supportive family and friends for that - let's see how it goes. Finally got my business insurance sorted out, cannot believe a £300 difference between two quotes!

I was at the post office yesterday and have even managed to get one of the clerks on-side, he remembered my logo and asked how it was going. He's also my spy... he loves to tell me the goss on the competition which I think is just hilarious (I just hope he's not a double-agent and doesn't kick my cupcake packages around when I leave the PO).

I should also point out that LCF "tweets" and you can find me at 'cupofcakegirl'. I have no idea why certain people like to follow my tweets (I'm talking about the computer software engineers) but the more the merrier and whatever it takes to spread Little Cake Factory's cupcake awareness.

Anyhow, better go get DD up as need to take B-i-L's cupcakes to be mailed off soon.

Have a great bank holiday everyone and watch out there's a blogger about next week,

Little Cake Factory girl

Birthday success!

Yipppeee, yet another successful postal delivery of 12 cupcakes! It's my sister-in-law's birthday tomorrow and I was going to surprise her by mailing cupcakes however I thought it would be best to warn her of their imminent arrival in case she wondered who was sending her boxed edibles... Apparently the cakes have already arrived and are looking pretty good so another satisfied "cupcake guinea pig" or CGP as I should start to call them.

I forgot to mention that I saw some cupcakes in Starbucks the other day. Can't they just stick to making COFFEE? I'm miffed because they do look rather nice, if a little too "perfect". Can't remember the price but I do remember it was more than my own proposed costs and they looked a bit teenier. Oh well, all's well in cupcake competition love and war, it just makes the rest of us try that bit harder.

BTW - the ginger cupcakes from the other day are still going strong three days on - I seem to have found the ingredient that keeps things from going stale too early. Even DD enjoyed hers. She also enjoyed an "In need of chocolate" whopper cupcake that I made with the leftover mix from the gift package. It looked more like a muffin (ridiculous)...

Do you think Dragon's Den would get behind me on my innovative "cupcake packaging" method? I know how I do it all has to be done by hand but if someone could just manufacture the thing that I make then it would surely revolutionise cupcake postage! Yes, there's an element of joke in that and it would do me out of business eventually I guess but seriously, why has no one thought to do this?!

I have got to remember to take MORE PHOTOS of the things that I make.

Later,

littlecakefactorygirl

Ginger cupcakes are goooood

Yummy! I've been experimenting and am trying to figure out whether ginger cupcakes should make it onto my standard menu. If anyone has any thoughts then please let me know (orders@littlecakefactory.co.uk). Do I keep "Born in the USA" (aka Red Velvet) on the list or do I ginger flavour instead?

I've also been reminding myself why I gave up web design. After three days of hair-tearing out at my computer I have finally sorted out an order form for my website. I know it isn't the end of the world but I'd like to give my users as many contact ordering options as possible. Some people hate emailing/phoning and if I take out the er, "interaction" then they can just pop an electrical order (?!) over to me. I am currently forcing my poor husband and family to test it out for me. I think they're on the verge of striking against my business anyway as I am also force-feeding them cupcakes... I think they're being too polite to tell me to stop the calorie overload.

Anyway, onto market research woo hoo. I am armed with my potential client list, red pen, coffee and sleeping DD so might as well stop procrastinating. Having realised that I am away the week after next I guess I better get a wriggle on as I'd like to hit the cupcake trail as soon as I return from holiday.

I've also got Karen Tack's book on cupcakes and am in two minds as to whether getting it was a good idea. Not because it is a bad book - but because it merely serves to remind me just how amazing the cupcake business is in the USA - her creations are completely mind-blowing. Who on earth would think of making a pea and carrot cupcake, (not flavour but decorated!) amazing.

I'm also loving "Ace of Cakes" on GoodFood (Sky) and it teaches me to actually have FUN with this business when the serious stuff is all good and done. Yes they make the most spectacular cakes but they also know how to work incredibly hard as a team and at the end of the day they aren't afraid to be seen enjoying what they do. It is giving me real inspiration!

Anyway - must do some fun Googling.

Bye for now

Cupcakes withstand a trip to Chertsey!

Well today I took 18 cupcakes in the car with me and drove to my friend's office in Chertsey. I packaged them up for a birthday treat and my friend volunteered to be a guinea pig for the "order". I was relieved that they made it in-tact, despite huge piles of butterfrost icing and sprinkles :-)

The initial feedback was that most of them had disappeared and that my friend was having to er, with-hold a cupcake for her boyfriend to try ha ha. I guess that is a good sign?!

This afternoon I am having lots of fun working on my website. I'm pretty pleased with my photos, they've come out quite well albeit I had to take them rather hastily before the sun went down last night - I was trying to get them in a good light! I was a bit unsure of whether to add my own photo to the website but I want to show my customers that Little Cake Factory is actually run by a real human being and to show cakes being made in an actual kitchen (as opposed to being passed around a giant conveyor belt in a warehouse somewhere).

Anyway - still loads to do but I'm having fun with it all. Such hard work!

Till another day.

Not long to go until Little Cake Factory is unleashed!

Hello cupcake-seekers and welcome to Little Cake Factory's blog. We are very excited about the imminent launch of Little Cake Factory, September 2009. Please check back soon as I'll be posting details of our cupcakes, how to order and upcoming cupcake promotions.

We start in September by offering all new customers 10% off their first cupcake order when they quote our special offer code - to be released shortly.

Meanwhile, I have a whole load of cupcake-flavour sampling to do!

See you soon,

littlecakefactorygirl