Star Bakery greeting cards

Today I had an early Christmas present. Allow me to explain...

A few months ago a card company came across one of my pictures on Flickr and asked for permission to use it on one of their cards. Imagine how shocked I was that one of my little photos (and cakes!) was of interest to anyone other than cake fans!

There's snow-business like......cake business?!

Hello my snow covered readers - well you'll be snow covered if you're reading this from somewhere in the UK anyway! What a crazy week, school cancelled 3 days in a row, cars stuck in the snow and orders disrupted due to last minute parties being cancelled.

Luckily, we've only had to slightly postpone one order due to some edible images being ordered that arrived late due to the post. The cakes were delivered only a day later than they should have been and whilst we'll always do everything in our power to avoid any disruptions to your order, sometimes mother nature just gets her own way!

This is what 70 boxed cupcakes looks like!

Just in case you ever wondered what lots of boxed cupcakes looks like then wonder no more - these are 70 rose topped cupcakes tied with personalised ribbon and finished with hand written name tags to act as favours at a wedding last weekend.

This was a really fun order that was booked last year and the time seems to have flown! I love how this couple have chosen to use cupcakes in a slightly different way rather than as the main cake and you can guarantee one thing - these favours won't get left behind....

Star Bakery on the road!

We've been a bit busy recently so haven't been able to attend many events and although we'd normally try and attend a few Christmas fairs the truth is we're so busy with others orders we just can't get out and about as much as we used to!

I thought I'd let you all know about a few of our events this month where you can come along and buy CAKE nom nom nom:

Hucknall Wedding Fayre - if you're getting married or know someone who has yet to book their wedding cupcakes then tell them to come along and say hello when we attend the Hucknall Wedding Fayre this weekend. All of the details are on our Facebook page and don't forget, we'll have some tasting samples on hand....

The Elms Michealmas market - this is our first time attending what seems like a really fantastic family day out at The Elms school Christmas market. We'll have lots of Christmas themed goodies to sell on the day as well as being able to take bookings for Christmas orders.

Ladies in the Living Room - another first for us and for the Living Room in Nottingham. A fun filled night of Christmas themed shopping where the goodie bag you receive will be worth more than the ticket price! Tickets are selling fast and we'll have a large booth filled with cake displays as well as our new mini cupcakes for you to buy on the night.

We hope to see you at one of our events and its worth mentioning that we're getting pretty booked up for December so please let me know if you need anything - I'd hate to turn away any last minute orders :)

I shall call him.....Mini Me.

We've had these little fellas on our menu for a while now but in case you hadn't seen them yet I'd like to introduce you to our 'cupcake minis' a two bite version of our standard size cuppies.

Our minis cost £1 and are available to our in multiples of 24 (it may sound like a lot but I dare you not to eat less than 3 in one go!).

Cake Britain - yummy cake locally!

View Cake Britain in a larger map

I get a lot of email enquiries asking if I can send my cakes through the post, the simple answer being no. I suppose I could but can you imagine the mess they'd be in when they reached their destination? Yummy as it might be.

Baking, babies and beyond

Hello everybody! Long time no post, but now we're back with a vengeance after what seems like an eternity of baking and babies :)

So if you hadn't already gathered I've gone from mum-of-one to mum-of-two, here's a little peek of Milo who was born on 21st July.

More baking fun at home!

I love cake. That's a given.

But I love cake MORE when it's fun and you can't get more fun than funfetti cake! Whilst you can't buy funfetti cake in the UK (boo) I'm sure a lot of people have dabbled with colours/sprinkles in cake so I thought you'd like to see my efforts after a fun filled baking session with my son.

We decided to make a simple one layer cake as we just wanted to feed the family. I came across this blog a little while back and decided to give the listed 'White Cake' recipe a go. When you see a US recipe that calls for 'shortening' then you can use Trex which is available in most UK supermarkets now but if you don't have any to hand then just substitute for butter.

The recipe is really straight forward and produces a nice moist white cake. My advice would be to make sure you have some strong coloured sprinkles to add to your cake as the classic hundreds and thousands or pastel sprinkles will just get lost in your cake. I happened to have some really bright sugar strands to hand and they produced a really nice effect in the cake and completely melt away so no crunchy pieces in your cake!
I topped this cake with a really basic chocolate buttercream and my son generously sprinkled on the decorations! I hope you like our efforts.

Baking fun in the school holidays

Here at Star Bakery we love to find an excuse to bake - and the school holidays is the perfect one. I love baking with my son for two reasons:

1. He loves to make (and consume) anything we make together and especially likes an excuse to get messy in the kitchen!
2. It's a cheap way to pass the time and have some proper one-on-one fun with my boy :)

Quick update and hello!

As mentioned in my previous blog post we are no longer able to fit in any orders until after 1st October 2010 but I thought you still might like to see what we've been up to behind the scenes as cake is never far from our minds...

You can see all our latest work here and find out all our latest news by becoming a fan of ours on Facebook.

Normal blog posts will resume again in September so in the meantime please don't hesitate to drop me line at liana@starbakery.co.uk or leave a comment on this blog and I can get back to you.

Hope you're all having a great summer so far and I leave you with some images from a few weddings I have baked for recently - hope you like them!

These are a few of my favourite things

Hello my lovely blog readers! Thank you so much for bearing with me over the last few weeks of 'no posts', although I am still pretty swamped with all things cake related I thought it might be nice if I post a few pics from recent cakes that I thought you might like. They may not be accompanied by much chat from me, but hey who doesn't like to ogle cake??

UPDATE: The posts on this blog might slow up a little while we enter our busy season but don't forget we are no longer taking on orders between 1st July and 30th September. All existing bookings are of course being fulfilled but do get in touch if you have any cake queries outside of these dates. We'll do our best to get back to you but our current email waiting time is 5 workings days so bare that in mind!

We're still here!

Well, you can tell we're officially entering wedding season. It's been 8 days working straight through this last week and I have now decided to take 24hrs leave! Well, when I see 'leave' I mean catch up on emails of course...

Not that I'm complaining - I love this job and I've had so many fab clients these past few weeks it's just hard to say 'no' to work. And boy, have we had some fab requests and cakes to make recently! Peppa Pig, Handy Manny, Star Wars, shark cakes, giant cupcakes you name it we've made it. Don't forget you can view all our work on the website or see our full portfolio on Flickr.

Newsletter - May 2010

Just a quickie to let you know our May edition of the Star Bakery newsletter is now available! You can view it by clicking on the image below OR if you'd like to have it delivered safely to your inbox then just drop us an email to newsletter@starbakery.co.uk and we'll do the rest.

This edition features our newest gift box inspired by the lovely weather we've been having. I hope you like it and as ever, don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any queries.

Happy caking everyone.

Gift boxes - changes to pricing

Just a quick one today to let you all know we have now decided to make ordering our cupcake gift boxes even easier.

From Monday, 26 April ALL gift boxes will now be one price - £20 inclusive of delivery to any NG postcode!

You can view all of our gift boxes here. All of our gift boxes are made to order but we're happy to recreate a previous style if you see something you like in our gallery. And as an incentive to those clients who'd prefer to collect from our premises in Hucknall then you get your order bumped up to 12 cupcakes for the price of 9! That's right, 12 of our delicious cupcakes for the price of 9 - what more could you ask for? Drop me an email today liana@starbakery.co.uk to place your order.

Yuuummmmmm dolly mixtures.....

The sweetie cupcake is fast becoming one of our most popular cupcakes this season! That and Red Velvet cupcakes are our two most ordered flavours. And it's easy to see why with it's mound of sugary goodness topped with sweets that remind me of my youth :)

These cupcakes were part of a larger order for a hen do and these were my favourite: lemon cupcakes, drizzled with homemade lemon syrup and topped with zesty lemon buttercream. Perfect for this lovely weather!

And in case you missed it I put out a question to all our lovely followers about what flavours you'd like to see on our menu. We had some GREAT suggestions including:

• Key lime flavour: lime sponge filled with lime filling and topped with cream cheese frosting
• Mocha choc chip
• Cardamon and honey
• Eton Mess
• Vanilla fudge
• Retro sweetie cupcakes: incorporating 80's style popping candy!

You'll have to keep an eye out for our newsletter which will announce the May special sometime soon but in the meantime if there's a flavour YOU'D like to see then leave us a comment and we can add it into the mix!

Feedback from YOU - to us!

Just a quick post to draw your attention to a new bit on the Star Bakery website that will start to feature some of the glowing feedback we receive from you all!

I will eventually have a tab just for feedback and testimonials but in the meantime if you've had an order from us then you can leave us some feedback in a few ways:

Facebook: You can leave us a review on our fan page (assuming you're all fans of course)

Email: why not email us with your feedback so we can add it to the website on your behalf? We take pictures of all our work but any photos you have would be appreciated as I love to see how the cake/cakes look at your event. liana@starbakery.co.uk

Fabulous places: You can also leave us a review via Fabulous Places which features our little bakery.

And as a thank you for your feedback, we are offering 10% off your next order with us! (on all orders up to a value of £100). Don't say we never give you anything!

Quick update and cupcakes of course!

The Star Bakery kitchen has been a hectic place this week with Easter bringing out the cake lovers in you but I just wanted to do a quick post to let you know we're still here (and baking!) and I hope to have a chance to do a proper post soon.

So what's on our radar? Well April and May are quite big months for weddings and birthdays so lots of exciting cakes to make and of course we need to unleash our Father's Day specials in time for the 20 June so all in all, lots to come!

But let me leave you with a picture of some of my fave recent cupcakes we did for Donna's 29th birthday. Her party was retro 1950's themed so we happily obliged and made her some fab record and ice cream soda cupcakes for her to display at the big party. Hope you like them!

Wordless Wednesday - red glittery sugar cookies

Newsletter and Easter Egg Hunts...

It's that time of the month again where we offer up our monthly newsletter for your delectation. This edition features more about our Easter Egg Hunt Cupcakes as well as a little insight into our recent adventures at our first Wedding Fair!

The past few weeks have been a bit jam packed here at Star Bakery towers (well, Star Bakery cul de sac anyway...) so our emails have fallen a little behind so please accept apologies if we haven't got back to you yet - we will, I promise!

As always, if you'd like to order an Easter Gift Box then just drop me an email at liana@starbakery.co.uk and we can get you booked in ASAP. The gift boxes are £22 (inc of delivery) but if you choose to collect then we can offer you the reduced price of £17. Can't say fairer than that can you? (collections are made by appointment only).

Happy Easter cupcake lovers x

My own personal cake!

OK, so a few weeks ago I celebrated my 31st birthday. This alarmed me somewhat as I don't think I had time to get used to being 30 yet, where does the time go??

I chose to take a weekend break with the family to Bridlington in Yorkshire and we had a fab time. The holiday season is just about to kick off so we got all the fun of the beach/amusements being open with none of the crowds! We even found a few isolated spots where we could watch the waves hitting the cliffs as the sunset and it was amazing.
So my birthday came and went in a bit of a blur this year BUT the one thing that will stick with me forever is the cake my son decorated for me. I made a (shhhh) *boxed* cake for him (I can't help it - I love Betty!) to let loose on and gave him lots of my cake sprinkles to work with and he created this masterpiece for me. He was so proud of his work and right after he finished we sat down and enjoyed a piece of cake together.

Now THAT'S a birthday to remember :)

Spring has sprung and Easter is on it's way!

Well, at least in Nottingham it has! This week has started off gloriously and today is my first day hanging out washing...ummm...maybe I should contain my excitement on that one...

Anyway, I shall be off the radar this week as we prepare for our first Wedding Fayre! Taking place at The Premier Inn in Hucknall the day promises to be filled with local businesses demonstrating what they have on offer for your big day.

Star Bakery will have loads of delightful samples to 'oooh' and 'ahhh' over and if you're lucky, we might even have some samples left for you to try! The day kicks off at 11am so some along if you can.

PLEASE NOTE: we are no longer taking bookings for July, August and September 2010 (unless of course you've already booked your date with us!)

And whilst we're busy making wedding cupcakes we'll also be whipping up some pretty special Easter cupcakes. I don't want to give too much away but this gift box promises to be a little different and suitable for men, women and children alike! Watch this space...

Got a cake business related query?

In the last few months a lot more of my lovely blog readers have been in touch to ask questions about starting a cake business and whilst I am always happy to help I though it might be useful to post a few key websites that might be of use:

Flickr - not just a photo sharing website, Flickr has a number of groups you can join to meet other fellow cakers and post questions on a variety of subjects. My top picks for key groups to join include Cake Biz UK and Cupcakes UK. Cake Biz UK has been specially created for people thinking about starting/running a business and the forum is very active so you can get answers to any queries you might have.

March newsletter available now!

Time for your monthly dose of Star Bakery news. Full of information on how to order our Mother's Day gift box and dates of when we are fully booked.

Please don't hesitate to drop me a mail at liana@starbakery.co.uk if you have any queries!

Happy reading :)

Mother's Day aka the eternal question of what to get for Mum

Hello my lovelies! So, I have FINALLY managed to get round to making up a box of yummy cupcake treats that are sure to tickle your Mum's fancy this Mothering Sunday.

This is truly a box full of love. Lemony love to be precise. The cupcakes pictured are all lemon flavoured topped with vanilla lemon buttercream but they can come in any cake flavour (as long as all 9 are the same). I wanted to create a box which summed up the recent springtime weather so we've gone with some nice brights and flowers.

Boxes boxes everywhere

If this past Valentine's is anything to go by then we are in for a busy Mother's Day that's for sure! This was the scene in my kitchen on just one of our delivery days:

I've even had to buy a new fridge to accommodate the growing levels of stock I need to keep at one time! As I make all the cakes fresh I need to be prepared for those last minute orders which means late night dashes to the supermarket are a no go these days.

Star Bakery featured on Frillies for Fillies blog!

The lovely Kate at Frillies for Fillies blog got in touch last week after featuring some Star Bakery love recently. She has a lovely blog filled with gorgeous pictures and posts about fashion and has even done a post about one of my favourite TV shows Mad Men (I LOVE that era for female fashion!).
She asked me to get involved in her monthly Local Focus feature and I jumped at the chance! Have a read of it here and check out the rest of her blog.

Thanks Kate, your blog is gorgeous and I am overjoyed to be featured on it x

A little mini break this week

As many of you long suffering parents will know this week marks half term for schools around the country. A week when us parents groan and our kids rejoice - especially when it comes to spending our money!

I have tried to reduce my orders this week in the hope of spending some much needed mother/child bonding time but I will still be picking up emails and calls so please feel free to contact us if you have any order requests!

I shall be a little silent online so please be assured that next week marks a return to normal business and our February newsletter is due out next week too. Packed with ideas for Mother's Day and Easter so watch this space.

Non-edible cupcakes?!

This post if a little off topic but I thought I'd share a fun time I recently had a friends party in Nottingham. My friend Beth rather ingeniously hired out a fun sewing class at the Textile Workshop in Nottingham so the 10 of us could have 3hrs of fun making and altering some of our favourite clothes.

One month on and still going strong!

OK, so technically that's not true. I mean Star Bakery officially opened for business last January (2009) but January 2010 is when I started this business full time. And do you know what? For the first time the other day I realised it's actually starting to feel like 'my job' and not just a part time hobby I do for to satisfy my creative side (and wallet!).

January was far busier than I ever expected it to be. I always knew people loved cupcakes but on average I get about 2 calls a day enquiring about placing an order so it seems Star Bakery's name is really getting out there in Notts.

January newsletter available now

The January edition of our newsletter is now available here.

And just a little note for anyone thinking about ordering a box of our cupcakes - our minimum order is now 9 cupcakes per order. We have decided to increase the minimum order size as many of you have been asking for orders in multiples of 9 so we thought we'd make it easier for everyone and now offer this as our minimum.

Enjoy!

Valentines cupcakes 2010

I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted, being in this business means my work is very seasonal so I like to get started on ideas and themes nice and early. The one downside is that all the 'holidays' seem to go on forever! I can't believe we still have a few weeks till Valentines day, I feel like I have been making pink icing and heart shaped cookies for weeks. I'm not complaining though, I think I have the best job in the world!

Valentines for the sweet toothed

OK, hands up who stole the last week from me? Come on, there is no way I have been that busy that time has just escaped from me...on no...hold on I understand. Mr Time and Mother Nature got together and decided to gang up on me - no fair!

So like everyone else in the UK I have been at the mercy of the weather. My road is officially an ice rink and school has been shut a few times now so my day has been chaotic to say the least. But being housebound has also meant I've had some time to think about my Valentines cake designs and get some samples made for you all to see and voila......here they are! Now available in multiples of 9, this lovely gift box can be yours for only £20 delivered to any NG postcode. I've already had a few enquiries since posting the pictures yesterday so they are proving popular.

I am also planning to add some new Valentines cookies and a small Love Heart inspired cake into the mix so watch this space.

It's good I love pink buttercream and hearts!!

Yet another reason to eat cake!

Welcome all to 2010, another year without flying cars but with copious amounts of cake and cookies to make up for it! Hooray!

And what better reason to buy edible treats than for the one you love than Valentine's Day. Yes, its only 6 weeks to go till we celebrate the most romantic day of the year and we really have got our thinking caps on here at the bakery. We will be offering new sized gift boxes (holding 9 cupcakes instead of 6), heart shaped cookies and personalised mini cakes for the cake lover in your life. Keep an eye on our website as we'll be posting our seasonal goodies soon.