While The Cats Are Away…

… the mice will go to The Designer Wedding Show.

Conspicuous by our lack of diamond rings and big days to plan, the most stylish girl I know and I attended this year’s Designer Wedding Show in Battersea Park. The mission was strictly fact-finding and networking, though we would have had to be made of stone to have not made time in our itinerary for dreaming and (frankly) plotting a little in the absence of our respective beaus.

The whole event was an inspiration. There was beauty at every turn. Fabulous vintage inspired gowns of antique lace and appliqué. Jewellery and accessories either sourced from vintage stores or recreated to appear antique. Intricate wedding stationary, so beautiful that I went out the next day and bought myself a calligraphy set to improve my penmanship. We actually saw a scribe… and a Silhouette Artist; these wonderful crafts, that do not really exist any longer in our day to day lives, are thriving in the Wedding industry.

Even more inspiring to me was the overwhelming power of the female in the room. Fiancés had in the most part been left at home and women flocked to the show with their girlfriends and Mothers. Again, I would have to be pretty cold not to be moved at the sight of a Mother helping her Daughter try on a veil.

Even the stories that we heard that day told of the power of women to create things of beauty. We met one woman, who told us that she was one of a collective, who began her craft in her 50s after her husband “did the runner”. She explained to us how she and her group of friends had focused their energies on creating beautiful and frivolous trinkets.

I was thrilled to have my silhouette cut by Alison Russell who learnt her craft from her Grandmother. Alison now offers a service by which wedding guests can pose for 2-3 minutes as her scissors glide deftly around a small sheet of black paper and the resulting silhouette is mounted in a card and given as a Wedding favour.

www.alison-russell.co.uk

And here is mine.



I have big plans for this little beauty…

So as I work on the final designs for our next Restoration Cake photoshoot, which will be dedicated to Wedding Cakes and all things romantic, I send this belated Valentine to my Mother and my Grandmother who taught me to bake and be fabulous. Great big love to all my Sisters (you know who you are) and all you amazing ladies out there.

C

Probably the Best Way to Spend a Friday Night In...

...Fashioning beautiful fondant roses, with a glass of red wine.

As promised, here are the pictures of the Birthday Cake I was working on for last night. It was a 6" Chocolate Mud Cake (i.e. there is a little bit of coffee in the mix which makes the chocolate feel richer) with a Vanilla Buttercream filling, decorated with black and white fondant roses. Tres chic, non?

It went down well... yum.

Wishing you all a fabulous week.

C

The Measure of a Man (and Other Tasty Treats)

As January melts into February, my thoughts often turn to the final moments of our two King Charles’s.

30th January (1649) marks the anniversary of the Regicide. I remember being about 8 or 9 years old at school, learning the first lessons about our Tudor and Stuart history, and one aspect of the killing of the King has always remained with me. I can vividly recall my teacher (Mrs Howitt… she smelt of Poison by Dior) telling us that when King Charles I was led onto the scaffold, he wore two vests to guard against the bitter cold lest his shivers be mistaken for a sign of fear.

The image of a King loathe to shiver before his rebellious subjects really touched me. I am reluctant to put this down to sympathy as it feels disrespectful to pity a King but I am left with an impression of pride and dignity in the moment that the Divine Right of Kings was shattered so violently.

6th February (1685) marks the anniversary of the death of King Charles II. That image of the King dying slowly surrounded by the ticking clocks that so fascinated him.

The constitutional crisises prompted by the deaths of both Kings have had a lasting impact upon the Great Britain that we know today. What I deduce from the periods of Republic and Revolution that followed both of these events is this country’s dependence upon a sound Monarchy. I am proud of this lesson learnt. A true Royalist through and through.

The only problem that I face year after year at this sombre time is the glorious distraction that is my best friend’s Birthday. I would love to join the Cavaliers of The Sealed Knot in their annual drinks on the Mall but this event is always scheduled on the last Saturday in January and I am forever being called upon to drink with the Birthday girl.

I would love to pay a solemn pilgrimage to Banquetting House to look out to where the scaffold would have stood and lay flowers at the foot of the statue in Trafalgar Square (erected by the Son to commemorate the Father) but I am invariably tied up in my kitchen fashioning a suitably chic Birthday cake.

Today, I light a candle in memory of the most fabulous King of England… and I am sure that he will approve most heartily when it is blown out by the most stylish girl I know. Tomorrow, I will post you a picture of this cake, because I wouldn’t want to spoil tonight’s surprise!

The King is dead. Long live the Queen.

C