{you inspire me} The Fabric of My Life

I spent Mothering Sunday on a historical adventure around the city of Ely with my Mother. Along with visiting the more recognisable sites of Ely Cathedral and Oliver Cromwell (boo hiss)’s House, we also wandered the back-streets where my Mother grew up and ambled down Memory Lane.

Well, we ambled and we trespassed a little bit too… seeing that my Great-Grandmother’s house was sold and empty, Mum and I peered into the front window and she described the dark little front room that was only used on Sundays and smart occasions. Our curiosity awakened, we tried the gate leading to the back of the house and found that (with a little shove) it was open. We crept (for by now, we were in full ‘meddling kids’ mode) along the back passage and found that the garden was un-gated too… except for a small trellised fence which opened easily (again, with a little bit of a shove) just enough for us to squeeze in. We peered in through the back window at what was once my Great-Grandmother’s kitchen and pantry. A tiny house that was once a home to my Family. A tiny house that, despite being empty, still holds vivid memories for my Mother.

All this naughtiness and mischief had left us quite in need of refreshment so we went to visit Peacocks Tearoom on the banks of the River Great Ouse. Given that I am partial to a nice Darjeeling and am always in the market for a piece of cake, this was certain to be a hit with me. However, please allow me to recommend it most highly to you, should you ever find yourself in East Anglia!

www.peacockstearoom.co.uk

The delightful management at Peacocks Tearoom assure guests that crockery is often mismatched and that, should a guest find themselves with a matching cup and saucer, they will happily ensure that one or the other is replaced. All this kookiness was fascinating to me. I loved all the crazy clutter on show though I accept that I would not be able to exist for long in such disorder without some blood pressure issues.

I was overcome by the urge to take pictures of everything… it was all so pretty. It was as if I had been possessed by the spirit of the most stylish girl I know. How many afternoon teas she photographed during our week away in Cornwall last year is anybody’s guess. These pictures are inspired by her.





















If you are now in the mood to marvel at pictures of lovely things, I would recommend that you wander over to www.fabricofmylife.co.uk if you have not done so already. Kate’s blog is a daily source of inspiration and delight and the little ray of sunshine that we all need on a Monday afternoon! She writes beautifully and is entirely fabulous.

And here I rest my case.

C

Post script – Memories are so very precious. Please remember this charity www.alzheimers.org.uk

Whistlin' While I Work

So here they are, the pictures from Restoration Cake's very first 100% dairy-free wedding.

White sugar roses hung out to dry.



Pink sugar gerberas drying (yes, that is a bath sponge... very useful in sugarcraft!).



Dusts for enriching the colours of the flowers.



Roses resting after dusting.



This is me, arranging and re-arranging cupcakes at the venue.





My heart stops for a moment every time I do this! One slip and... my heart skipped just thinking about it!



The finished product was a 6" Red Velvet cutting cake atop 100 Vanilla and Red Velvet cupcakes decorated in our Pretty Pleas style.








All that remains now is for me to wish EJ and Anne-Marie every happiness in their life together.

Hope you enjoyed the cake!

C

Everybody's Starry Eyed

I have been a busy little bee over the last couple of weeks, both in my dayjob (which seems to have been stupidly hectic of late) and with all things Restoration Cake.

Honestly, I just want to make cake and be fabulous. C'est tout. Not much to ask.

My most recent creation looks to be quite humble at first glance. A royal blue iced chocolate cake (non-dairy, I must add) covered with a sprinkling of silver stars.



However, if you know your constellations (I must confess that I do not) you will see that this seemingly random sprinkling is in fact an acurate map of the Monoceros constellation and its surroundings.



Yes, it was painstaking but I was so chuffed with my efforts that I sent the map, complete with the tiny holes I had made with my scribe, to my customer with the cake!

C

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

A Tidy Number 350

Perhaps my first item of business should be to wish you all a very happy New Year! May your 2010 be everything that you could ever wish that it would be and much more.

This year has started on something of a manic note, but the dust is beginning to settle just enough for me to take stock of that which is truly important.

I should probably begin this little musing with a bit of background… I should explain that I am not top of the class when it comes to Maths. Sure, I have a Maths GCSE on my CV (in which I scraped a C grade by some miracle or on the merit of good penmanship) and I can figure out essential percentages enough to see me through the sales, but my brain is not tuned into numbers.

Having said that, figures, facts and statistics thrill me. Much in the same way as knowing that my CDs are in alphabetical order, I take comfort and some small pleasure in a neat number.

So this afternoon, with the shameless use of a calculator to check my workings, I came across the revelation that 2010 marks 350 years since the Restoration. I cannot even begin to express my excitement at this tidy number. I immediately reached for Pepys' Diary and started reading along with his January entries!

It will take me more than one post to explain what this date means to me. I started rambling and ranting and raving but thought better than to go straight into this in my first post of the year.

You have plenty of Restoration 1660 themed musings along with many Restoration Cake updates to look forward to this year. 2010 promises to be an exciting year for Restoration Cake. We have a new Wedding Cake gallery coming soon but, in the meantime, enjoy these little lovlies... 100% dairy-free mini-cakes.

C