Well what an amazing few weeks we have had here at La Maison des Petits Gateaux.

We were lucky to be invited to a fabulous bridal shoot at Wakehurst Place in Ardingly West Sussex for East Grinstead designer Emma Tindley at www.emmatindley.co.uk  and her 2014 Designer Bridal Gown Collection which was absolutely stunning!

The photography was by the fantastic and award winning photographer Claire Hill of www.woodlandhillphotography.co.uk East Grinstead on location at the beautiful Wakehurst Place in Ardingly which is a truly fabulous wedding venue.

The weather was absolutely beautiful and the colours of the flowers and foliage at Wakehurst Place in West Sussex were stunning.

The cake’s were photographed inside the baronial style hall with gorgeous polished old oak and the most amazing fireplace!

I took a large 3 tier vintage style wedding cake which had handmade sugar paste bunting depicting the words ‘Just Married’ which linked in with the handcrafted sugar rose bouquet covering the top layer in beautiful English country garden colours.

Each tier was a different sponge and filling and was just delicious!

The wedding cake bottom tier was a zesty lemon 3 layer sponge with organic lemon curd buttercream under vanilla fondant.

The middle tier was a rich organic chocolate mud cake with chocolate buttercream and ganache layers also under a light vanilla fondant and the top tier was an absolutely delicious moist passion fruit light sponge with fresh passion fruit buttercream, absolutely de-li-cious!!!!!!!

A pale blue lacey ribbon adorned each tier and the pretty summer colour bunting was handcrafted in sugarpaste.

On the top cake tier were handmade roses in many colours and shades as in pale pink, cream, lilac, white and tiny green leaves to set off the stunning display.

A truly fabulous day was had and if you look on the other 2 websites above you will see what a stunning day we had.

Much love Mands xx

Happy Monday everyone!

The weather here in East Sussex has definitely turned a bit nippy and so the ovens on are a bonus!

The beautiful autumn colours of the Ashdown Forest are starting to come into their own now and look stunning on the sunny days we are having.

Well,  the challenge last week was for an AGA Cake in a lavender heathery colour going  to a lovely lady who was turning 50 in Reigate Surrey from her friend as a surprise.

This was a tricky hand over as it travelled from me in East Sussex then over to Copthorne in West Sussex and then up to the top of Reigate Hill in Surrey! It arrived in perfect condition ……phew!

The cake was made from a photo of her new AGA and is the new ‘member’ of the family  !

The flooring in her kitchen is oak floorboards and so this of course had to be included.

The beautiful colour of lavender looked fantastic in contrast to dark oak floorboards and a small white tea towel added to the homely feel of the AGA cake.

The silver tops on the hob level were coloured with edible antique silver lustre dust paint and looked very authentic if I say so myself.

Having had an AGA myself I know how they truly do become the heart of the house and are so warm and cosy. Albeit my AGA was not a gorgeous lavender colour!

This was a large 3 layer vanilla sponge with the finest strawberry conserve and light and fluffy vanilla buttercream layers under delicious vanilla fondant and was made to give generous sized portions to be enjoyed by all the guests at this birthday celebration.

I really enjoyed making this cake and the floorboards and so hope to be able to make more of them in all the AGA colours.

Have a good week and make sure you take time to enjoy  piece of cake and a cup of tea!

Off to check the fruit cakes now that are baking in the oven!

Love Mands x

Happy Monday everyone!

All kinds of cupcakes in Forest Row East Sussex and different flavours going on in the kitchen this week on the forest here in Hartfield East Sussex.

Zesty lemon with delicious Limoncello fluffy buttercream and just a sprinkle of lemon zest make these cupcakes taste of sunshine and long hot summers in the Tuscan countryside well the Kent countryside really!

Topped with a handmade sugar crafted champagne glass and filled with sugar bubbles along with the yum yum yum and let’s eat more cake signs these little beauties were demolished (sorry eaten!) in a nanosecond!

Flavour number 2 was the strawberry puree buttercream and champagne and strawberry cupcakes which were absolutely delicious and the pureed fresh English strawberries made the fluffy icing even more fluffier with a juicy strawberry on the top.

These were indeed enjoyed by myself , purely for research purposes I may add , and a friend and yes we did have a glass of pink fizz with them!

The 3rd flavour this week was white chocolate and just added a delicious creaminess to the buttercream and the little curls of the white chocolate  sprinkled throughout made for a tasty surprise.

My 4th flavour this week was banoffi and these are so delicious and soft with a caramel layer under the vanilla bean frosting and topped with fresh banana, as you can imagine these had to be eaten fairly quickly and were!

Another flavour this week was made with mini Victoria sponges and a very fruity blueberry and blackberry conserve with a vanilla bean buttercream, my favourite conserve this week and dusted lightly with vanilla icing sugar.  This was a big hit with the boys in the house!

There are many new flavours coming in and I will keep you up to date on them.

If you have any flavour ideas then please let me know!

Have a great week

love Mands xx