For me, the cake inside is just as important as how the finished iced cake looks outside. Sure, I want people to say "wow" when they see it, but I also want them to say "Mmmm" when they taste it. I think, for me, who came to cake decorating by way of a love of baking, it is such an important element. Hence, why I will not use packet mix or buy in long life sponges.

Baking from scratch is a skill. Over the years, I have tried and tested many recipes, sometimes I still have to tweak things. It's incredible that if you change a brand of something, it can alter how your cake turns out!

But keeping it simple, I do believe anyone can do it. So here's a recipe it's hard to make a mess up of:

Cupcakes (makes 12 muffin sized cupcakes)

Weigh 4 large eggs (I use fresh free range eggs delivered by my "egg man" who it's possible I have a slight crush on, as he leaves me amazing eggs on my doorstep every week and who wouldn't like that!).

Now, weigh out all ingredients to the same amount. (So, if your eggs weigh 200g, weigh out 200g of everything else).

Caster Sugar

Self-Raising Flour

Butter or margarine

Add flavouring. I use ground vanilla beans for my vanilla sponges but a teaspoon of extract is fine.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 160C. As all ovens are different, I'm not going to give you a time. But, I'd say, after roughly 20 mins, start checking those cakes. Don't open your oven, just look through the window. Check the colour and rise, you should know when they are ready. YOu'll defnitely be able to smell them!

Remember, when you are paying for a cake, that you are paying not only for these ingredients but for the skills of the baker who creates your cake.

I use ganache to coat by cakes before covering. Some folk use buttercream, but I really struggled one hot summer (It happens!) with the buttercream melting under the cake and making it hard to smooth the cake or creating big air bubbles when left. Another cakemaker friend recommended using ganache, it is used by many professional cakemaker around the world, and I have never looked back.

Ganache is made by scalding cream and adding it to chocolate. It makes a beautifully smooth, liquid chocolate mixture that can be used in different quanities to create fillings or coatings. You can add flavourings to the cream to compliment your cake flavour if you wish, or leave it unadulterated.

In my experience, when administered well, ganache creates a firm, smooth surface which is the basis for a smooth polished surface on your cake. Of course, we've a bit to go yet til we get to that stage, but it's all in the preparation!

For milk or white chocolate ganache, I use 3 parts chocolate to 1 part cream.

What's in a cake? Easy right? Flour, eggs, sugar, butter...maybe some flavouring, cocoa, lemon, fruits, ginger...then there's the filling, buttercream, ganache, swiss meringue, jam, curds, sauce....oh now we're starting to get more complicated, lol!

I can tell you what's not in my cakes though? Cardboard that's what! Every tier is all cake. All 4 layers of it! I do not gain height in my tiers by using stacked drums. Some well-known cake suppliers in the central belt do use cake drums to gain extra height. And, you know, that's fine. If that's what you've paid for and you are happy with that.

All my cakes are baked from scratch too. Using quality ingredients and coverings. I don't use any packet mix with lots of additives and preservatives. Pre-mix is used by a lot of bakeries as it has a long shelf life and bakes the same every time. In my opinion, it doesn't taste as nice as fresh cake and is generally over sweet and powdery in texture. However, again, that's all fine, if this is what you expected and you are happy with that. Some folk actually genuinely like packet mix cake! And incredibly, some folk have actually never tasted real cake! I know!!!!

So, just so you can see the inside of my cakes, I've attached a picture. This is my much loved chocolate sponge, filled with chocolate buttercream and chocolate chips. This is before it is crumbcoated and covered and the next step begins!

Hello fellow cakers and followers (wave),

I thought I'd kick off this blog with a wee post about how I came to cake decorating in the first place. I've always baked. Ever since I was a kid, when I was bored, I would bake something. I also like eating cake!! I have a very vivid memory of helping my Mum decorate my younger brother's birthday cake. I can't remeber what age he was, or I was for that matter, but the cake was a snooker table. I remember colouring little balls of icing with liquid food colouring!

After having my eldest child, I decided I would not only bake his birthday but I'd decorate it too! Feeling up to the challenge, lol, I decided to make a pirate ship! It really wasn't too bad at all, but I cringe when I look back at my early cakes. But everyone has to start somewhere! Not that I thought for a second I would be making a career out of cakes! The cake went down a storm at nursery and I was asked to make a cake for one of the staff. Naturally, I baulked at the thought of it, but the staff member convinced me I could do it. She had such faith in me that I could pull it off and I didn't want to let her down! She wanted a shoe and shoe box of all things! I've attached a photo, don't laugh!

But seriously, we all start somewhere. Most folk seem to start out like me - by accident rather than a plan! I had made over 100 cakes for family, friends and neighbours before I thought that maybe, just maybe, I could actually do this. And so, back in 2012, I took the nerve-racking step of setting up a facebook page and declaring myself an actual business!

And practice makes perfect right? I never think of my work as perfect, but practice goes a long way! Here's my latest cake with a shoebox and shoe!

Jennifer

Forgoodnesscake

Hello, Just checking out how this works on the website as I have no idea!

This should be easy though right?!

Hoping to start a blog....soon....ish.........Watch this space!

Jennifer