We spend a lot (far too much) time thinking about cake trends. The latest styles and techniques, what people will be choosing for their weddings and bakes that makes us go ‘oooooh’.

It’s nearly halfway through 2013, so we thought we’d show you what we’ve been loving so far this year.

1. Layer Cakes
No one seems to make a cake with just 2 layers in 2013. Layer us up buttercup..

via Pinterest

2. Frills
Forget your images of 70s blouses. Frills are hot news on cakes right now.

via Pinterest

3. Buttercream Big Cakes
For those of us that want to eat buttercream icing with a spoon, buttercreamed cakes are music to our ears.

via Pinterest

4. Tall Cakes
What’s better than a cake? A BIG cake. Extra high double-barrel cakes add right on trend.

via Pinterest and our tall cake class

5. Dessert Tables
This is such a huge trend for weddings in the USA. We are a bit in love with Amy Atlas the queen of dessert tables.

via Amy Atlas

What’s your favourite current cake trend? Which do you love or loathe? Anything we’ve missed?

Sarah x

pinterest

This was all a great idea written down in my notebook. Then the time came to send the little feedback requests out after the first classes at the studio. It was surprisingly scary. I kind of knew we were doing ok as over half of our customers come back for more than one cake class. But what if there was loads of stuff we’d missed? How embarrassing.

Then again, does a bit of egg on your face matter? What matters is delighting your customers right? Better to know about something and improve surely?

Our top 3 tips:
1. Don’t be afraid to ask what you can improve on. Learn from what people tell you and don’t take it personally. People want cheaper cakes? Offer some additional, more simple designs.

2. Collate all the good feedback and shout about it. Use it in your marketing and on your website.

3. Use an online tool to make your own questionnaire. We’d really recommend Survey Monkey. It’s free to begin with and really easy to use.

Do you ask your customers what they thought of your cake or service? Have the replies been what you expected? Any surprises?

Thanks for reading. If you'd like to receive our newsletter with more tips and advice you can sign up here: Cupcake Workshops. There’s also loads more business advice and cake inspiration on our Pinterest: Blue Door Bakery (bluedoorbakery) on Pinterest.

There was chat on our Facebook page recently about how eye wateringly expensive KitchenAid mixers are. I waited a long time for my first one. I’d started Blue Door Bakery and decided I’d survive with my tiny hand mixer until I’d made enough money to buy the KitchenAid I’d been dreaming of. It took 500 cupcakes and a lot of icing sugar mess before I finally splashed out.

We now have lots of them at the studio (there they are, in the photo above) for our lovely students to use when they visit us. It was a big decision and a big expense but everyone loves them. They are like part of the family.

One thing’s for sure. Once you do get one, it’s a love affair that lasts. I don’t know if it’s because most people who buy one have had to wait and think long and hard about it. Or perhaps it is because they perform brilliantly. Or maybe it is just purely down to how utterly, heart-stoppingly beautiful they are.

So, once you’ve welcomed one to your family, here’s some KitchenAid things we love and thought that might brighten up your day too..

This print is available here KitchenAid Baby You Spin Me Right Round and they’ll print it in any colour you like. We have one of them in the studio matched to our exact Kitchen Aid mixer colour. I know we’re baking geeks.

We’re a bit in love with these little tags. Give the gift of cake. They are available here Baked Food Labels Kitchen Tabs.

These are such pretty little cards to send to someone who shares your baking love. With postage from USA they aren’t the cheapest notecards ever but they are beautiful. You can get them here Mixer, Kitchen Set of 24 Homemade Cards.

If the 27 KitchenAid colours available aren’t enough for you, you can add a little something to personalise it KitchenAid Stand Mixer Decal. They are available in loads of different patterns and colours.

These personalised recipe cards can be printed in a whole selection of colours. They’d make a great gift for a KitchenAid lover. You can get them here: Personalised Recipe Cards.

Tell the world about your KitchenAid love affair with this Silver Kitchen Mixer and Muffin Tin Charm Necklace.

If you have a KitchenAid, do you love it? If you’re lusting after one, what colour will you get? Does anyone else kiss theirs sometimes? Err..

Sarah x

Baking doesn’t always have to be fancy or complicated or beautiful. Sometimes, just plain easy and delicious is what’s needed.

(Sorry there’s not more photos, they were demolished by some of our class students pretty sharpish.)

I’d seen this recipe around on Pinterest for ages. I can’t find where it originally came from as there’s loads of variations, the version below is the one I used though. ‘Cups’ in the recipe are american measuring cups. (If you don’t have any there’s some ridiculously cute ones here.)

3 Ingredient Nutella Cookies
1 Cup of Nutella
1 Large of Free Range Egg
1 Cup of Self Raising Flour

1. Put everything in a bowl and mix, start with a spoon and finish with your hands.

2. Mould into a sausage shape and cut into slices.

3. Lay the slices onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper, with gaps between to allow for them to spread.

4. Bake in an oven pre-heated to 180C for about 10 minutes until the cookies have changed colour slightly and don’t feel sticky to the touch.

5. Enjoy and don’t tell anyone how easy they were.

Have you tried them? What did you think? Is simple best when it comes to Nutella cookies..?

Sarah x

Our cake guru Laura has just come back to work after having her baby Elsie. I thought we’d welcome her back by asking her some questions and telling you a bit about her. Here are her answers..

If you could share a slice of cake with anyone, who would it be and why?
Gary Barlow! Why? Because I need to impress my future second husband and cake is the way to do it.

What’s your favourite cake to make?
A big one. A big coffee and walnut one in fact.

If you could make a cake for anyone, alive or dead, what cake would it be and who would it be for?
A massive chocolate cake for my mum. She’s a women who seriously loves chocolate.

What’s the one cake decorating tool that you couldn’t live without?
A spatula (or spoonatula!) Cleans every last drop from the bowl every time. More cake and less washing up. Win win! I got obsessed with spoonatulas when I saw them being used on the Great British Bake Off. Jen and Sarah searched high and low for them for me and I know have 4. Love ‘em.

What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learnt from running your own cake business?
Not to do “mates rates”. (They might get an extra blob of buttercream though.)

What’s your biggest cake disaster?
Generally all cakes which I forget to put eggs in – it happens a lot when I’m baking at home!

What would you change about the cake industry if you could?
The cheap supermarket cakes. It sets the bar too low. People expect that that is how much a cake should cost. As all cake makers know, there’s no comparison in taste or price.

If you had an extra hour in the day, what would you do with it?
Sleep – all mums need more sleep.

What’s your favourite baking or cake decorating book?
It’s got to be my very old Good Housekeeping recipe book. Used since I was a teenager. Shame it has no pictures!

What’s your favourite drink?
I’d struggle to choose between wine or coffee. Coffee before lunch, wine after?

Top cake tip?
Don’t over mix your batter. It makes any cake dense and stodgy.

My 5 favourite things other than family, friends and my job (!) are…
eBay, Costa coffee, chocolate, good cheese, gawping at lovely interiors.

We’re so pleased to have Laura back at the studio. What’s the best thing about your work colleagues?

Sarah x

Here’s a round up of my next 5 “to be baked” peanut butter recipes, in case you fancy trying them too..

3 Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut Butter Cup Brownies

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Donuts

Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Dough Crumble Bars

Peanut Butter Banana Bread by Mom On Timeout

Now, which to go for first? Which do you love more, Pinterest or peanut butter? Do you have a favourite peanut butter recipe? What’s your current food obsession?

Sarah x

The recipe isn’t as scary as it looks, just think of it as three processes and then building the little minxes.

Salted Banoffee Eclairs
Adapted from an original recipe here

Makes 12 eclairs

For the pastry:
60g Butter
0.5tsp Maldon Sea Salt
130ml Water
80g Sifted plain flour (really do sift it, it makes a difference in this recipe.)
3 Large eggs

For the creme patisserie:
6 Yolks from large eggs
120g Caster sugar
50g Cornflour
450ml Whole milk
1 tsp Vanilla extract

For the caramel:
100g Unsalted butter
100g Dark soft brown sugar
50g Caster sugar
3 Tbsp Golden syrup
50ml Double cream
1 tsp Vnilla extract
2 tsp Maldon Sea Salt (use less or more, to your own taste)
100ml Double cream (whipped until it is just standing in soft peaks)
3 Bananas (cut into slices, I think they look best cut at an angle)

To make the choux pastry:

1. Switch the oven on to 220C.

2. Put the butter, salt and water in a pan and heat until the butter is melted. Turn off the heat and add the flour. Beat it until the dough comes together. Switch the heat back on and beat with a wooden spoon for about 1 minute.

3. Switch off the heat again. Beat in two of the eggs. It will look like everything is going a bit wrong, but just keep going, beating until your arm aches and suddenly everything will come together. Break the third egg into a mug and mix with a fork. Add enough of this egg to the mixture in the pan until the dough looks shiny and smooth. It might take the whole of the third egg.

4. Pop into a disposable piping bag with the end snipped off to make an opening of about 3cm in diameter.

5. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper (not greaseproof paper, that’s not non-stick unless greased). Pipe 12 lines of the pastry, trying to make them the same size and length. They need to be about 10cm each if you want to make 12.

6. If they have peaks at the end, just press them down gentle with a wet finger. Brush them all with some of the leftover beaten egg.

7. Switch the oven down to 180C and bake the little fingers for about 25 minutes. They’ll be golden and beautiful and crisp.

8. When they are cool, carefully split each one lengthways with a knife.

To make the creme patisserie:

1. Put the milk in a pan with the vanilla and bring to the boil.

2. While the milk is boiling, put the sugar, cornflour and egg yolks in a large mixing bowl and whisk them until the are pale and airy.

3. Add the hot milk to the bowl and whisk it all together until smooth. Put it all back into the saucepan over a medium heat. Keep whisking slowly. When it has thickened, pour it out of the pan and into a cold bowl. Cover the custard with clingfilm and press it down so it touches the surface.

To make the caramel:

1. Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a pan and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Add the cream, vanilla extract and salt. Whisk it together. Heat for about 10 minutes until it becomes sticky and thick. Resist the urge to stick your finger in. It will look amazing, but it’s ridiculously hot and dangerous, so please be careful.

To make the eclairs:

1. Fold the whipped cream into the cold creme patisserie and put it into a piping bag with the end snipped off.

2. Pipe the cream mixture into the bottom half of each of the eclairs.

3. Add a layer of banana.

4. Add another layer of the piped cream mixture before shutting the eclair sandwich.

5. Put the caramel into another disposable piping bag with the end snipped off. Pipe artistic drizzles over the top of the eclairs.

6. Eat one to test it and feel very smug that you made these beauties.

If you can manage to resist them, they’ll keep for a day or two in the fridge.

What do you think is the latest ‘new cupcake’? Have you made choux pastry before? Do you think it’s wrong to eat an eclair for breakfast? (Hypothetical question of course.)

Sarah x

We’ve been there dear friends. We understand. We’ve decided to accept that once the baking talk starts, we’re pretty much social outcasts. Fancy joining us?

Loads of you have become friends after meeting in our classes, how brilliant is that? You asked us for a place to meet up, chat and talk about cake. BDB Cake Club was born.

Our first meeting was in March. I made a giant peanut butter and chocolate monstrosity (recipe to follow in another post soon.)

We asked people to bring cakes they’d baked to share if they fancied it. We entered those people into a draw for a goodie bag (which Jo won). Jo writes a food blog Jo’s Kitchen and she wrote about the cakes she made here: Easy Easter Nest Cupcakes. There was also a lemon and poppy seed loaf from Sandie and a delicious hazelnut torte from Sarah-Lou.

Everyone made an Easter bunny cupcake after a demo by our cake guru Dani. After that we chatted about cake, practised using awkward moulds, made cake balls, talked about Sarah-Lou winning Lurpak’s baking competition and helped with other caking dilemmas.

We absolutely loved every single minute.

Fancy joining us? You can book a place here: Cake Club.  Please don’t feel shy if you haven’t been here before or if you’d be coming on your own. We’d love to meet you.

Do you bore your friends with baking? Or do they listen so you feed them cake in return?!

Sarah x

Every week at the studio has been full to the brim with exciting new classes, old favourites and planning what’s to come for the rest of the year.

George and Harriet, my twins, turned 1 a couple of weeks ago. It’s been an amazing but really hectic year. I’ve learnt a lot about balancing business and life. There’s loads of difficult choices to make.

(Sorry for the blurry photo, it’s was nearly impossible to stop them diving into the cake and get a photo.)

When I had the babies, I decided that I’d try to work only a few days a week and finish work at 5pm. Much as I love my job, I didn’t want to work every every moment anymore. Well, just for a while, whilst the babies are so deliciously little. I’m enjoying my time with them so much. I love that working for myself lets me make that choice.

So, here are my tips for having children and running a cake business without losing your marbles:

1. Childcare. Put plans in place in good time for childcare while you’re working. I know that sounds obvious, but getting organised early on really does make it less stressful. If you’re running a cake business, you’ll probably be working some weekends aswell as during the week. This is kind of unavoidable with wedding cake making. Don’t forget to plan who is looking after your little ones then too.

2. Consultations. If you’re making wedding cakes you’ll probably need to organise consultations at home around your children. Think about booking a few cake consultations on one day or evening. This means that you only need to hide the toys and make the house pristine once..! (You also only need to bake one larger batch of samples.)

3. Make lists. It’s hard to swap from your Mum head to your business head with a moment’s notice. Lists have really helped me to remember what’s going on at work and at home.

4. Book some holiday time off. It’s really easy to forget this when you start a cake business. You’re so grateful for bookings that as you get busier you suddenly realise that you have no free weeks. (Honestly, if you’re branding, marketing and advertising your brilliant cakes well, this will happen.) Time off is really important for loads of reasons but it’s also just an opportunity to spend time with your family.

5. Remember that your babies won’t be tiny forever. Sorry old cliche but true. You might not have time to take every order you want or make a competition cake you want to right now. You can’t get this time with your children back though. There’s no shame in wanting to enjoy it and not winning business woman of the year. (This year anyway..!)

I hope those tips are useful. Do you run your own business and have children? What have you learnt? What are your top tips?!

Sarah x

PS If you’d like more cake business advice you can join me for a class on Starting Your Own Cake Business Class. It’s a day full of practical advice I’ve learnt along the way.

Here’s the last in our little series of edible Christmas gifts. Hope you’ve enjoyed them. We’ve really loved making them. We’re so excited to give them away, we feel like the 2011 John Lewis Christmas advert little boy.

This one was an original idea we saw on Pinterest via Bakerella. We loved the idea but wanted to do it with a recipe we know and love for Christmas. So, this is an adapted version of Nigella’s Christmas Cranberry, White Chocolate and Pecan Cookies in a jar.

You’ll need 1 litre jars for this. We got them from Ikea for about £1 each.

Nigella’s Christmas Cranberry, White Chocolate and Pecan Cookies

(adapted from Nigella’s amazing Christmas book)
(you can print our labels here)

75g Rolled oats (not instant)
150g Plain flour
0.5 Teaspoon Baking powder
1 Teaspoon of cinnamon
75g Dark brown sugar
100g Caster sugar
150g White chocolate chunks (we used supermarket own brand bars and chopped it for nice big chunks)
75g Dried cranberries
50g Pecans, roughly chopped

(to make up the cookies, your recipients will need 1 egg and 125g of butter, this is explained for them on the labels.)

Layer the ingredients in the order above. That order is important! We tried various different ways and found that the best for staying in place and looking pretty too.

Press the ingredients down between each layer. We used an old spoon which we bent over to reach flat inside the jar. It did a brilliant job!

We also cut pieces of baking paper, folded them over into tiny squares and put them into the top of the jar on top of the nuts. We did this for two reasons, we realised that our non-baking friends probably wouldn’t have a drawer at home overflowing with baking paper and also it helps to keep everything squashed down and where it should be in the jar.

We then printed the labels onto paper, stuck them onto the jars with super strong Power Pritt Stick and added some ribbon. Taa darr.

These are such a lovely gift, as everyone who received them can feel like a domestic goddess without too much effort!

Love
Sarah x