People often ask how I discovered cake decorating and ask how my business began.

My passion for cake decorating and sugar craft began as a small child. I always remember my mother creating the most wonderful birthday cakes for me and my brother. I would spend hours looking through her cake decorating books, marvelling at the designs and carefully choosing what birthday cake I would have each year. With these fond memories held close to my heart, when my own daughter had her first birthday party I decided I would carry on the tradition and I baked and decorated her birthday cake. Everybody at the party was most impressed with the 2 tier fairy castle cake I had lovingly spent hours creating. Family and friends then began asking for celebration cakes in all shapes and sizes and before I knew it friends of friends too. After my success designing and creating cakes for family and friends I became confident in myself, my work and with a wealth of practical experience under my belt, in 2009 I took the plunge and launched my business The Custom Cake Shop, baking and designing custom cakes.

Today I enjoy passing on my experience and knowledge to others through Custom Cake Classes by The Custom Cake Shop. Since 2011 I have been busy teaching cake and cupcake decorating, running cupcake classes, hen party workshops, children's parties and hosting private corporate events.

Although my path has changed direction and led me into teaching, I still consider a select few bespoke cake commissions but availability is extremely limited as I find my diary quickly fills with class and party dates. If you would like to make a cake enquiry please email your requirements along with the date you require to Rachel@customcakeclasses.com.

Click on the images below to view a selection of some of the my personal favourite cake designs I have created.

HOW TO MAKE SWISS MERINGUE BUTTER CREAM (SMBC)

A little while ago we went in search of a very light and extremely creamy butter cream recipe to develop a new Eton Mess cupcake flavour, requested by a customer as part of their wedding cupcake order.

Eton Mess is typically made with fresh cream, crushed meringue and strawberries but as the cupcakes would be kept out of refrigeration for over 2 hours, using a fresh dairy product was not an option.

With 150 wedding guests to cater for it was very important that the buttercream recipe was 100% food safe for all guests, including any vulnerable guests such as pregnant women, the elderly and the young that may be in attendance and that is when we came across the Swiss meringue buttercream recipe.

Made with sugar, butter and egg whites, SMBC was the very light, extremely creamy and most importantly safe butter cream recipe we were looking for.

SMBC is very similar to, but slightly denser than Italian Meringue Butter Cream (IMBC). The advantage of SMBC is it’s slightly easier to make and the egg whites are heated to 160.c during the process, which is the temperature that salmonella bacteria are killed at, making it 100% food safe and ideal for our purpose.

Here's some photos of the cupcakes set up at the wedding venue, followed by the recipe we used below.

SMBC Recipe

INGREDIENTS

4 Egg Whites
225g Caster Sugar
1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
450g Unsalted Butter (softened)

METHOD

Place the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar in a bowl and place over a pan of simmering water. Bring the ingredients together, whisking intermittently whilst the mixture warms.

Swiss Meringue Butter Cream Recipe SMBC UK

After around 5 – 7 minutes your mixture should reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit. This is the all important temperature that Salmonella bacteria are killed.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream SMBC Recipe UK

Once the mixture has reached the desired temperature, carefully pour the syrup into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and place on a high setting. After a few minutes the mixture will begin to transform into a white foam consistency and after 6 – 8 minutes the meringue mixture will form stiff white peaks.

Swiss Meringue Butter cream Recipe how to UK

Turn the mixer down to a medium/high speed and add a small amount of the softened butter at a time until it is all fully combined. If your butter cream starts to look a little bit curdled, turn up the speed of the mixer to bring together.

Butter bristol bath cupcake classes cake decorating

You should now have a light and creamy, versatile butter cream perfect for mixing in your required flavour. For a vanilla butter cream I add 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and for a light and creamy lemon butter cream I add 2 heaped tablespoons of luxurious lemon curd.