An edible hotel

Earlier this month an extraordinary thing happened in the heart of Soho...

A Georgian townhouse on Dean Street was converted into an edible hotel, for the Tate and Lyle 'Tasting House' event.

An edible bath of popcorn and rug made of meringues by the Meringue Girls (picture taken from The Mirror)

We supplied this bouquet of sugar flowers for the event.

Our bouquet

Our bouquet up close

Which were then transformed into a very regal display with this edible vase made of cake by Kate Shirazi of Cakeadoodledo.

Flowers by Rosalind Miller and beautiful edible vase by Cakeadoodledo (image take from The Mirror)

Ahh if only all hotels were like this... 

Get up close and personal with a creation by Rosalind Miller Cakes at the By Appointment Only Design Central London showroom

Just a quick post to let you all know that you can now find our cakes on display at the home of the lovely By Appointment Only Design, in their shop on Chiltern Street (near Baker Street).

Visti their website here: http://www.byappointmentonlydesign.com/

Our 'Gold Stripes and Roses' cake in the window last month

'Gold Stripes and Roses' cake

If you're ever in Central London make sure to pop down to the BAOD shop. Their displays and floral arrangements are utterly stunning and unique. Very inspiring for any bride to be...

By Appointment Only Design flower arrangement, image courtesy of Catherine Mead

Another stunning creating from BAOD

And another!

For even more inspiration and sumptuous flower arrangements take a look at their showreel...

A Floral Challenge

Despite the continual rain and grey skies, Spring is only around the corner. A recent Style Me Pretty piece, in which they selected their favourite floral wedding cakes, including our 'Open Roses' and 'Ruffles and Pearls' cakes, has got our brains ticking over with some new floral ideas for Spring.

Style Me Pretty: Floral Wedding Cake Roundup

 'Ruffles and Pearls' (left) and 'Open Roses' (right)

At Rosalind Miller Cakes, we have been taking inspiration from the metallic trend on the runways this season, and experimenting with the Phalaenopsis Orchid.

We came up with this:

'Silver Orchid'

With floral cake design having been such an enduring trend, it is harder and harder to push the boundaries in this field of sugar-craft; although a stroll around Kew Gardens is always a good place to start when searching for floral inspiration.

And whilst floral decoration is a cornerstone of traditional wedding cake design, there are still so many variations of floral design that are yet to be explored. With all the new innovative techniques and tools helping sugar-crafters create ever-more realistic flowers, there are plenty of possibilities to be explored.

One of our favourite tools for creating beautiful sugar flowers is the Jem Veiner. 

This nifty tool has helped us to create these Anemones on our 'Orchids and Anemones' cake. We use it to vein and add textures to the flower petals.

'Orchids and Anemones'

Well, we like a challenge at Rosalind Miller Cakes, so in 2013 we will be tasking ourselves to come up with some cutting-edge, never seen before, floral wedding cake designs.

Some Spring flowers that we are taking inspiration from currently are the Mimosa, the white Muscari, the Allium, the Bloodroot and the Flannel Flower.

So watch this space for some new Spring floral creations from the Rosalind Miller Cakes studio...

On a side note, we had to share a link to one of our favourite companies pushing the boundaries of floral art: Hafod Grange make stunning paperweights with real flowers encased inside a resin globe.

This enchanting Dandelion paperweight is currently holding down the stack of papers on our desk.

The Wedding Industry Awards 2013

At a glittering awards ceremony held at The  Bloomsbury Ballroom  on Wednesday the winners of The Wedding Industry Awards 2013 were announced.  We were absolutely thrilled to win the national award for "The Best Wedding Cake Designer 2013" for the second year running!

Here I am collecting the award.

Featured on Plan Your Perfect Wedding

I am delighted that the wonderful website for Perfect Wedding Magazine; http://www.planyourperfectwedding.com/cakes/gallery/new-rosalind-miller-wedding-cakes  has a whole feature on our cakes. Do go and take a look.

"The Peasants Revenge"

I am a member of The Experimental Food Society and recently exhibited a cake/sugar sculpture for the society's annual talk at The V&A museum. It was part of an edible installation called "The Peasants Revenge".

"Marie Antoinette, the profligate queen of France during the 18th century French
revolution, upon learning that the peasants had no bread to eat, was famously attributed with the phrase “let them eat cake”.

Some historians claim it was her frivolous and lavish lifestyle in the face of the peasants’ hardship that triggered the start of the French Revolution, and ultimately led to her beheading at the guillotine.

The installation is a light-hearted take on these themes of the French Revolution. Marie Antoinette takes centre stage, and the display provides the audience with an opportunity to take ‘revenge’ for the peasants by eating a mini cake in the form of Marie Antoinette’s head."

She drew crowds of people as we wheeled her through the museum.

 

These are the cupcakes the audience ate.

This cake had flowers to match the brides bouquet. Delivered to the fabulous Dorchester Hotel yesterday.

Simple and pretty

 

www.rosalindmillercakes.com

This is a simple but pretty cake which was destined for the top tier of a tower of cupcakes.

Also a reminder that we have been shortlisted in the Hitched Breakthrough Awards, and would be really grateful for your vote. You can vote here http://www.hitched.co.uk/hba/voting.aspx.

As a small business, it's difficult to set aside a budget for advertising and these awards are really important to help get the word out about our company. As well, of course, as being a huge confidence booster!

A Most Curious Wedding Fair

We're delighted to be taking part in "A Most Curious Wedding Fair" this Saturday 6 October. It promises to be a pleasant change from most wedding fairs, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the other exhibitors.

 "A Most Curious is the exhibition company for cool hunting, style savvy individuals, couples and families. With our finger firmly and obsessively on the pulse, we put together events that showcase the most fashion forward, trend-aware and design-led products alongside the premise of a fun day out with unique entertainment, refreshments and activities.

 A Most Curious Wedding Fairs operate under the simple premise of ‘cool stuff’ for your wedding. As long as it’s expressive, fun, stylish, pleasing to the eye and has talented, creative and friendly people behind it then we want to showcase it our wedding fair and unite you with couples of the same nature! Our London Fair is situated a hop skip and a skinny jean away from the capital’s coolest districts, Shoreditch, Hoxton, Dalston, Stoke Newington, Brick Lane (we could go on!) at Bethnal Green’s York Hall and attracted 1200 people to the Spring edition."

 www.rosalindmillercakes.com

 We have been shortlisted in the Hitched Breakthrough Awards, and would be really grateful for your vote. You can vote here http://www.hitched.co.uk/hba/voting.aspx. Many thanks in advance. x

Pinewood Studos

I thought I'd show you this cake which was made for a wedding held at the famous Pinewood Studios, where a lot of the James Bond films were made. I go to a lot of lovely venues to set up my wedding cakes, but It felt very strange wandering around these huge film sets,

The Cake and Bake Show

Last weekend I took part in The Cake and Bake Show at Earls Court, a huge baking and cake making exhibition. Great British Bake Off stars, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry were there, along with cake superstars Peggy Porschen and Mich Turner.

I exhibited a cake in the Wedding Cake Showroom and also demonstrated how to make a large sugar peony. The show was absolutely packed with cake fans, and my demos seemed to go down well. I met a few friends from Flickr, and some lovely cake decorators who were also exhibiting. It's so nice to put faces to friends from your virtual world!

Here's the cake that was on show.

www.rosalindmillercakes.com

Kettners Wedding Showcase

We were delighted to be asked to take part in the inaugural Kettners of Soho wedding showcase. It's a beautiful building with a fabulous reataurant. I had only ever visited the restaurant and was surprised that there was so much space and private dining rooms upstairs. A real gem of a wedding venue right in the heart of London.
"Originally a series of four Georgian town houses, Kettner’s was first opened as a restaurant by Auguste Kettner, (chef to Napoleon III) in 1867. Popular with deliciously colourful characters of the time including Oscar Wilde, Edward VII, Lillie Langtry, Agatha Christie and Bing Crosby, Kettner’s was renowned for hosting incredible parties. "

This is one of the new cakes we showed there.

www.rosalindmillercakes.com

Great Cake Places

We are named in the lovely book, Great Cake Places  as one of Londons' best wedding cake designers. Max Gower, their wonderful photographer came to see us and sent me these images of us making a Red Velvet cupcake.

 

Pink Fairytale wedding Cake

here's an ivory and pink version of the very popular Fairytale wedding cake. All the edges of the details are softly dusted with a light pink edible dust which gives a really delicate feel to this cake.

A cute Peter Rabbit birthday cake

I so enjoyed making all the tiny vegetables for this cake!

Newsletter

A copy of the newsletter we sent out recently. Let me know if you'd like to be added to the list. info@rosalindmillercakes.com Branching Out For those of you who only know us as Peggy's Cupcakes, we have added a new arm to the business, Rosalind Miller Cakes, to showcase our wedding cakes. Please take a look at the website if you haven't already done so. www.rosalindmillercakes.com Don't worry, we are still continuing with the cupcakes. Keep checking the website for new collections. Press Interest Our wedding cakes are getting a lot of attention from the wedding magazines! See some of our highlights below... Conde Nast Brides - June 2011 Conde Nast Brides - April 2011 Wedding Magazine -  June/July 2011 Television We were featured on"The Great Cake Bake" on Wedding TV in February. Three top cake designers battle it out to win the hearts of a couple by creating an extravagant unique cake especially for their Pagan Ceremony. Guess who they chose! See the episode online here.

Classes Our Cupcake Baking and Decorating classes are still very popular and you can find the latest dates here. In response to many many requests, we are introducing a 2 day Wedding Cake Course and a 1 day Exquisite Sugar Flowers Class. . During this course you will learn how to immaculately cover, stack and decorate a 2 tier wedding cake. You will be taught how to make a wide range of decorations including exquisite sugar roses, peonies, filler flowers, and a wired floral arrangement. At the end of your course you will have mastered the art of creating the perfect wedding cake. ...and, as always, whether you want to make cakes as a hobby, for a wedding, or to start your own business, Rosalind is happy to answer any questions you can throw at here. Click here for more information or to book for the 2 day Wedding Cake Course Click here for more information or to book here for the 1 day Sugar Flowers Class Here are some beautiful images of my cakes, shot by Fanni of Fubumedia taken at a bridal shoot recently. Best wishes from Rosalind and all at Rosalind Miller Cakes and Peggy's Cupcakes.