Royal Wedding Fever!

Hi everyone! It's the American intern Tyler here. The Royal Wedding would be about the last thing you'd expect me to be blogging about, but everyone here has gotten me quite excited for William and Kate's big day. At first, I didn't understand what the big deal was. It seemed like just another wedding. However, after seeing some old footage of Charles and Diana's wedding, I can see you Brits take this whole royal wedding thing pretty seriously!



I wonder if everone got a piece of the wedding cake?



Here is a picture of Charles and Diana's cake. I wonder if the style will change, or if William and Kate will choose a cake as elegant as this one. Nicola jokingly suggested that they may just have a really big cupcake instead of the traditional wedding cake. I don't think that will be the case...what do you think?



That's a nice cake!



It's amazing how many people showed up for that wedding! I hope it's the same type of scene this Friday. I'm excited to be here and be a part of history. My classmates and I will be going to Hyde Park (along with about a million other people!) to view the wedding on a big screen.

Here at Family Cake Company, we have been getting prepared for the big day the best way we know how' by baking cupcakes! Everywhere you go, you see things with William and Kate on them, so why not cupcakes??

I hope this gets you excited for the big day on Friday! Tyler

Look for family cake company on twitter! @familycakecomp

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Boy in a boat with a mackeral!

So a few weeks ago in the midst of chaotic and overtly stressfull day, hundreds of questions and things to do and only 5 minutes to do them in, you know the kind of days I mean. Well in the midst of all that Daniel (Boss man) comes to me in the kitchen

"we have a special commision cake request" he explains beaming ear to ear

"ok, whats the brief"

"the customer would like a cake with a boy in a chelsea kit, sitting in a boat fishing with a mackeral popping out of the water"

I heard

"boy in a chelsea kit; in a boat fishing with a mackeral in his mouth" oh how I laughed out loud (and cried a little inside) how the hell was we going to execute this.

Well once the laughter had subsided and I'd finally realised the little boy did not have to attempt to eat a live mackeral (like I said was one of those days and my brain just would not compute) I collected the lasagna's for 4 and we huddled in the office and artistic ideas got beaten down with tecnical details, technical details got battered about by artistic ideas and in the end we all agreed upon this. But the stars of this cake are Anna and Vincenzo the work is as outstanding as the original request, keep the challenges up people we love it!

let us know what you think of our cake, have a great time this bank holiday from all of us at the Family Cake company.

Nicola Quigley and Zach Rapacioli.

admin@familycakes.co.uk.

020 7619 7793

Easter Specials!

We are very busy here this week getting ready for Easter weekend. Our chefs are arm deep in chocolate eggs! Chocolate eggs seem to be very popular this year, as I myself have packaged a whole lot of chocolate eggs. Another popular item are cupcakes, and what better to put on a cupcake than chocolate eggs???

Here's a look at some of the other Easter specials!

Hope you like what we've been working on. And let's hope that the weather this weekend is as beautiful as it is today! We also have some Royal Wedding specials that we will give you a peek at soon!

Look for us on twitter! @FamilyCakeComp

Like us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/FamilyCakeCompany

Fiasco's a go go!

Friday is up on us again and what joy it brings to the faces around us. This week I got to hearing some great stories surrounding cake fiasco's after my own run in with a cheesecake (that slid from my hands onto the floor...oh boy!) so I thought I'd help that weekend bliss along with a few giggles.

This first story comes from my friend Paul Bagget whom is known as a hazard to himself, those around him and cheesecakes apparently!

I was around 8 years old and my nan had asked me to take dessert through to the dining room, a lavish strawberry decorated cheesecake affair. Well being a boy I raced around one corner ran down the hallway, skidded and ran into the dining room turning quickly to proudly show off the cake to my Grandpa.

"what ya showing me an empty plate for boy...wheres the cheesecake"

I peered over the plate to my horror there was no longer a cheesecake..I mumbled something unintelligible whilst my Grandpa stormed back to kitchen

"wheres dessert women"

"Paul's got it"

"no he hasn't"

"well I gave it to him"

"no you gave him an empty plate"

"and why would I do that stop playing silly buggers and go and slice the cake I'll bring through the tea"

"how can I slice a cake that's not there"

At which point I glanced to my left and saw the tip of a strawberry poking over the radiator; in my haste at turning the corner I had gone one way and the cheesecake had flown in the opposite direction and slid down the back of the radiator....it took another half hour of shouting before I finally confessed.

I remember a good friend of mine got himself into a baking phase a couple of years back it was fantastic, everyday he'd bake scones, cookies oh how my hips suffered. I came round for dinner one night and whilst nursing an over ripe belly on the couch he jumps up

"cake...we need cake I'll make a Victoria sponge"

Oven goes on pots and pans clash about and a happy whistle wafts up from the kitchen, a half hour later we are all crowded around the oven desperately awaiting dessert a lavish soft and bouncy sponge cake; what we got was as flat as a piece of paper, slightly crispy curled edge disappointment. Apparently our friend hadn't realised their was a HUGE difference between plain and self raising flour. How we will never know but the cake did taste amazing in the end (one of the best I've ever eaten).

We got our new display table at Eatalys this week people were taking the cakes off the display and eating them as quickly as I was setting them up!

Have a great weekend everybody get yourselves to Holborn and have a coffee and a cakes with us at Eatalys!

Nicola Quigley

admin@familycakes.co.uk

020 7619 7793

Leprechauning around!

For St. Patricks day a few weeks ago we allowed you a sneak peak of little seamus the leprechaun now perched on his cake, we made him a couple of weeks in advance so he was sufficiently hardened by the time the cake went out, we didn't want to see any little green heads rolling across the floor. Well now the whole cake is down, delivered and probably eaten as well by now so I get share the final product with you, pretty spectatcular I'm sure you'll agree. Nicola Quigley Admin@familycakes.co.uk

Farm Yard Delights!

Last week saw us fulfilling a request for 11 cupcakes and a giant cupcake for a regular customer sons party.

No perticular theme was suggested but the party was being held on a farm for some under 10's so we got Farmyard happy in the kitchen. I think they look superb Vincenzo and Anna have outdone themselves!

The grass is created by pushing green marzipan through a strainer to create a string effect, its time consuming and fiddly but it really looks great!

Nice little touch from anna here putting our little ducky in its own pond!

So what do you think, get in touch or post your comments here we are interested in hearing your thoughts on our cakes from over the past year, what are your favorites, anything you would you have done differently and which ones had you heading for the shops in a sugar craving craze?!

New Intern added to the Family

Hello everyone,

My name is Tyler Crisman and I will be interning here at Family Cakes Company until June. Let me start by telling you a little about myself. I am here in London studying abroad until June. I go to school in Appleton, Wisconsin back in the US, but I am originally from Chicago, Illinois. I was placed in an internship here and I am very excited to begin working with the company.

My first thoughts when I heard I would be working in a cake company was "Cool, I'm going to get a bunch of free cake!" I did not know much about the industry, but upon further inspection I found that there is much more to the company. It will be great to see what goes on in the background of running a business. I am ready to embark on this adventure.

I'm almost done with my first day here, and it has been an eventful one. I showed up at 8AM this morning to smiling faces everywhere. My boss showed me around the office and everyone really seems to enjoy working here. It is an extremely friendly work environment and I look forward to meeting everyone else.

The day was filled with filing orders, talking to head Chef Vincenzo about cake creations, and even watching him do some decorating. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until my boss came in with a cracked laptop screen and looked to me to hook his laptop up to a moniter. I dont know why, but they all think I am really good with computers here. I guess I'll have to learn quickly.

I expect to help the company get its name out there a bit more. I hope to develop a twitter and facebook fan page for the Family Cake company. I also plan on keeping up with blog posts which will hopefully increase web traffic. I will have my hand in a bit of everything around here, and I'm looking forward to giving an outside opinion on certain parts of the business.

Until next time, keep an eye out for Family Cake Company on facebook and twitter!

Tyler Crisman

End of Week Deliciousness

So we have been busy this week lots of special order cakes (our favourites) so I thought I'd help that Friday feeling along with some gorgeous treats to look at!

We had a corporate request this week to create a cake for the anniversary of a very respectable company; we had to create a cake in a kids party theme that was also classy; so this was our final result, do you think we fulfilled the brief OK?

We had real fun planning this one and a lot more executing it; we tried to base the idea around the film UP! Hence the balloons flying away with the Happy Birthday message!

And did you spot our gigantic party poppers; awesome ha!

We also had a special 40th birthday 3 tier cake to arrange, no need to say anything I think the pictures speak for themselves!

Your actually getting a sneak peak at these as the cake is not due to be eaten until tomorrow but the person ordering agreed that I could publish the photos now. We are keeping it hidden in an undisclosed fridge with security to keep you all away!

And here's some cuteness to round off all this gorgeousness!

Have a great weekend everybody, eat cake and be merry!

Nicola Quigley

Admin@familycakes.co.uk