Lawfully wedded

I do think it's a good idea to stay on the right side of the law, don't you?!

Woolly winter warmers

Oh there's a definite nip in the air... and I don't mean the whisky kind. It seems that it is definitely Autumn, the leaves are turning golden and red on the trees, the nights are drawing in, and I'm beginning to debate the choice of thermal undergarments that the worldwide web has to offer....

Now, if your cake top bride or groom fancies a scarf to keep themselves nice and warm, well no problem!! My Mum is actually the knitter in the family, and she makes tiny wee knitted scarves for me, knitting them with embroidery and crochet threads so that they're perfectly tiny. She's very good at it, and does a fine line in stripey ones. Recently I found some crochet thread that was different colours on one thread. We didn't know if the colour change would be quick enough- if you know what I mean- to show up on the small scale scarf, but in fact it worked quite well. So now some nice stripey pastel ones to add to the range...but we (she!) can do any colour. A nice addition for those snowboarding, snowballing, or chilly winter wedding caketops pehaps, where a cosy scarf may be essential wedding attire!

The scarf making was originally inspired by football fans of course. A mini woolly scarf works well: adding a nice touch along with footballs, team logos or even hats on!! (My Mum is now an expert in team colours for both Scottish and English Premier leagues - a handy pub quiz team member I think!)

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While it may be getting chilly and becoming warm scarf weather now, I do enjoy the autumn and wintertime, so I'm not complaining really. I'm looking forward to some serious frost like we had last year here in the glen, very pretty it was. But didn't I tell you this is a time when some folks enjoy thier wedding day somewhere hot? Somewhere where the folks there think frost exotic?

If that's your bag and a scarf just won't cut it, perhaps what you really need is a sarong and a beach!

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Drumroll please...

Recently I had the pleasure of spending a day with tartan, bits of felt, scissors, and oooh black crushed velvet. Yes, a typical day for me, however the result not so typical; my very first little cake top Drum Major. He was required to help celebrate a real life, full sized Drum Major's birthday. In case you are confused, the real one is the gentleman on the right....you can see he's holding his mini me!

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This is Peter, Drum Major of The Isle of Skye Pipe Band, who along with the rest of the band, enjoyed a birthday celebration of smoked salmon, champagne and of course CAKE, on arrival in Braemar for the annual Gathering. Janet made a super cake for all, and don't you just wish you were there?!

Well there's always next year! The band enjoyed a great time at the Gathering, and I believe are now enjoying a bit of a break before another season of piping, drumming, shinty matches, town squares, Gatherings, bus trips, marching and CAKE! That's a lot of cake folks... now if only I could hold a tune...

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Here is the band with the Cullins of Skye in the background, an early morning start to the day as they headed off to Braemar for a royal weekend and alot of fun. (not to mention that cake...)

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A special thank you to Janet for her cake top request, it was one I enjoyed very much, and thanks too for sending me photos from the day and letting me know how it all went!

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Wishing all you splendid folks in the band much luck and success in the new season!

A grand day out

The webmaster paid a visit to caketopland recently, and we decided wouldn't it be simply splendid to have afternoon tea at Glengarry Castle Hotel with those charming, interesting and snap happy folks at Invergarry Lodge?!

'Oh yes!' cried Miss Lisa, 'I say, that would be a jolly ballyhoo of a day out!'..... or something like that....

Glengarry Castle Hotel is a fantastic place, not least of all due to its afternoon teas, which as you can see are excellent...

It's a country house hotel with lots of charm, history and class about it, but at the same time it has a very comfortable atmosphere that makes you feel quite at home almost as soon as you walk through the door! Jenny & Matt had thier wedding here, and I believe it's popular too with honeymooners, so perhaps worth a look if you are venturing up to the Great Glen...

But we were coming for afternoon tea! And didn't I say it was a comfortable atmosphere?! So much so that Miss Lisa and I posed quite happily and with minimum embarrassment, for our GREAT IDEA...... a vintage style cake top photo shoot! Oh yes I know! It's pure genius....... maybe........ please tell us if we look silly.....

So Master photographer Matt took these! He's very good with the old flashbang, and he even aged us a bit with his computer wizardry.... well the photos were aged, we'd rather stay relatively youthful thanks very much....

And when they weren't looking Miss Lisa took this one of them taking a photo of those....

So we all had a great laugh and delicious cakes and scones, and the sun even shone a bit, which is proving rare this summer. Thanks again to Matt & Jenny for their company and paparazzi skills!

We'll put more of our vintage flavour photos on the new caketops website, which is in the pipeline and proving a perfect excuse for many shenanigans!!

Suits you

Isn't it all meant to be about the frock?!! Some grooms here getting very dressed up for the big day!

Wedding party

Hello! Long time no type! Actually I've had a whole day typing and I'm nearly typed out. I have been doing a massive email catch up... what happened to all your good email 'staying on top of 'em' intentions I hear you say?! I have to apologise, it's just as well that an essential skill of all brides-to-be is organisation and planning. It's a fact- bride's are 9 times out of 10 excellent at thinking ahead. (and if you're not you soon will be) The brides I meet certainly seem to be on the ball - pretty good at emailing early (first enquiry for 2011 received today) and giving me a ring if I take too long to reply. So don't be shy and give me a bell. (Oh and don't worry if you're a last minute bride, I love you folks best of all and always try to squeeze you in if I possibly can!)

Anyway, part of the reason I have been so slack on the emails lately is due to this busy time of year of course, plus it just so happens that a few of July's cake tops had lots of pets and children joining in on the wedding cake top action!

So here's a couple of July's cake tops where I had to make the base bigger just to fit everybody on....



Do you know my most common request must be for the couple's pets to be included on the cake top? I think it's lovely as often they can't actually be at the wedding themselves, due to doggie breath or being a chicken, so it's more than fair to put them right there at the top of the cake. They're very good at raising a few smiles among the guests I hear. I do hope the bride and groom will take them a bit of wedding cake home...

I have some fun cake tops to make this month as well. I'm looking forward to a Sixties style bride and groom, pool players, lots of pets and some very sparkly dresses. I shall keep you posted!

P.S. I must say Bon Voyage and Good Luck to my lovely friends Nic and Paul, who are off to live in New Zealand forever and ever. They visited me to say 'cheerio', drove me over a mountain for dinner by the sea, and as a parting gift gave me a real and authentic New Zealand recipe for PAVLOVA!!! (Oh how they laughed after reading here I though she played tennis...) The recipe came complete with pictorial inspiration... such an amazing feat of strawberry engineering I had to share it with you!

This is Paul's pavlova and I am challenged to make my own, however I fear my strawberries won't be nearly as neat. Incidentally Nic is responsible for the tagline at the very bottom of the blog, which I and the webmaster thought should be the cake top website motto!!

Here's a pic of Nic and Paul, say hello if you see them in New Zealand and tell them to come straight back, I need a strawberry slicer...

There's nothing like seeing yourself in minature to make your day! - Nic

Now we are seven!

Hello and welcome to Jay our new genuine follower! I had no chocolate cake to celebrate your arrival I'm afraid.... this time it was PAVLOVA!!!

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Pavlova always makes me think of Russian tennis players, don't you? (actually I just looked on Google and I should be thinking of the ballerina, but too late I thought of imaginary tennis players first). So here we are, a sporty cake top! There's even some tennis balls on. This is for a lovely couple who are PE teachers (and are not Russian as far as I know). Oh to be more sporty.... I could eat so much more pavlova if I was super sporty.....or if I was a ballerina....

I must say a big thank you to the webmaster for doing clever mysterious 'stuff', to make this blog look like my Granny's are haunting the internet, giving it a funky vintage overhaul and some nice lace edging! I think they would be so proud! We have had much debate and discussion as to what the caketops website revamp should look like. With a little help from beyond the grave I think we (or rather the webmaster!) have cracked it..... now if only the Granny's were here to give us some fashion tips the makeover would be complete.....

Fashion? Did somebody mention fashion? Time for another tenuous link to a cake top...

This cake top is for a happy couple who both contacted me separately with secret 'props' to be added to their partner's cake top figure. So the bride informed me that her groom should hold his hairdryer in his hand and have some football boots on the base. The groom confided that his bride-to-be should have ruby red lips, hold a MAC lipstick and at her feet she should have some gold shoes as she likes shoes! This was fun, as I quite enjoyed being privy to all the secrets... (I've let the cat out the bag now of course) Oh! and I imagine they are a very fashionable couple!

These are just a few of the cake tops that I've been busy making lately. Oh it's a hectic time of year for me. Give me a ring if I haven't answered your email, I'm afraid I'm behind again. There have been lots of caketops that I've enjoyed making and have made me smile. Hopefully they have made the couples and their guests smile too.

Let's say Congratulations to all the brides and grooms!

P.S. Keeping with the vintage theme, I have for you a photo of Anna Pavlova after which the pudding was named. I think there may be Pavolvas in Caketopland for years to come....

Isn't her dress a lovely meringue?!

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