Rosiepan just seen your mermaid one too - fab! I was originally doing a mermaid with this one till they called this morning and said "it's all change she wants a fairy princess"!

Hi UK bakers, can anyone give me some tips/help with getting the right colour red flower paste, I need to make some red roses for a Ruby wedding anniversary cake. I bought some of the squires flowerpaste in cyclamen/ruby colour but it is more of a browny/maroon colour - I tried adding some wilton red red colour paste, but still no joy with the colour. I would much appreciate any help you can give. Thanks.

Sanmarco I made some shells with that mould I have. Turned out really well so definitely easy enough to get them out of the mould. some are fairly big though if you did like the seahorse etc but the clam shells are cool

ok ladies another quick question please. I've been asked by a bride to do some cookie favours. She wants them to be all animals about 10 of 8 different animal. Each with a name of a guest on them in a bag as table favours. Would you ice each one or leave them plain with just the name piped on them. I'm wondering how it will work really as a lot of work to do each animal with their markings/colours etc. Also how much would you charge for each (there will be 80 in total) - thanks everyone

Here are some good links for doll cakes for inspiration for anyone who is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRaz-MmQ9qw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3TSutweRe4&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_M-YmhJEIo&feature=relmfu

sanmarco5, I have transported 2 & 3 tier cakes stacked. I used wooden/plastic dowels and RI under each tier. Last year I made a 4 tier wedding cake and stacked the bottom two together and the top two together. Then at the venue, I stacked those two together (hope it make sence).

I have never stacked a cake let alone transported one so this is purely from what I have read on here - but if you decide to pre stack all 5 tiers be aware it will get really really heavy so not only will the board need to be very strong to support it in transport but also you/someone will need to be very strong!
Could you prestack say two/three cakes and put the flowers on, avoiding the join area and bring the rest of the flowers to the venue and put them on when you stack the two parts together? If you do that though be careful that the flowers will match up and look like a continuous flow when you do stack them (if that makes sense?)

Hello again everyone! I'm running about like maniac at the moment and seem to be doing everything for everybody else and getting nowhere on my stuff! I am still sorting my business stuff, I've got my certificate now. I'm just at the point of registering with the council and hmrc. A quick question though. Is it illegal to use a personal account for a business? Does everyone who is officially a business here have a separate business bank account? I would love to use an account I have which is just in my name. It doesn't get used for anything else and is with my main bank so I can use my online banking when I deal with my other personal accounts. Does anyone know if it is law that you have to have a business account? Oh and actually, another question. With regards to what can be written off as business expenses, I assume cleaning products, ingredients, boards and boxes etc and things like that can be written off as business expense and so can a portion of utility bills. How do you find out what percentage you can claim as business expense? Obviously use guys use a lot of water and gas with cleaning etc and leccy with the ovens and I want to make sure I claim as much as I legally can!
Thanks again!

I'm doing my first wedding in August - they want 200 lemon cupcakes.

The couple have been brilliant. They tasted my cakes when my brother in law brought some into work and booked me there and then. They've had no demands and said they trust me completely....such a relief.

I know they'd like a really white buttercream, but because I use real butter I don't think I can do this. I don't like the idea of shortening...just sounds so wrong to me

I suppose my question is do any of you know what type of butter would give the palest result?

Hi Valk.
Have you tried the wilton 'white white' icing whitener? That might do the trick. Otherwise lurpak always seems much paler compared to other butter. I use the crusting buttercream recipe on here and I use mostly butter and a small amount of shortening, it tastes yum and have had people say it tastes better than the normal buttercream as it's not too buttery tasting and doesn't seem as sickly. Have you tried that? Mine always comes out very very pale in colour, an off white sort of colour, maybe give that a go?

go for the 'easy, never fail buttercream'. I get on really well with this one. I use a lot of frosting on my cupcakes when I make them and that will do more than a couple of dozen per recipe. You need to add the icing sugar really gradually and sometimes I add a trickle more milk if it's getting too dry but still turns out fab and crusts really nicely.

Meri white is just dried egg white isn't it? That's all I use, well I use the one I can get in the supermarket, it's the Dr Oetker one in the yeloow box. I find that's good and not too expensive and it's only dried egg white too.