AAw hope you're not waiting too long Chezzabelle.

Owch Kathy, your poor sister! That's awful that she couldn't go to the other hospital, I hope she's ok. X

No idea what I've done to my back, I just bent over to pick up a pillow and it twanged right at the bottom by my hip. Blooming annoying as I need to get on with cake prep today, and I'm meant to be going out Xmas shopping tomorrow. Hoping nurofen and hot water bottle will do the trick today!

ANo baking powder in it Sarah and only plain flour. I thought the answer would be yes, nothing because I couldn't see a reason why not. I've just never done it before so rather than waste it or stay up half the night to use it I thought I'd check. I'm going to make a mini one as well so I'll taste it and let you know. :-)

Aw Kathy, your poor sister. You'll all be glad to see the back of this year won't you. Shocking about the hospital too! We can go to whichever one we want. What if you're visiting relatives then? Or gone to London shopping or whatever? Would they still refuse?

How are you today tiddy? I don't think I'll proper catch up on the last couple of days but I do remember that. Do a test, you'll know then either way. The more you worry, the later you'll be.

AJean, meant to say the other day, the Disney store have a singing anna and singing Elsa doll. They're £25 each with a fiver postage. They're beautiful and so worth the money. Also, QVC have a frozen necklace in a musical box. £20 plus postage, that's gorgeous too, looks a bit grown up, not cheap and plastic.

Ahttp://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/231018117764?nav=SEARCH

Link for whoever asked about ribbon. If it doesn't work (I'm not great with links!) just type in "22yds 15mm ribbon" and loads come up.

Hi all - just popping in briefly - sorry too many pages to comment on all of them. Just back from an overnight stay in Birmingham after seeing the Michael Bublé show. Fantastic - wow can that man sing and he is lush!

Trip home went o.k. but pretty tiring 5 hrs drive each way.  Mum still very sore and the medication that she needs to help with the pain making her very confused which is worrying. Still no sign of this abating, sadly.

Good luck with the op Chezza - hope you are on the road to recovery soon and tucked up back home.

Sorry to hear about your sister Kathy. Wrists can be very complicated to heal properly can't they?

Cuddle up under the duvet with the hot water bottle and the cat, Mel. Do your cake prep "in your head" while you are resting, you will soon catch up.

Tiddy - fit in a trip to the pharmacy to put your mind at rest.

Barbara I did mince pies last year with grated orange rind in the pastry and instead of a pastry lid used frangipane à la Richard Bertinet. They were raved about. That's may way from now on! You can get more mincemeat in without it boiling over. Fed my 4 Christmas cakes for the second time yesterday morning. Trees going up tonight if I'm not too late in from work.

Nicola - many congratulations on your engagement. Your ring is beautiful. Wishing you a long and happy life together and a lovely time after Christmas with all the planning.

Lynne xx

Oh and after all the surprise with the wedding proposal - did you get to buy any cake stuff Nicola or was that side of the shopping trip abandoned?

Thinking of you Tiddy!  Been there.....

Sock Monkey - I do it quite often and haven't killed anybody yet!   As I work full time, I have to do my fruit cakes in segments.  I make the mix one evening and put it in the fridge (often in the tin to be baked in) and then when I get home the next day I get it out of the fridge and bring it to room temperature and then bake.  I did not know about reaction timeframes but I never saw any negative results.

Kathy

Kathy sorry to hear about your sister's wrist. Hospital staff can be so horrible.

Mel, ouch, hope your back is better and very soon!! Is the fever something to do with your back do you think? 

Sock, I freeze my choc cake recipe often. It has both baking powder and baking soda in it, and it comes out the same. I just let it come to room temperature then bake. 

Maisie, I'm not too sure about the singing dolls, I was hoping just to get the normal doll as Mia doesn't obsess about anything for very long so we're getting her cheap stuff but lots of it! 

good luck chezza - hope you make a speedy recovery

AHi Lynne! Oooh Michael Buble, very nice! That reminds me, I must dig out his Christmas CD! Sorry your mums still poorly, is the new medication helping, despite the side effects? How's your pusscat doing? Ours seems ok now, I think she just ate breakfast too fast......!

I've downed a load of nurofen and am feeling a little better, not sure what the feverish feeling was but it seems to have gone away, so hopefully it was just an odd blip :/

Just tried making my red sequins, and I'm sad to say I'm not impressed :/ I think it's the lace mix rather than the mat, I bought the firecracker red, but it didn't spread very well, and has dried a much duller red then I wanted :( I want loads of bright red sparkle, and this definitely isn't going to cut it unfortunately. Back to the drawing board for that idea now! Grrr....got to get this sorted as the cake is next week.

Has anyone tried the red PME lustre spray at all?

AI haven't used the red but I have used the pearl ( I think it was called) and it was really nice to use

AOh dear Chezzabelle, hope you aren't waiting too much longer!

I've used the pearl and bronze before, and they are great (I love the smell too!) but just curious to know how red the red is :)

A

Me either am starving now and have a headache

A

My mum gave me a set of bobbi brown brushes for Christmas a couple of years back, I think there's 10 in total, must have cost a fortune

AAw bless her :) hopefully it will clear up soon x

LOL glad you got a little shopping in at CDC! I still want to go and nose round Squires one day :)

Am experimenting with a totally different sequin method now, edible gelatin dots! Saw a tutorial ages ago and suddenly remembered I had some gelatin sheets in the cupboard! Have coloured and piped a zillion dots, so will see how I go. Tempted to go and buy some strawberry jelly blocks though and see if they work - much tastier, and who hasn't eaten raw jelly cubes when they were little!? :grin:

Oh Lynne - wel jel!  Michael Buble tickets - how lovely. 

AWill catch up later ladies but this is the gifts I do for Christmas

[IMG]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3310179/width/200/height/400[/IMG]

A

It almost had to be abandoned until my partner suggested a quick trip to a shop called New York Cake in the last couple of hours we had before we headed to the airport. It was a huge shop, had so much in I could have bought but I was seriously low on suitcase space so I got a couple of Christmas cutters, 2 moukds/mat things, a pearl mould I've wanted for ages, some other bits and bobs and a cute little cake pop /lollipop stand I saw. Definitely wish I had a shop that big close to me here!

ALovely gifts Kelsey. I love making homemade Xmas gifts for people.

Kuushi they look lovely. Can I ask where you got the tins? I'd like to send my aunt and uncle a homemade bunch of goodies but would like to put them in a tin to look nice.

Mel, I saw that tutorial for gelatine sequins- by Kara am I right? Put some edible glitter in the liquid (or is there no such thing as edible glitter now?).

Oh ya I've been meaning to tell everyone. Some of you probably already know and do this, but I baked my SP covered drum in the oven at 70C for 1 hr (although I'm sure 30mins would do) so that it would set. I read it somewhere. When it comes out of the oven I got bubbles but I just smoothed them down with a smoother until they went down- takes few minute or two to for the bubbles to subside. Then don't touch it anymore until it's cold and set. Works like a dream- it set rock hard after 2 or 3 hours! I did this for both boards last week, I'd forgotten to do the first one, and the second one was a last min order.

I did the same with my handbag cake handles- this was a last minute order and because I was winging it, I didn't make the handle until the day I was going to need it. I baked the handles for 30mins on 70C, and they were good to go when they'd cooled down. Imagine the possibilities for last minute orders!! Maybe could do the same with flowers if you didn't want to wait overnight for things like buds to set. Have to factor in the cost of the gas/electricity though!

My other tip is with regards SMBC. Again, read this somewhere online. Normally when I make SMBC, I heat then whip the egg and sugar mixture until it becomes the meringue. What I do now is put it in the fridge to cool down, beat the butter until it's super soft and creamy, then add the cooled sugar egg mixture. It cuts down on the time it takes to make it because there's no more need to whip the meringue- which takes ages.

If you want stiffer SMBC, add an extra egg or two. It does become sweeter, but makes for a more stable SMBC. 

AOoh Kelsey they look fab! Are there cupcakes in there too! Yum! :)

Yes Jean it's Karas tutorial. I just added some pearl lustre dust and that seemed to give it a light shimmer :) Def going to try with jelly cubes though too, just to see!

Mel, what about painting the sequins you made with the mat with lustre dust? 

AThanks ladies!

Jean the tons are from home bargains and they were £1.99 each!

Yep, there's cupcakes in there. In total there is 3 cupcakes, 4 mini mince pies, 4 gingerbread cookies and a cone of homemade hot chocolate mix with marshmallows on top! ...a few forero rochers scatters around too!

My best friend also gets a jar of home made christmas marmalade. Make marmalade like normal, added stem ginger and cinnamon and left it to cool in the jar : )

what lovely presents Kelsey,

lellylemondrop -- your puppy is so cute and looks remarkably like mine -- brown spot on the hip and all -- on the opposite hip shown in my avatar --