AOh Maisie it looks amazing. What a great job. I love the sheep. Am viewing this on my phone right now but I can't see anything wrong with it at all. Talking of cake lifters - mine are oven trays - the sort that are totally flat and just have one side that flips up. A chef gave me that tip when I did a stacked wedding cake and it was a lot cheaper than buying lifters plus they are quite heavy duty too.

AOK Maisie I see your point but saying that I do find just using a turntable abit annoying so I use most of the time a lazy Susan on top of a turntable, because of the ridges in the turntable I cant get what I need to use underneath, this I can slide the Cake to the edge, does that make enough sense?

AGood Morning... Maisie, your cake fabulous!!! Well done!!;-D

I also use a 3mm thick cake board underneath all my round and square cakes. I cover my cake boards well in advance. When I am ganaching the cake, I don't use my turn table. Only when I am covering it with sugar paste. I bought my turn table from IKEA, one of those cheap ones!!:D

AI agree Maisie, no matter how much you stress and worry over the garden it's all worth while when the cake is finally done and you get to give it to someone and they're so happy with it! I too never think mine are perfect enough because I know all the mistakes I've had to hide - I always think a professional wouldn't have made those mistakes. But if no one can see them they don't really matter!

AMaisie, I use the same type of the natt uses, so useful, but that seems expensive, there are cheaper ones around.

Bashini, I think mine is the same ad yours from Ikea, about a fiver I paid, very handy as it takes most cake sizes.

AThanks everybody! :-) My husband and I forgot to take the birthday boys card with us when we delivered the cake last night, too worried about getting it there in one piece, lots of speed bumps between our house and theirs! We've just taken it over to the school to see if we could catch him at the gate but we were too late, he was just going in. But we heard him telling his friends about his "awesome skylanders cake"! I'll have a look for something to lift a cake then, I'm in cwmbran thursday so I'll pop in the works. I've got one of those oven trays Kathy, don't know how it would work tho, maybe mine's too thick. Thanks for link natt, I know what I'm looking for now!

Sorry ladies, I am a bit slow sometimes. I couldn't work out why you keep insisting on  putting your ganache in the fridge and then it hit me.... it is warmer in the fridge than if you left in on the bench!!!!!!

Hi Maisie - the tip was given to me by the lady who made Prince Andrew's engagement cake when he got engaged to Fergie.  When I had to do a stacked wedding cake she told me to ice the cake while it was on the tray (the lifter) itself.  It was strong enough to withstand the weight and I just boxed the whole thing and took it to the venue - still on the lifter.  I used pallett knives to ease it to the edge.  I have no idea what the cost is now but they were about £6 each 4 years ago.  Got mine in Tesco and they were heavy guage baking sheets with no lip - just on one side,

Kathy

I pop a gateau plate on top of a turntable and it works a treat for me. Mine is glass so easy to clean and its wide. I only recently realised this as have struggled with this for a while.

AActually cazza, it's a beatiful spring day today. Thermometer in the car said 10.5 this morning...... Lovely! :-) Thanks for the tips everyone. Hi chasingmytail, how are you?

AI'm in a bit of a cake-lull at the moment - nothing to make for a couple of weeks and waaaay too much work to do to fit in any practising. I'm hoping for lots of pics from everyone to keep me going haha. What cakes does everyone have coming up?

Maisy,  Brrrrrrrrrrrrr.  That is almost my Winter overnight low.  A beautiful Spring day to my mind is about 24C

AHahaha that's a scorcher in sunny South Wales cazza! Sugarluva, I've got a giant cupcake (another one!) for the day after tomorrow (and approximately 2 hours spare to do it in!) then nothing til the 19th. Looking forward to a lull actually but the kids will be off for Easter so I won't have too much time to sit and do nothing! Off to ice my board and make my new favourite flowers with my new favourite cutter before hometime now. Oh and practice with my impossibly fiddly letters! Byee.

Hydrangeas Maisie?

Cazza - it's definitely a ganache in the fridge type of day here in London -  the temp in my car was 21 degrees today!  And that's not an April fool either!  To think - last year we still had snow in some parts!

AHaha! Yep, hydrangeas Kathy! Blimey must've been beautiful! It's just taken me over an hour to ice a board and make "happy 21st birthday danielle" with my fiddly letter cutters! Surely that's not normal? (Please tell me it's not cos I'll go back to my ugly ones if it is!) I'm looking for some advice (yes, again!) I need a new cake tin (my springform kept leaking so I've just chucked it, I'll have to get a new one now!) any advice about which brands are best?

Oh I just got some in Lakeland - but they are not springform - they are like the Mary Berry ones (but cheaper) and it was buy one get another half price - so I bought 8 (as you do).  They are push pans I think......  Sorry that's not what you asked about but I haven't bought a springform one for ages and that came from Ikea.  I don't use cutters - I usually pipe.  DD does though and she bought some Wilton silicone moulds when we went to Florida last year and they are excellent.  I'm not being much help today am I.  Sorry.

ANo you are being helpful Kathy, I didn't make myself clear! I din't want springform, if one leaks they all probably will eventually. I don't mind loose bottomed though.

AHi maisie, all my cake tins are invicta. They are expensive but worth every penny. PME does cake tins as well as windsor craft. I think windsor ones are cheaper than other two. Better to have a look around and see what's best for you. :-)

AMaisie I have a fab Alan Silverwood multisize square cake tin with dividers also, great as I can make whatever size I need providing they all want square that is. Keeping with the letters Maisie it does get better, so glad you like your new cutter, I feel a good deed done for the day there and take full credit, ha ha, in fact I'm using it tomorrow got some spring like cupcakes to make, then a 50th bday and a cake to Mark an anniversary for a Nursery.

First day off today and I havn't stopped, grrr.

AI have mainly the Lakeland "My Kitchen" Range in every size I can. They are loose bottomed and heavyweight so good quality. You also get the second item half price. I also have the Alan Silverwood multisize tin which is brilliant for square and oblong cakes as you can get the lining paper right into the corners and so get sharper corners to your cake. I did by a large PME tin for a swimming pool cake which needed to be larger than 12 inches. Also bought Invicta tins when I wanted oval shape. I can recommend all these makes. You get what you pay for IMO.

AI also have the Lakeland range of hemispherical tins which I used for my bird cage, now they are handy tins!

AHmm I don't think I've ever noticed what brand my cake tins are but they're all springform and I've never had a problem with any of them leaking or breaking. I buy them all from TKMaxx. No idea why I started getting them from there I think I was just in there once and saw a good one in a size I needed so picked it up. I just go off the weight of them, mine are all quite heavy but I did buy a cheaper lighter one once and clasp thing on it broke after a few uses so it's worth paying more. I need to get more tins, square ones particularly I hardly have any!

ASugarluva I buy alot of my tins from TkMax, bought a bundt tin there just last week.

AWow, loads of advice, thanks everyone! :-)

AMaisie, you may want to buy the Primrose cutter too,cos if you like the hydrangea cutter, then you'll love that cutter to, I just made some for some lemon birthday cupcakes, will send you a pic now.

A[IMG]http://cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3214680/width/200/height/400[/IMG] Middle 1 is the primrose, havn't the foggiest what the other one though.

AI want it!!!!! Is it the same as the hydrangea with the cutter and the mould nanny?

AYep, they're exactly the same, all of them are the same, they are soooo easy to use aren't they, I take it I'm no good for your bank balance then maisie?

AHaha, no good at all nanny! But on the other hand I think I'll save money in the long run. I buy loads of stuff only to find it's useless and have to look fir simething else. Being on here and finding out what's good from other people means I know it won't be a waste of money. The tins are a perfect example, I need new ones and if I'm going to have new I might as well pay decent money for some that'll last. So thankyou actually! :-)

My tins are Silverwood or Masterclass.  The Sainsburys ones are ok too but always worth buying a better product but dont put them in the dishwasher. The cookshop in Abergavenny is nice, Kitchens in Cardiff or I buy on Ebay.