Shop For Shoes and Nobody Gets Hurt Birthday Card

My mum has such tiny feet she finds it very hard to buy shoes, having to resort to the children's section which is fine if you want black 'school shoes' but if you want a pair of summer sandals, it can be hard to find ones without flowers, butterflies or sparkles! On occasion I've trawled every shoe shop in town with my mum looking for a particular type of shoe, so when I saw this stamp in a set from Born to Shop by Do Crafts I knew it would make the perfect birthday card for her.

 

It's the top left stamp in this pack with a picture of a lady holding several bags and shoe boxes, and the words 'let me shop for shoes, and nobody gets hurt'. It made me laugh and hopefully my mum did too!

 

I had some backing paper I'd printed out from a craft site years ago with pink shoes and the words 'happy birthday' throughout; I covered half a square card blank and also one corner, and edged both off with a border. I coloured in the stamp with Promarkers pens.

 

And as for my mum? When I got married last year I found her the perfect pair of shoes to go with her outfit from John Lewis' Rainbow Club range - they were ivory which went with the colours in her dress but best of all, the shoes can be taken back to John Lewis and dyed in another colour which will give her the perfect new pair of heels for any occasion.

I'm entering this in the Naughty or Nice card making challenge where the theme is 'if the shoe fits'.

Another Tattered Lace Pink Shoe Card

I've made other cards with this Tattered Lace shoe die but I particularly like this one because of the background I put it on. It was a free printable featuring pink shoes which I used to cover a white square card blank. I used my Sizzix Big Shot die cutting machine and the Tattered Lace high heel shoe die to cut out a delicate stiletto from pink card, which I stuck onto a square of pink paper and mounted that on the card. I used a silver 'happy birthday' outline sticker along the top, and to make it stand out put a purple border sticker underneath.

Pink Shoes Birthday Card

While I was sorting out my craft cupboard I came across some sheets of A4 paper that I'd printed from a website with free printables, to be used as backing paper. I had several sheets left of different designs, and decided to use one with pink shoes and the words 'happy birthday' as the basis for a card. The shoes in the middle are small die cuts from a packet I bought containing shoes and handbags. I mounted these on a square of pink paper and used a silver 'happy birthday' outline sticker on another piece of pink paper. I think it looks quite nice, aside from the fact that the words aren't straight!

Tattered Lace Pink Shoe Card

This is a very girly card for someone who likes shoes and someone who likes pink! The simplicity of the design works because each element is actually very detailed. The shoe is a die-cut I made using a Tattered Lace die and my Sizzix Big Shot die cutter machine.

I mounted the shoe on another Tattered Lace die-cut, though I bought a selection of these already cut out from Ebay, which is always a good option if you don't want to invest in buying several dies. I stuck that onto a square white card blank and added a 'birthday wishes' sentiment which matched the colour scheme.

Pastel Tattered Lace Shoe Birthday Card

I made this card using my Tattered Lace high heel shoe die, a frilled edge circular die and a Sizzix butterfly die, in complementary pastel colours.

The backing paper is also various shades of pastel, from a pack of cupcake and related printed papers. I used the dies to cut the shoe and butterfly out of purple card and the circles from pink card and mounted the shapes on top. The topper that says 'to a wonderful friend' is from a little pack I bought from Ebay; this sort of thing isn't hard to make yourself but I never seem to have time!

Fashion Mannequin Birthday Card

This card would be great for a girl who loves fashion. I bought the black die-cut mannequins in a pack from Ebay and the dress and handbag stickers are from a sheet of stickers I got in a craft shop (I forget the brand - they are with the outline stickers). I chose a bright and bubbly background to contrast with the black but also to match the pink dress, and simply added a few bags and a dress. There is also a pair of shoes from the same sticker pack on the bottom right of the card, though you can't see it that well in the photo.

Shoe theme birthday party

Last year I had a birthday party with a shoe theme. I wanted to write a post pulling all the ideas together but have only just gotten around to it. It's a fun theme that could easily be adapted for children or adults - after all, who doesn't have a favourite pair of heels, whether they are Start-Rite pink patents or Manolo Blahniks?

My birthday cake had a shoe theme; I decided to make a two-tier pink polka dot cake with a pair of shoes on top (obviously you could make it in any colour). If I did it again I would make a rectangular cake that looks like a shoe box and put the pair of shoes on top. I made the shoes in a cake decorating class; you can see how I did it here.



I also made some filled chocolates in the shape of shoes and handbags



Finally I made some White Russian cupcakes, using cupcake wrappers with a shoe print. I cut out shoe shapes from fondant using a mini cutter and placed these on top of the cake.



As one of my friends is vegan, I also made some vegan chocolate cupcakes and distinguished them with a green shoe on top using the same cutter.



Shoe cookies would be great for a shoe themed party as well; you can bake simple sugar cookies or shortbread and use a cookie cutter, then either decorate the shoes yourself or get your guests to decorate them when they arrive. This would be good fun as an activity at a children's party, though it could get rather messy, so you should provide your guests with aprons!

Maybe you could also make some choux buns - shoe buns - get it?

Ros from The More Than Occasional Baker came to my birthday party and made these amazing shoe cupcakes. Hop over to her blog and see how she did it!

I also asked my guests to wear their most fabulous and funky shoes and one friend in particular, Sandra, didn't let me down - she arrived in bright red sequinned high heels.

I wanted an activity for my guests to enjoy and came across this shoe quiz online. You can download the questions and print out question and answer sheets, and get the answers by making a small donation to the Multiple Sclerosis society. There are three different quizzes on this website so there is something for everyone. A shoe-themed prize is also a good idea!

If your party is for adults, don't forget the cocktails - how about a Moscow Mule, or a Singapore Sling-back?

Snazzy shoes birthday card

I like the colour scheme on this card, it's quite snazzy, don't you think?

I simply used a piece of stripey background paper across the bottom of a square card blank, and a triangular piece across the top corner for contrast. The stickers are three-dimensional, which you can't quite see from this photo, but I think they are fun. I also used a 'happy birthday' outline sticker along the bottom.

White Russian cupcakes

For my birthday party back in April (yes, I'm a bit behind with the blogging...) I wanted some kind of cupcake that said "party" which to me meant cocktails! I have the Xanthe Milton book "Eat Me" and she has a recipe for White Russian cupcakes which I thought sounded pretty cool. White Russians are made from vodka, coffee liqueur (so I learned - I always thought it was chocolate) and cream, and this recipe doesn't exactly use those ingredients but does give the same sort of flavour - and a bit of a kick!

As the party had a shoe theme, I bought some cute shoe-patterned cupcake cases over the internet; this isn't the best photo but you can just make out the design!

So it goes a little something like this.... cream butter and sugar and beat in eggs

Add flour and baking powder, then some Kahlua - which I always thought was chocolate liqueur but apparently it's coffee. I didn't have any of that, and I preferred to use chocolate anyway, and I did have some creme de cacao liqueur (which is a clear liquid) and a thick, syrupy chocolate liqueur that I bought in Rome. I decided to add equal quantities of both in place of the Kahlua.

Spoon into cake cases and bake in the oven

To go with the shoe theme I used a small cookie cutter to cut shoe shapes out of Mexican paste to use as cake toppers.

I also made the buttercream according to the recipe, which is a mixture of icing sugar, melted white chocolate, sour cream and the chocolate liqueur. It had a bit of a kick but not too much and tasted really nice. I piped the buttercream onto the cupcakes and placed a shoe on top.

I'm blaming the fact that I can't find many photos for this recipe on the fact that it has taken me over two months to blog - that will teach me!

This month's letter for Alphabakes, the blogging challenge hosted by me and Ros from TheMoreThanOccasionalBaker, is W, so I decided to make these White Russian cupcakes my third entry for this month!

I'm also enjoying taking part in Calendar Cakes, hosted by Laura from Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel of Dolly Bakes. Their theme for this month is the Olympics and amongst other ideas, are accepting entries relating to the different countries entering teams in the Olymics. And we all know how good the Russians are at winning medals, so I'm going to send them my White Russian cupcakes.

I'm updating this to send it to Baking With Spirit, hosted by Janine at Cake of the Week, as her theme this month is cocktails.

Shoe birthday card

I made this birthday card for my sister using a gatefold card - a card that opens outwards from the middle. It gives some interesting opportunities for design as it means you have two symmetrical rectangles on the front, which you can either treat as mirror images of each other, or put different things on each side, or put something across the join to connect the two sides.

That's what I've done here - I had bought a few sheets of shoe-related die-cuts and related backing papers a while ago. I covered both sides of the front of the card with the backing paper and used a large shoe die cut which I glued to one side of the opening. I used two matching square die-cuts on the front to give a symmetrical design.

 

I also decided that the inside of the card needed something so I covered it with a piece of printed paper that was like tracing paper, so I could still write on it without having to worry that the words wouldn't show up without the background.

So when the card stands up, you can see part of the inside as well as the front. Simple but I quite like this one.

Filled chocolate shapes - handbags and shoes

My birthday party at the end of April had a shoe theme, and I asked the guests to come in their favourite, most fabulous shoes (though in the end not many complied!) and I made a shoe-themed cake. I also wanted to make use of a Wilton candy melts mould I had only used once before and thought it would easily double as a chocolate mould. The shapes include a boot, some lips, a lipstick, a handbag, a pair of sunglasses and other girly accessories.

This was pretty quick to make: I simply melted some chocolate, poured it into the mould and left to set, which didn't take very long at all.

Then I had a better idea. I melted some more chocolate, poured a thin layer into each mould and spread it around with a brush and put it in the fridge to set. Then I added a spoonful of Betty Crocker's chocolate fudge frosting - I could have made something myself but time was quite limited - and poured more melted chocolate over the top. Once that was set, I had some cute chocolate shapes with a soft chocolate filling!

Pink and black polka dot shoe birthday cake

So you might have seen the shoes I made from Mexican paste at a recent cake decorating class - I made them in black and pink as I had already decided those would be the colours of my birthday cake. I also decided I wanted a two-tier cake so there would be plenty to go around, though I needn't have worried as we had plenty of cake in the end!

I thought the cake I made for my boyfriend's birthday was such a success that I would do a similar thing again. So I decided to make the Green & Black's Ultimate Chocolate Fudge cake as the bottom layer - you can find the recipe here or in the Green & Black's Ultimate Chocolate Recipes book. As I made it and blogged about it in the previous post, I won't repeat it again here, other than to say that it's really yummy!

For the top layer I decided to do something different and chose Dan Lepard's Easy Chocolate Birthday Cake which I found on the BBC Food website.

It was very simple to make but I liked the sound of the ingredients including double cream, sunflower oil which I thought would make it very moist, and four eggs. However I tend to prefer chocolate cakes that contain melted chocolate and this one used cocoa powder.

You melt the butter in a pan and mix with most of the wet and dry ingredients, then add the milk and cream

Then add the flour and baking powder. I found it made quite a runny mixture which is always nice.

Bake in the oven.... you cover the top with foil initially then remove it later in the cooking process.

So when it came to assembling the cake, I took the bottom layer - the Green & Black's chocolate cake - that I had left to cool, and used my cake wire to split it neatly in half.

Unfortunately it wasn't quite as cool as I thought. When I split the cake, the inside was still quite warm and soft but in my impatience - as I still had a whole birthday party to prepare with just a few hours left to go - I decided to lift the bottom layer anyway to put it onto the cake board. At which point it promptly broke into four pieces!

I wasn't put off by this minor crisis and decided to sit the pieces back together and use this as the bottom layer; I carefully spread frosting (my own recipe of melted 75% dark chocolate, butter and icing sugar) over the top and carefully placed the other half of the cake on top. I don't think you can tell from this picture that it's broken!

When I made my boyfriend's cake I tried to cover the two layers at once with white fondant, and realised it would have been a lot easier if I had covered one layer at a time. So I decided that's what I would do this time, and got out my pink fondant to cover the bottom cake.

However I don't think it was really turning out to be my day! I had bought the bright pink fondant a few months earlier for a cake that I didn't end up making. While the fondant was well within its best before date, when I took it out of the packet I found it was already a little dry. I discarded some of the dryer icing around the edges and kneaded the remaining lump for as long as I could bear.

When I covered the cake, a few cracks immediately appeared, and as the fondant dried out, even more cracks appeared.

It looked fine from a distance but close up you can see there were some really bad patches. In future I'll try to use fondant almost as soon as I buy it!

I also covered the second, smaller chocolate cake and placed it on the top. It looked like it really needed something....

Luckily I had already planned to make the cake a polka dot pattern, so while I couldn't quite hide any mistakes as well as with my boyfriend's cow print cake, I did still have the opportunity to cover a few of the biggest cracks.

I had recently bought a cupcake plunger, to be used when filling cupcakes - you place the plunger over the cupcake, push it down, and pull the handle up, leaving you with a nicely shaped hole in the middle of your cupcake to fill with whatever you want. I hadn't got around to trying it out on a cupcake yet, but decided it was the perfect size and shape to cut circles out of black fondant to make the polka dots.

I used a little edible glue to stick the circles onto the cake - I think it gives a really nice effect. I also found some spotty ribbon that I had left over from something else and decided it would be perfect to hide the joins in the fondant!

I placed the shoes and a sort of pink feather thing that I bought a while ago on a whim on top of the cake. The shoes are slightly the wrong colour pink and look a bit small in comparison to the cake but I was quite pleased with the finished effort!

Here's a close up of the top... I love these shoes! They were made using the Jem shoe cutter set, as described in my earlier post.

Instead of candles on the cake I had mini sparklers! Happy birthday to me :-)

Celebration cake for a new baby - cake decorating class #4

After a three-week Easter break, I was looking forward to my next cake decorating class - particularly because we had been told we would make a christening or celebration cake for a new baby, and a member of my team at work has just had a baby girl.

But while we haven't needed to bring a cake for some classes as we were just modelling, we were told this time to bring a round cake which we had already filled and covered with white fondant at home (to save time in the class) and to also cover a cake board in white fondant. As well as that, we needed to make some Mexican paste in advance to use for modelling in the class. Which was all very well, but I went to Amsterdam for the weekend and got home at about 11pm on Monday night - and the class is on Tuesday night straight after work.

Luckily my boyfriend's lovely mum offered to make a cake for me, and I made the Mexican paste before I went away and put it in the freezer (but more on that later). So on Monday night the taxi that dropped off my boyfriend on our way back from the airport had to wait while his mum came out and thrust a cake into my hands, and when I got home rather than unpacking I was icing the cake and covering it with fondant - it was nearly midnight before I finished!

The cake itself is a triumph - a really deep Victoria sponge from a Mary Berry recipe, and filled with loads of buttercream. Thanks Janet! She also turned the top piece upside down so the top of the cake would be perfectly flat for me to decorate. I bet you wish your mother-in-law was like this ;-)

I realised this was only the second time I had ever covered a round cake in fondant, and the first time was a little messy but as I was making a cow print cake, I could use the black patches to hide where the fondant had torn or overlapped. I couldn't do that this time! But this time I was only covering a one-tier rather than two-tier cake so it was a lot easier, even though I'm still definitely not as confident doing this as I could be.

I also covered the largest cake board I could find with fondant, as I wanted there to be plenty of room around the edge of the cake for decoration or maybe lettering... and then found that I didn't have a single box or carry case big enough to fit the cake board! Given I would have to walk to and from my cake decorating class and then take the cake into work on the train and bus, I was totally lost as to how I was going to transport it.... so I decided to start again with a smaller cake board! This time there wouldn't be as much space around the edge of the cake, but more importantly it would fit in my cake carry case.

The picture below shows my icing smoother which I used to, well, smooth the icing. This is a new piece of equipment I bought for my cake decorating class though to be honest I'm not sure how much difference it makes.

So after all that, I finally had a cake and board covered in white fondant - and I could go to bed!

So fast forward to the cake decorating class... we were told we would begin by making a pair of baby's booties. I had made my Mexican paste to Lorna's recipe and followed her instructions to put it in the freezer over the weekend and take it out the morning of the class. However, the paste was completely unusable - rock solid and when I did manage to warm it between my hands enough to make it pliable, it was really crumbly and there was no way I could have rolled it out. I think I didn't knead it enough before I put it in the freezer - Lorna says this would have most likely been the reason, and as I was in a hurry to pack for my holiday I didn't knead it for very long at all. Luckily I had emailed Lorna that morning when I took the paste out of the freezer to say it looked very crumbly, and she made sure she had enough in the class for me to use. Lesson learnt!

As my colleague had just had a baby girl, I decided to go with the traditional pink - funnily enough everyone in the class was using either pink or plain white. Lorna gave us a print-out with instructions and a couple of templates for the baby's shoe, which we cut around. The picture below shows the template for the sole of the shoe, which I cut around.

We then used another template and another piece of Mexican paste to make the top part of the shoe, which you fold around and stick to the sole. I seem to have a tendency to use too much edible glue and the shoe became a little soggy around the edges and I had to keep lifting it with a palette knife so it wouldn't stick to the table!

We then used an embosser and a cutter to make a semi-circle part for the front of the shoe, but you could also cut this freehand.

The two shoes taking shape, with the templates I used.

And now with the front part of the shoe in place- it really does look like a baby's shoe!

Finally bend the two parts of the strap around and stick with edible glue. I should have made a little bow to stick on here to cover the join, but I didn't have time. I did stick a little sugar ball from a packet of mixed sprinkles on the front of each shoe.

Unfortunately this was all we had time for in the class. Lorna demonstrated how to use a Garret frill cutter to make a frill to go all the way around the side of the cake, which I think would have looked really nice, but we didn't have time to even start it in the class, which was a bit disappointing as I had bought the frill cutter specially. Lorna did say we could do it at home but I had promised the cake for work the next day, it would be almost 10pm by the time I got home, and I didn't have any more Mexican paste! So once I put the shoes on top of the cake, this is all I had:

I decided that just wasn't enough to take into work for my colleague's baby shower so when I got home, remembered I had bought some mini baby cookie cutters some time ago, and never used them. I'm not even sure why I bought them other than they looked cute, but I was very glad I had them in the drawer! I coloured some ordinary fondant pink - I was pretty sure it would dry hard enough to work and it wouldn't matter that I wasn't using Mexican paste.

I then used edible glue to stick the shapes - a rocking horse, baby's bottle and teddy bear - around the side of the cake.

I still felt the top looked a little bare, and wanted to add the baby's name. I have the Tappit alphabet set but have never used it, and realised that it wouldn't work with soft fondant and I did need Mexican paste, so that idea had to go on the back burner. Instead I bravely - foolishly? - decided to pipe freehand using a tube of writing icing. I've never, ever, tried to pipe lettering onto a cake before so I had a feeling this would turn out to be a disaster but actually I think it was OK!

There was still quite a lot of white space on the cake so I used some butterfly cutters to make a couple of small butterflies from the same pink fondant.

Overall I'm quite pleased with the cake, especially as it looked decidedly unfinished when I got home from my class!

I am going to be slightly cheeky and enter my 'baby cake' in this month's Alphabakes, hosted by Ros at TheMoreThanOccasionalBaker as this month's letter is B, even though the cake is actually a Victoria sponge. I'm sure she won't mind!