Ivory calla lily wedding cake

I should have posted these pictures earlier, but as the non-official, official photographer of the day I've been trying to get all the wedding pictures sorted and working on them to make the acceptable, oh the stress!

What I should have done is set the cake up at home beforehand for pictures but as having to deliver to the venue and because of how delicate the flowers were I decided to set up there and am a bit disappointed about that as I could have probably got some better ones having more time at home.

Never mind, lesson learnt.

The actual cake has a fruity bottom, lemon sponge middle, a chocolate sponge top and petal paste (gum paste) flowers, all made by me.

Elements

Getting ready for Friday.

Dog tired

I've been caught in the act but it's okay I have excuses....

A late night picking up and dropping off - general taxi duties.

2 solid days shopping for a wedding outfit and I hate shopping. 

The weather is depressing, pouring with rain, cold and miserable.

It's Sunday.

No idea what Berties excuse is though.

More cooking

More jam making yesterday, this time rhubarb and ginger. 

We really should be growing rhubarb at the allotment and last year we were even given a crown but for some reason decided to plant it in my garden instead, big mistake. It started well with nice new shoots appearing, but unfortunately any new shoot is very tempting for naughty little chickens who upon spotting it did their whole great escape routine and completely devastated it. 

The price of rhubarb in the shops is ridiculous but we managed to get some on Saturday reduced and well worth buying.

Rhubarb and ginger jam.

1kg rhubarb

1kg sugar

juice of 2 lemons

thumb size piece of ginger

Chop the rhubarb

In a bowl layer the rhubarb with the sugar and leave overnight.

The next day most of the sugar will have dissolved.

Tip into a large pan and add the lemon juice and the ginger (peeled and bashed). Slowly heat until the sugar has melted and the rhubarb starts to soften.

Turn the heat up and boil for 10 to 15 minutes until setting point is reached.

Pour into sterilised jars and label when cool.

Yesterday I also made a cake to use up some left over coconut milk and some of my home made strawberry jam and of course home grown strawberries. 

Strawberry coconut cake.

I do believe that this is one of the best cakes I've made to date.

In a jam

I've made my first batch of jam this summer and it seems a bit early really being right at the beginning of June, but I had 2 kilo's of strawberries to deal with and they wouldn't wait.

They've done really well down on the allotment this year after we decided to dedicate a whole bed to them. Roy thinks there's at least another good few kilo's to come, in addition to boxes we gave away yesterday.

So I've got nine jars of lovely strawberry jam so far and hopefully by the weekend i'll have another batch, but this time mixed with the little white wild strawberries that also need gathering.