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30 days till Christmas Countdown.

November 25th, 2012

Can you believe it’s 30 days until Christmas Day?

To help you countdown the days I will be posting each day on the blog leading up to Christmas. Look out for sweet Christmas inspiration such as cupcake, cakepops and cookies, as well as Christmas gifts and ideas for your home. I just love this time of year, so I hope you’ll join me on my Christmas Day countdown. I’m super excited so let’s get started!

For my first Christmas post I wanted to share with you these fabulous Christmas cupcake toppers our students made over the weekend. Sam from the Magical Cupcake Company was a guest tutor at Magenta Cakes HQ and she shared her talented modelling skills with a wonderful group of ladies.

Didn’t they do well?

I just love these cute snowmen all lined all up together…

And this is the collection they all came away with.

We had some great feedback from the student’s too:

“Sam was an excellent teacher and it’s a wonderful environment to come and learn in”.

“I would recommend Sam & Tracy to anyone. It was such a fantastic day!”.

“Another excellent course from Magenta Cakes that has opened up a whole new world to me, thank you so much!”

This weekend’s class was a great start to our 30 day Christmas countdown.

If you’d like to check out more of Sam’s work and tutorials, these are available at The Magical Cupcake Company website.

Happy Baking!

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Cupcake classes at Magenta Cakes

October 3rd, 2012

I wanted to share with you some news on our forthcoming cupcake classes in the run up to Christmas.

For those readers who are unfamiliar with our courses, I regularly teach cupcake classes to small groups of students and these are held in my large kitchen based in Chessington ( on the Surrey/SW London border) in the UK.

I’ve been running cupcake courses for over 18 months and it’s taken me by surprise just how popular they have become. I initially thought I would just teach one course and that no one would come along. Well, here I am 18 months later…

One of our regular readers of the blog recently attended our ‘Let’s Decorate’ cupcake course and told me that I don’t often write about the classes on the blog. This inspired me to write this post so thank you (you know who you are!!).

Our cupcake decoration classes are perfect for mums looking for some ‘me time’ during the school hours (they are held from 10-2pm). We also run Saturday morning cupcake courses, ideal for those who can’t attend during the week.

We’ve extended our ‘Let’s Decorate’ cupcake decoration class to 4 hours starting from November to allow students to have the opportunity to create small hand -made roses. This class is aimed for beginners who wish to learn quickly how to professionally decorate their cupcakes. You’ll discover how to use and colour sugar paste to create pretty decorations in addition to making sugar roses. See our ‘Let’s Decorate’ page for further detail.

Our ‘Let’s Decorate with Chocolate’ course has also been extended to 4 hours to allow plenty of time for creating the larger chocolate roses. You’ll also learn how to make chocolate bows and flowers and you’ll decorate your cupcakes with dark chocolate ganache, and piped swirls of milk and white chocolate butter cream. This cupcake course is at beginners and intermediates. If you love chocolate and cake, this course is for you!

I’m also very excited that Sam, from ‘The Magical Cupcake Company’ will be a guest tutor at Magenta Cakes on 24th November 2012 to teach her ‘Christmas Cupcake Collection’ class.

Sam’ s cupcake topper designs are just amazing. Not only is her style unique but she is incredibly talented, and this is evident by the thousands of fans who admire her work! We have only 3 places left for this course where you’ll learn how to create these fabulous Christmas toppers. It’s suitable for beginners, however experience of using sugar paste would be advantageous. Book now peeps before they go!

Finally if you’re looking to learn how to bake as well as decorate your cupcakes then our ‘Bake & Decorate’ course will show you the secrets of how to consistently bake moist and fluffy cupcakes.

This full day course (from 10.30-4pm) is available on week days. See our ‘Bake & Decorate’ page for more information.

Until next time…

Happy Baking!

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A flexible lifestyle working with cake

July 31st, 2012

Image via andthenshesaved.com

One of the great things about running Magenta Cakes is that I’m able to schedule my diary over the school holidays so that I can spend quality
time with my family.

I’ve been able to manage the business around caring for my young son for nearly three years, and I won’t lie and say it’s been all plain sailing, but I feel that I’ve been able to achieve a balance which so many women look for. Balance means different things to different people. For me it means being there for my young family whilst satisfying a personal desire. That ‘personal desire’ includes satisfying my need to maintain my independence, having a good income, being creative and helping others along the way. I could write of many others.

The key difference this year is that little T has started full time school. I have now built a business that I believe can flourish even further and I know I’ll also be around for my son during the transition to big school and beyond.

Last weekend I ran my ‘The Business of Cakes and Cupcakes’ workshop and all of our students were looking to start a home based cake business to achieve not only an income, but to have freedom, flexibility and balance doing something they loved.

Here are some of their testimonials:

“Thank you for such an informative day – I have learnt so much. I’m off to take the cupcake world by storm!”

“Tracy’s informal approach has made me comfortable, positive and excited about starting my cake business, so thank you Tracy!”

”feel inspired and can’t wait to start putting it all into practice.”

I’d love to help you if you’re thinking of starting a cake or cupcake business from home, check out out business page for more details.

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in Cake Biz Tips, Classes

A handful of tips to guarantee your cake business success.

June 27th, 2012

1/ Taking action is more important than over thinking.

Get out of your own head and stop over thinking the details. You’ll work out the details in time. Focus on what you need to do to take action and to get started. Read the rest of this entry »

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In the kitchen and beyond…

May 9th, 2012

The last couple of weeks have been so busy. I haven’t disappeared I promise. My pc grounded to a halt after being struck down twice with a nasty malware virus.

In the kitchen I’ve been teaching our regular cupcake classes, and I also have a couple of big projects I’m working on that has taken up a lot of time and head space.

It’s been really important for me to focus on these new projects and to have the time to do this. I will of course, reveal all to you in time. In the short term, I’m in the process of finalising a new course which I’ll share with you shortly.

In regards to our classes, it’s been a while since I shared with you some of the lovely work our students have produced at our cupcake
courses, so I thought I’d post some of their work. Didn’t they do well?

Last weekend was the final chocolate cupcake class of the season. Students have been asking why we’re not running any further chocolate
cupcake classes. This is because the chocolate paste we work with becomes more unstable and is prone to melting during the warmer months.

Watch out for new chocolate classes in Autumn 2012.

Happy Baking!

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in Classes, Inspiration

Top Picks: Mother’s Day Inspiration Part 1

March 7th, 2012

As Mother’s Day in the UK is fast approaching, I thought I’d share with you a couple of gift ideas. These are ideal for mothers who love baking and indulging in the odd one (or two) cupcakes. Here is Part 1 of my top picks:

Flower Cupcakes

For those who wish to bake cupcakes as a gift for Mother’s Day, how about these pretty flower cupcakes from Betty Crocker (minus the candles). The flower petals have been made from cut up marshmallows that have been covered in pastel sugar sprinkles. For the centre of the flowers you could use a sugar coated jelly sweet for the centre (this may need a little sugar glue to stick it down). For full details of how to make these click here.

Image via Betty Crocker

Treat her to a Cupcake Class

Image via Ian Olsson

If your mum loves cupcakes and would like to learn how to professionally decorate them, then our 3 hour Let’s Decorate’ course is ideal for mothers and daughters. We have a few places available on our ‘Let’s Decorate’ cupcake class on Saturday 17th March ( shameless plug, I know ). Relaxed and friendly fun is guaranteed.

Baking Gifts

If your mum loves to bake bread then these original Hovis bread tins from NOTHS* would make a lovely gift. They are solid and heavy duty, perfect for bread and would equally look lovely with flowers or herbs in. Click on the image for further details. Mr S and little T, please take note that I’m putting this one on my wish list.

Happy Baking!

* Part of my affiliate program.

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in Classes, Sweet Products

Learn How to Bake

January 10th, 2012

It’s the start of a brand new year which is synonymous with resolutions and plans, such as learning new skills or achieving new goals. If you’re like me you’ll probably have a list of aspirations mapped out. I’m usually so impatient I want to achieve them all in January, forgetting that there’s another 11 months left in the year!

Professionally, I’m really keen on developing my photography further and understanding more about my camera. I’d also like to be
more efficient in organising when to write my blog posts. If I can crack this, then I’m confident I should be able to write more frequently.

Personally I’d like to make more time for myself. I know that time away from work, home and family (as much I enjoy being immersed in all three, except the cleaning and ironing) brings me back to my centre.

I’ve started to explore my local area by just walking in the nearby woodland. I love being in nature and I’m lucky to be close the countryside, whilst having the convenience of London on my door step.

So this year I’m going to make walking or running in nature part of my routine. Not only do I enjoy it, I find this really boosts my creativity, which in turn helps me with my work.

Of course, I have a whole bunch of other goals, but don’t worry I won’t tire you with the rest of the list;)

So what about you? Are you looking to learn a new skill such as how to bake?

Maybe you’re looking to change career and want to start a cupcake business from home?

Check out some of my blog posts to kick start you in the right direction

7 Basic Baking Tips for Beginners

10 Tips for Successful Cupcake Baking

A handful of tips for Starting a Cupcake Business

For those looking for Baking courses don’t forget our ‘Bake & Decorate’ cupcake course. This is perfect for those wanting to learn how to bake and decorate cupcakes to a professional standard.

All the best for a successful and happy year.

Tracy x

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in Classes

Chocolate Cupcake Classes for 2012

January 5th, 2012

Happy New Year to you all!

We’re already a few days into January, and I’m itching to get started with my exciting plans for 2012

The lights and decorations have been put away, new toys have been sorted, and Little S returns to school next week, so we’re gradually getting back to normality.

Business will be fully resumed by this Friday, as I will be teaching a ‘Let’s Decorate’ this coming Saturday. Talking of classes we have a couple of spaces left on our ‘Bake & Decorate’ on the 19th January 2012 and on our ‘Let’s Decorate 2′ class for 28th January.

Just before Christmas I also launched a new class (drum roll….) ** ’Let’s Decorate Chocolate’ **

This morning class covers chocolate decoration techniques using chocolate paste, ganache, white and milk chocolate buttercream. You’ll be working with the finest chocolate to create pretty chocolate bows, roses and flowers.

For more details check out the course page on our website here.

That’s all for now folks!

Happy Baking!

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in Classes, Inspiration

Decorating Cupcakes with Fondant

October 3rd, 2011

Wow, what fab weather we’ve had recently in the UK. For October we’ve never experienced temperatures of 30C, so when I held the “Let’s Decorate 2” class on one of the hottest days, it helped that the class focused on fondant covering as opposed to butter cream swirls. I’m sure they would have melted given the temperature in the kitchen. I’m aware that those readers from hotter countries are probably reading this and thinking, we handle this kind of weather all the time, well here in Britain, if we reach those temperatures during the Summer season we are lucky.

I’m digressing I know…so it was fabulous to see our previous students attend the launch of our second cupcake decorating class.

The students learnt additional tips on how to decorate cupcakes professionally, including the use of moulds, embossers, dusts and paints and how to cover cupcakes with fondant.

This class is longer in duration as we focus on more delicate decorations that require more time to complete, and this also gives the students the time and space to be creative.

One of the students commented on how she thought the cupcakes looked more sophisticated than the butter cream cupcakes, and I have to agree. They are perfect for occasions such as weddings, with for example, the addition of sugar paste flowers tailored to the bride’s theme.

Our lovely students made some fantastic cupcakes and we had some great feedback:

“Thank you… a great day as always”

“Really enjoyed the day, Thank you very much!”

You can check out what our students make, and other updates from me on our Facebook Page here and if you like what we do then please don’t forget to ‘Like’ us.

If you fancy a coming along to our ‘Let’s Decorate 2’ workshop our next class is being held on 12^th November 2011 and you can find further details here

Happy Baking everyone!

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in Classes, Inspiration

Happy Holidays & Hello to ‘Let’s Decorate 2′.

August 31st, 2011

It was a little quiet on the blog last week as the family and I enjoyed a break in Dorset in the UK.

I have been known to take the laptop with me on holiday, but as we were camping I decided to embrace life without technology for a few days and enjoy being in nature, (ok, I admit I did take the Blackberry, but I limited checking mails to a couple of times a day).

Just look at the sunset on our campsite, isn’t this just beautiful? Although it’s only taken on a basic compact camera, I just wanted to share this picture as I love the colours…oops I’m digressing.

So after plenty of fresh air, countryside walks and spending time on the beach with the family, I feel refreshed and ready for the Autumn.

I can now confirm that new class dates have been added to the website up to the end of October. During September we’ll also be adding further class dates for November and December.

An additional class ‘Let’s Decorate 2’ has been launched for beginners and intermediates. Students will to learn how to make fondant topped cupcakes and create delicate and more intricate decorations for their cupcakes. For further details check out ‘Let’s Decorate 2’ on the website.

Our ‘Bake & Decorate’ classes for September are now sold out, but don’t worry additional dates have been added for October, for those interested in learning to bake and decorate the perfect cupcake.

Finally, we now stock a small selection of cupcake tips and complementary piping bags to purchase after each class. We plan to extend our range of stock in the coming months so watch this space!

Happy Baking!

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