Sugar flowers and Shabby Chic.

One of the things I love about "Shabby Chic" is things don't have to be perfect. In fact that imperfections add to the charm of things. This is such a good thing. It goes in with what Flylady says about we must not let perfectionism stop us from doing things. She says that housework done imperfectly still blesses our family. 

There is a big message here for all of us! We don't do things for fear of not doing a professional job. We don't do things thinking we won't do it right. Just do things with love and do them! 

Happily this makes my life a whole lot easier. And more enjoyable. I always made the girls cakes and attempted ice cream cakes, dolly varden cakes, you name it. They were always thrilled despite some being wonky and interesting! Kids (and adults) care about love and are touched by your efforts. A cake is always a beautiful and caring gift for someone. If you don't know what to give someone for their birthday try making or decorating a cake for them and see the response you get. You will be surprised if my experience is anything to go by.

Yesterday it was Chloe's birthday and she came to dinner. I totally cheated really and bought a ready made fresh sponge. I just decorated it. I whipped cream with two drops of pink colour making it softest pink. I sugared some roses. This is so easy. You whip a couple of egg whites and dip your washed flowers into this, trying to get good coverage. Then let it drip away a little. You can use a paint brush for a finer effect making the egg white thinner.

Then dip into and sprinkle castor sugar to coat. You may need to do this a couple of times. Set aside to dry. Now you want to use edible flowers even though we were not eating them you don't want poisonous flowers with food. Roses and violets are fine. 

A violet you can cover in egg white and sugar and they will keep ages. But a dense flower you cannot hope to get the coating through every petal. Still these today look perfect still. They are as hard as a rock looking unreal.

I filled the sponge with jam I made from cherries. I could have used apricot but I wanted pink to match my theme! Cherries had made great jam, I did the microwave method I have explained before.

It tasted lovely! Such an easy thing to do and she loved it. When she arrived she took photos of it so I think that was a good sign!

The fresh roses here are the same roses. After sugaring they are much lighter in colour and I was pleased as I had been unable to get pale pink which I preferred.

As the flowers are still perfect today next time I could do them a day ahead. 

I am dreaming of doing this with lilac or cream roses! Maybe for Mothers Day this would be a possibility.

The thing is I am no cake decorator but soft cream, fresh flowers or sugared ones, or a soft ribbon maybe, transform a cake into something lovely. The other trick is to use a cake stand. It just looks so special. I used one of my DIY ones I made earlier (the instructions are in an old post) and this means you can have amazing cake stands for a couple of dollars each. Little cakes, desert pies, even chocolates look fantastic served this way. Sitting on the table you have an instant centrepiece as well. 

We had a lovely little celebration especially as it was a working day as well. I love to celebrate occasions even if it is in a little way. These little celebrations make life lovely.