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Author: Jodie

Customised Birthday Cakes….

Posted on by Jodie

Customised Birthday Cakes….

When it comes to celebrating a special occasion like a birthday, a bespoke cake can make all the difference.

A cake that is customised to your liking can add a personal touch to the occasion, and make it even more memorable. While it may be tempting to shop online or visit a chain bakery to find the perfect cake, there are many reasons why you should consider shopping local when looking for a bespoke birthday cake.

Unique and Personalised Designs

One of the biggest advantages of shopping local for a bespoke birthday cake is the opportunity to work directly with the cake designer. cake designers have a personal touch that chain bakeries cannot match. They are often more than happy to work with you to create a design that is unique and personalised to your liking. Whether you want a cake that reflects your child’s favourite hobby, or a cake that represents a special memory, a local cake maker can help you bring your vision to life.

Freshness and Quality

When you shop local, you can be confident that you are getting a cake that is made fresh and with high-quality ingredients. Local cake makers often source their ingredients locally, ensuring that they are using the freshest and most natural ingredients available. This not only ensures that your cake tastes better but also that it is healthier.

Supporting Local Businesses

When you shop local, you are supporting local businesses and contributing to the local economy. By choosing to buy from a local cake maker, you are helping to keep small businesses thriving, which benefits everyone in the community. In addition, local cake makers are more likely to give back to the community and support local charities and events.

Personalised Service

Another benefit of shopping local for a bespoke birthday cake is the personalised service that you receive. Local cake makers often work closely with their customers, ensuring that their needs and preferences are met. They are more than happy to answer any questions you may have and to help you choose the perfect design and flavour for your cake.

oreo drip cake leeds bespoke cakes

Reduced Carbon Footprint

Shopping locally for a bespoke birthday cake also has environmental benefits. By choosing a local cake maker, you are reducing the carbon footprint associated with shipping and transportation. Local cake makers often use eco-friendly packaging and locally-sourced ingredients, which reduces the environmental impact of the cake-making process.

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Just a lil’ catch up….

Posted on by Jodie

Just a lil’ catch up….

WOW!

So, it’s going pretty well here, all things considered! We are taking more and more orders and now have a team of 4 including me! I cant believe that I have got to the point of needing a team of people working at Jodie Bakes. How things change….! Our wholesale business is growing every week and being able to say yes to more bespoke orders is phenomenal!

Have you seen our instagram lately? How cute is Zog? If you don’t know about Zog, he’s a flying dragon, from a children’s story book and he’s the cutest….. I loved making him. It’s sometimes even more lovely when its for a family member and this was for my niece Grace….

COVID RESTRICTIONS

Covid hasn’t been bringing any joy but it hasn’t stop bakes. We have done so many cakes through the pandemic, safely delivering to you at home, or for you to collect safely from our unit in Kirkstall. I am so lucky to have found a site so perfect, especially with the private door outside meaning we can safely hand over your bakes without any contact and in the lovely fresh air. If you are coming to our collection point, just look out for our amazing new sign on the wall (thanks to the guys at Leeds Printing Company – as always!) If you’re looking for anything printing/signage check them out. They ship country wide and always produce the best goods – here’s their website if you want to take a look – click here! 

OTHER BAKES THIS WEEK...

Here’s a little round up of some other bakes from this week. Some haven’t even hit the gram yet!
SO, that’s about it! Cakes galore here! Can’t say more than that!!

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Bespoke Cakes… An easy guide to ordering!

Posted on by Jodie

Bespoke Cakes… An easy guide to ordering!

Hello cake lovers of Leeds!!!

So, I thought it would be a great idea to just give you a ‘how to order’ guide!

Whether its a brownie stack or a bespoke cake… there are a few things we need to know to make the whole ordering process a little easier for us both! We get a lot of enquiries so when we have all the information we can get you booked in and organised as soon as possible! Then your cake worries are sorted and you can get onto pressie buying!

So...the vitals

– date delivery / collection is required (contactless from LS4 – Kirkstall, Leeds) I’d suggest the evening before birthday/event then you have it in time – and should anything go wrong (cake is a science remember!) we can fix it (touch wood this has never happened yet but its better to be safe than sorry!) – literally writing this and a cake has sunk in the middle and another is now in – typically my last bake of the night too!!!! 

– address and post code of delivery address if delivery is requested (delivery fee applies dependant on distance! Delivery around Leeds starts at £2.50 then after that its based on mileage)

– Any allergies or intolerances? This is so important! We don’t want anyone not enjoying their cake to the fullest! 

– flavour profile of your cake

– Any specific personalisation  / name / age / bespoke ideas

– your full name, phone number and email

– have you seen a design you like or happy for me to use my imagination? Please send images for inspiration

Please note, we cannot copy a cake, but can use it for inspiration. Its great to see what you’re imagining too.

With this information we will be able to quote accordingly

Get in touch! Email us hello@jodiebakes.co.uk or send us a message on 07476010160.

Alternatively fill in the contact form below!

Don’t forget to check out all of our creations on our Instagram page. Click here to have a gander! 

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Simple Victoria Sponge

Posted on by Jodie

Simple Victoria Sponge

For a lovely and simple, fluffy, sponge cake that the whole family can enjoy, follow this super simple and classic recipe.

Preheat oven at 180 / Gas 5
You will need 2 nicely greased and lined 8 inch round cake pan

Ingredients

4oz Self Raising Flour
4oz Soft Butter/Stork/Margarine
4oz Caster Sugar
1tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
2 Large Eggs

Filling

Various alternatives
Jam
Lemon Curd
Buttercream
Ganache
Fresh Whipped Cream & berries

Method
Soften the butter and sugar together, make sure its lovely and creamy
Add in the 2 eggs and beat well
Sieve in the flour and baking powder
Beat well, but until fluffy – careful to not over beat!
Split between the 2 baking tins evenly

Cook in the middle of the oven for approximately 25-30 mins, until a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool before choosing your filling and enjoy!

Ideas

You could dust with icing sugar, add berries, fill with your favourite jam or chocolate spread. (If you fill with chocolate, try heating it up in the oven for ten mins and serve with ice cream!)
You could also change the flavour by adding the rind of a lemon and a teaspoon of lemon essence, or orange!

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Practice Makes Perfect!

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Practice Makes Perfect!

So, the only way that you get better is through practice. Ive had cakes fall off my work surface, I have had them crack and ones that won’t set. Perfectly followed recipes that sink in the middle and once, i managed to forget the yoghurt in a Bundt cake. It’s dire, but you just have to bake another one.

Branching Out

I did my first ever stall at a local Christmas Fair in December 2019. I was really nervous. As you can possibly tell, I made a lot… I didn’t actually sell out. The left overs I took to St Georges Crypt in Leeds. (A homeless shelter for anyone not familiar with what it is. I also got a marriage proposal based on the deliciousness of my ginger flapjack)

So yes, back to the point. I made far too much. I didn’t know what to make to be honest. I did all sorts.

* Flapjacks
* Brownies
* Tiffin
* Range of Cupcakes
* Banana Cakes
* Caramel Jars
* Christmas Chocolate Cake


Luckily I had a friend with me (Thanks Helen!) to keep me sane and who also is far more intelligent than me, who decided to keep a tab of everything we sold, so now I can see from that one stall which are best-sellers. What to make and not make for the next one. Ive just booked another one for July and am taking part in a wedding fair on Sunday! (you can click here for links to my events) you know, if you want to keep up to date that is!

I also did a wedding fair, which was a wonderful experience. I showcased a lovely tall flowered cake and took some individual samples of cake flavours that visitors could take home with them. I think that this really made a difference to what I was doing. It meant that they were able to go home and try the cakes with a lovely brew, not eat, go and forget what they had had. It was great to talk to couples about to marry about their cake designs and what they would like. I was so fortunate to take 2 bookings from that. Both being really exciting and interesting cakes. No boring white, we are talking superheroes, logos, exciting things. I think the days of classic white iced fruit cakes are numbered. People want flavours and colours and personality showing though their cakes! And for that reason, i love them!

So all it is really, is practice, practice, practice. And thats where hobbies become passions, and passions become businesses. I don’t know what will happen in the future, I have big dreams, but for now I am just going to carry on practicing and making more amazing cakes – all which you can find on my instagram feed (click here to see the latest!)

Happy Baking!
J x

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English Scones

Posted on by Jodie

English Scones

HEADING

Served fresh and warm from the oven with butter, jam and cream. All that’s left to debate is, is it cream then jam, or jam then cream? You can debate that while eating these beauts.

Pre heat your oven to 180 / gas 5
You will need a couple of lined (baking parchment is perfect) flat baking trays for the scones to go on, a bowl for mixing and a measuring jug.

Ingredients

450g self raising flour
100g softened butter – I chop mine up
50g caster sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 large eggs
A touch of milk

You can also add currents to the recipe too, or sultanas to make these fruity.

METHOD

Mix the sugar, baking powder and flour together in a large bowl
Add in the butter and crumb (rub between your finger tips until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs)
In the jug, crack the eggs and add milk to 275ml
Add approx 75% the milk and egg into the crumbed mixture and mix until it starts to come together. (use the other 25% to add or not add, depending if the mixture is coming together nicer)
Tip out onto a floured surface and knead for a couple of minutes
Roll out to around 2.5cm thick.
Using a medium round cutter (I like a fancy edge!), get as many circles as you can, before re-kneading, rolling and cutting until there is no more dough left

Place on a baking tray, evenly spread out, brushing the top with milk (or any of the left over egg/milk mixture)
You can sprinkle some sugar on top at this point too – I like a Demerara myself!

Pop into the preheated oven for approx 15 minutes, checking after ten. They should be lovely and golden brown on top with a nice rise.

Cool on a wire rack, enjoy while still warm.

Note – scones are ideal to freeze once cool to be saved for another day!

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Easy Bakes for Children #3 Salt Dough Cookies

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Easy Bakes for Children #3 Salt Dough Cookies

Salt dough is a super simple way to ‘bake’ some shapes with your children. Perfect to make and use cutters to make lovely decorations, ideal for a cheery Easter window, or before Christmas for tree decorations.

What you will need…. preheat the oven to 120 degrees or gas 2

Measuring cup
Big Bowl
Jug of warm water
Baking tray
Biscuit /play dough cutters
Toothpick/something to make a hole with

Ingredients

1 cup of table salt
4 cups of plain flour
1.5 cups warm water

Method

Pour all the ingredients into the large bowl. Mix well until very dough like. Tip out onto the work surface and knead it for a few minutes until it is all combined.

Flour a surface/table and roll out to approximately 1cm thickness

Use cutters to make shapes out of the dough. Place on a baking tray with a centimetre between each.
ADULT – use a cocktail stick or straw to make a hole big enough to thread some string or ribbon through so you can hang them.

Make small holes to make it easy to hang the shapes

Bake in the oven for 2 hours, the turn over and cook for a further 2 hours until hard. (they should now be a pale cream colour)

This is how they will look when you turn them over before recooking.

Decorating

These salt dough shapes are perfect to decorate with any paint, glue, glitter, sticky on eyes etc. They are great as you can leave them overnight and make it a 2 day activity!
When you have finished decorating, leave them to dry overnight (handy to use a cake cooling rack!) then ideally (an adult) can varnish them before threading some string or ribbon through and hanging them in your windows, or christmas tree – or anywhere really!

Happy Baking, Love Jodie

REMEMBER!

PLEASE REMEMBER THESE ARE NOT EDIBLE, THEY ARE PURELY DECORATIVE

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Easy Bakes for Children #2 Chocolate Cake

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Easy Bakes for Children #2 Chocolate Cake

Nice and easy for today, a really simple, chocolate cake. You can fill this with a lovely cherry jam for a slightly more grown up cake, or make some chocolate filling yourself. Or even grab a jar of your favourite chocolate spread to make it even easier.

What you’ll need….

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees, or gas mark 5
2 x 8inch cake tins, well greased or lined – there are some great liners that you can get online if you’re a keen baker!
Large bowl
Whisk
Spatula

Ingredients

For the cake –
200g self-raising flour
200g caster sugar
200g baking margerine
4 eggs
1.5tsp baking powder
25g chocolate powder – bournville is great, so is Aldi’s version
2tbsp milk
1tsp vanilla essence (if you have it)

For the frosting –
100g milk chocolate – melted gently in the microwave (I personally find it easier to grab a pack of chocolate chips – they are about 45p in Aldi and they melt much faster)
200g softened butter (I find unsalted is better than margarine)
400g icing sugar
40g chocolate powder (as above)
1tsp vanilla essence
Milk if required to thin the mixture – tsp at a time!

Method

Soften the margarine by mixing it until soft. Once soft, add in all of the other ingredients and give it a good old mix! It needs to be really well combined. If you have older children, you could easily use a hand whisk (supervised – obviously!) to make sure its really combined – or even give it a hand whisk once you’re little one has had enough of baking!

Pour half of the mixture into each tin and bake (on the same shelf if you can) for 20-30 minutes – until a skewer comes out nice and clean with no ‘batter’ on it.

Cool for 20 minutes (in the pan) then tip out onto a wire rack and cool fully

Buttercream Filling

Gently melt the chocolate in a microwave – careful not to burn (mum or dad to do this!) – or over a bowl of hot water on the hob.

Take the softened butter in a bowl, combine in the icing sugar, vanilla and chocolate powder until smooth. Pour in the melted chocolate and whip.

Fill the cake with the lovely buttercream, you can top it too, even with lots of chocolates or some chocolate shavings or sprinkles!

Happy Baking, love Jodie xXx

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Easy Bakes for Children #1 – Rock Cakes

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Easy Bakes for Children #1 – Rock Cakes

So, it really is a tough time at the moment with all the children being at home. Finding things to do with them is getting harder, and after speaking to my lovely friend Cath, who had been baking with her son (obviously she sent me very proud pictures of Harry with his flapjack), I thought this was an ideal time to share a few easy recipes with ingredients you are likely to have at home, or easily get your hands on while doing your essential weekly shop.Ingredients!
Rock Cakes – easy and delicious

What you will need…. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees (or number 4 gas)

Weighing scales
Large mixing bowl
Cup and fork (to whisk egg)
Baking sheet with non stick parchment – 2 means you can cook all in one go, if you only have one, its no problem, you will just have to cook half a batch at a time 🙂

Ingredients

200g self raising flour
100g butter – room temperature and cut into small pieces is best
1tsp baking powder
1.5tsp mixed all spice (if you have it – you could use cinnamon/nutmeg/ginger instead)
85g light brown sugar (muscovardo is best, but could use demerara or any golden sugar)
1 egg – whisked
2tbsp milk
100g dried fruit – I like sultanas or raisons

Method

Tip the flour, baking powder, mixed spice (or alternative) and butter into a large bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it looks like breadcrumbs – this can be a little bit messy, so make sure you are wearing an apron! (If you are not making these with children, you can whizz this up in a food processor to save time!)

When your mixture looks like breadcrumbs, pour in the sugar and dried fruit and give it a good mix up.

Pour in the whisked egg and the milk and give a good stir again until it makes a firm ish dough (mum/dad – you might need to help here for a little bit of extra umph on the mixing!)

Take your baking tray and take 10-12 rough blobs of the dough and pop on the tray – I fit 5/6 per tray and space out well. These don’t need to be rolled in your hand – just literally plonked on the tray!

Sprinkle with some extra brown sugar before popping in the oven for 20-25 mins until they are nice and golden brown.

Ideal warm and can be frozen for up to 2 months to enjoy at a later date, if you don’t eat them all at once!

Happy Baking, Love Jodie x

A happy delivery (contactless) to my lovely nanna, Mollie.

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How I got here…

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How I got here…

So, after the tears and tantrums about the first cake, I just carried on baking. Baking all sorts. Cupcakes, learning to ice them, cakes covered in Cadburys Chocolate Fingers round the edges made me feel like I was doing a grand job!
The next cake I made was for Samuels 2nd Birthday. He was all about Ra Ra the Lion (think that was his name – with not having kids i’m not totally sure thats him!?)
Ra Ra was making me Ra-Ra-ge with anger!

It took me ages to make him. His bone structure was that of cocktail sticks and tears, gluing him together. His mane wouldn’t attach properly and you can see a stick popping out of his chin! I followed steps from a book I had bought on how to make different animals. Basically they all sort of start the same. Various different sized balls of fondant, pear shape for the body, round for the head, longer for legs and arms. I kind of think once you have mastered one you can do any moving forward….Well, we will see as I have a unicorn to make next week – I will put that in to practice and see how she turns out!

I can remember making him sat in my parents dining room. My mother telling me not to drop anything on her carpet and I was using a Marks & Sparks place mat as a board. That photo above was taken in said dining room. Good colour carpet to be making a green cake on!

Not as easy as he looks!

I was just praying that the cocktail sticks kept him together!!

So, there you have it. He took hours, I put all my faith in the cocktail sticks and prayed that he would work. Mainly that his mane would stay in place!

So, whatever you are making, however rubbish you think it is, the only way is up. So keep practicing and let your passion shine through.

On that note…. time to look at some unicorn pictures!!

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