Fabulous freebies: magazines

Fabulous freebies: magazines.

Fool-proof family cake recipe

All celebrations, be they birthdays, engagements or weddings tend to require cake- so I thought I’d share our family ‘standard cake recipe’ which makes a lovely moist spongecake, ideal for cupcakes or celebration cakes.

Its very simple, and can be adapted and modified as necessary to give a whole host of flavour variations. The beauty of this recipe is it really has never failed me.

You will need:

eggs, sugar, baking margarine (I find Stork works fine!), self raising flour.

The difference between this method and most usual recipes is that you make a decision on the size of you cake, choose the number of eggs required, and measure everything else against the weight of the eggs.* As a guideline:

2 eggs = 24 cupcakes

4 eggs = small victoria sponge

6 eggs = larger celebration cake

So, for a small celebration cake (half size) I chose 3 eggs and weighed them (in their shells):

I then put in the same weight of marg’ and sugar, ‘creamed’ them together, added the eggs and flour- and mixed together (wooden spoon or a blender are fine).

You should end up with a ‘dropping consistancy’ mixture (add a few drops of milk if it’s too stiff). Put into cupcake cases/lined tins, and you are good to go!

Bake for around 12-15 min if cupcakes and 30-40 min for larger cakes (this mix wont drop, so feel free to open the oven and check if your cakes are done).

Like I said, you can adapt the recipe to any taste/occasion. Here’s a ‘berry and almond’ twist, with frozen red berries, 1 oz flour substituted for ground almonds, plus a drop of almond essence.

Almond and berries: for decoration add flaked almonds to cupcakes, or cover in marzipan and berries for a celebration cake

*This method works because eggs vary massively in their weight/ moisture content and you may end up with a very dry cake following standard 2 eggs = 4 oz recipe

Clowning around

The clown theme

 

So, having decided to go with a fun, circus/clown feel to our wedding, we booked an entertainer from Froggle Parties to wander around the tables.

Dressed in a typical froggle outfit, Ben our entertainer did a sterling job making children of all ages (including the very grown up ones) smile.

From bubbles to balloon hats, the guests had lots of fun, and combined with our red nose favours the entertainment provided some great photo opportunities too!

Froggle: http://www.froggleparties.com

One of my friends, a mum of three said it was “The most child friendly” wedding she’s been too- and was worried the kids would expect all weddings to come complete with clown and comedy swords!

I’d initially thought the entertainer would just be there to keep the kids happy, but actually the way it worked out he ended up keeping everyone happy- and the end result was just as good as having a magician or more ‘grown up’ performer for our guests and really cemented the joyful feel of the day. Very good value for money!

Invites for free and other stuff

Snapshot of our invite design (front)

Every wedding magazine comes with numerous stationery adverts, and there are plenty of companies out there wanting to charge £1.50 and upwards per wedding invite. That’s before you even get to £3 for 10 name cards and the same again for thank you cards.

Even though we are having a ‘budget’ wedding of sorts, we wanted to include as many friends as possible and so we had a big list and needed around 150 invites.  Unwilling to spend hundreds of pounds on posh stationery, I thought a bit creatively.

After making the ‘clown and the bride’ I’d taken some shots of them nestled in M&Ms (no need to pay for the personalised ones since our initials already match!) and I decided to use these images as a basis for our wedding stationery

I’ve used VistaPrint for business stuff in the past and often get offer emails through from them. I had a few ‘100 free postcard’ offers and decided to cash in. They have hundreds of templates and you can customise images, colours and text, so you come out with a really professional and personal product.

Because they are great at adding in the freebies, we ended up with 200 postcard invites (custom-made using our own images), envelopes, customised RSVP labels, 100 thank you cards, a custom designed guest book, 200 places cards (redesigned business cards) and a few ‘thankyou’ fridge magnets for the grand total of £60!(even including P&P).  Everything matches, its individual and totally unique- Love it!

business card name cards

Flower Power

I love fresh flowers- don’t get me wrong, but when looking at how much bouquets cost and also knowing that I can get allergic to pollens, I wondered if there was another solution.

I am not a big fan of fake flowers, but a few years ago I bought some lightweight wooden roses at a craft fair, that I completely loved. I looked into how much a bulk-buy of those would be and was amazed! 100 wooden roses for £15 on eBay!

Being a creative type I quite liked the idea of a project, so I went for it, and along with a few bits of floristry supplies I have set about making my own bouquet and some tied long stems for the bridesmaids… watch this space to see how they turn out!

some example roses

Two months to go- and a bit of a recap

The clown and the bride

Fed up of reading articles about weddings that cost tens of thousands of pounds?? I certainly am! I’m a big believer that the marriage is way more important than the wedding, and that you don’t have to spend the earth to have a great (and seemingly swish) day.

It was 4 months ago that me and my wonderful children’s entertainer boyfriend got engaged (Just before William and Kate followed our trend). We also don’t believe in long engagements, so we set the date for April 16th, and because we both go to a central London church, we wanted to get married there.

The last few months have been a roller-coaster of ideas, plans, creativity and also fun and despite being in one of the most expensive cities on the earth, we’re currently coming in at less than half the average UK wedding budget, so I thought I’d pen my thoughts and tips for any other budget-savvy brides out there.

Every couple, and every wedding is different- so whilst we all get obsessed about other people’s wedding ideas, reading their stories is only ever going to serve as inspiration. The kinds of shortcuts we’ve made wont suit everyone, but I hope somewhere along the line, what I write is helpful, interesting and maybe a bit inspiring!