MERRY CHRISTMAS

At Sugar and Ice of Shaw, we love rich fruit cake.  Fruit cake containing cherries, walnuts and soaked in French Brandy...mmmmmm.

 

However, it would appear that most people don't like fruit cake!  Yet again, we have received NO orders for Christmas Cakes this year!

 

Well, that means we need to make our own!  We soak our pre-soaked fruit in fresh orange juice and use only fresh ingredients to create the most moist, succulent delicious cake.  Then we "feed" with 3 year old French Brandy before encasing our cake in yellow marzipan and soft fondant white icing.

 

At our house, fruit cake is LOVED as it should be!  We made two this year - one for our Mother and Father-in-law for their Xmas table and one for us, for our Boxing Day party.

 

A special Christmas gift for our parents

 

Our penguin snow-scene took pride of place on our table

 

 

MAY I TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY AGAIN TO WISH ALL OF YOU A VERY

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR

 

IF YOU HAVE BEEN A CUSTOMER, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH

AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO BEING OF SERVICE AGAIN

VERY SOON

 



 



Our Wonderful Customers

At Sugar and Ice of Shaw, the business is really just "me" - Joanne Godfrey.  However, I do receive support from my husband, Tim who does assist me with baking and general domestic work.

 

As I take a look back on 2012, I wonder whether the time has come to stop writing my blog in the "3rd person" but to say "ME" instead! Whilst the jury is out, today I am going to type this post as myself so here goes...

 

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all my customers and wish each and every one of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY HEALTHY NEW YEAR.  Even, if you are reading this and you aren't a customer, the sentiment is the same.  Thank you for dropping by - without you all, we are nothing.

 

Yesterday it was my birthday.  I hate having a December birthday...why? Well, all the tables in the best restaurants are full and even if you DO go out to celebrate, everything is all about Christmas, so you have to sit/shop/browse amongst crackers, party poppers, baubles, crowds, queues and of course the cold.  You can't really plan a night out to celebrate cos nobody is interested - your night out either clashes with that legendary office Xmas party or people are just too skint having to save for all the presents they need to buy.  I feel even more sorry for those people out there who have birthday's on Dec 24th, 25th, 26th, New Years Eve and New Years Day... So if that includes you, my deepest sympathy. Perhaps I am just getting more cranky as the years creep by, probably!!

 

On a lighter note, the best part of my birthday yesterday was my thoughtful customers.  I received birthday wishes, cards and even a gift! Awww, makes it all worth while.  A massive thank you to Lynne, Leanne and Julie - see you all in the New Year :0)

 

 

Recently...

Well, the festive season is upon us and at Sugar and Ice of Shaw we have been as busy as usual, if not more so.

There have been various cakes, cupcakes and even a party or two :0)

So, to re-cap; here is what we have been up to.

This large 16 inch cake was designed completely by the customer.  The customer knew exactly what she wanted and was kind enough to sketch the design, which we simply copied.  The cake was delivered to an address in Chadderton a couple of weeks ago and the feedback we received was very positive :0)

We always make celebration cakes and cupcakes, but recently we had a "left-over" chocolate sponge and thought we would try to make a Black Forest Gateau! A family get-together had been arranged for Sunday 25th November and we thought it an excellent excuse to try this out.  We smothered the centre of the cake with Morello Cherries and Cherry jam topped with fresh whipped cream.  We piped fresh cream onto the top of the cake and decorated it with glace cherries and crumbled Cadbury's Flake chocolate.  The difference between this and a frozen gateau...well, there was no comparison and let's just say that this cake did not make it through the entire Sunday :0)

This 12 inch chocolate sponge cake was for a customer who had requested a 3D Waybuloo figure.  We had the figure holding a number 1 and decorated the cake with pastel shaded flowers and Waybuloo butterflies.  Perfect for any little girl :0)

Holly's Cupcake Party

At Sugar and Ice of Shaw we pride ourselves in offering FABULOUS FUN Cupcake Parties!

 

Prices start from as little as £65 for a unique experience in the comfort of your own home.  Even better, you do NOTHING! So sit back and relax whilst we amuse your little ones for an entire 2 hours.  All we require is the use of a kitchen or dining room table to accomodate your guests.  Our parties appeal to both girls AND boys from the age of 5 upwards. 

 

Sugar and Ice of Shaw will come to your home; our set-up takes minutes.  We protect your table with a heavy duty cupcake tablecloth and use mats for each guest.  We have cups and ramekins for paintbrushes, sprinkles and glitter.  Before we start, we hand out aprons, hair bobbles and hand-gel - hygiene is always top priority.  Each party guest receives a box of 6 cupcakes to decorate.  We take EACH party guest through tuition in expertly piping buttercream rose swirls.  Then we offer coloured icing in every conceivable colour along with our many different cutters.  We also offer many different tools and explain what each one does to create wonderful effects on each of their cupcakes.  After, each guest receives an achievement certificate and we leave once ensuring your kitchen/dining room is immaculate.

 

The feedback we have received on all our parties has been amazing.  We are always told that the experience is great value for money, unique, educational, imaginative and best of all memorable.

 

So why not make a party experience "different" next year?  We guarantee your birthday girl or boy will love it!

 

 

 

 

After teaching buttercream swirls, we allow the children

to roll out the sugarpaste and use the cutters

 

 

The parties are a fab opportunity to inspire the children to

be creative.  In decorating the cupcakes it helps build confidence

and gives an immense sense of pride

which is so important in these early years :0)

 

 

You may be surprised to learn that boys gain so much from this experience.

Not all our cutters are "girly" - there is something for everyone

 

 

 

Here are some fabulous cupcakes

We unleashed the Xmas cutters...well, it is November!

 

 

Birthday Girl Holly

  



  Party Guest Daniel





HALLOWEEN Cupcake Class

HALLOWEEN CUPCAKE CLASS

SATURDAY 27TH OCTOBER

10am-12pm

 

Sugar and Ice of Shaw are offering exclusive CUPCAKE CLASSES!! Our very first class was on Saturday 27th October within the beautiful tearoom at BowsRUs in Rochdale.

We advertised our classes on Facebook back in September and it wasn't long before all 20 places had been booked and paid for.  Wow. 

Here I am all ready to teach!

 

 

Demonstrating modelling sugarpaste

 

Some of our class members

 

 

Making ghosts!

 

Fun for all

 

Demonstrating buttercream swirls

 

Our class eagerly listening

 

We had a good selection of girls AND boys in the class

 

Making zombies

 

 

Lots of concentration

 

 

imaginative

 

 

These are great!

 

All finished

 

Fantastic

 

These were mine done later at home

 

 

 

The feedback we received was brilliant.  We were so pleased.  We even sold some of our chocolate figures for Halloween.  Of the 20 class members, 15 booked onto our Christmas Class immediately afterwards. 

 



 

 

 

It's all about PINK!

Yes, it is all about PINK for October for Breast Cancer Awareness - so please wear your ribbons and badges, but most of all make a donation or sponsor someone for this important cause.

We have been all about pink for a different reason this week! We had an order for a Christening.  Our customer asked us for a "Harrison" Cake (we like giving them names now, lol) but in pink, for her daughter Lacee.  Not only that, but the customer wanted 24 of our special baby cupcakes to go with it! This was a large order so we were fortunate not to have any other bookings this week!

We made the Christening cake on Thursday and made the cupcakes on Friday. The order was collected on Sunday morning and the customer was very happy we are pleased to say :0)

Just to say thanks...

One of our old school friends who we found on Facebook has kindly always supported Sugar and Ice of Shaw, even whilst living 10 miles away in Stalybridge.

Recently, he was "out of action" for some considerable time after having foot/leg surgery.  This meant that his wonderful wife had to help him out with many everyday tasks!

After his long recovery, he sent us an email asking if we could make his wife a "thank you" cake.  No problem! The customer only needed a small 8 inch cake with the words "Thank you for everything, love Michael" - he also requested some arms hugging.

We baked the cake fresh as always, and covered it in a bright turquoise blue colour as we wanted the cake to be a little different.  We thought bright pink would look really striking against the base colour and instead of arms hugging, thought 2 cute teddies hugging may look better. Cheeky, aren't we!! Finally, we added some pink blossoms around the base of the cake.

The cake was delivered to Stalybridge today and we got to watch the customer hand over the special gift.  His wife was really touched by the gesture and just a few hours later we received a message to say that it was very tasty too! LOL!

BRITAIN'S GOT TALENT

A number of months ago, we received an email from a lady on behalf of Crompton House School, Shaw. 

She was looking for a local business to kindly make a "Britain's Got Talent" themed cake to be raffled off to raise money towards Christies Young Cancer Ward.

We make it our mission to make at least ONE cake for charity each year so eagerly accepted the request.  We even told the lady that we would try to replicate the judges table! She was thrilled with our response, so we wrote the order in our diary and did nothing more.

Last week, the time had come to make the cake! We were just about to contact the customer to confirm when she rang us for assurance that we were still able to rise to the challenge!  Of course, we put her mind at ease immediately and informed her that the cake would be ready for collection well in time for the school's charity event.

We spent many hours creating the cake and worked until 11pm.  We even continued with the decorating at 7am the next day...

When we made the table and the judges, we decide to turn Simon's buzzer red - let's face it, it usually is.  However, we had a great idea. What if, Simon hadn't pressed his buzzer...what if, someone else had?

So, we added Simon's best friend... Britain's Got Talent winner 2012, Pudsey! awww

The cake was collected on the Wednesday morning ready for that night's Talent Show and Charity Fundraiser.  We were kindly given free tickets to attend but were that busy baking, we could not break off to take part in all the fun planned! We have heard since that the night was a resounding success.

Well, we were glad to help!

Simply delicious...

At Sugar and Ice of Shaw, we only ever receive orders from customers wanting our exclusive and innovative designs.  Of course, that is fine with us! We love being creative!

Sometimes, however, we like to try out new flavours, ingredients and toppings...  This week was the ideal opportunity as we wanted to donate some cupcakes to 3 local businesses in Shaw who have kindly agreed to advertise our business free of charge within their premises:

THE WEAVERS ANSWER public house
LUCIA'S COFFEE SHOP AND ICE-CREAM PARLOUR
FISH-NET AQUARIUM AND PETS

We thought that Raspberry Ripple and White Chocolate sounded heavenly.  The huge cupcakes were baked fresh this afternoon.  The light moist sponge was infused with raspberry essence and coloured with red throughout, not mixed; and of course we added some delicious creamy white chocolate chips.  The buttercream was made using fresh ingredients, flavoured again with raspberry and finally we stirred in some red colouring very gently, to give a rippled effect.  The buttercream was piped onto the cupcakes and a sprinkling of white chocolate chips added on top.

The only problem was that there weren't any leftovers for US to try!!

Donation of Cupcakes

***TO MEMBERS OF SHAW GAS EXPLOSION SUPPORT GROUP***

As you may have heard on local and national news, a terrible tragedy occurred in our town on Tuesday 26th June 2012.

I was working on a wedding order in the kitchen when at approximately 11.15am heard the most almighty BANG, which was so loud it frightened me.  At first, I thought that something had crashed upstairs, so I dashed into all the rooms looking for something amiss.  Nothing was.  Minutes later I heard many sirens just streets away.


I manage a Facebook page called "I Love SHAW" and immediately checked the internet for any news.  A local lady had posted that her house had shook from an explosion.  Moments later, other members joined the discussion and confirmed that a gas explosion had occured on nearby Buckley Street, destroying at least 2 houses.


Throughout the day I kept online, updating news as it happened and also networking with other Oldham Facebook groups.  It soon transpired that a 2 year old boy, Jamie Heaton had lost his life in the blast, whilst a 27 year old man called Andrew Partington had been air-lifted to Wythenshawe Hospital with 25-30% burns.  As I type this, the exact cause of the explosion is still not known, although it is believed to involve a recent repair to Mr Partington's property.


Within no time at all, a local action group had been established on Facebook and those who had been evacuated from their homes were kindly offered sanctuary within the Sports Hall of Crompton House School.  Local residents immediately began offering donations of food, water, clothing, toilettries, home furnishings, electrical items... Some residents commenced work on charity events and fundraising; the community spirit was awe-inspiring.

The following morning, I commented on my Facebook page that I would bake some fresh cupcakes and donate these to the families and support workers at Crompton House School.  Ten minutes later my phone rang.  It was BBC Radio Manchester.  They had seen my update on Facebook and asked if I would mind being interviewed on the radio! Of course, I jumped at the chance. Just ten minutes later, I was speaking LIVE to Heather Stott who asked me about the explosion and the kind donation of cupcakes.  I told her about my experience, my business and involvement with the Facebook page "I Love SHAW".  By 1pm I had completed the cupcakes and a kind customer of Sugar and Ice of Shaw offered to take them over to the school for me (this was only because I don't have daytime transportation).


My father-in-law rang me around this time to say he had been to the school to donate clothing/soft furnishings.  Whilst there he was interviewed by BBC NorthWest! The interview was broadcast that evening...trust him to steal my thunder! lol...


On a more serious note, however, we cannot lose sight of the loss affecting the Heaton family and would like to take this opportunity to offer our sincere and heartfelt condolences.  We would also like to wish Andrew Partington a full and speedy recovery.

Our FIRST Birthday!

On Tuesday 29th May it was officially our first birthday.  However, we are closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so had to wait until yesterday to celebrate!


Two weeks ago, we sent Facebook Event Invitations to our customers and also sent notifications regarding our forthcoming 1st Birthday.  We decided to hold an informal event at Sugar and Ice of Shaw offering free delicious cupcakes, fresh filter coffee, tea and even Bucks Fizz and Champagne! The event was 11am-3pm.


First of all, we needed to prepare! We printed posters, bought balloons in our brand colours and on Tuesday evening at 8pm baked some vanilla, strawberry and chocolate cupcakes.

Our front door complete with decorations

The next morning, we decorated our home with balloons, posters and made a feature table to hold the cupcake display, business cards and postcards...not to mention the Bucks Fizz and Champagne!  We also put our marketing video on the television and scrolled a slideshow of our cake photographs on the ipad.

 Our living room ready for our customers

 We also had a slideshow of our cakes on display

Our vanilla, strawberry and chocolate cupcakes all decorated
in our branded colours

Our final customers of the day leave with the remaining cupcakes
 in gift bags

 Customer cards :0)

We are delighted to say that from 11am until 4pm, we happily greeted a number of regular customers.  The event was a total success and we would like to take this opportunity to thank ALL our customers, supporters and fans who have not only visited us in person, but virtually through Facebook, placed orders or just made enquiries... without YOU we are nothing.  

Thank you for everything!!

Jessica's Cupcake Party

On Saturday 19th May at 4pm at a house in Lees, Oldham - was a very special young lady celebrating her 9th birthday.  That special young lady was "Jessica"...


Jessica's mum had booked a Cupcake Party with Sugar and Ice of Shaw some weeks earlier.

Jessica invited her 3 close friends; Ellie, Aliya and Ellie-May to partake in a new, exciting experience.  Each girl receives and decorates 6 cupcakes within a presentation box AND also is awarded with a certificate signed by a qualified cake decorator - aka ME!

Here I am, after covering the table with a unique cupcake tablecloth, cupcake mats and cupcake paintbrush cups! The girls remove their "naked" cupcakes ready to start...

The cupcakes are evenly spread with buttercream ready to be flat-iced

After being shown how to flat-ice AND create amazing buttercream swirls, the girls are left to use our fabulous cutters.  They create stars, hearts, teddy bears, flowers and leaves in all different colours.  The choice is limitless!

After creating all the different designs, I bring out the sprinkles! The girls love all the different toppings from silver and pearl balls to chocolate stars and glitter.

 Finally, the children place their completed cupcakes inside their presentation boxes.  They are feeling quite proud of their accomplishments and even prouder when we issue each one with a very special Award Certificate.


Before leaving, we give the birthday girl a special card and gift THEN ensure that everything is tidied away, leaving the dining area spotless.


We are happy to say that every Cupcake Party is always a total success with excellent feedback both from the girls and their mums :0)