Since my first blog I now have a stall at my local farmers market every month as well as supplying a local coffee shop. Looking at renting a pop up shop for the day in surrounding towns to showcase my cupcakes and cakes.

The pressure that us mums are put under when your child announces that they would like a specific character cake - I find this daunting as a mum that can bake so god knows what it feels like for mums that can’t. Each cake has to be better than the last but most of all better than their friends. My favourite and easy cake to make into novelty cake is a giant cupcake mainly as I prefer to work with butter cream rather than fondant. So far my boys have had various moshi monster characters and a minion and not forgetting all the pink girly butterfly cakes for my daughter. This pressure has been contained to my own household that is until this when I was asked to do a cake for a colleague’s niece with the theme my little pony and that it must be purple. This time the pressure was definitely on me as I had to not only ensure that it tasted great but was what the little girl had asked for. This took me out of my comfort zone as when making cakes for my own kids they are just happy that it is something different and that you can’t buy it in the supermarket. I did my research and viewed lots of cakes online as per the brief - my little pony and purple. There was lots some better than others however the one thing that was troubling me was how on earth was I going to be able to make a my little pony out of fondant and for it to actually look like one. I even considered buying a miniature my little pony toy to stick on the top but as I could not source one let alone guarantee that it would be delivered in time this was not an option. There was nothing else I could do but sit myself down in front of you tube and attempt to make one. This proved easier than I had led myself to believe as I managed to do it first time. The next stage of the cake was to make the rainbow and clouds to also go on the cake to that they could dry out to enable them to stand on top of the cake which was to be a rich chocolate fudge cake covered in chocolate ganache butter cream and purple fondant. The end result is attached which just leaves me to say "Happy 5th Birthday Esme" - hope you all enjoy the cake as much as I enjoyed making it.

About Jill Scott

Jill Scott, based in Kelso in the Scottish Borders, is a mother of three and a qualified accountant working full-time as an ERDF compliance manager. In 2011 she was a semi-finalist in ITV programme This Morning’s Super Sweet Competition with her lemon meringue cheesecake.

She decided to do something with her baking rather than it being a hobby. She is trying to start up her own business baking from home and has attended local fund-raisers in her town, as well as generating sales through word of mouth. She has also enjoyed recipe-testing for The Dessert Deli cookbook.