Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (in fondant!)

As I may have mentioned before, there was a cake competition as part of our recent street party. I had designed the winning entry in my head and created the cake topper, before I decided to bake and sell cakes for charity instead!

Following on from the lovely ribbon cake I made for my niece's 18th birthday (take a look here), I had great visions of creating a Union Jack type decoration with appropriate sized ribbons in red and blue across a white cake and to top it all, a mini Queen along the lines of the cute Happy Land one from Early Learning Centre.

I made Her Majesty a week or so before the street party to allow her to harden and be able to stand unsupported and I think she turned out quite cute. Rather than let her go to waste, I still entered her into the competition but uniquely positioned on top of her own cupcake. Needless to say, she didn't win but I'm still glad she got to see the light of day ...

We had fun taking photos of her with a couple of doppelgangers and some corgis ...

before I unceremoneously cut her in half vertically for the kids to eat ...

Thank you Ma'am!

© 2012 Nicola Noble: Please observe the rules of copyright and blog etiquette. If you use my ideas or images, please link back to my blog. And do let me know - I'd love to take a look.

Jubilee-tastic product branding

I have to admit that I am loving all the very British branding that many well-known brands have adopted this year - in honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, London 2012.

That said, I am not particularly choosing one brand over another when I am shopping but if something I normally buy has a patriotic option then I buy that one.

My favourite so far has to be Marmite - very clever ...

 ... although technically, it's not quite right. Apparently, when addressing the Queen (after the first "Your Majesty") it's  Ma'am (as in jam) not Ma'am as in Marm-ite!

Kingsmill bread also made me chuckle out loud in the supermarket when I saw their tribute...

Other patriotic brands I have come across include:

The obvious: the undisputed queen of summer drinks, Pimms

The not-so obvious: Ryvita - rye crisp breads

And the downright bizarre: Andrex toilet paper

What others have you seen?