Gibby Bakes

Using ganache to create drip effects on the sides of tall cakes has been the in thing for some time now, and if you know me you know I love to jump on a trend. This post is something of whistle-stop tour of the drip cakes I've made so far! Some, such as my most recent cake, were pretty successful, whilst others provided me with plenty of pointers for improvement! White Chocolate and Lemon Drip Cake:  My latest drip cake, made just this week for a silver wedding anniversary, is probably the best example of a drip cake that I've been able to produce!  My latest drip cake! This White Chocolate and Lemon drip cake, decorated with chocolate coated strawberries, Galaxy Counters, Milky Bar Buttons, Maltesers, Kinder chocolate and Bueno bars, Lindt chocolates and Caramilk bars (the leftovers of which I'm very much enjoying treating myself to after a stressful day at work!), is filled with a home made lemon curd and white chocolate buttercream. The ganache for this cake was simple e...

So, I'm back for a second post! I'll take it as a good sign that I'm so eager to start my second post so soon after my first, and what better topic to write about than my baking journey so far.  It feels like the COVID lockdowns happened so long ago, sometimes it even feels like they were part of some fever dream, and it wasn't until I moved home from university in March 2021 that I began to take more of an active interest in baking. I don't want to say that I began to "take myself seriously" as a baker, as this sounds a bit too formal, and I have a bad habit of comparing my bakes to those of professionals. I have to remind myself that I am an amateur baker for whom baking is a hobby to avoid upsetting myself too much when things don't go to plan, or when my finished bake isn't identical to the photos in recipe books. How it started: The first lockdown in March 2020 at least had some kind of novel feeling about it. It was something none of us had e...

So I started a blog today! Truthfully, I'm not exactly sure where to start except with a little about me.    At risk of repeating what I've already said in my bio, my name is James (though my friends have been calling me Gibby since primary school), I'm 23, and I'm currently teaching myself to bake. I would say that my baking skills are somewhat limited, but I love baking regardless. I don't have a particular reason for wanting to improve my skills as a baker other than the fact that baking is a favourite hobby of mine, and it's so incredibly satisfying when a bake goes well. In actual heaven! Me! On holiday in North Yorkshire after our trip to Italy was cancelled! Over a year ago I graduated from Lancaster University with a degree in English Literature and History (although thanks to COVID my graduation ceremony has been postponed until next month, July 2022). Since then, I've not been too sure on what I actually want to do with my life, so I've continu...