Leave it to the experts!

In this era of digital photography you might ask, why bother employing a professional photographer to capture your wedding/baby/family? Lots of people have fancy SLR cameras so what difference does a pro make in comparison?

The answers are numerous but essentially just becuase you have the right equipment/ingredients does not mean you will get the same results.

I found this out personally when I agreed to take part in the Fairytale Wedding Company guest blogger challenge. Vicky Lord then set me my task-to make a 2 tier wedding cake! When I picked myself up off the floor I started to decide on theme, style etc. I found an easy looking recipe, decided on an English Spring theme and decided to really go for it by inviting a few local wedding suppliers to taste my cake after it was made.

Beth Mottershead of Cakes By Beth was on hand with some invaluable advice. Actually her expertise scared me to death and besides I was making a vary easy cake-what could go wrong?

Here is the magazine picture of the cake I decided to make. Easy right?

Hmmm-maybe it will look better iced??

No I did not drop this-this unfortunately is me trying my very best to ice a cake!

After all my family had a really good laugh at my efforts so far I decided to decorate my errrm concoction.

In keeping with the English Spring theme I decorated with pearls and daffodils. Well it does look marginally edible.

Now for the big tasting event. Attending-Beth Mottershead-master cake maker (no pressure there then), Jan Clarke a florist of Rosa and Company,  Laura Mayers of The Bridal Make up Team , my good friend Danielle Blore, and my glamorous assistant Bethany Charles. I asked each of them to contribute something that said English Spinrg and they did not disappoint.

Laura brought the Pimms daarling!

Beth made these gorgeous cherry blossom inspired cupcakes

Jan brought a gorgeous Spring themed bouquet.

I made the errm wedding cake!

Bethany brought Loveheart sweets and Danielle made scones and clotted cream.

The intrepid cake tasters. From the left, Laura, Beth, Jan, me & Danielle.

The cake was pronounced delicious but let’s be honest here-no one is ever going to ask me to make their wedding cake-even for free!  I followed the recipe to the letter, used all the right ingredients but it still looked like a 3 year old had made it.

The moral of the story? You can have the right equipment but it does not mean you have the talent or expertise to transform some eggs, flour and sugar into a masterpiece of confectionary, or take a bunch of flowers and create a fabulous bouquet,  take foundation and lip gloss and make a bride stunningly beautiful or…. have a fancy digital SLR and produce amazing images.

So there it is -take advice and employ experts in their field and you won’t go far wrong and although I make arguably the best chocolate brownies in the world-don’t ask me to make your wedding cake!