Cupcake Monday! Delicious Minty Blues

April 16, 2012

Cupcake Monday! Delicious Minty Blues

These soft, powdery blues are so pretty the cakes are as nice to look at as they would be to eat! And that assertion works for me since there are no treats being passed in front of my face along with a napkin anyway. Tessa, of Cakes by Tess, is a cakemaker based in the Netherlands who also collects beautiful teacups, cake stands, dishes and platters that she uses to style her gorgeous cakes. I recognise the set below, it's Royal Albert's Polka Rose teacup, saucer and plate set (whenever I see Polka Rose I can't help but think of Polkaroo). I adore that set - a design from the 1930s and part of the company's '100 Years of Royal Albert' anniversary collection- but I passed it over in favour of the Hartington Lane set. From the 90s. I must have been listening to Nirvana that day while wearing blue mascara. No, it's a lovely set - see it here - and I chose it over the gorgeous mint, my favourite colour along with washed out aqua, because it's lilac, you just don't see much in lovely lilac. But there is something dated about the pattern which is curious, considering it's 60 years younger than the Polka Rose which still seems fresh. Good design endures.

...However, I did recently start my Polka Rose collection with the oval sandwich tray because I found it at half price. It's beautiful, but I'm not sure how it's considered a tray, it's absolutely tiny. If a cat could walk upright and carry a tray, that's about the proportion of it. (Now I'm imagining what a cat butler would look like...)

Back to Tessa's cakes - they are so elegant and ornate, but never overdone. And I love that she'll use real ribbon which gives the cake a refined look, like a pretty present that is mostly edible.