Christmas Cake

This is the Christmas cake I made for myself (but it was very quickly devoured at work!) It is (was) a traditional fruit cake covered in marzipan and regal icing. I then made the lady and snowman out of more regal icing. The design was a download tutorial from Lorraine McKay (here is the link to the tutorial page http://www.extraicing.co.uk/#/sugarcraft-tutorials/4542219227 ). I enjoyed making these characters and loved having the practice/experience of making models.

Individual Christmas cakes

These are the ten individual Christmas Cakes that I have made this year for presents. They are all fruit cake, covered in marzipan and regal icing. I had fun decorating them and thinking of different ideas. Each one has been individually wrapped using cellophane and a sparkly white ribbon. My favourite was the one with white sparkly icing and black sparkly snowflakes.

I have close up pictures of each individual cake, so if you would like a closer look just drop me an e-mail and I can send you the picture.

Foo Fighters

I was asked to make a cake for a work colleagues brother. It was his birthday and he is a Foo Fighters fan. She wanted me to put the logo on the cake. I like the fact that there are only three colours in the logo - everything stands out. I then used the same three colours for the balls round the base of the cake. I was hoping it was more manly than ribbon! Having iced the cake board in black and used white as my base colour for the cake it only made sense to put the text on the cake in red. This was a good cake to make as I feel it actually looks like the logo.

Christening Cake

I made my first tiered cake for a christening. The design was created using a couple of sources, including cake decorating magazines and also the clients preference for a square cake, shades of pink and stars/hearts. The majority of the time was spent making the rocking horse. I enjoyed tiering the cake, which was all sponge, and found using the dowels and the thin cake boards easier than I was expecting! I also really liked icing the cake board and sticking the ribbon around the edge - I'm very easily pleased!! I'm now desperate to make another tiered cake :-)

Halloween Peppa Pig

A friend requested a Peppa Pig cake, similar to the one I had made previously. However as it was her daughters birthday on Halloween she wanted a witches hat and a spider on it. This cake was made exactly the same as my previous Peppa Pig cake but with the obvious alterations for Halloween!

Halloween birthday cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a friends Grandma who's birthday was on Halloween. She requested a Halloween theme to the cake and an old lady on a broom. The cake was sponge with jam and buttercream. The old lady was made out of a cone of fondant with more fondant draped over the top, and even more for the head. I decided to ice the cake board for the first time, which I feel helps to carry the theme better, especially with the pumpkins/spider/cauldron sat on it around the cake. This gave me more room for the message; I 'painted' the message on (using edible paint) as I felt it was too long for me to pipe using royal icing.

Hen-do cake

I was asked to make a cake for a Hen-do. The 'hen' enjoyed running and so the cake was to be themed around this. If I had made the fondant woman in a running position it would not have remained upright, which is why she is standing with her hands on her hips. I was asked to put rabbits and a sheep on the cake. The trees, rabbits, flowers and sheep are also made out of fondant (regal icing). The cake was a vanilla sponge with 2 layers of jam. No buttercream was used with this cake - apricot jam was used instead to hold the icing in place. I enjoyed making this cake, and adding all the little 'extras' really helped to create the scene. This was only the second fondant person I have made.

My brothers birthday cake

I made a cake for my brothers 23rd birthday. After making his graduation cake I discovered that he is a fan of lemon cake, more so than chocolate cake. He also said that he likes cadburys chocolate fingers so I decided to google cake designs with chocolate fingers and they all seemed to involve maltesers. I liked the idea so I created my own chocolate finger/malteser cake. Instead of having the maltesers 'fan' out the middle of the cake I preferred them to appear as if they were 'floating' off the top of the cake. The sponge was layered with lemon curd and coated in a lemon buttercream. The fondant icing was coloured yellow (because of the lemon flavour) and I added a matching ribbon. Thankfully my brother liked this cake, calling me his 'awesome sister' on Google+ !

Car/caravan cake

A work colleague asked me to make a 70th birthday cake for her Husband. It is a 10 inch hexagonal fruit cake, covered in marzipan and icing. The car and caravan are both made using kellogs rice krispy squares, covered in royal and then regal icing. I used several pictures of their caravan (Bailey Senator Series 6 Wyoming) to help me to get the level of detail. I used a picture of her husband to help me get the clothes right (jacket, tie and hat). It certainly wasn't easy to make this cake - it took a lot of hours! But I enjoyed being able to put the little details on to personalise the cake - like making it their caravan and not just any caravan. Adding the little brown birds also added a personal touch as Edward enjoys carving birds from wood.

Cupcakes: Rock/metal

I was asked to create some cupcakes with a 'rock' theme for a rock/metal band. There were to be 50 cupcakes, half white and half purple. The cases were to be black and ideally something black sprinkled on top. I used black petal paste and star plungers to make the stars for the top. The sponge and buttercream were both vanilla. The purple colour appeared mottled and the lady who ordered them was very happy with this. As I have not had much experience with cupcakes I was very happy with how they turned out. I would be happy to make cupcakes in future - as long as I had enough warning!

Black and white cake

I made this cake for a lady at work as it was her mother-in-laws birthday. I tailored a design shown in the 'party cakes' magazine (issue 9, page 19) by The Exquisite  Cake Company to cover 1 tier instead of 2. I really enjoyed making this cake including the intricacy of the roses to go on the top and really love the simplicity and boldness of the black stripes against the white icing. I would gladly make this cake again, and would love the chance to make it tiered.

Reproduction and skill consistency

I made another 'gerbera cake', this time for my fiancées mum for her birthday. She had not seen the other cake I had made, so it gave me a good chance to practice my skills by recreating the gerberas and stripes around the side of the cake. Other colours can be used however it was decided that she would prefer orange and pink. Initially she wasn't very keen on cutting into it, but when she did it went down very well!

Gluten free

I was asked to make a gluten free cake for someone at work, which I was more than happy to do as I wanted to try out a recipe. This cake wasn't about the design/how it looked; it was about how it tasted. But me being me, I couldn't give someone a cake without decorating it! So I decided to put on some roses that I had recently made and write on 'I'm gluten free!' in icing. The icing balls around the bottom help to give the cake some colour. Thankfully she enjoyed the cake and so I will definitely be using the same recipe in future gluten free cakes.

Peppa Pig

This is a cake I made for a friends daughter. I used a 12 inch square tin to make the cake, which I then placed my template on top. (I drew the template myself using images off Google). It was a vanilla sponge with a jam layer, covered in buttercream and regal icing. I used royal icing to pipe the design and edible pens to write happy birthday and the name. Having never made a cake like this before I did find it difficult however I am very pleased with the outcome.

Castle cake

This castle took 4 hours to complete (plus the time to make the cake). The turrets were made from swiss rolls and ice cream cones. Everything on this cake is edible and adding the vines and the flowers just gives it that bit more colour and interest. Changing the colours is a good way of personalising it; favourite colours can be used, and it certainly doesn't have to be girlie by using pinks and lilacs! It was fun to make and satisfying to look at the final product!

Graduation cake

This is the cake that I made for my brother for his graduation. It is a chocolate cake, with chocolate buttercream and is covered in black icing to represent the graduation gown. The purple edging around the base represents the colour that went round the border of his hood. He didn't wear a mortar board which is why there isn't one on the cake. The stars and letters are made out of icing and painted using metallic colours. The scroll is made out of petal paste, which is also used for the covers of the books (to help them keep their shape). The books were made from Kellogs Rice Krispy Squares. I was pleased with this cake, however in future when using krispy squares to make things I will put 2 layers of icing on them to avoid having the 'bumps'. The writing on the books (representing his subject, name, year and University) was written using edible ink pens that are available in a variety of colours.

Gerbera Cake

I completed my Gerbera cake this week. It is decorated with stripes of icing along the side - in matching colours, along with matching balls of icing to go along the bottom. It is another vanilla sponge with jam and buttercream. I think the pink and orange stand out very well against the white icing, however this cake is really effective with any bold colours. Gerberas are very popular on wedding cakes and despite taking me 2 hours to make 5, I think it was worth it!