40th Birthday Golf cake

I am very happy with the outcome of this cake. There was a lot of work involved to shape the cake to suit that of a hill - obviously remembering not to cut off too much cake as it needed to feed a party of people!

The grass was made using royal icing coloured green, while the stones/rocks were made using fondant icing coloured varying shades of grey (not fifty though!) The water was made with icing sugar mixed with some water to form the kind of icing used on fairy cakes (my Husbands favourite) and then died blue. This gave it a shimmery, shiny look.

 The sand was easy to do - light brown sugar stuck on with edible glue, but it certainly wouldn't have been a golf course without it. (I should know, my Dad hits his golf ball into the bunker frequently.....just checking whether he actually reads my blog!)

Fireman Sam Cake

This was a great, but tricky cake to work on. There was a lot of detail to incorporate and trying to ice around the shape of the fire engine proved challenging. But it was all worth it because all the little details helped to pull it all together.

I think the paving is effective and was surprisingly easy to do using a cutter - not that I should be telling you that!

Curious George Cake

My next cake was for a 1st Birthday party and was to be in the design of Curious George. The yellow and red colours go very well together and make for an eye-catching cake.

I changed the name on the side of the cake to suit the Birthday boy - Bobby. This was a nice way of personalising the cake whilst still keeping the theme of the cake.

The party hat was made from a strip of regal icing cut into a triangle and then painted with green and purple. I think it turned out well and is quite effective, not to mention much easier than cutting out strips of green and purple icing!

New York Wedding

I was asked to make a Wedding cake for a sister of one of my good friends. As a couple they love New York and decided to spend their big day over there with close family and friends. As a result they decided to have a party back in England for those that could not make it to America. They chose a New York theme including an American Police car.

They chose to use the unmistakable logo on their cupcakes and have the variation that was used on their invites with both their names on it for the cake.

This was a simple but effective design which really stands out when you see all the cupcakes together! They chose a mix of chocolate and vanilla flavours for the cupcakes with vanilla sponge and raspberry jam for the cake.

I enjoyed making these cakes, not just because it was for a friend but because it was fun to do. I haven't done many cupcakes over the years but I would certainly love to do something like this again.

100th Birthday cake

A friend of my Husband rang requesting a cake for her Mother's 100th Birthday. I was informed that she occasionally used fine china and that they would like this to be a theme on the cake - in the style of a cup of tea and piece of cake. Her favourite colour is blue and so this was to be the colour theme.

I iced an 8" square cake in white and used a royal blue ribbon around the middle. I also used round silver dragees around the bottom of the cake. The letters were made from petal paste.

The tea cup was made from a solid piece of 50:50 royal icing:petal paste which I made as smooth as possible on the outside and made a 'dint' in the middle so that I could add the tea (which was made using brown petal paste). The saucers were also made from petal paste - after cutting them out in a circle I placed them on the top of a smaller circle cutter so that they 'sank' in the middle, giving the plate shape.

I mixed edible gold powder with a small amount of clear alcohol to make a paint which I then used to create the gold edging. I then mixed blue colour with clear alcohol to make the blue paint. I then painted the pattern on the china in free-hand.

The small cake was made from petal paste and I used blue decoration on the top in keeping with the colour theme.

Christening Cake - presents and bears

I was asked to make a Christening Cake for a couple of work colleagues and friends. The cakes were 10" and 8" squares, decorated in white and blue icing in the style of presents. I used petal paste to make the dots and the ribbon.

The two teddy bears were also made from petal paste and were fun to make. My favourite bit was the finished white teddy that was being cuddled - it really 'came to life' when I put the little eyes and nose on it!

I made the blocks out of regal icing but then used petal paste to make the blue squares and the letters. Believe it or not - it is very difficult to make a perfect block out of icing!

Gruffalo

My latest cake was in the design of the Gruffalo. I made an 8 inch chocolate cake and shaped it to the outline of the Gruffalo and covered it in Chocolate buttercream. The features were made from coloured Regal Icing. You can find the design on-line if you would like to make one similar. 

Lego Cake

I made a Birthday cake for a friend who likes Lego (who doesn't?!)

The first thing I had to do was make the Lego bricks. I coloured flower paste to match the main colours of Lego bricks; red, yellow, green, blue and black. This was then placed in a Lego brick mould (dusted with corn flour) to make 1 brick at a time.

Once the sponge cake was baked and cooled, I layered it with jam and buttercream then iced it with white regal icing. The bricks were placed on the top of the cake (front and left) then a layer of icing was placed on the top to level it out. Small brick 'sides' were cut out of the coloured petal paste and stuck on the side of the cake.

Then, white petal paste was rolled out and cut to go in strips around the side of the cake. One was left folded over and a Lego man was placed as if he was putting it up. On the top of the cake, 4 strips were placed and 3 were rolled up to show the top of the bricks and again Lego men were placed as if they were doing the work.

This was a fun cake to make! The little details really helped to pull it together

Train Christening cake

This was an enjoyable cake to make. 'Building' the train was fun and it all really came together when it sat on the track.

The train, blocks and track were all made from regal icing that I had coloured using sugarflair paste and it was attached to the cake using edible glue.

Numberjacks Birthday Cake

As you may have guessed this cake was for a 3rd Birthday. The birthday boy was a fan of the children's TV programme 'Numberjacks' - so a big 3 was put on the top. This was made out of icing and was surprisingly more difficult to shape than I expected! It wasn't until the eyes and nose went on that it actually looked like the character.

To make the little Numberjacks I used my usual number cutters and put eyes on the icing. This was fiddly to do but not as bad as if I decided to shape them all too! The balls around the side of the cake match the colours of the 10 Numberjacks characters.

70th Wedding Anniversary

I was asked to make a cake for a couple who were celebrating their 70th Wedding Anniversary. When they got married in 1943 rationing was in place and they therefore had no wedding cake. This was to be their cake - 70 years late!

After looking at many designs, mainly based on 40's themes in which flowers, ribbons and piped icing were popular and cakes were simple in design, the daughter and granddaughter decided to go with a ruffle cake. These cakes are increasingly growing in popularity due to their vintage appearance and was a perfect choice for a 40's cake in 2013.

Carnations were used in the bouquet and the bride wore blue - which is the reason that blue sugarcraft carnations decorate this cake.

After marzipanning the cake, I placed a layer of ivory icing over the top of the cake and about 1 inch down the side. I then created the ruffles by rolling out long thin 'sausages' with the icing, rolling it flat and then using the end of a thin paint brush to 'ruffle' the edge. I placed these individual ruffles on the cake in rows - from the top down.

This is a time consuming technique but certainly worth the effort. I am already trying to think of an excuse to make another!

30th Birthday Cake

I insisted on making my own Birthday cake this year. I had a design planned (Rennie Mackintosh) however after an impromptu visit to the Cake and Bake show in Manchester only 3 days before I had to make the cake, I had a quick change of plan! I treated myself to a Sugarveil mat - it makes edible lace icing. I was desperate to try it out and so decided to make one of the designs that had been on the stand in Manchester.

The circles around the side of the cake were covered in a variety of things including edible glitter, edible gold powder and edible lustre dusts. They were then stuck on using edible glue. I made my lace and then sprayed it with edible gold. When it was dry I used a small amount of water and attached it to the icing. This was then used to create the bow - I found it difficult to create the shape of the bow as the icing was wet and sticky from the water, but also starting to dry and crack when folded. It was definitely a learning experience!

Overall I enjoyed making this cake and it went down well with my family. I can't say I enjoyed blowing out my candles - but at least they were kind enough to only put 4 on the cake!

I'm looking forward to my next practice using sugarveil and would love one day to be making beautiful vintage design wedding cakes.