Polka dot wedding cake

I thoroughly enjoyed making this wedding cake, even though I was seeing spots by the end of it!

The bride had a very clear vision as to how she wanted the cake. There were 6 bridesmaids; 2 with sky blue dresses, 2 with mint green dresses and 2 with blush pink dresses. As a result, the polka dots varied in colour for each tier.

As the polka dots were a different colour to the icing on the cake which was ivory, I felt it was essential that the they were uniform . To do this I made a template on baking parchment - I use a mini roll from Lakeland that is ideal for lining cake tins. In this case it was the perfect height for the cakes. Using a quilting ruler I spaced out dots on the parchment that were half an inch apart. I used enough parchment to go 1/3 of the way around the bottom tier (12"). I then placed the parchment next to the icing (starting at the back), ensuring it was straight and then used a sterile pin to mark the cake where my dots were on the parchment. This took a good couple of hours to do.....but it was worth every minute!

The next stage was to make and colour my royal icing and then painstakingly pipe the dots onto the prepared cakes. This also took around an hour per tier - partly because I am a neat freak and partly because I struggled to get in a comfy position......being 32 weeks pregnant!

The bride had also seen some doves that she liked and requested they were made and put on the cake. I made these out of white modelling paste and shaped them using my hands and modelling tools. They were attached with royal icing.

The bride opted for real flowers on the top of the cake. I got a selection of avalanche roses, pink lisianthus and gypsophila to match the bouquet. These were placed into the cake using a discovery a few cakes back; Ingenious Edibles Safety Seal. This creates an edible coating onto the stems of flowers to allow you to place them directly into the cake when arranging.

This cake may look very simple and elegant but it deceptively hides the amount of work that went into creating the uniformity of the dots.

Ruby Wedding Anniversary

This cake may seem similar to a wedding cake I made last year. The reason for this is because the happy couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary liked the wedding cake so much that they requested a similar one for their celebrations.

The flowers were hand made using flower paste. There are peonies, roses, lisianthus and hydrangeas in white, peach and pale pink. The hydrangeas were cut and textured using a cutter and silicone mould set from Blossom Sugar Art. They were then left to dry on shaped foam pads.

The peonies were made using relevant cutters and left in cupcake cases to take shape. There are several videos on YouTube to help with this. Similarly with the roses and lisianthus - there are great cutters out there and plenty of YouTube videos to help make them.