Beary Christmas

Here is this years cake! I used Nigellas gorgeous christmas cake recipe, its amazing! (sorry Delia) I then covered it with marzipan and white fondant and did a rather good job I must say. No cracks or splits or tears....go me! :-) This was not my original idea but due to lack of colourings that wasn't going to happen, maybe next year... So I decided on polar bears, One sat snuggled in a scarf and the other rolling in the snow. Loving the bobble hat! I dusted the whole cake in a shimmer powder so it looks shiny and icy then covered the board with coconut and extended this up the sides of the cake to look like snow drifts. I made presents, candy canes and trees from marzipan and fondant. I dyed some coconut green to give the trees a realistic look and added dragees as baubles and a sparkly gold star. I have so many ideas for christmas cakes now I may have to make 3 next year! Ho Ho Ho!

Bath of Beans

I made this cake for a Children in Need bake off at work. Sadly & controversially I didn't win but my cake was auctioned instead. The cake was red velvet with vanilla cream and fondant. I decided to do Pudsey bear in a bath of beans as its a classic fundraising idea and I thought it would be cute... I was right! I used the new design Pudsey and his girl-friend Blush and made a rubber ducky too. The beans were all fondant and I used confectioners glaze to made them look realistic. I was so happy with this cake, I thought it looked amazing. Everyone loved the taps! I hope whoever bid the highest enjoyed my cake... roll on next year... Pudsey getting his legs waxed maybe? :-)

Baby You're a Firework

I made this for Pauls birthday, a simple 1 layer cake and some sparkly fireworks as decoration. It isn't great but not bad for 1 afternoons work!

Cock and Ball

I have been a lazy daisy lately and need to catch up on the cakes I have made recently! I was asked by Stef to make Darren a Tottenham cake for his 30th. The famous 'Cock and Ball' logo was made from my magical lemon cake and covered with fondant. I must add naughty Stef and I created a joke cake at Darrens party but it was a bit too rude to be pictured on here heehee!

Lego Man 30th Birthday Cake

7th August, Alexs 30th...It had to be a Lego man! I made this shaped cake in chocolate with fondant icing. I started off by shaping a double layer sheet cake for the body and made the head as a separate cake from a loaf tin. After covering the cake I added the detail. Fran had asked for him to be in a Formula 1 suit as Alexs birthday present was F1 related. I decided to make all the sponsorship badges personal to him, including the company he works for and Nandos (oh how he loves Nandos!) I think this gave the cake such a special feel, everyone loved it. I finished the cake off with a lego brick to support the candles. Overall I am extremely happy how the cake turned out, it was yum and looked awesome.

Shoes and Handbags

I was asked by a family fried to make an 18th Birthday cake. We agreed on a handbag and a shoebox for the cakes with a shoe as decoration. I have never attempted to make a shoe before so armed with a template I got from the internet, some gumpaste and edible glue, I got to work. I based the shoe on a design by Beatrix Ong as the birthday girl likes her style. I used the template to get the basic shape and added the detail, tiny teardrop shapes in blue, green and purple, then left the shoe to dry and harden.

Next I constructed the shoebox from 3 layers of vanilla sponge with vanilla cream filling. I covered this in white fondant then I added another layer to make the lid. Adding a label finished this part of the cake.

I made the handbag from chocolate cake, carved into shape, then covered this with chocolate flavoured fondant. I admit this was tricky, it was so hot that the fondant was far too soft and unmanagable. But I got there in the end. I made the handles with the same fondant but with gum tragacanth added to they set hard and kept their shape. Ideally, I wish I'd covered the whole cake with the hardened fondant as it slipped a bit in the heat...although it does kind of look more like a soft leather bag now! I then made use of my paisley cutters again and added the detail to the cake, mirroring the same colours in the shoe and I finished it off with silver zip and buckle detail.

Finally, after covering the board in a soft green, I assembled the cakes and the shoe and piped on the message. It turned out just how I wanted and I hope Olivia loves it!

Ellas Big 3-0!

July brings my wonderful sisters birthday, this year being particularly special, her Big 3-0! I'd had an idea of what I wanted to make her for quite a while, a paisley Mickey Mouse. Sounds random but she loves Disney so I had to incorporate this, but in a mature way. I made 1 large round and 2 smaller lemon cakes and covered these in a gorgeous pastel blue/green (the dye is called eucalyptus) and I covered the board to match. Then for the deco I made a paisley print using cutters from lindyscakes.co.uk, this seems to be the only place in the world you can but paisley cutters! I hand cut the 30, made a bit of a mess of it as the fondant was a bit stretchy but it was ok. I added some detail with gold and silver dragees and there you go. Simple but effective, my favourite cake so far.