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!