Tow Mater Birthday Cake

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Meet Tow Mater – last weekend’s birthday cake and the one that I nearly threw through the window in its early stages!  I often check out character cakes on line – I should have realised that Mater was going to be a challenge when I didn’t see as many amazing cakes as I would have expected.  I fought a brave fight to get the brown icing on and I’m still not sure if in one go was the best way with the angles involved. 

Underneath the brown sugarpaste is a vanilla madeira cut and shaped from an 8″ square cake with the usual raspberry jam and vanilla buttercream.  Mater’s hoist is strengthened with spaghetti (raw, for anyone wondering) but the rope is just icing which was carefully extruded (love that word!) through the craft gun.  Finally, the cake was brushed with rust and blue dust colour.  Despite the initial frustration I really loved the cake by the time it was finished – it had a little personality of its own.

Happy Birthday Joshua.

Bashful Bunny Christening Cake and Blossom the Elephant Birthday Cake

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As seems usual now, I am a little behind on uploading my piccies, so here are two cakes that I did in the last couple of weeks, each featuring a model on top.  

The Christening Cake features my interpretation of Bashful Bunny which was inspired by the baby’s favourite rattle.  A preferred toy is a great starting point for a Christening cake or first birthday as it makes the cake very personal to the baby.  Any photographs also act as a reminder of such a special time.  To give an idea of scale, the cake is a 7″ vanilla madeira.  I really like the clean design of the stars around the sides of the cake in graduating shades of blue.

The second cake was a family birthday cake (hence I cut corners by using an un-iced economic board to sit the cake on – not my usual practice I hasten to add!) for an elephant lover (is there anyone who doesn’t love elephants?).  This is slightly smaller at 6″.  I love the white blossom cascading up the sides of the cake on the pale dusky pink background – simple but effective.  Although this cake was used for a birthday, it would also make a wonderful basis for another Christening Cake and could be upscaled with the addition of a second tier. 

This post is dedicated to anyone who has been missing my kitchen table in the photos!   

Princess Castle Cake

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This is one of the cakes that I made last week.  The brief was a pink and girlie princess castle birthday cake for Neeve who was turning one.

The cake is a square 7″ double height madeira cake.  This was covered in white icing and the stonework impressed sugarpaste on the sides was painted with food colour ‘paint’ to add detail.  The turrets are made from pastillage tubes which were attached to the square cake and topped with sugarpaste tiles.  The hollow tubes made an ideal home for the handful of surprise pink Smarties I popped inside each of them!  The sides of the cake (unseen) had heart shaped windows.

Happy First Birthday Neeve!

Tweak Bunny Octonauts Cake

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I was asked to make a birthday cake for a little boy whose favourite Octonaut is Tweak Bunny and this is the result!  It is a vanilla madeira cake with the back of the cake a whopping three layers high.  Tweak is the Octonauts’ engineer so I stood her in front of a control panel in the launch bay (I think that’s the right name!) holding a spanner and with a carrot on the screen behind her.  The screens are also tailored to the birthday boy with the use of a ‘B’ for his name and his age.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think Octonauts might be my most popular theme for a birthday cake, as this is the third one I’ve done now.  It is a fantastic programme with an educational element and a great female role model in Tweak.

Many happy returns to Ben.