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Bulooooooo
3 May
This is a first birthday cake that I made recently for Tom’s birthday in a Waybuloo theme. It is an 8″ vanilla madeira.
I wanted to create a simple but visually appealing cake in a ‘clean’ design. My aim was to replicate the colour scheme of Waybuloo with a simple 2D Yo-Jo-Jo on top. To make the template for this I hit the CBeebies website and printed off one of the colour-in pictures, cut this up, and transferred the shapes to card. It is a bit of a fiddly job to cut the pieces neatly, but you can really see the character come together as you go along. You can also check your progress off the cake which is always a bonus! The only criticism I have of the character with my nitpicky head on, is that I may have got a bit carried away with the eyelashes – he looks a bit “because I’m worth it”, shall we say. Perhaps if Yo-Jo-Jo’s career in children’s telly ends he can look into adverts as an alternative. Or perhaps not.
Happy Birthday Tom – Buloooooooo!
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Tea for Two
26 Apr
This is the Golden Wedding Anniversary cake that I made for Rod and Sheila last week. Avid readers (or, more likely, reader!) will recognise the teapot cake, as it has the same design as one I made previously. This cake was made for a raffle prize last year and i was really pleased to hear that the winners of that cake wanted the same design for their Golden Wedding celebrations this year. The design was extended with the addition of the co-ordinating teacups, hence the ‘Tea for Two’ title. The cake drum was iced in a pale gold/caramel colour and painted in gold with the initials ‘R’ and ‘S’ in a random and interlinked design not only to create the impression of a tablecloth perhaps, but also to be personal to Rod and Sheila. Despite the cake being relatively small itself, I think that the addition of the teacups and the necessary footprint of the cake drum really gives this design a big impact befitting a large celebration.
The teacups were made from sugarpaste strengthened with CMC. This was rolled and cut out using a template. The edges were then glued together and supported whilst they dried into shape. The shape of the saucers was achieved by drying circles of the strengthened sugarpaste on saucers to ensure the edges had the required lift to them. Due to my time consuming and frustrated attempts to make the teacup template, I had to call in help from the more mathematically minded Chief Tester in the household to finish (read, do) the job. I’d like to think I’d have achieved success if I’d known where the pair of compasses were, but I’m not so sure that’s true.
As Rod and Sheila were celebrating with more people than they had portions for, I was also asked to make 90 daffodil cupcakes for their guests, supplied in gold cases of course.
I was slightly nervous about this commission – mainly due to the fiddly nature of the teacups and wanting to achieve the best and most realistic finish I could. I must be my own biggest critic but I am really proud of the final cake, and hope that Rod and Sheila were able to successfully remove the teacups so that they have a lasting souvenir of their special day.
Congratulations Rod and Sheila on your Golden Wedding.
Ninety plus cupcakes in pods ready to be delivered…
Steam Train Birthday Cake
19 Apr
This is the birthday cake that I made for my grandad’s 90th birthday party last week. He is a big steam train fan so this was where the idea came from. It is a similar design to the Thomas the Tank Engine cake that I made previously, but I tried to make it appear more ‘grown up (though the train did still end up blue!)’.
The cake is made from an 8″ round madeira which I cut in half vertically, and then put both halves on their side to create a hill/tunnel effect. This simple idea could easily be up or down-sized, and a sugar model of a toy train is also lovely on a Christening cake in pastel or primary colours. If you wanted to make something like this at home you could also substitute a plastic model train.
Happy Birthday Grandad!
Wigan Warriors Birthday Cake
17 Apr
This is a birthday cake order that I had last week. I was asked to recreate this cake for Karl’s fortieth birthday, together with some cupcakes for his party. The cupcakes were vanilla flavour and topped with grass effect buttercream and sugarpaste rugby balls and gold trophies. I delivered and set up the cakes myself and was really pleased with the final display and had some great feedback after the party on my Facebook page.
Many Happy Returns Karl!
Gerbera Anniversary Cake
3 Apr
I thought it was time to post up another cake! This is an anniversary cake that I did recently. It was for a ten year anniversary and the brief was orange gerberas, so this is what I came up with. I believe that the gerberas were a nod back to the wedding flowers, but I might be wrong.
It is an 8″ lemon drizzle cake, layered with lemon buttercream and lemon curd. To get the best flavour I used organic, unwaxed lemons for the zest, and my favourite lemon curd – Wilkin and Sons Ltd (Tiptree). I am surprised that more people don’t opt for lemon cake as it is totally delicious, very tasty but typically not as rich as chocolate. We really enjoyed the cut-offs!
I painted the cake drum/board silver as to reflect the ten year anniversary theme of tin.
Congratulations Zoe and Richard.
Tow Mater Birthday Cake
30 Mar
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
27 Mar
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
16 Mar
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!
janehuntley 