Baby Boy

Here is the cake I made for my friends after the birth of their baby boy – the same couple I made the wedding cake for last year!   It is a chocolate sponge covered in white sugar paste and baby themed decorations.  They were made by adding gum tragacanth to blue sugar paste, this was them pushed into mould which were dusted with corn flour.   At first the gum kept sticking to the mould but I soon realised the key is to use a paint brush and a lot of corn flour to make sure it gets in to all the nooks and crannies of the mould, once I realised that then they were easy to make. 
July 2011

  

Tortoise and Hare

As part of our final project at college we had to model 2 characters in marzipan.  I wanted to make 2 different figures that worked together so decided to make a tortoise and a hare.   The marzipan in coloured with paste colours and is supported with dried spaghetti and edible glue, the tortoise shell is painted with liquid colours.  I thought this may be something I struggled with as I am not the artiest person around but I am pleased with them.  I am really sad that my course has come to an end as I have really enjoyed it and met some lovely people, fingers crossed for August when we get our results!
June 2011

Project Number 3

Here is my third and final cake for my course.  This time it was covered with sugar paste and we made flowers using flower paste and cutters, we also had to include embossing, crimping, cut out letter and a sugar paste border ... phew!  Quite a lot of techniques on one cake but it was good to learn all of them.  I am on the lookout for another class I can take on making the flowers as this is something Ii have really enjoyed.
June 2011

Cousin's Wedding Cake

This is the wedding cake I decorated for my cousin.  My aunt made the 3 cakes, which are a rich fruit cake, and I decorated them with royal icing.  It is amazing how much work goes in to covering a cake with royal icing but I am really pleased with the result.  I was a little worried about adding the dowels for support as I thought the icing may crack but I was advised to add glycerine to softer the icing and this worked really well. I received loads of compliments on the day and most importantly the bride and groom loved it.
June 2011

Derby Cup Cakes

I made some cupcakes for a party we had after the Epsom Derby last weekend.  They are vanilla cupcakes with vanilla butter cream which was piped with a 1M tube.  I made some run out horse racing themed designs.  After a day of gambling and drinking in the sunshine they went down really well.
June 2011

Project Number 2

This is my second cake which I had to make as part of my course.  It is a round royal iced cake with scrolls and flowers. It has S and C scrolls piped along the top edge and rope scrolls along the bottom.  It is pretty over the top for such a small cake but I quite like the finished look.  Apologies for the messy work bench behind the cake, I am not a tidy cake decorator!
May 2011

Christening Cake

I have literally just finished this one - it is for the christening of my sister's friend's son.  I was sent a photo of his favourite toy rabbit and made a model of it.  I was asked to do it in the tradition blue and white theme and am really happy with the large polka dot design.  Instead of readymade modelling paste I made my own, I mixed 1tsp of gum tragacanth with 250g of sugar paste and then left overnight.  It was easy to work with and has set hard, but I did use a cocktail stick as an internal support just in case!  This rabbit was my second attempt, the first one looked a bit evil and would probably scare the baby!
May 2011

Butterfly Birthday Cake

My friend asked me to make a birthday cake for her daughter’s second birthday, all I was told was that she liked butterflies.   I made a chocolate sponge cake and used vanilla butter cream, this was them covered in light blue sugar paste.  I made the butterflies with flower modelling paste from Squires, I used a cutter and left them to dry on a piece of cardboard which I had folded into V shape.  I made the flowers with royal icing which I piped on to a flower nail and left to dry over night.    I think it all came together really nicely and will definitely use this style again.
April 2011

Golf Cake

This is the 30th Birthday cake I made for my sister's boyfriend, Andy.  He is a keen golfer and I had never made a 2 tiered cake - so thought I would give this a go.  The bottom tier has rolling hills and a blue sky made from sugar paste and royal icing flags and clouds.  The top tier is made to look like the green using green sugar paste.  I piped bulbs using white royal icing between the tiers to look like mini golf balls.  I have never made a figure before so thought I would give it a go using Squires modelling paste – I think this is something I need to work on!
March 2011

Boy's Birthday Cake

A friend asked me to make his little boy's birthday cake.  He loves Moshi Monsters and his favourite character is Oddie.  I made an 8" chocolate cake with vanilla butter cream, the cake was covered in light blue sugar paste and the board is covered in green, I added the yellow balls to pull all the colours together.  I could find the colours of sugar paste I wanted so I bought it in white and used paste colours to get the shade I needed.  Oddie was made as a run out, it had to be done over several days to let each part dry and then I painted on the irises and pupils with food colour.
February 2011

Project Number 1

As part of my course at college we have to produce three project cakes - this is my first one.  It is a square royal iced cake with a run out design of our choice.  It has bulbs piped along the bottom edge and shells along the top.  It was the first time I had done flat royal icing, usually opting for snow effect and I was very proud of the results.  Sadly this was done on a polystyrene dummy and not a real fruit cake!
January 2011

FA Cup Cakes

When I made these I had just started on my cake decorating course.  My family's football team were in the FA Cup so I made some FA Cup cakes!  The cup cakes and the butter cream were coconut using coconut milk instead of regular milk.  The decorations were made as run outs - a technique using very runny royal icing to make a design.  The cups were made in white icing then I painted them silver when they were dry.   Sadly we lost so these were the first and last FA Cup cakes I made!
November 2010

Wedding Cake

 

Here is the first commissioned cake I made, it was for my friend’s wedding in May 2010.  She wanted 120 cupcakes in pink, green and cream with a top cake for them to cut.  The cupcakes are all vanilla with rose, vanilla and lemon butter cream icing.  The top cake is a Madeira cake with vanilla butter cream and covered with sugar paste.  I bought the flowers and bows to decorate the cupcakes this time but wanted to learn how to make them for myself.  I made 144 cupcakes in case any were damaged in transit but I didn’t need to worry, it all went very smoothly for a first attempt and the couple were really happy with it.
May 2010