Merry-Go-Round

A couple of months ago it was competition time once again it had just taken me a little longer to get around putting up the photos. For a few years now I have subscribed to Cake International magazine and have often prayed for the opportunity to make some of the wonderful creations for myself and this years competition was my chance. I had chosen quite an ambitious project as I still consider myself somewhat of a beginner.

As the competition was once again solely based on aesthetics I decided it would be easier, and quicker to use polystyrene dummy's for the majority of the design. I took a trip to a specialist shop in Chesterfield called Crazy About Cakecraft (ideal I know!) and they had everything I needed, and more! It was my first time using dummy cakes and it certainly saved me so much time and eggs. There is also no way I would have been able to lift the darn thing if it was totally made of cake! As you may know, carrying cakes is stressful enough at the best of times, let alone when the cake weighs that of a chubby child.

It was also my first using a technique called pastillage. This was a very fiddly process and became rather frustrating when trying to cut out the horses. Somewhere along the line I wished carousels were designed with nice square seats instead of shapely horses. If I had longer to decorate and sharpen up the horses I would have preferred a much cleaner finisher, however that was not possible. I did achieve some nice royal icing reigns which I was rather impressed by.  

Unfortunately once again I was a runner up in my category but first place went to a very worthy winner.

Mademoiselle Chanel

A cake should be two things, classy and fabulous...

To celebrate a friends 25th year for working for Chanel, I was asked to make this cake for her surprise party. I couldn't have been more excited! After initially thinking make a cake version of a perfume bottle would be quite easy, it turned out it wasn't (quite like most of my projects). Luckily they were quite happy to have the cake lying down flat so the next problem was how to get the cake looking like glass. However with a few lines here and there I think I got as close as I could.

To add an additional Chanel feel I made a quilting impression and the iced cake board. And please, don't even get me started on how hard the letters were.

Julia, the recipient, cutting the cake.  

P-P-P-Poker cake P-P-Poker cake

Another year, another birthday therefore another birthday cake! This year's party was James Bond cocktail themed and obviously the cake needed to match. After weeks of research I settled on a poker table design. I immediately ran into difficulty as my cake tins were far too small! So a quick trip to Hobbycraft, and some advice from a random old lady, I bought what felt like the biggest tin ever. 

We a little help from some friends, 6 eggs and some carving later we set to decorating and here is the finished result.

With a little help from Sophisticakes

So a while ago now I went to my friends bakery (her house) to help her make some cake ideas and I thought I would include this in my blog. I learnt so much and I think we really helped each other out. This was also my first time using cake dummies and this allowed us to make three different cake designs in three days. I would never be able to do this with cake, especially on my own!

 We iced the cake board in fondant and added the stone texture with a texture sheet and then dusted it with a little silver lustre. As we had a limited amount of time we used paper and card to create the turrets and columns. If we had more time we would have used sugar paste and moulded it over a kitchen roll tube. 

We used wired and blossom flowers to create a over grown flower look. The hedges were just green fondant that was textured with star tool.  

This was my first bear model, a little chubby but still adorable. 

The next cake was a little more sophisticated. This classic and simple design has a real Victorian feel to it. 

We saw this cake in Cake International magazine and decided to give it a go. It was relatively simple, it just used up a lot on fondant! We used fondant mixed with sugar paste to make sure it would harden enough to sustain the design, but still cut-able. 

The final cake was more challenging and my favourite cake yet. After looking through many cake magazines we saw this birdcage cake and although it looked quite challenging we thought we would give it a go. 

 This is the rose spray we made for the bird cage cake. These flowers took a few days to make, which is why we made this cake last. It was also my first time at making roses and the largest spray I have made (with help of course!)

We set the lustre on the roses and leaves with steam, which I think makes the colours look more natural and also makes them last a lot longer. 

If want to check out any more of Danielle's cakes click here to be taken to her facebook site.  

It's Competition Time!

 So I decided to take the next step in cake decorating and entered a decorating competition held by Cake Decor (a local cake store). I didn't think my style of cakes were the type to enter the wedding cakes or cupcake category so I went with wild and wacky; a perfect fit I think. My initial idea was under the sea themed, but somehow got diverted to a rock pool scene. And here is the finished article:

The finished cake

This has to be the one cake I actually love at the end of the creation process (unlike the others, which I want to throw out the window!). I do however wish I took more photos during the creation process but atlas, I only have the one:

I originally mixed rice krispies into my icing to try and create a pebble effect, but this just wasn't good enough so I started experimenting with different fondant idea. The simplest idea was the most effective! I just added a little food colouring to a ball of white or yellow fondant and mixed it in a little (not too much though). Several bowls of fondant later I started assembling them on the carved cake. I was really pleased with the result with the addition of a few shells and sea stars here and there. I used a shell tool to shape some of the pebbles as well.

A boning tool was used to add definition to the sea star

An octopus was probably a bad choice for a cake mainly due to the eight leg scenario. I left the assembly of the legs to the day before the competition and there were a few fatalities. But I prepared spares and had to cut back on the length of a few of them.

 

 The next problem I had to resolve was how to transport this incredibly heavy cake to the venue and then up two flights of stairs (whose idea was that!?). So, after a resourceful evening of brainstorming we set off with my cake in a bread basket, spare legs and any tools I might need for some touch ups. I got there quite early and was scared to assemble my cake with my cake neighbours watching me. 

The day itself was a great success. There were some impressive cakes and excellent demonstrations and we all eagerly awaited the results. I had entered the beginners category and there was some tough competition so I wasn't expecting much. In the end I got a gold award level and was the runner up in my category. Great success!

The judges comments included: very colourful, love the angry octopus

A selection of some of my winning!

 

Rack 'em up

Another creation from the Hello Cupcake app and book. Instead of buying all the different coloured sugar I dyed it myself. Inside a freezer bag I poured some regular granulated sugar; to that I added a little food colouring and shook it like a polaroid picture. This was also my first attempt at cream cheese frosting, which was probably a little too runny for this project but was so delicious it didn't matter! In order to get the striped balls you need some grease proof paper or baking parchment. Cover the top and bottom of the cupcake and roll in the desired coloured sugar. Then put them in the fridge; this gives a smoother line when removing the parchment. Remove the parchment and roll the remaining iced cupcake in regular granulated sugar. Simple!

As the Hello Cupcake gang are american, a lot of the little candies they suggest using are unavailable to us here, so the white bit is actually a trebor strong mint. As the cupcakes ages the mint of the strong mint infused into the sugar icing and made it nice and minty. Also instead of using cake safe pens I actually just used a sharpie (not recommended!) but I did warn people not to eat it.

Just like-a Mama used to make!

After scouring the app store for a decent cake decorating app I came across 'Hello Cupcake'. I bought their book years ago, but never attempted any of the designs. However this app gives you simple directions and even extra online video tutorials; a definite investment! 

I had a go at making the spaghetti and meatball cupcakes and here are the results:

For the first time in my life I bought pre-made cakes; I feel so ashamed. But as this project wasn't for anything in particular I cut a few corners. I haven't tasted them yet, but I'm not expecting anything. Although how nasty can a cake with a Ferrero Rocher on top be?

I fully recommend the Hello Cupcake app for some amazing and simple cupcake ideas that will go down a treat. Their book has even more adorable projects.