Guadeloupe adventure - July 2014

Our friends are off on a grand adventure to live on the 

French Caribbean island group of Guadeloupe. 

Am so excited for them, and a little envious.  

Good luck guys, it's going to be amazing! X

Bride and groom toppers - July 2014

Cute wedding set-up this week.

I didn't get much notice for the figures so I had some issues with not having time to let the pieces harden before assembly.  This wasn't helped by the fact that it was very hot and humid at the time so the fondant was extra soft. Because of this I had to keep him lying down for a while as there was the risk of him slumping and becoming quite an unflattering model!  I used a cone of card for her skirts, covered in fondant so she wouldn't slump.  Had I had more time, I would have formed their legs / skirt at least 24 hours earlier.

Him: fondant covered poly ball head, then body formed on a dowel.

Her: fondant covered poly ball head, fondant covered cone skirt, 

central dowel supporting body.

These cakes were made for The Angel Food Bakery in Brighton's iconic South Lanes, where the Cake Angels bring Cake Love to the public on a daily basis!

Penguin Grooms Wedding cake toppers - July 2014

So... on an amazingly humid and hot day, while thunderstorms raged outside I made toppers out of black fondant...remind me not to that again until winter.

For those of you who don't know, black fondant is horrible to work with as it get really soft and sticky with so much colour in it.  I had to keep putting the fondant, and the toppers, in the fridge just so I could have them keep their shape as they refused to harden up at all (I am making them a few days in advance of the cake just so they have a chance to harden up before the wedding).  

The trouble with putting things in the fridge when you're fondanting though is that, unless you've got a humidity control environment, you've got a very small window to do things in before the fondant gets 'sweaty' with condensation.  It's frustrating and time consuming, but you just have to be patient.

Anyway, got there in the end!

I used polystyrene (styrofoam) balls in the middle to reduce the weight and covered them with fondant mixed with a little Tylo.  You can see below how the cooled fondant is "sweating" in the heat and humidity.

 

The penguins wait to see.

One penguin finds his inner Dalek.

(keeping his eyes in place while the glue dries) 

These toppers are for an upcoming same sex wedding. I think the penguin suit thing has become a bit of a running joke between the couple.

I've positioned the penguins flippers so they can hold hands when they go on the cake.

These were made for The Angel Food Bakery in Brighton's iconic South Lanes,

where the Cake Angels bring Cake Love to the public on a daily basis!

Flower making practice April 2014 - white flowers

Mr Tumble - July 2014

Mr Tumble (Justin Fletcher) in cake form for The Bean's third birthday.  

My first ever go at sculpting a face,  

So obviously I decide to use the oh so easy medium of sugar.  

Don't think I did too badly, except the chin's not right...

Muscles and basic face form. Scary.

The head measured nearly 5" top to bottom.  

To keep the weight down I formed the sugarpaste over a poly ball, 

but it was still mighty heavy!

Covered in sugar skin. Only slightly less scary.

The nose looks much bigger in these photos than it was to the eye.

Leave that to harden for a couple of days, 

along with his spotty tie.

Next job, bake cake and make a lot of ganache.

Stacked cakes for his torso onto a dowel screwed in the cake board. 

There are some steep hills between here and there.

I really don't want him falling over in the car.

I halved a round cake for his legs, then carved them to size before covering, using the off-cuts to fill in the gap between legs and body.

Let the fondanting begin!

Gave him his eyes and mouth and painted on some detail.

Extruded fondant for hair.

I spent ages making some great fondant hands for him but they were too big 

(bad fractional maths on my part I suspect), 

so had to make some more very quickly out of modelling choc.

Bow tie, freckles and red nose still to come, but he's nearly ready to go to the party. 

Ran out of time to make his spotty bag I'm afraid as work got in the way of social.  

Doh!

Bunny comforter / blanket cake topper - July 2014

A cake for a small person's birthday.  

The customer brought in a favourite comforter for us to photograph and recreate out of sugar.

This cake was made for The Angel Food Bakery in Brighton's iconic South Lanes,

where the Cake Angels bring Cake Love to the public on a daily basis!

Hydrangea and petunia cake - July 2014

New demo cake for the Angel Food Bakery, using a left over fondanted cake from another class of eager sugarcrafters and my new hydrangea and petunia cutter and veiner sets.  Leaves are lace effect royal icing.  

Only a quick rough version, but cute huh!

Building up the demo cakes nicely.

This cake was made for The Angel Food Bakery in Brighton's iconic South Lanes,

where the Cake Angels bring Cake Love to the public on a daily basis!

Twin naming cakes - July 2014

My brother's friends are having a naming day ceremony for their twins.  

The cakes themselves are being made by The Angel Food Bakery in Brighton, but I have made toppers for free to go on the cakes.  

The toppers are sugar representations of the children's favourite things, so we have... a cuddly chimp, a kitty hand puppet, a spade and a Beatrix Potter book.

Happy birthday little people, hope it's a great one!