My new favourite tool - February 2016

I love when you get a tool great tip and this is my newest favourite...acupuncture needles.  

Food safe, strong and much finer than usual pins (especially the large headed ones we need to use in sugarcraft), these are fantastic for getting the air bubbles out of fondant, without leaving those awful pock-marks that catch the eye and ruin the finish on your cake.  

I know it's sad, but I was so excited to share this.

Bomb cake - February 2015

Bomb cake for a secret agent birthday party. 

Obviously, putting a spherical thing on a flat surface has some issues when you want to pick it up and drive around corners.  I made the cake a slightly firmer chocolate Madeira sponge rather than my usual chocolate fudge cake.  I screwed a sharpened dowel into the board too.

I know some cake makers wouldn't split the cake but, while I understand the stability argument about not putting frosting inside, I'm not a fan of dry, 2 dimensional cake, and a cake should taste good above all. I think a cake needs frosting, cream or jellies to add flavour and texture.  This cake has 4 layers of cake, with 3 layers of real chocolate frosting in between.

I crumb coated the cake with a darker chocolate frosting to add stability to the sphere.  It looks pleasingly like a planet!

Covering the sphere in the oh-so-annoying-to-use black fondant wasn't as bad as I'd expected actually.  I just used a good quality paste, and some patience.

Thankfully, it's winter and not humid... If I have to do it again on an August night when there's a thunder storm outside I might have a very different experience! 

By the way, the bomb's fuse is a sparkling candle so should look pretty cool when lit! 

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!

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!

Boo's Strawberry cake - June 2014

So our little Boo is about to turn four (can't believe she's so grown up!), but I'm going to be away in Spain so I've been charged with making a topper for her birthday cake which I'll deliver a week before it's needed. 

At first she wanted Mr Tumble's spotty bag, then a dinosaur, but then she saw a photo of my buttercream strawberry cake from last month and decided she wanted that.  Couldn't do that a week in advance so I've made this instead.

First I made the flowers and leaves and left them to harden for a day.  I decided to keep them simple and not airbrush them.

I made the strawberries out of rice krispie treat (made with marshmallow fluff, not gelatine so they are vegetarian), flavoured with strawberry and coloured pink.

Once the rice krispie treats were set hard I carved off a bit of the bottom, so they'd lie at the right angle, covered them in fondant and airbrushed them a deep red with a little black shading.

I love my airbrush!

When the strawberries were dry, I piped the seeds on with royal icing and added calyxes.

I arranged the finished pieces on a fondant disk that can just be popped onto a layer cake.  

Now I just need to wrap the presents and I'm ready to deliver.  

Hoo ha.

Happy birthday my darling girl.  We love you very much.

P.S.  There are 2 strawberries because I'm pretty sure her sister will want one too!

White peony cake - May 2014

Quick demo cake with white peony... 

Using up the demo cakes from my cake covering class, so sorry about the naked board.

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!

Drunken hens cake - April 2014

A hen party cake, based on a design found by the client.  

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!

Toadstool cake - April 2014

 Toadstool birthday cake for a little girl.

The cake was a red velvet stalk and vanilla dome, both with vanilla buttercream.

Structurally it was dowelled as per a standard two tier cake, but I used foam core as a board on the top tier (the dome) and cored it so I could add a central dowel that reached through both tiers to add strength.

I made the ladybird with sugarpaste and florist's wire (customer was warned!).

The butterfly was cut out with a standard plunger cutter, then the wings frilled using a ball tool as per flowers.

The foliage is a mixture of painting, royal icing and fondant pieces.

Another advantage of the foam core is that it gave a good white surface for the underside of the dome.  

The dome is actually a dark "hot" pink as requested by the customer.

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!