Black and purple wedding cake - August 2014

Flowers, birds and gold leaves made for a three tier black fondanted wedding cake.  The smaller flowers  (around 70) were taped into small sprays of 3 or 5.  Leaves were taped into sprays of 3. Larger roses were formed around polystyrene (styrofoam) balls, larger ones had wired petals around the outside.  I also made wired hydrangea sprays and small petunia flowers  for the cake.  Sorry, not many photos.

I only made the decorations so didn't see finished cake, hopefully there are photos to follow though.

Wired rose, just steamed.

The groom's design.  Gorgeous.

Hope the wedding was wonderful.  Congratulations!

Update:  Here's a photo from the groom of the finished cake.  Sounds like they had a fab time and enjoyed the cake.  Happy days to you both. 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!

Brighton Helter Skelter wedding cake March 2014

At long last the law has changed so same sex couples can marry in the UK, and Angel Food's contribution to the celebration is to make the wedding cake and cupcakes for one of the first happy couples, Andrew and Neil.  

The brief was Brighton Beach, to feed 70-90, and to include the family dog, Oscar.  

First I made a quick research trip to the pier to see the original.

Now, obviously, there are some structural implications to this, so I brain-stormed the possibilities and made a foam-core tower to help me visualise the dimensions.

The cake needed to be divided into 4 tiers, the bottom ones carved to look like one continuous cake.  This is to give it enough stability, as it is a tall structure.... made of cake... which needs to be transported.  I needed to dowel the tiers as per a traditional wedding cake, but I also put a narrow dowel through the whole structure to help during transport.

The slide of course was a different matter entirely!

I used foam core cake boards which allow me to cut then to the right size and easily cut a hole in the centre for the middle dowel.

The cake itself was alternate layers of vanilla and red velvet with white chocolate frosting.

I put the fondant on in stages.  Bottom skirt first, then a band around the tier with the vertical sides, then I iced the top dome seperately allowing me to stick it on the top later and hide the dowel.

I put a quilted effect on the skirt which replicates the iron panels and riveting on the real helter skelter, and allowed me to disguise the seam at the back.

The slide was a nightmare.  My original plan was to make it out of thin modelling chocolate and add it last minute but on delivery day I developed a heavy head cold so I opted to make a cardboard slide... Sorry to the purists out there.

It took ages to make the perfect helix, and it fitted beautifully, then I took it off to tweak something and when I put it back on I couldn't get it to line up again, so the platform by the top door is further to the left than planned but nevermind.

I had intended to make the staircase out of cake too, but as I was feeling unwell I made it out of foam core and lolly sticks instead.  

The mexican paste plaque was an reference to the signs on the pier but with Andrew, Neil and little Oscar as the heros

The original:

My version:

At the venue, the cake was joined by 24 Angel Food Bakery cupcakes, cooked in flat-bottomed ice cream cones and frosted to look like Mr Whippy style treats.

I do hope that the Grooms had a great time, and congratulations to all the happy couples around the country.

This cake was by Angel Food Bakery in Brighton's iconic South Lanes.  http://angelfoodbakery.co.uk

Monster wedding cake March 2014

My friend Clare needed a wedding cake to feed upwards of 170 people as a desert at her sister's wedding on Saturday.  Clare's very talented daughter is to decorate the cake with hand made red sugar roses and a London bus, so they just needed the cake.  

We settled on tiers sized 12", 10" and 8" in citrus rainbow cake with orange and elderflower frosting, chocolate fudge with dark chocolate frosting and vanilla rainbow with white chocolate frosting.

It's always hard to photograph scale. 

Big cake out of the oven:

Trim to size:

Crumb coat:

Iced and doweled:

Stacked top two tiers and prepared for transport:

I left the top two tiers seperate to the bottom one as they have to travel and because they are so heavy that it will be very difficult to lift the while cake at once.

When I delivered the cake in fact, Clare and her family were somewhat taken aback by the size of the cake... I must remember to make sure that people understand how big a wedding cake to feed 170+ in desert portions is!!!

Don't think I'll do any more rainbow cakes though.  They are just so time consuming and you have to be so careful as the colours can effect the taste and texture.

Here's a photo of some of Cerys' decoration of the cake, waiting in the box to be taken to the venue.  She really is very good!!

Finished cake... Cerys has done such an amazing job decorating this cake!