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!

Adventures in buttercream - April 2014

This week we've been having a brain storm about new standard cakes we can have on display.

We're calling this the "fab" cake!

And this one I'm naming the "dib dab" cake.  Maybe we should create a whole series of treat inspired cakes...

Smooth sided ombré cake, first attempt - April 2014

My first try at smooth sided ombré buttercreamed cake. 

Not as polished as I'd hoped, but then that's why I did a practice cake.

Just messing about with flower making, don't haul me in front of the rose police! 

(I really do need to have a proper go at that though.)

 Upside down buttercream method again

Hmm, far from perfect... some issues to overcome.  

I quite like the effect though.

Baby TV Cake - April 2014

Birthday cake for a 1 year old who loves Baby TV, particularly Tulli and Oliver the Monkey. Figure making is a new skill for me so it took me longer than expected, but they didn't work out too bad.

Have to admit, Oliver is a slightly scary looking monkey to me, but apparently not if you're one and that's the important thing to remember.  Tulli is quite a cute character, even if he does seem to be a slug!

I also made Number 1 (from Charlie and the numbers). 

I made the rainbow using foam core covered in fondant.

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!

Rustic Wedding Cake - April 2014

This wedding cake was based on a previous design by the Angel Food Bakery.  The bride planned to add a purple "Mr & Mrs" cake topper later that she had already bought from us.

Inside the tiers were vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam.

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!

Lightning McQueen - April 2014

Lightning McQueen cake topper for Angel Food Bakery

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!