Learning something new!

I am always coming across cakes that have something about them I've not tried before! Whether it's a paint effect, the carving of it, or just the decoration! I always add these cakes to my list of things to try!!

 This next cake was so much fun to make because I got to try out 3 new things all in one go!!

It was to be a surprise cake for the lovely mum of one of my friends! I was mostly left to decide on the cake myself, but my main brief was Owls!! I have always wanted to make owls to go on a cake, so that was number one!

Owls made from rice krispie treats. 

Number two, was that to go with those owls, I was going to make a bird cage! I have always wanted to make a bird cage, but this one was going to be a little different! Instead of being light and flowery, I was going to make it blue, with black cage bars! All to make it look like a midnight setting (Owls are nocturnal right?? ;) ).

(Ok, still flowery...)

This is where number three comes in... To save costs (dark fondant colours cost a lot you know!), I had decided to cover it in white fondant, and then airbrush it blue!  Having recently received an airbrush kit for my birthday, I was dying to try it out!!
I also got a bit carried away and decided to spray over some leaves (edible!) from the garden, to give the base of the cake a look of foliage!

So, after modelling the owls with RKT (Rice Krispie Treat), decorating them, and covering/spraying the base and the cage, It was time to decorate the cage with bars! I did this using a mix of black fondant and CMC (awesome stuff!!). I added quite a bit of CMC, and the bars were really easy to roll and put in place!

Angry Birds Star Wars

Sometimes when I take on a cake, I don't always consider the amount of work I'll have to put in!! I can safely say I spent at least 20 hours on this cake, but, I loved every minute of it!! How cool to make not only an Angry Birds cake, but a Star Wars one at that!!?

This cake was for twin boys, and they wanted some of their favourite characters on top, so I made sure I started on those in advance.

I used CMC and a whole bunch of precoloured fondant and started with their base shapes. With lots of print outs of various poses I got started with Chuck 'Ham' Solo. He was definitely my favourite one to make! Red Skywalker, was also really fun, and quite easy, but I had a problem getting Lard Vader to look right!

Princess Stella's braids were time consuming, but a lot easier than I expected with the modelling fondant.

Terebacca was probably the hardest, getting his fur to look right took time, and I had to resize his face in the end as it was much too big! 

With the help of an artistic friend of mine, we sat one evening and got the paintbrushes out on the actual cake! With a suggestion of Tattooine in the background, and some of the Angry Birds blocks, it was a nice way to finish it off!

I used some rice paper and traced the boys names to add to the cake, as well as their age, and then it was just a case of adding the figures. This is where I had issues... I'd made the figures too damn big!!! I spent ages rearranging them to find the best way to display them, and ended up having to push into the cake a little to get them to sit right!! You would never know though, and the cake came out pretty darn cool!!

I hope you agree!

Pretty in pink!

 After making the fabulous beach themed cake for the father of a friend, I was then asked if I would make his wife a birthday cake too!!

The idea for this cake came from the Pink Cake Box, who have some fabulous cakes!! It only needed to be simple, and it was actually a lovely little cake to make!!

If I remember correctly, the top tier was 4 inches wide, and the bottom tier 7 inches. At the time I didn't have a 4 inch cake tin, so I actually made a slab cake and used a cutter to cut the layers of the cake!! It worked out really well! (And cooked a lot quicker too - bonus!)

The hardest part of the cake was actually making the bow on top! I have never made one like this before, so I really just went with how I thought it should be made!! I used CMC to mix up some modelling fondant, and when it was ready, just rolled out strips and pinched them into little loops. Once they were dry and the rest of the cake was ready, I just placed them on top and stuck them down!

I am really pleased how this cake came out. Simple design, easy to put together, and very effective! Another to add to my list of 'Go to cakes'!!

Tea and Cake

I am never one to turn down an opportunity to make a cake!! Especially when it's for someone I know! So when my friend Katy had her birthday not long ago I had the perfect idea! A teacup!!

This particular cake has to be one of my favourites!! I have always wanted to make a teacup, and it actually turned out to be very simple!!

I don't have many photos of my making it, but I wanted to share it with you anyway!

I simply made 2 x 6" round cakes, split, filled and stacked them up, then carved a dome. Butter iced the dome and then covered it in the blue fondant. Once it had had a chance to set a little, I flipped the whole thing over and then added the details. The rim of the cup, the handle and the flowers. I then made up a small amount of  chocolate ganache, and spread it across the top, piping a spiral of royal icing to look like it was filled with tea! Voilà!