Nerf Gun Cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake that would be suitable for a Nerf party. After doing some research I discovered this was a toy gun and I suggested having a cake in the appopriate colours, a model on top and edged with bullets.

They requested a 10" chocolate cake so I made my rich chocolate cake and filled it with chocolate butter icing. I used a different brand of sugar paste for this cake, the Beau sugarpaste, as I'm trying to explore a few different brands. I like this one because it's not as soft as Renshaws and therefore holds it shape better giving cleaner edges. It also gives a smoother finish as I find it doesn't mark so easily. It comes ready coloured so I iced the cake in a nice bright yellow.

Finished Cake

I made "bullets" out of blue and orange paste and stuck these all around the edge of the cake. I then modelled a gun for the top. I based this on a Nerf Rampage and carefully copied it off a photo. It's quite hard converting a 2D picture to 3D as I've never seen on in real life, however, I hope I got the detailing.

Nerf Gun

All that was left was to pipe the message on the cake and prepare it for delivery.

Overall I was quite pleased with the cake and I got some lovely comments about it. It was lovely getting a message from the birthday boy himself (and his parents) and to see a video of him receiving the cake.

Full Cake

Vintage Lace Cake

I recently purchased some cake lace mats and cake lace to try out on some cakes and to practice for an order. I also needed to create a display cake for the lovely Annabelle Jane Cake school. So I decided to combine these 2 things and create a 3 tiered cake with lace. 

I used the Claire Bowman lace and mixed it up to the instructions, filled the mats and dried it in the oven. I found the cake really easy to use and it cake out beautifully, it's a simple way of creating really intricate detailing. 

Lace

I covered the dummies in blue icing, piled the cakes up and placed them on the board. Using water I stuck the lace around each layer of the cake. I carefully joined the lace together to form a a smooth join and the pattern matches up on the edges. 

To decorate the cake I made some 5 petal flowers, in white, and stuck these on the cake. I would have liked the flowers to have more shape to them but I'm having a bit of a trouble getting my flowers to dry at the moment, the dining room is too cold, so I just used them as is. I used some royal icing to stick them on and to fill the centres. 

Finished cake

Overall I'd say this isn't one of my most detailed cakes or most intricate, however, I think the effect is simple and elegant. It gives a good example of the lace and I'm pleased with how it turned out. This cake will be going up to Maidstone on Tuesday for their window display. I'm really pleased to have been given this opportunity to display at the Annabelle Jane Cake School, I've done all my courses at this shop and have learnt so much from their expertise. I'm honoured to be able to display these skills there. 

Christmas Cakes

I was asked to make a couple of Christmas cakes, lovely rich fruit cakes. I was given free reign with the decoration so I thought I'd make one with poinsetta and one with Christmas roses. I made the fruit cakes in advance so they had plenty of time to mature. I covered them in marzipan and then sugar paste. I tried out some new sugar paste with this cake, I usually use Reinshaws but I thought I'd try Beau and Satin Ice. Both of these are stiffer than Reinshaws and went on to the cake very smoothly. Satin Ice is a marshmallow icing and smells lovely, however, I found that my cake marked really easily and was also very full of air bubbles. Beau went on very well and created a smooth finish. I was very impressed with it and liked the feel and use of it, however, it is much harder to get hold of so I'm currently trying to source it so I can more of a play with it and compare prices. 

Anyway back to the cakes. I made a few Poinsettias for the centre of the cake and then edge it with holly and berries. I trimmed the cake with ribbon and also placed it on an iced board. 

Poinsetia Christmas Cake

For the other cake I made some Christmas Roses with holly leaves. I also piped a message on to the cake. I liked the effect of the cake but decided that it was a little bare. 

Part Finished Cake

With some help from my mum for inspiration I added some piping around the edge and the board. 

Finished Christmas Roses Cake

I was pleased with these cakes and looking forward to making a couple more cakes this year. 

Nan's Autumn Colours Cake

I was asked to make a cake which had autumn colours on it with roses and freesias. I decided to make a white cake with some piped details, which my mum tells me makes the cake more elegant, with strong bold colours in the flowers. I spent several days making orange, red and yellow Gerberas, Roses and freesias. I also made several autumn leaves to go in the bunch. 

Roses

Gerberas

Collection of flowers and autumn leaves

The cakes themselves were carrot cake, on the top an 8", and a light fruit cake 10" on the bottom. The fruit cake was covered in marzipan and then white sugar paste, I made this a few days in advance as fruit cake last so beautifully. Carrot cake is much more tricky, it needs to be made very fresh and is also very fragile so much more difficult to decorate. I double coated it in icing in order to give it a better finish. 

Covered cakes

I then dowelled the bottom tier for support and piped detailing on both layers.

Piped details on the cake

The final step was to put it all together. I used the roses to make a large bunch on the top of the cake, this was trimmed with autumn leaves and had freesias for height effect. 

Roses, leaves and freesias on the top

I stuck the Gerberas on the side of the cake for colour throughout the sides. 

Overall I was very pleased with this cake and thought the colours were beautiful. 

Teddy Bears Picnic Cake

For my dad's birthday this year I decided to use my recently learnt modelling skills. I made him a teddy bears picnic scene with a grandad, grandma and Amelia. Mum, who ordered the cake, asked that I made a light fruit cake so I made an 8" cake and covered this in marzipan and sugar paste. 

I edged the cake with "grass" which I cut out of sugar paste and stuck around the outside in a 3d effect. I made a rug and also draped over the top of the cake in a 3d effect. On top of this rug I carefully modelled the bears and stuck them down. I needed them to have some food to eat so I made a chocolate cake, bread and some carrot sticks, in an attempt to be healthy!! Each bear was eating a different piece of food with grandad eating the cake of course. 

Picnic Food

The final step to the cake was to place flowers around the cake, they were placed side and top. These were simple blossoms that were cut out using a plunger. 

Teddy bears in the field

Final Cake

Overall I was happy with this cake and my dad thought it was lovely which is all that mattered. It was nice to have a different cake in my portfolio. 

Red Roses Cake

I was asked to make a vanilla sponge this week decorated in Roses, preferably with a red theme. So I decided to do just that.

I made a 10" Vanilla Madeira sponge and filled this with vanilla butter icing. I crumb coated the cake, covered it in a thin layer of icing to coat it, and then I covered the cake in white sugar paste. I wasn't happy with the way the cake was covered, this is primarily because I didn't cover the board first and tried to do it in one go. I ended up marking the board and making a bit of a mess of the cake but hopefully it wasn't too obvious by the time I'd finished. 

I made a selection of roses in dark red, lighter red and cream. I made 1 full blown rose with wired outer petals and the rest were then unwired petals but wired roses. I also made a selection of rose leaves. These were arranged in a posy design with the full blown in the centre, the others around it and then the leaves along the bottom. 

Rose Posy

To trim the edge of the cake I decided to follow on the theme and I made some more rose leaves, these were placed all the way around the cake and I made some Christmas Roses to stick on top and break this up slightly. 

The board was trimmed with red ribbon. Gary told me that the cake looked too plain so I decided to make some red petals to scatter over the cake and break up the white a little. 

Finished Cake

Finished Cake

Overall I was fairly happy with the cake. I still have a lot of practice to do on covering cakes but I was pleased with the decoration and was quite proud of the cake. I hope the birthday girl and her family enjoyed the cake and I look forward to make more. 

"Random Chocolate Cake"

I was asked to make a chocolate cake for a father and daughter birthday combination. After putting a few ideas forwards we decided to go for a random chocolate theme where the cake was decorated in various chocolate treats. 

I made my rich chocolate cake, 8inch, and covered it in chocolate butter icing. This was then edged in giant chocolate buttons. For the top of the cake I used Vice Versas around the rim of the cake. I then filled in, starting from the centre, in malteasers. Finally, using some more buttons, I added another dimension to the cake and placed these upright between the teasers. 

Top View

Full View

I was asked to place a message on the cake so I decided to do this on some chocolate. This was actually the most difficult part of the cake as the message was quite long and needed to be in a fairly small area. I decided to use white chocolate as the background and then pipe on the message using milk chocolate. I originally did this the other way around but found the white chocolate harder to pipe into lettering. I also tried to write using pen and paint but finally managed to get the message on using a squirt bottle. I was reasonably happy with the final product. The plaque on the top could either be on the top or rested on the side. 

Plaque on Top

My Birthday Cake

For my birthday cake this year, yes I made my own birthday cake, I decided to make my first royal iced cake. This was a whole new challenge to me as I've only recently been introduced to royal icing to be piped let alone to cover the whole cake. However, I had a marzipaned fruit cake and decided to give it a shot. 

I made up a batch of royal icing, breaking my mixer in the process, using meriwhite, icing sugar and water. The first batch of icing was too stiff and not whisked enough, I learnt this in later attempts, so it didn't stick or smooth particularly well. I used this as the first layer and smoothed it all down. After putting on several layers and managing to get better layers of icing, I decided the cake was as smooth as it was going to get. I've learn a lot just from this one cake so I would hope that my next cake will be loads better. I've learnt more about the consistency of the icing, what it should be and I've also learnt that royal iced cakes can not be rushed and require lots of drying time. It took 3 days to cover this cake. 

This type of cake will be a good blank canvas for my future sugar flowers, I can't wait to start my PME diploma in April, but for now I had to make do with my small skills. I made a couple of roses, using different size cutters so that I had different rose sizes. I was mostly happy with my roses but I really want these to improve and expect to get many more hints and tips after my course. Watch this space!! 

Rose Cake

I also used a cutter and imprinter to produce some smaller flowers to create some contrast and colour for the cake. 

Flowers down the side of the cake.

Overall I was reasonable happy with the cake. As I said I've learnt a lot from this cake and would love the opportunity to make another one in a few months. The layers of icing were quite even and the cake tasted really good, even my sister ate it (she doesn't like cake!). 

Sliced Cake. 

Chocolate Flowers Cake

I was asked to make a chocolate cake for someone's birthday this week. After showing her my previous flowers cake she mentioned she liked this so I did something along the same lines. She also mentioned that she liked cherries so I put in a black cherry filling for her. I was given a budget for this one so I had to carefully keep all my ingredients in check and make sure I wasn't designing a cake that was too expensive. The rich chocolate cake recipe is more expensive than normal sponge but also decorating in chocolate can add up very quickly if you buy too many different varieties. 

I used half of my usual rich chocolate recipe:

325g Butter

325g Plain chocolate

325g Plain Flour

50ml Coffee

1tsp Vanilla Essence

1tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

475g Soft Brown Sugar

5 Eggs

300ml Soured Cream

Melt the chocolate and butter together. Then mix all the ingredients together and bake in the oven for at least 1 hour, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin before you remove (otherwise it just falls apart). 

I sliced the cake in half and filled with a tin of black cherry filling. This is thicker than the standard black cherries in syrup and holds its shape better in the cake. 

I then coated the whole cake in vanilla butter icing. 250g Butter and 500g Icing Sugar. I made sure this was completely smooth to give a good finish on the cake. 

Iced Cake

Next step was to prepare all the chocolate. Firstly I grated a bar of plain chocolate. Then I halved some of the buttons, minstrels and vice versas. I put these in the fridge so they were really cool and I could handle them without them melting. 

Prepared Chocolate

Firstly I used the grated chocolate for the rim of the cake. I had never tried this before but it was very straightforward to do. I press it all into the butter icing with my hands making sure there were no gaps and it was an even coating. 

Next I created a flower right in the centre of the cake using giant milk chocolate buttons. I first place a white chocolate button right in the centre of the cake and then used this to create the flower using the halved buttons. 

I then created the border on the cake by alternating the vice versas. 

Finally I filled in the remaining space making some flowers with the halved white chocolate buttons, vice versas and minstrels. 

Finished Top View

Finished Side View

Overall I was pleased with this cake and how it looked. Creating cakes like this is very effective and gives a nice finish. My customer seemed very happy with the cake and that's the most important thing. 

Camouflage Tank

I was asked to make a chocolate cake that fitted with an army theme, after ideas were presented, it was decided that I would make a camouflage tank cake. I made a large rectangle cake in my standard rich chocolate cake, I also made a smaller rectangle. I cut the larger cake in half and then layered these up, sticking it together with chocolate butter icing. This was then covered in green sugar paste. The smaller rectangle was also covered sugar paste and then placed on to of the other cake. 

Covered Cakes

To create the camouflage cake I used brown and cream icing, rolled them into a tube and then cut into pieces and stuck onto the cake. These were thinned, before putting on the cake, so they were random shapes. 

Started to camouflage the cake

To create the wheels and the tracks I rolled some green into a sausage and cut out 8 wheels for each side. I placed a smaller dot on top of these and then pressed, with a ball tool, to create the nut. Finally using a spike I marked out 5 holes on each side. For the track I rolled out a thin strip, marked out lines with a knife and then placed next to the side. The wheels were placed on top of this and then the remaining track was placed around the wheels and stuck down. 

To create the gun I placed a skewer inside a sausage of green icing, I then placed some extra icing around the end and middle to make it thicker at these points. 

Finally I created the detailing on the top using green icing. 

I was asked to make an army man so I made this out of sugar paste, placed a bit of spaghetti down the middle to prop him up. 

Almost finished

I was also asked to make a banner for the cake so I thought I try and make it look like it was fabric, painted on and then held on to the cake. I used some royal icing and piped this onto some white sugar paste. I had hardened this with some denture powder, so it would dry solid, this was then draped on the cake and stuck down with some water. 

Finished cake

Close up

Overall I was very pleased with this cake and thought it was quite realistic. I hope that the birthday boy likes the cake on Tuesday. Something a little different for him and his friends to enjoy that's a bit different from a standard 8" cake. 

Flower Chain Cake

I wanted to make a birthday cake for my mother in law. After looking through the latest edition of the cake decoration magazine I got the idea to make a butterfly and flower chain cake. I decided to make 2 raspberry cakes with raspberry italian merringue buttercream icing. I made an 8 inch cake and a 6 inch cake:

Ready to go in the oven

Ingredients:

350g Butter

350g Caster Sugar

350g Self Raising flower

6 Eggs

100g Raspberries

Beautifully baked and cooling

Once the cakes were baked I cut them in half and filled the centre with the buttercream. I then coated the cakes in the buttercream and left it to harden slightly. 

Once ready I covered the cakes in white sugar paste, placed on thin cards and then placed on top of each other. 

Using royal icing I piped a snail trail around the edge of each cake to cover up the join. 

Using petal paste I coloured to pale pink, darker pink and purple. I then used some flower cutters and made 225 flowers in total. These were all rolled on a foam mat and left to dry. I also made 18 butterflies, folded these and left them to dry in shape. 

225 Flowers

Once everything is ready I marked chains around the outside of the cake and stuck the flowers on in random patterns along the line using royal icing. I also piped a dot in the centre of each flower. I stuck the butterflies in each gap and then pushed the wires in the centre of the top cake. Using a few more flowers the wire entry is covered up and a centre piece is created. 

Finished Cake

The top

Side View

Side view

Overall I was happy with this cake and it looks lovely. It's not perfect and is a little lopsided, however, if I was to make this again it would certainly be better and the basic idea is very good. 

If you're looking for a cake for any occasion please get in touch. I can make cakes to your budget and am currently making them for just the price of the ingredients (February 2014) but this will only be for a few more month. 

Formula 1 Cake

For Gary's second birthday cake, he wanted a mercedes formula 1 cake. Since it was a much more difficult shape I decided to go with a fairly simple flavour, lemon. I made a lemon sponge and covered this in lemon Italian merringue buttercream. 

I found a picture of a F1 car on the internet, made this the size of the cake and then used this as a template to cut out the cake. I then cut another level in order to create the seat shaping. 

Cut sponge

I covered in the buttercream and the covered this in silver sugar paste. Using a round cutter I cut out some wheels and covered these in black sugar paste. 

Close up of the car with the wing

I made a front wing out of flower paste, which is stronger than standard sugar paste and hardens over night. I also made a back wing but after 3 attempts at these I decided to leave it off because they kept breaking and I'd run out of time. I also attempted to paint the advertising onto the cake but again I had to leave it partly due to time and partly due to skill. 

I was fairly happy with the cake but it wasn't as good as I hoped. I would have liked more time and skill to make it better but it was clear what it was meant to be so that's a good start. 

Finished cake with a wing (which later broke!)

Cricket Cake

As you may, or may not, know it's Gary's birthday today and I decided to make him 2 cakes. Lucky boy!! I wanted to make a simple cake that focused more on flavours and a more complex cake, which will be posted later.

The simple cake was to be decorated with a few cricket pieces but I was going to try some new techniques. First was the sponge it's self. He wanted raspberry and white chocolate flavours so the tricky thing was to get these flavours to balance. White chocolate is quite a subtle flavour and I was afraid it'd be dominated by the raspberry. I made a vanilla sponge and then stirred in 200g of chopped white chocolate. I then added some raspberries and stirred these in carefully to try and maintain their shape and structure.

For the icing I made Italian merringue butter cream. I will post how to make this at a later date, and stirred in some homemade raspberry curd, again will post about this later. I filled the cake with icing and also gave it a coating in the raspberry icing. 

I then made a white chocolate ganache by heating some double cream and adding white chocolate to melt in. Ideally I would have done a 4:1 ratio of chocolate to cream but I didn't have enough chocolate so I used a 2.5:1 ratio. This seemed to work fine and I had a thick chocolate mixture. I spread this over the cake and left it to set. I then covered this is green sugar paste and smoothed it, creating a crisp edge. 

I made a bat, ball and stumps out of sugar paste and stuck these on the top. 

Finished cake

Overall the cake looked ok, it was very simple. I could have put more details on the cake if I'd had some more tools, which I don't, but it was ok. The icing was too thick and so towards the edges the balance wasn't right. However, if you had a slice from the middle it was much better. 

Internal view

Navy Roses with Polka Dots

I've been really busy lately trying to get various systems online but I decided to take a break from it all and decorate a cake. I didn't have an occasion to make it for so I decided to us my cake dummy instead. The challenges with this were to:

1) get the light weight cake to stick to the board - solved with some toothpicks. 

2) Getting the icing to stick to the dummy. 

I decided to cover the cake in ivory icing, along with the board, in the usual manner. I have been practicing making roses using various tutorials and finally I produced 3 that I was reasonably happy with. I used these as the centre piece for the cake, 3 roses slightly lifted balancing on each other and made a few green leaves to fill in the gaps. For the rim of the cake I decided to try and create a polka dot pattern. I used a template, produced in Word, and dented the icing with a skewer. I then watered down some of the ivory icing and piped this into the dents. 

Overall I was liked the design of the cake and think it looks stylish, maybe for a wedding or older person's birthday. I need to neaten up my polka dots and next time will be using royal icing instead. I find this a much better consistency to pipe with. I like the roses on the top but will continue to practice making these to get them even better. 

Roses on the cake

Finished design.

I will try making some other dummy cakes so I can practice some more and also it'll increase my portfolio. I hope that my new website will go live very soon. I am also going determined to significantly improve my standard this year so that I'm reasonably happy with every cake. It'll only go into my portfolio if I think it's good enough. 

If you'd like a cake, for any occasion, made to order, please get in contact with me. I'm currently, January 2014, making cakes for just the cost of ingredients and am really looking to increase my portfolio with some stunning designs.