Digger Cake

I was asked to make a digger cake for someone's 35th birthday. It was a 6" rich chocolate cake covered in sugar paste. I covered the cake in a pale green sugar paste and made some hills around the edge. 

For the digger I made this out of modelling paste and allowed it to dry so everything set in place. I used some of the chocolate cake crumbs to make some soil, that the digger was digging up. 

Close up of the Digger

I used tappits to create the message on the board and my final task was to make some little cones. 

Finished cake

I hope they liked the cake. If you're ever in need of a cake please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Mum's Sewing Basket

For my mum's birthday cake this year I decided to make a sewing basket cake. I got this idea from a magazine I was given but I made a few little changes to make it mine. I made a rich chocolate cake, filled it with vanilla buttericing and covered it in chocolate sugarpaste. 

When I did the royal icing course mum commented that she liked the piped basket weave effect so I decided to do this around the cake. 

Lines marked around the cake

I marked lines around the cake and then piped the effect between these lines. I also covered and piped on a 8" board, this is to create the lid on the basket. 

Basket weave effect

To decorate the cake I made some rectangular pieces of icing, I used mats to get some fabric effects on these. They were then drapped over the cake and stuck down. I made buttons using flower paste and a mould. These were scattered over the basket and around the edges. 

Lots of Buttons

Buttons

I also made some knitting needles out of modelling paste and stuck these on the board. 

Finished cake

Zoomed in finished cake

Overall I hope my mum liked the cake. I was quite pleased with the it and thought it was effective. 

Beth's Cake

My little sister got married last week and she asked me to make a few cakes for them. The first one was for the getting ready lunch, all she said to me was that she wanted a chocolate fudge cake and I could practice whatever I wanted for it. So I found out what flowers she was having and decorated it to match, cream roses and blue hydrangeas. 

Hydrangeas and Rose

I made an 8" rich chocolate cake and filled it with chocolate ganache. I then covered the cake in white sugar paste, with 2 layers so I got a good finish on the cake. I made some cream roses for the top of the cake and over 100 hydrangeas. I had great trouble with these as the petals kept snapping off, I tried several methods and still wasn't overly pleased with the final bunch but it was the best I could do at that moment in time. 

Finished Cake

I trimmed the cake with a thick pale blue ribbon and then used a cream thinner ribbon to add another dimension. Finally I made a bow for the front of the cake. 

Ribbon Bow

Overall I was happy with the cake, the covering was good and I got a good overall finish. I would have liked the flowers to be more perfect and to have kept their petals but I'm glad that I didn't attempt it for a 3rd time. The cake tasted very nice and I got some nice compliments. Maybe some of those people could write reviews for my facebook page? 

Nanna's Cake

For Nanna's cake this year I decided to try out a new rich chocolate cake recipe that I had obtained from Confection Perfection. I had sampled the cake in the shop last time I was there and decided that it was really rich and its flavour was similar to the recipe I already use but the texture is much lighter and it rises better. 

The cake was then covered in a chocolate ganache, this was made with cream and chocolate, left to cool and then whipped up. Finally I covered the cake in sugar paste. 

Sliced cake so you can see the chocolate cake inside

It took me a while to decide how to decorate the cake but in the end a photo inspired me. It was a photo of chocolate cake with raspberries. So I decided to trim the cake with sugar flower leaves and berries. I used a spare red rose and cream roses to make a bunch and then trimmed this with bramble leaves and some more berries. 

I made some letters using tappit cutters and stuck these on. It was the first time I'd really tried to make the letters using the tappit. It was harder than I expected but I think I've started to get the hang of it. It's important to let the icing dry out and use lots of cornflower in order to stop the icing sticking. 

Overall cake

Close up of the rose bunch

Overall I was fairly happy with the cake. I need to make sure the ganache is a smoother finish to give a better basis for the icing. I also need to be careful that the chocolate doesn't come through the icing or get on my fingers as it doesn't come off. I was pleased with the decoration on the cake and my cakes are certainly getting better and better. 

"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

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. 

Macmillan Cake Sale Cake

Gary's work have an annual cake sale to raise money for their charity of the year. This year it is Macmillan so I decided to make a cake for them to sell at the sale. 

I made a rectangle cake, recipe found here, and cut the cake in half. I cut out a few squares from the bottom layer to create some legs and then placed the cakes on top of each other. I used chocolate butter icing to stick it together and cover the cake. The cake was then covered in white sugar paste. 

I wanted to create a table cloth so I made a thin square out of sugar paste and painted around the rim with gold paint. This was placed over the cake just sticking on the top and allowing the sides to hang down naturally. 

Table covered in a cloth

Using blue paste I cut out some circles for plates, to create the inner detailing I used a ball tool and flattened the centre. 

Plates

I then created various different cakes to go on the plates, starting with some chocolate brownies. 

Chocolate brownies

Followed by a selection of other goodies. 

Jam sandwiches and chocolate cake

Scones and mince pies

The whole selection of cakes

To finish off the cake I made a banner for the front with Macmillan on it. 

Finished cake

Finished cake

I was pleased with the effect of the cake and thought it looked good. People at Gary's work were impressed but they didn't want to cut into it because it looked too good, apparently, so I'm not sure how much money it actually raised. The cake did get eaten in the end so hopefully they enjoyed it. 

If you'd like a cake for any event please get in contact, I can make cakes to your budget and specifications. 

Garden Cake

I wanted to make my Nanna a birthday cake and decided on the theme of a garden. She mentioned previously that she would like a chocolate cake so that is what I made. I used the following recipe for a 8" cake. The original recipe is for a 12" cake so I had to scale this down for the cake. Gary worked out the calculations, however, we this was still too much mixture for the tin so I baked a mini cake as well for him to take to work. 

Ingredients:

260g Butter

260g Plain Chocolate

40ml Coffee

2tsp Vanilla Essence

260g Plain Flour

1tsp Baking Powder

1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

380g Light Soft Brown Sugar

4 Eggs

227ml Soured Cream

Method:

Melt together the chocolate and the butter, over a low heat, until fully melted.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate and sugar.

Whisk together the eggs and soured cream.

Add the chocolate mix and the egg mixture to the flour and stir until fully mixed. The mixture should be thick and chocolatey.

Pour into a lined 8" tin and place in the oven. Cook at 150oC for around 2 hours. You should leave the cake to cool in the tin, I made the mistake of taking it out hot, you need it to form a more solid structure. 

I made some chocolate buttercream to go on the cake. 250g Butter to 500g icing sugar and 1tbsp of cocoa mixed together until smooth. I also added a little milk to soften it up enough to be spreadable. I cut the cake in half and placed buttercream inside the cake and then around the outside of the cake. 

Cake covered in chocolate buttercream

I coloured some icing green, rolled it and covered the cake completely. 

Covered in green icing

Then I set about making the different bits for the top. I decided to make some cauliflowers, cabbages, leeks and carrots. I used my dummy cake to get an idea of sizes and to work out the layout before doing the real cake. 

Cabbages and cauliflowers

The cabbages and cauliflower are made in a simlar way using a pea sized piece of icing for the centre. This is then surrounded my leaves and stuck around, the tops are slightly bent over and it's all pushed together. 

I made the carrots and leeks by making sausages in the correct shapes. For the leeks I then cut out rectangles and stuck them around the edges folding over the tops. For the carrots I stuck a small amount of green on the top and then cut a cross on the top folding over the edges. 

To make the paving slabs I marbed some icing with black colouring and cut them into squares. The fencing was done in a similar way with white and I used a tooth pick to score lines in them. 

Practicing the layout

I then stuck it all on the actual cake. I made a rectangle for the front

Just the writing left

Painted on "Happy Birthday" using a paintbrush and some gel colour mixed with water. 

Then take some photos of the finished cake. 

One side

The other side

Close up of the cauliflower and leeks

Close up of carrots and cabbages

Front view

The verdict: I was pleased with how the cake looked and tasted. All the comments were very positive and my nanna seemed very pleased with her surprise. Most people could identify the vegetables, the carrots were more of a challenge but they were in the ground so not so obvious. Still improvements to be made but I was pleased. 

Don't forget I'm available to make cakes to order. At the moment (August 2013) I'm making cakes for just the cost of the ingredients, this cake would cost £15. Please get in touch if you have any event coming up and we can discuss your requirements.