Brush Embroidery Cake

For my sister's birthday, my mum suggested I tried out a new technique called brush embroidery. I made a lemon cake which I filled with lemon butter icing and lemon curd. I then covered it in sugarpaste and set about designing the cake. I imprinted some flowers on to the cake and created the design. Using royal icing I piped a little at a time and used a brush to drag the icing down and create the effect. This is the first time I've done this technique on the cake and is certainly something I'd like to practice again. The effect on the cake was nice but I feel that it could have been a little neater. 

Top View of the Cake

Do you like this cake? 

Overall View of the cake

If you need a cake for any occasion please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Roses Cake

I was asked to make a cake for my sister in law and was told that I could use it to practice anything I wanted,wooo! So I decided to use the cake to practice the roses that I learnt last week on my Sugar Flower Diploma, these are wired flowers. The only request I had was that I used raspberry icing on the cake, so of course I obliged!! 

I decided to try out a recipe that I obtained from Confection Perfection, in Maidstone, for a lemon cake. I thought the lemon would go nicely with the raspberry. In this lemon cake, for flavour, you use lemon zest and fresh juice. Also once the cake is cooked you pour a lemon syrup into the cake. This makes the cake lovely and moist but also intensifies the lemon flavour. The cake was also a much deeper and better size than my previous cakes so the quantity of mixture seemed perfect. 

Once the cake was cooled I filled and covered it in raspberry buttercream. I left it to harden but due to the weather it never really firmed as much as I'd like. In future I'd put it in the fridge for a short time in order to really harden it up. The reason I say this is because when I tried to cover the cake in sugar paste it was very difficult to create a good finish. 

I covered the board with sugar paste and then trimmed the board and cake with teal ribbon. Next step was to make the roses. 

Time to make roses

I decided to make the roses in a pale pink to contrast the teal trim. I coloured in 3 tonal shades so that the centre of the rose was darker than the outer petals. Using the techniques I learnt last week (or which I will try and put a blog post up later) I made a bud, half rose, full rose and a full blown rose. I also made some rose leaves out of white platinum paste, which I dusted up to the right colours and jasmine out of blue flower paste. 

Centrepiece

All the flowers are wired so they can be manipulated into a spray for the top of the cake. I design this and held it together using floral tape. I then cut off the wire and then placed it into a flower pick for the centre of the cake. I used a few extra flowers around the edge of the cake and then placed petals on the cake. 

Top View

Overall View

Side View

Full Blown Rose

Bud and half rose

Other Side, buds with petals

Overall I was pleased with the flowers, especially for a first proper attempt. I will, of course, practice much more. I wasn't pleased with the covering of the cake but I was fairly pleased with the decoration of it. 

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!)