Aqua aerobics class celebrating a 70th birthday

This cake was so much fun to make and it allowed me to use Candy melts again which I love using and they create a fab water effect – perfect for a swimming pool cake.

The cake was a vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream filling.  Made from an 8″ square cake, shaped into a rectangle.  The brief was Aqua Aerobics and it seems there have not been many Aqua Aerobic themed cakes made and put on the internet so far.

 

The board was covered in white icing, then using a square plunger cutter I marked it to look like tiles and replaced a few white tiles for green tiles.  The sides of the cake were done in a similar way, this time the lines were made using a ruler with a few squares cut out with the plunger cutter and replaced with green.

 

The models were made and left to set over night, then in the morning I melted the candy melts and poured the mixture over the top of the cake and placed the models in before it set.

 

Hey presto an Aqua Aerobics themed cake!!

 

 

Punisher cake for a special Marvel fan turning 40

One of our friends has recently turned 40 (I have officially reached that stage in my live where 40 is the next big birthday for everyone!!).

He is a massive fan of The Punisher and this was to be the theme of the cake.

The main cake was chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream, baked as a 10″ square cake and cut into a rectangle.  I covered it in black icing and put it to one side whilst I did the cake topper.

The Punisher skull was made from homemade rice crispie marshmellows, covered in 2 layers of white icing with the detail made from black icing.  This was then placed on top of the cake.  I also made letters out of rice crispie marshmellows and covered them in 2 layers of white icing again.  This time the detail was created with red food colouring gel mixed with rejuvenator fluid, painted on to look like blood spilling down each letter.

For the finishing touch I used the red food colour mix to write ‘Happy 40th’ on the cake. I wanted to see if there was anything else that represented The Punisher so I spoke to my husband who is a massive Marvel fan himself.  I had identified a skull, blood and guns.  Apparently that is it and I didn’t see how a gun would fit into the design and be something I could write Happy 40th on!

Happy Birthday Dan, hope you had a super fantastic day 🙂

Happy Retirement cake

I was asked to make a retirement cake for a very special person retiring from a working life of helping others, completing her final day at Marie Curie Hospice.  It was an honour to make the cake, and knowing Ana as I do I know she loves cake so would appreicate it on all levels!

I have made a few cakes on a doctor/nurse theme and always enjoy making them.  The cake was shaped as a scrubs top in the colours Ana had to wear at work.  All nursing tops need a nurses watch too, with a pen in the pocket.

The cake was a chocolate sponge with salted caramel buttercream.

1 cake for 4 people – family 4 birthday whammy!

We have 1 month of the year that is a super busy birthday time in our family with 4 birthdays in the space of 3 days.  We always try and get together for the birthdays and I always like to bring cake!

Doing 4 cakes can be a little much and I also don’t think we need that much cake between us, so I decided to do a cake with 4 sides, each one decorated for each of the birthday girls.

The first side was for Eleanor turning 18.  The theme we went for was a labrador as she has recently become the proud owner of a gorgeous black labrador.

A fab idea when making cakes and cards is to match them up, so for Eleanor I used the same labrador template and made a card to match.

The next side was for my sister in law who likes her wine so this is the theme we went with!

 

The next side was for my neice who was getting a mini party box from us for her birthday so we went with this theme and added a party box to the side of the cake.

 

The final side was for my mum, the theme was to be a miniature schnauzer as it was the first time my mum had her birthday since they had got their gorgeous, super cute dog Teddy.

 

 

We took a cake turntable with us so when we displayed the cake on the table it could be spun round to see each side.  It wasn’t the fanciest and perfect cake I have ever made but it was lots of fun and all the birthday girls loved having their own side that matched their card.

Catching up on 2015 cakes – next up scooters and record players

I was asked to make 2 cakes for a special person turning 60.  They were having a weekend away with family and a party – of which both occasions needed a cake!

The theme we went for was the birthday boy’s scooter, his pride and joy he had bought a couple of years ago.

Cake number 1 was a round 8″ chocolate sponge cake covered in white icing.   It had a scarf draped around it in the Everton colours and a model of the scooter and the birthday boy on top.  The scooter was made from ready roll icing mixed with Tylo powder to strengthen it and it had a few lolly pop sticks in it to help it stay stood up.

I have since heard from the birthday boy that he placed the model of himself on top of the scooter and has kept them in a box with all the cake toppers taken from his son’s birthday cakes – they must have quite a random selection in this box including Mike the Knight, Darth Vader and George on a scooter!!

The second cake was for the party and more cake was needed so we went for 2 tiers of chocolate sponge cake, one 10″ square and one 8″ square.

The bottom tier was decorated as a Union Jack flag – this was the only section of the cake that was allowed to have red on it, as the birthday boy is a fanatic Everton fan so it’s blue all the way for him!

The top tier was decorated to look like a record player and we had one of his favourite records playing – Play that funky music.  The arm for the needle was made from a GBS Chocolate mint stick, these are similar to Matchmakers but are smooth on the outside and 1 stick was the perfect size for the record player.

Happy Birthday George – hope you have finally recovered from all the celebrations!!

 

Crown Green Bowling cake means time for a new cake tin!

My dad loves to play bowls and for his birthday this year we took this theme and ran with it (although I’m not sure if running is allowed on the green!!).

I had been thinking it must be time to buy a new cake tin as I hadn’t bought one for a while!  For this cake we needed a ball cake tin and surely this tin would get used lots so I was excited about the purchase.

The 2 tins come with a stand each which you can see underneath the ball on the above picture.   I believe the next picture shows how verstile this cake tin can be!

I baked 2 cakes, one a chocolate sponge, the other a vanilla gluten free sponge.  Covered them both in black icing and using left over cake I make a large cake pop for the jack and covered it in white icing.

The board was covered in green icing to create the crown green, with the 2 bowls placed on top, next to the jack.

This turned out to be a good experiment even though I didn’t plan it to be!  I have been working on my gluten free sponge cake recipe for a while now, trying to improve the stability of the cake.  It worked well when carving a shape out of the sponge – click here for the cake pictures

However in this situation the gluten free cake started to sag and lose it’s shape.   I managed to shape it back a little with my hands, however if I did this again I would put a board in the middle where the 2 cakes meet and a couple of dowels to help it to stay strong.

We played a couple of hours of indoor bowls with the family, which had been booked as a surprise for my dad.  We then headed back to my sisters for slow cooked pork sandwiches and rhurbarb, gooseberry and blackberry homemade crumble which was all delicious and of course we ate birthday cake.

 

Little Mermaid and Flounder to celebrate turning 18

This has been one of my favourite cakes to make so far this year.  It was bright and colourful with my favourite Disney characters on – what was not to love!!

The cake was a made from 3 tiers of lemon sponge with lemon sponge cupcakes to go with it.

Little mermaid

The Ariel cake topper was bought as a complete piece with Ariel sat on a rock, and Flounder was made from fondant.

Ariel and Flounder

The shells were made using a shell mould and fondant, decorated with edible dust mixed with rejuvenator fluid and steamed to create a gorgeous shine on them.

The sand is mixture of different sugars, coconut and crushed seeds.

 

Walking in the Lakes – a ramblers cake

Every so often I get asked to do a fruit cake instead of a sponge cake, and for this order a fruit cake with marzipan was the request.  I used a light fruit cake recipe that I think is perfect for a celebration cake and a little different to a Christmas fruit cake which is often richer and darker.

This cake was for an 80th birthday for someone that loves their walking. The road sign was made from a lolly pop stick painting with edible brown colouring, the signs themselves were made from cardboard.  This cake had to travel from Liverpool to Clitheroe and then to Garstang so I decided cardboard signs would work much better than if they were made out of icing, it would reduce the chance of any breakages!”

 

ramblers birthday

 

walking boots

Graduation cake, cake to say congratulations

Graduation is a perfect opportunity for cake and it is a lovely way to say congratulations.

This cake was a chocolate sponge with chocolate filling.  The mortar board (graduation cap) was made from a small chocolate sponge cake covered in icing.

When the weather is warm fondant can be tricky to work with as the heat makes it soften.  To keep the shape of the scroll I placed a drinking straw inside it and left it there until delivery was due.  This made sure the fondant set in the shape I wanted even with the warm weather.

 

graduation cake

A cake for a pub lover!

The order came in for a cake shaped as a bar with the particulars being Guinness, Carling, Jack Daniels and McGinty’s Bar which is in Liverpool L13.  I had to do a fair bit of edible printing recently so as part of an order I had filled some space on a A4 sheet with mini Guinness, Carling and Jack Daniels signs.  I had also rung up the pub to ask them what colour their sign was outside as it has been green and blue but I couldn’t recall what it was at the present time.  After answering my question and being very accommodating the pub explained that this had been one of the most random questions it had ever been asked over the phone!

The model of the birthday boy was made from coloured icing mixed with tylo powder with a couple of cocktail sticks in to help keep its structure.  The pumps on the bar were kept in place using small pieces of dried spaghetti – this is a good trick to use in a cake as they are edible and you don’t need to worry about sticking them directly into a sponge cake, whereas with cocktail sticks and wire you should always use flower picks when sticking them directly into your sponge cake.  For small pieces of modelling dried spaghetti works well to help keep them in place and upright.

McGintys bar

The bar was made from an 8” square lemon sponge with lemon curd and vanilla frosting filling covered in coloured ready roll icing.  The bar around the bottom was made with white icing which was then painted using gold edible glitter powder mixed with rejuvenating fluid.

Adding icing to the board often provides a fantastic finishing touch to a cake and for this cake I made it to look like a wooden floor using a knife to score the wood coloured icing and a long ruler to press the lines in to create floorboards.