3 cake week – Cake number 1 congratulations on your engagement

As a surprise I was asked to do a engagement cake Gemma wanted to have made for her friend, who had given her a cake when she had got engaged.  She picked out some pictures for ideas and gave the colour scheme – Purple, silver and black.

This cake is a 10″ round vanilla sponge with vanilla frosting, covered in ready roll fondant.

The purple hearts were done using my new plunger heart set which I am loving!  This was the second time I had used the plunger set and it is fantastic and super easy to use and less fiddly for cutting out small shapes.

I ordered a mini set from the internet for the ice bucket, champagne bottle and glasses however they arrived and they were a little more “mini” that I had realised!  I therefore had a plan B to put in place.  I painted a plain shot glass using edible silver paint and used silver edible crystals for the ice and a bottle of bubbles for the champagne.  I liked this plan B as the fact they could pick up the bottle and blow bubbles out of it gave an added special touch to the cake.  The mini set still got used and made a fantastic addition to the cake decoration.

I hope the happy couple loved their cake.

 

 

Shot glass bucket and bubbles as the bottle

Minm champagne bottle, ice bucket and glasses

Congratulations cake purple, silver and black

 

Care Bears and Lego Men – cake fun for family birthdays

Family birthday cakes are always lots of fun as I get to design them and play around with tins and techniques.  For my nephew’s birthday this year we were off to Lego Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre so we had the themed planned already – Lego!

I did some research on the internet looking at ideas and narrowed it down to two designs; either Lego blocks stacked up with a Lego man on the board or a cake that looked like it was made up of lots of little Lego bricks with the icing peeled back to show a section.

I decided to go with the Lego blocks stacked as I really wanted to make a large Lego man with Luke written across his chest where it would normally say Lego.

I baked an 8” square vanilla sponge cake and cut it into 9 smaller blocks.  Each block of cake was covered in buttercream and then coloured icing, I used 9 different colours including chocolate flavoured brown icing which is made by Renshaw.  I had picked up a block when we visited the Cake International show in Birmingham and as Luke loves chocolate it was perfect for his cake.

I then used a circle cutter to cut out lots of coloured circles to make the top of the bricks and stuck them in place.  To add to the design I also covered the board in green icing and stuck green circles all over it to make it look like a Lego Board.  The finishing touch was a Lego man made out of icing mixed with a little Tylo powder to help keep him sturdy.

The other Birthday cake due was for my sister in law and we often like to go for 80’s and 90’s children’s TV themes and have so far made rainbow bright and button moon cakes.  This year it was to be Care Bears.  I was keen to use my bear tin again as I have only used it a few times and I need to practice more with the design and piping of it.  I baked the Bear using the Wilton tin and took to it with a knife to carve it a little to try and make it look more like a Care Bear.  I struggled with this as I didn’t want to cut off too much cake and as you bake the Bear with a central core inside it, when I started carving around its face I soon cut through to the hollow section and was then concerned the Bear may cave if I took too much away!

It was definitely the best bake I had done so far.  I have now confirmed the tin requires a mixture equal to the 8” square mixture I use.   This bear had full feet rather than the previous bears I had baked that were missing part of their feet, legs and bottom!

I decided to do Good Luck Bear with my sister in law being Irish and with it being the start of a new year it felt like a good choice.  I rolled out white icing and cut out the tummy section and the eyes and put them in place and then cut out a shamrock and glued that onto the white tummy piece.  I have found it is easier to do these sections first, before piping.  I then piped green buttercream all over the bear using a large grass piping tip.    I added a little extra buttercream to his cheeks to try to shape his face more like a Care Bear.

I am now happy I could do a good cake using my bear tin, however I feel my Care Bears may need a little more work on shape.  Practice is required on carving the bear’s shape and layers of piped buttercream, especially around the head area.

Sparkling wine on ice to celebrate a big birthday

In celebration of a 50th birthday a cake was designed to capture the birthday girls love of Prosecco wine and the familys view on this love.  The cake order was an ice bucket with a bottle of prosecco along with a model of the birthday girl with her family looking on in a dissapproving manner!

I decided to use a real bottle of prosecco to go in the ice bucket rather than one made of rice crispie squares and icing, as the birthday girl could then drink the wine rather than eat it as word had got back that she was watching her waist line – we have to help where we can.

The ice bucket was made from 6″ round cakes – vanilla sponge cake with vanilla buttercream filling.  The ice was made from foxes glacier mints.  A real martini glass was used with the birthday girl made out of icing and the glass filled with edible silver balls and silver crystals.  The sofa was made from rice crispie squares, covered in icing with the husband and 2 sons modelled from icing too, they were all edible.

The bucket was decorated with real balloons and ribbon as the finishing touches.

Cake fun – although not enough hours in the day!

The week before last I had two cakes to make just for fun.  One was for my fantastic brother’s 40th birthday, although I don’t think I have quite accepted that my brother is now 40!  The other cake was to celebrate the arrival of our 3rd niece Anastasia.  We now have three amazing nieces and three amazing nephews and are very lucky to be their Aunty and Uncle.  My brother and Anastasia share the same birthday which makes this day doubly special.

I had the sofa cake due this week along with some jobs to do for my craft business, some cuddling to fit in with Anastasia and towards the end of the week my throat started to feel a little raw so I was on a mission to get to bed early and not get poorly as I had Cake International on the Saturday and did not want to be unwell for that.  This meant time was limited and I ended up having to make sacrifices on the cakes I was making for fun.  This can be frustrating but I find I have to roll with it and not let it bother me and be happy with the cakes I make. I also know my friends and family love the cakes I make for them and would never know things were missing or sacrificed if it wasn’t for me telling them!!!

For my brother I wanted to do something related to outdoor sports as Matthew loves climbing, water sports and anything outdoor with a touch of extreme!  We decided on a climbing wall and sought inspiration from the internet from cakes by others.  The cake was a lot of fun to make.  I baked a vanilla 6″ square cake and a vanilla 8″ square cake, stacked them up with layers of banana buttercream and then carved the shape, making it up as I went along whilst trying to keep as much cake as possible.

My sacrifice for this cake was that I didn’t have the time to model my brother climbing up the wall which would have been the perfect finishing touch to the cake.  I was hoping I may be able to pick something up at the cake show but we didn’t see any modelled figures available to purchase.

Rock climbing

The second cake to celebrate the arrival of Anastasia had to be a teddy bear cake.  This was only my second attempt at the teddy bear cake since getting the tin as a present at Christmas from my mum and dad.  I couldn’t find any notes on what size recipe I had used last time so I guessed at an 8″ round however this was not enough and I have since written on the instructions to try an 8″ square next time.  Sadly this teddy bear ended up with only half a paw and some of its bottom missing!

On the instructions for the Wilton tin they have lots of different versions of the bear that you can make including a baby bear wearing a nappy with a rattle and it is super cute.  This was the plan however time ran out and I ended up having to stop once I had covered it in piped buttercream.  I was sad about this but there was nothing I could do about it and the bear still looked cute!  This cake was a lemon sponge with chocolate buttercream – I actually didn’t mean to do this combination I must ask them how it tasted!

I just need another excuse now to bake a bear cake 1. to get the recipe amount right, 2. to pop it in a nappy with a rattle!

Teddy Bear Cake

 

A special cake for a 60th Birthday – relaxing on the sofa watching The Waltons!

Megan wanted another cake for a speciall family birthday, this time it was for her Mum who was tuning 60.  Megan had sent me a picture of a sofa cake which she really liked and we discussed the detail for the cake to make it perfect for her mum – what she would be watching on the TV, what she would be snacking on, what she would be wearing and the birthday message and colour scheme.

I had a lot of fun making this cake.  The shape of the sofa was fairly straight forward and I got to use my new ivory coloured fondant I had purchased at Cake International – Ivory Silk by Sweet Success and it was lovely to work with and smelt delicious.

Megan had asked if the cake could include marzipan and pistachio, so I made Chocolate sponge with pistachio buttercream.  The buttercream was made using my normal recipe of icing sugar and a mixture of margarine and butter, which I then added pistachio’s ground up as finely as I could get them – it was tasty!  I then made her mum relaxing on the sofa out of marzipan and the purple cushions too.  The TV cabinet was made from rice crispie squares covered in fondant.

The finer detail such as an iPad and The Waltons on the TV were printed by Baby Cakes and Roses and the board was covered with pale blue icing which I embossed using my embossing rolling pin to give it a carpet/rug effect.

Sofa Birthday Cake

A retirement cake fit for an Earl! Sending Fred off in style

For a few weeks now we have been planning Fred’s retirement from work, as after 40 years working around the docks we needed to make sure we sent him off in style.

As part of the safety team we will miss him a lot and wanted his last day in work to be a day he would remember, full of friends and colleagues and having fun.

We decorated the office with balloons, banners and pictures of Fred through the years, we went out for lunch, we had a presentation in work and gave him his presents where we thought me may have seen a tear!!

We headed to the Victoria pub in Waterloo and decorated the room with more banners, balloons and even more pictures of him and of course he had to have a cake which was the centre piece on the buffet table.

The cake theme was things we think of when we think of Fred!  I have done one of these before for Adam for his 30th birthday and it was so much fun to do I was really looking forward to making this one.  I ordered some printed fondant from Baby cakes and roses with all the 2d pictures on for the cake as I knew time would be limited and the printed pictures look fantastic and are edible too.

We had pictures of places he used to work, a crane he used to drive, his New York Marathon results, his favourite drink, football shirt and a little sneaky picture round the back representing his favourite thing to say!

Retirement cake

retirement cake

We wish Fred all the best in his retirement, we will miss him a lot and the safety office will be much quieter without him.  We plan to stay in touch and pop round to his for lunch!!

Cake layers – bottom tier vanilla sponge with chocolate buttercream, middle tier lemon sponge with vanilla buttercream, top tier fruit cake.

 

Allotment birthday cake for a special 70th Birthday

If you are reading this on the Hours of Fun online shop – click here to see the full post and all the pictures.

I was asked by a colleague at work if I could make a cake for their Dad’s 70^th Birthday party with a gardening and allotment theme.  I sent over some ideas of cakes I found on Google and after some ideas and suggestions being thrown about we came up with a plan of doing a shed as the main cake with the board decorated to look like the Birthday boys allotment with veggie patches and chickens.

The last time I made a veggie patch cake was for my friend Chris – photo below.

Veggie Patch Scene

I got started on the modelling for the cake quite early on as I had a busy week and organisation is key to avoid a mad, last minute panic.  I stated out with the paving stones and the veggie patch boarders as these needed time to dry and set a little before being put in place.  Next I tackled the chickens as I was expecting these to go wrong and take forever – yet they didn’t and I was really happy with how they turned out. I even managed to do 2 different types of chickens as shown in the photos that had been provided.

The birthday boy was modelled next and then it was time to get the cake sorted.  The cake was stacked high and shaped into a shed, covered in white icing then covered with strips of brown icing to create a wood panel effect.  The cake was then placed on the board and the veggie patches were put together ready for the vegetables, which were then modelled out of icing and placed in position.

The challenge for this cake was to create effective looking wood chip and chicken feed.  I went through the cupboards and pulled out – brown sugar, flaked almonds, cocoa powder, sweetener, quinoa, shredded coconut, chocolate flake, sunflower seeds and linseed.  For the soil around the vegetables I used brown sugar mixed with cocoa powder and crushed up flakes.  For the wood chip I used linseed and a little shredded coconut mixed with some cocoa powder and crushed up flake.  For the chicken feed I used raw quinoa.

Playing around with ingredients for wood chip effect

I have since had feedback that the party went really well and everyone loved the cake.

Cath Kidston style Owl birthday cake

Owl cake

Owl stitched birthday cake

This cake was found on google when searching for an Owl themed cake in a Cath Kidston style.  I loved the stitching effect used on the cake ad couldn’t wait to get started.  I love the pale colours and the gorgeous owl as the main feature, for an owl lover this cake was perfect their birthday.

To create the stitched effect I used my PME design wheel with the stitch attachment and went round the outline of all the individual pieces that make up the picture.  I used fondant mixed with a little water to pipe the stitching around the edge of the top of the cake and to create the piped design on the side of the cake.  I have recently become slightly obsessed with piping detail onto a cake and this was a fantastic practice for me as I build up to trying something more complex.

 

 

90’s themed cake for a special 30th Birthday party

With a wedding cake in the diary I thought it would be lots of fun to take on a few more cakes that week just to ensure it was super busy!  We couldnt make it to our cousin’s 30th birthday celebrations but I was determined to do her a cake for her party that fit in with the 90’s theme.

I had a few ideas, but the main factor to consider was that the cake would be driven down south to Emma’s and it had to be sturdy, nothing too complicated due to wedding cake commitment but still fab.

Emma had sent out invitations with the “i love the 90’s” sign on so this was to be the main design for the cake.

90s themed

I had a lot of fun mixing lots of bright colours to make a checkered board.  To make the EMMA I rolled out each colour into a sausage shape and placed them side by side, then rolled them out flat.  It is very simple and creates a fab effect.

Emma had a fantastic party by all accounts and I hope she loved her cake too.

Fuel shakes cake to celebrate Kurt’s birthday and to say Thank You!

Kurt’s birthday was approaching and it was 100% an occasion for a cake.  I wanted to say Happy Birthday and also Thank You to Kurt and his brother for getting me into making Protein Bars and generally being ace.

Since Kurt and Jay opened their shop in town we have talked about an occasion for a cake but had yet to organise anything. I was super excited about making it as I already knew I wanted to make a replica of the Fuel Shake white cartons.

It was a simple design, I baked square cakes and cut them up in to squares, using an actual Fuel carton to check dimensions and scale up.  The fun part of a cake like this is covering it in icing.  Due to how tall and slim it is, its makes the icing part tricky as you are dealing with a lot of icing for a small area.  I covered it in white icing, rolled out quite thin to cover the cake and buttercream, I then cut out individual pieces and covered each side, smoothing the corners.

 

 

One thing i have learnt from making cakes that are taller than your average cake is that two layers of icing is required, it just needs a bit of extra strength.  Once you have the first layer in place you can add further detail by smoothing, adding extra shape then cover it all up with a neat top layer of icing.

This sunny weather also presents another challenge of keeping the cake cool otherwise it starts to soften and lose shape.  The general advice given is to not place a sponge cake in the fridge as it can dry it out, however once it is covered in icing I believe the icing protects the sponge enough so that you can place it in the fridge for a short while if needed.

Kurt loved his cake and shared it out with as many people as he could.

Happy Birthday Kurt and Thanks lots and lots!

www.fuelshakes.co.uk