Santa Christmas cake

This was a Christmas present for my parents. It was from a Karen Davies design. The original design used x3 pots of Magic Sparkles on the cake itself, between the ribbons and stars. I used pearl lustre spray instead as I didn't think they would want to eat all those sparkles. This was a fruit cake laced with brandy, then marzipaned and iced. It took more time making all the little parcels than the cake itself. It's nearly New Year and they still haven't cut into it. They say it looks too nice to eat!

Holly cake

I wanted to make a sponge Christmas cake for an Aunt. As you can imagine , with four children, the run-up to Christmas is extremely hectic. This needed to be a simple cake that I could decorate quickly. I used a garrett frill cutter for the five frills then used the same cutter without its inner piece to make a plaque for the centre of the cake. I dusted the board, frills and plaque with snowflake lustre powder. I piped the message and added the holly leaves and berries. Finally I softened sugar paste and piped a snail trail around the tops of the frills and between the cake and board.

Sleeping Beauty

My daughter was looking through my cake books and chose a sleeping beauty cake for her sixth birthday. I had to make the headboard, footboard and side bed pieces from Pastillage. I did them a week in advance to give them time to harden fully. The rest of the cake was fairly straightforward. The most awkward part was getting the rose stand to stay upright and stay there until it set. It was fun making the patterns on the ends of the carpet and modeling her hair was simple using my sugar craft gun.

shoes cake.

I made this cake for someone who had already seen a shoe cake on this blog. They liked the lilac colours so I used the same colours for the shoes but instead of making coloured bags and shoes for around the sides, I imprinted them on the iced board itself. You obviously have to do this when the icing is still soft. I dusted it with snowflake lustre powder so that it would show up more.

Pretty fairy.

Last week at cake decorating class we made these little fairies. The skirt is made from a length of wired ribbon with a frilled underskirt made from sugar paste. It was quite straightforward to make, the only drawback being that it tended to topple over because it was on a board and there was no support right the way through. I used softened sugar paste to pipe on her hair and then added more little stars. Next week I am making a birthday cake for a friend and will use part of her for the top of the cake. I felt her legs were too large so I'll model new legs and underskirt and show you her again once she is sitting on a cake. She's quite cute really, despite not being totally edible.

Baby in a cot

It took two weeks at cake decorating class to make this cot with baby. The baby and teddy were made using a Karen Davies mould. The bars of the cot and headboard are made using Mexican paste. We took longer to complete these because we needed to make sure the pieces had hardened enough before we assembled them. It was still quite a rush to get it finished. If I make another one of these, I would spend longer adding more detail, perhaps an extra frill, and more care over the canopy with the bow made from icing instead of ribbon. Some people at the class used material instead of icing for the canopy and said it was easier but I prefer to keep everything edible wherever possible.

When Santa got stuck up the chimney.

Have a go night at the Wirral branch of the British Sugarcraft Guild.
I didn't know quite what to expect but really enjoyed a fun evening.
This is a lovely idea for a Christmas gift with a small 2" square Christmas cake,marzipanned and iced as the chimney itself. It is amazing that although about 40 of us made the same thing, each one was a little different. I will definitely be making more of these.

Peppa pig cake

I made this Peppa pig cake for my niece. She is mad about Peppa pig.
The characters Peppa and George are modeled on a 5inch thin card so that they can be kept,and easily removed when the cake is eaten. I originally was going to ice the cake in pink but changed my mind after I'd made the yellow balloon with her age on. The present was a necessity so that I had a support for the balloon on a wire.I think it worked out better and linked in with the centre piece. The pink ribbon goes with the characters themselves. Peppa pig's mouth is more of a bright pink colour, but I did not have that colour at the time. That will be another colour I need to invest in. I made all the daisies in advance and am pleased with the overall bright and colourful finished cake. The teddies and birds on the board are impressions made using some Patchwork cutters from the Make a Cradle set.

Ballerina cake.

This cake is based on a design in a Debbie Brown book. I made this cake for a colleague's daughter who was having a dancing theme birthday party. It took a lot of time making all the frills, adding extra white sugar paste after each layer to create the gradually changing colour effect. It was quite fiddly styling her hair and adding all the blossom flowers around her head. Although you cannot see it from the picture, the top of her white skirt is dusted with a lustre powder called moonbeams with ruby.

Sugar craft roses and carnations

These are the roses and carnations I made at cake decorating class. Using flower paste to make the flowers, I later dusted them with colour and arranged them together with florist tape. We were also shown how to make ribbon loops to add to our flower arrangements. I found it quite relaxing and will certainly have a go at making more flowers and experimenting with different flower cutters.

Mermaid cake

A mermaid cake for a friend whose daughter is in the same class as mine. It was the first time I had used Flower paste mixed with Regalice to make models for a cake. Yet another adaptation of a Debbie Brown design. Although it is difficult to see from the picture, I marbled some blue and green paste to get an undersea kind of swirly pattern. I wanted to use shells of icing for the number five and added sparkly dust and silver dragees to make it a little more 'magical'.

Little Bo Peep

This was for my daughter's 5th birthday. This was a Debbie Brown design which looked very easy. It was one of the earlier cakes I have made. The cake itself was baked in a Pyrex bowl. I had very little cake decorating equipment at the time and only 3 or 4 food colours. It was quite simple to model the sheep heads and their wool was piped on with royal icing.

Gardener's cake

An accident-prone gardener cake. I made this cake for a friend's husband who is a keen gardener but rather accident- prone, hence the bandaged hand and hose tangled around his ankle. I really enjoyed all the modeling involved making the plant pots, watering can, various garden tools and topiary. My sugar craft gun was extremely useful for the hose, handles and bands around the tops of the pots. I used brown sugar for the soil. To make the silver metallic look I modeled in grey sugar paste then sprayed with pearl edible lustre , easier than using white and having to paint it all carefully with silver edible colour.

Intermediate cake decorating course. First lesson.

A sleeping baby.I could have made this type or a sitting up baby tipping talc on itself. This is my effort. I think I made the bottom too big . Making things in scale and proportion can be difficult.I suppose it improves with experience. The skin of face and hands were made from natural marzipan coloured with paprika and pink. They seem to have gone rather shiny,I'm afraid but I couldn't get the picture any better. She is cuddling a little teddy bear. I enjoyed doing the little tufts of hair-quite cute.Our teacher is well-known in the cake decorating world...Karen Davies. She has written some books and produces some very useful moulds. I'm looking forward to next week's lesson.

Ladies' shoes

Ladies shoes. I attended an evening course on shoes made from fondant. I have a friend who owns countless pairs of shoes so I knew it would come in handy. These cakes were both made quite easily and the shoes were made from a kit you can buy.For the 40th birthday cake I used the shoes to attach some sparkly numbers. I also used Patchwork cutter set for ladies accessories and numbers. To give the shoes an extra shine I sprayed them with Pearl Lustre Spray.

Number One cake

A first birthday cake for a little boy.I used a Wilton cake tin which makes a fairly large cake. This was a chocolate cake. I had to pipe the happy birthday sign so I did both the sign and the name onto pieces of icing so that I could make sure they were OK before attaching them to the cake with softened sugar paste. The rope edging was made using my sugar craft gun.It is one of the most useful pieces of equipment I have bought and saves a lot of time.The Caterpillar is from a dvd that was the child's favourite.

Playing cards cake

My dad is a magician.For his birthday I wanted a themed cake which reminded me of all the card tricks he practices on a green baize table.
I bought a packet of 10 chocolate playing cards, however one unfortunately got eaten so I had to cut the square cake to make a nine sided cake. The cards on the top were made from Mexican paste using a set from Kitbox. I made the spray of card signs stuck into a flower pick and disguised the base of it with some chocolate dice.He loved it but was reluctant to actually cut it and eat it until he'd shown his friends. The grandchildren had already eyed up all those chocolate extras !They were disappointed to say the least. I had seen Nadia Johnson from Kitbox do a demonstration which inspired me to have a go at this type of cake. It was very simple to make but I think quite effective . I hope you agree.

Old lady on laptop

I was asked to make a birthday cake for an elderly lady who happened to be going on a course to learn to use a laptop.Very easy simple round cake and the top I did separately on a thin card which was added last and piped around.She kept the top as a keepsake. I had done an evening class on a lady sitting in an armchair and adapted it, modeling it on Edith herself and replacing knitting with a laptop.The flowers were from Mexican paste with small gold dragees in their centres.

Bathtime cake

This cake was for my husband's birthday.It was based on a design in a Debbie Brown book.May I point out that I bare no resemblance to the woman in the bath!
The cake was baked in an oval Pyrex dish to get the bath shape.The towels, carpet an ducks were fairly straightforward but the taps were quite fiddly.To get the water I used royal icing coloured blue then later went over it with piping gel.

Suitcase cake

I just love making cakes. A friend asked me if I could make a cake for someone who was emigrating to Australia. She wanted a chocolate cake and so I thought a suitcase cake would work.I found it hard to make the right shade of blue for the flag.This was one of the earlier cakes that I did before I discovered all the amazing tools and equipment available to cake decorating fanatics, so this probably took me lots longer to make than necessary. All those little stitch marks on the straps done individually with a cocktail stick before I found that most wonderful stitching wheel tool.
It was after this effort that I decided to enroll on some courses to improve and learn more about the fascinating world of sugarcraft.