Toy Turtle Cake

I made this cake with my daughter for her 11th birthday. She loves a toy turtle she has and wanted it to look like that. The sponge cake was baked in a pyrex bowl and cake offcuts used for the head and legs and tail. The filling is two layers, one of raspberry jam, the other swiss meringue butter cream. I covered some of the cake drum with blue icing then softened some white icing to use to drag with a fork to look like waves. The remaining drum has light brown sugar for the sand.  Emily modelled the shell, starfish and octopus and helped with the shapes on the shell too.

Holly and Ivy Christmas Cake

This is my 8" fruit Christmas cake. I used to make one each year as it was my Mum's birthday Christmas Day. My mother passed away in 2010 and this is the first year I have felt like making my own cake since then. It has been fed with brandy for the past 3 months so I can't wait to taste it.  Very simple design using PME holly and ivy cutters. The green ribbon has Merry Christmas on it in gold lettering.

Jazzy Piano Cake

This was a tricky cake to do.  The pianist is meant to be Bill Evans for any jazz enthusiasts.  The piano is the actual cake and there is also some cake in the piano stool. I baked an 8" square sponge cake, slicing it into three layers and cutting it into the piano shape.  I used cake pillars fro the piano legs but cut them down to the size I needed. Making sharp corners was extremely difficult when covering it with icing. To make it shiny I brushed it with confectioner's glaze.  The piano lid, keyboard lid and music stand are all made from Pastillage icing so it would set hard enough to keep it's shape. I finished it off with a black and white piano keys ribbon around the drum board. 

18th Bed Cake

This is a sponge cake I was asked to make for a lady, whose son was turning 18. I made a 12" square cake then halved it, sandwiched it together with butter cream then cut 2" off one end.  All the pieces for the bed frame are made from pastillage icing which sets hard, then brushed with an edible wash of colour. I patterned the frame pieces with a wood grain effect first. The frame is attached with royal icing. Obviously I was copying the style of the bed from a photograph I was sent, so the colours were the same as his bedroom decor. I modelled the extra items around to make it more like a typical teenagers bedroom.