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!
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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.
