Christmas tree Xmas Cake

I made this Christmas cake for my parents. It is also my mum's birthday on Christmas day so another reason for a cake. This year I used Lindy Smith's recipe for the fruit cake .I made a smaller cake for my own family and having already tasted it, I guarantee that the cake is moist and delicious. I marzipanned and iced it and piped around the join between cake and board. I used a triple holly cutter to make all the leaves in three different shades of green then added small red and gold balls and a star fro the tree. I added a trunk, pot with ribbon and stars to finish it off. Also,I cut out smaller trees in two shades of green for around the sides. I embossed the board icing with a holly pattern rolling pin. It was fairly simple to make , and my two youngest children helped rolling all the balls. The idea for this cake came from a Christmas card my husband brought home from work.

Pony and rosette cake

This is an 8" sponge cake I made for a girl who was having a riding party. Her mum had ordered some pink and purple rosettes for the party so I wanted to include a rosette on the cake with the number on. I modelled the pony in sugar paste and also a wooden style fence around the sides. I made the horse shoes in grey sugar paste by cutting out circles then smaller circles within them, marking the nail holes with a piece of spaghetti, then dusting them with silver edible powder. The rosette was simply made from different sized circles, with the edges frilled using a cocktail stick then arranged one on top of the other. To finish it off I added some apples, grass and blossom flowers. You could alter the colours of the pony as you liked. If I did another pony I might make the tail,fringe and mane in black instead. I brushed over the eyes with confectioner's glaze to add a little shine.