Graduation Cake

This is a 9" square sponge cake a lady asked me to make for her husband who, as a mature student, had just graduated from John Moore's University to become a social worker. The main colours were based on the navy cap and gown with grey sash that he wore at the graduation ceremony. He also wore a pale blue shirt so I restricted my colours to grey, navy and pale blue. I used a black edible food pen to write suitable titles onto the books I modelled to place under his feet and on the cake itself. I piped around the base of the cake and attached a navy blue ribbon with softened sugar paste. I piped the message onto a white scroll of icing using Royal Icing coloured navy, then attached it to the top with boiled water. Around the board I made a tiled pattern to contrast with the smooth finish on the cake. The sparkly stars are just a finishing touch to a celebration cake for a great achievement.

Posy of flowers Cake

This is an 8" sponge cake I made for my friend whose nan was celebrating her 88th birthday. Her favourite colour is lilac so I chose lilac ribbons then decided to complement the lilac with soft peach roses dusted with ruby powder . I modeled some deeper lilac fantasy flowers with cotton stamens dusted with grape shimmer and interspersed them with the roses, ribbons and pearls. I used some of the lilac ribbon to wrap around the posy pick and create two tails . The flowers take a lot of time to make but I wanted it to be an elegant cake for a special celebration.

Pokemon Cake

This is a stacked cake with a 9" sponge cake on the bottom tier and a 6" cake on top that I made for my youngest son's birthday. It was fun for Joseph to help design his cake and choose which Pokemon characters he wanted to include on it. I bet you may be able to guess which is which by their names :- Dugtrio, Lugia, Tangela, Spinark and Ditto. Joseph modelled Ditto by himself. Joseph is painted onto the sign in edible black in Unknown Pokemon writing. I modelled him sitting on the top wearing an 'Ash' cap and holding his Pokeball. Lugia's wings were made separately then attached last with Royal icing and supported with sponge until it had set. I used green and red on his top to match in with the lower tier. Joseph and his friends enjoyed pulling everything off and eating all the characters before starting on the cake itself!

Red Roses Cake

I was asked to make this 8" round sponge cake for a lady who loves red roses and had been at a party where I had made the pink roses and carnations cake. This time I only made red roses, ribbon loops, pearls and rose leaves. I was asked to give it an organza ribbon and bow, so I offset the cake towards the back of the cake drum to leave room for the bow ans some smaller rose buds and jewels. Although it is quite time-consuming, I really enjoy making flowers from Petal Paste, and the leaves are brushed with confectioner's glaze to give them a sheen.

Roses and carnations

This is a hexagonal sponge cake with jam and buttercream filling. I made the 5 roses and 3 carnations in advance, as well as some ribbon loops and pearls on wires. I used a posy pick to arrange them on the top of the cake but stuck the side ones into a small piece of modelling paste after having piped a shell trail around the cake. The pink organza ribbon is simply tied around the sides with a bow at the front. Once the flowers have been made it is very simple to create a finished cake. I wanted to create a simple but elegant cake which I hope I achieved.

Decorator's Cake

I made this 9" sponge cake for a man who ran his own decorating business. I wanted to put his age on the middle of the cake but decided to model him trying to roll over it in red paint , as many of us prefer to try and blot it out when we reach the big 4 0 ! Making all the decorating equipment was fun and I was under instruction to include a small stereo as he always listens to the radio while he works. There was to be NO blue on this cake as he supports Liverpool FC so I opted for a red cake with brown floorboard effect on the cake board. I didn't want to pipe icing between the cake and board because it needed to look like floor straight onto wall of cake so I made sure the icing joined very neatly together.

21st birthday cake

This is an 8" sponge cake I made for a man's 21st birthday. The only criteria I was given was that he drank lager and was a Liverpool football club supporter. I looked up what the 2010 kit top was and copied it on my figure, modelling him sitting in a chair relaxing with some cans of Stella Artois. I mainly used white and red and did his name in black to complement the black of the armchair. As the top is all on a card, they can remove it prior to cutting and keep it as a momento of their celebrations. I made an icing rope to cover where the card sits on the top of the cake. It was pretty fiddly painting names on the kit, cans and newspaper so I hope they can recognise them!