Littlest Pet Shop Cake

This is an 8" sponge cake I made for my friend's daughter. She is into Littlest Pet Shop and also liked the Bratz cake I had made previously, so I used the colours lilac and pink , although I deepened the shades because the squirrel is quite pale and I wanted a contrast to make it stand out more. The character is a squirrel although I added a pink bow to make it a little more girlie. The squirrel is a runout in Royal Icing , which I made a week earlier and left to set before attaching to the cake. I wanted to bring the colour scheme together more so made the two-tone flowers for the top and sides as well as the pink hearts around the board.

Tiara Cake

This was an interesting challenge to make a tiara that was entirely edible to sit on a regal type cake. I made Mexican paste as it would dry hard and quickly too. I drew my pattern onto paper then stuck it onto a cylinder. I then covered the pattern in parchment paper and started to create the shapes using a sugar craft gun. Once it was dry I sprayed it with gold edible lustre spray. Last of all I added silver dragees and a jelly bean , sticking them with gold coloured royal icing. As you can see from the photo I quilted the cake , added a square of purple icing which I trimmed with gold and embossed. Finally I made four tassels from icing and dusted them gold before attaching them to the sides. The tiara is stuck on using royal icing.

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.

Fairy Castle Cake

This is an 8" sponge cake I made for my daughter's birthday. As you can see from the photo I crimped the top edge of the cake and made lots of flowers and blossoms to cover the join and also to make a border around the fairy castle. I created a cobblestone pattern on the board which is covered with a swirled mixture of pink and white icing. I dusted the cake with snowflake lustre powder and also sprinkled the top with a tiny amount of neon pink disco hologram dust. The fairy castle is a ceramic money box that we wanted her to have as a keepsake.

Bratz Birthday cake

This is the cake I made for my niece's 5th birthday. She is all into Bratz this year so I looked up some pictures on a colouring website and we chose one for her cake. I did a run out of the picture and also one of her name in a Bratz style font. I wanted to include the little stars around the 'halo' so made more stars of different colours and sizes to spread around the cake. The join between cake and board is covered with some rope icing and a sparkly star stuck to each corner to finish it off neatly. The stars and number five on wires I made from Mexican paste and stuck them into a posy pick within a larger star. The cake itself is a 10" x 12" sponge with jam and butter cream layers. This is only the second time I have used run outs on a cake but I am always relieved when they stay in one piece ! I can't wait to see her face when she sees it.

Engagement Cake

I made this 12" square cake for a friend's grandson, who was getting engaged. They didn't want anything too fussy or OTT but rather preferred a quite simple but elegant design. I made icing ribbons to create a parcel effect and supported the bow with sponge while it hardened. I dusted the edges of a sugar paste plaque with Royal gold powder and put the happy couple's names on it.