Easy Rose!

Have you tried this new rose piping nozzle? This is what it does, it's fab and so easy to use!

This white iced cake has been embossed with a rose pattern and has a simple shell boarder.
The roses are piped from the nozzle show, with cerise pink royal icing, but it works just as well with butter cream.
Mint green leaves are added for contrast with a leaf tube. How simple is that?

http://www.almondart.com/piping-equipment-tubes-tips/5680-nifty-nozzles-10-petal-rose-tip.html

Built to perfection!

How's this for the bodger, I mean builder in you life?

This white iced cake has been surrounded by red bricks cut from orange/brown sugar paste/fondant.
The dents are made with a bone tool before leaving then to dry. When dry they can be assembled around the cake using ivory coloured royal icing as mortar.
You can't see the back view of our builder model but I can assure you he does have the obligatory "builder's bum" and mug of tea!
A few tools have been added to help him in his quest, such as trowel, spirit level and hammer!
If you have a DIY fanatic in your midst, why not give it a try?

The Beatles & West Ham?

Mad about "The Beatles" and support  "West Ham"! If so this cake fits the bill.

"The Beatles" logo was copied from the internet, printed to required size and cut out. The templates were then used on rolled out flower paste to cut all the required components before being left to dry.
The Electric guitar was from a cutter but this could have been done in the same way.
The scarf is blue and burgundy oblongs/rectangles the same height as the cake, cut from sugar paste/fondant. These are then attached close together, making sure there are no gaps and made to meet in the middle, front of the cake. Small cuts are made on the join to give a fringe effect.

What will it Bee!

Novelty baby shower cake, covered in yellow sugar paste / fondant, decorated with sugar daisies and bumble bees with the caption "What will it Bee?"

Pearl Anniversary Cake!

 This two tier 30th anniversary cake is covered with ivory sugar paste / fondant, with a pearly finish and edible beads, oyster shell and pearl.

Watch out for that bumpy road!

This cake decoration is achieved with a simple car cutter and added detail to make this fun, bright & colourful birthday cake, perfect for your little back seat drivers!

This 10" round sponge cake and 13"cake drum have been covered with a bright ice blue sugar paste/fondant.

Red Velvet!

These Red Velvet Cupcakes with cream cheese frosting look and taste amazing, perfect for a special treat!

Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe

250g plain flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

100g soft unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

1 tablespoon red food colour paste

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 large eggs

175ml buttermilk

1 teaspoon cider or white wine vinegar

Frosting

500g icing sugar

125g cream cheese

125g soft unsalted butter

1 teaspoon cider or white wine vinegar

Method

Pre heat oven 170 C/gas mark 3 and line 2 muffin tins with paper cases.

Sieve all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy before adding the food colour and vanilla extract. Add the eggs slowly along with spoonfuls of the dry ingredients to prevent the mixture from separating, keep mixing until everything is incorporated.

Finally mix in the buttermilk and vinegar before dividing into 24 cupcakes.

Bake for 20 minutes then leave to cool in the tin.

Meanwhile, blend all the frosting ingredients together starting with the butter, cream cheese and vinegar before gradually adding the icing sugar. Spread or pipe on top of the cooled cakes and enjoy!

Sunflowers, Hessian & Vintage Lace Cake

I designed this Vintage Sunflower cake for a friends 50th birthday, the brief was "up to you to feed 100 party goers!"

The invitations had a sunflower theme so I used that for my inspiration. I thought two deep cakes would be better than one huge one so opted for 6" deep 10" square with an 6" deep 8" round on the top.

I made the sunflowers using yellow flower paste for the petals and brown for the centres, when dried a good dusting with darker shades of yellow and some orange was added to the petals and darker brown to the centres before steaming to set the colour and achieve a more natural finish.

This flower choice does some what limit your colour options but I decided on a mink brown and sage green colour scheme to blend together rather than to clash.
White sugar paste had brown and a dash of pink food colour added to achieve the right shade of mink and spruce green was added to ivory sugar paste for the sage green colour.

A wood effect iced cake drum helps to draw the eye away from the dark flower centres making them less obvious and obtrusive. (there is a video on this blog showing how to achieve the wood effect)

Edible Hessian and Vintage lace was was achieved with "edible lace & moulds" after letting this dry over night the Hessian was dusted with shades of brown and beige for a realistic look.

I draped one piece over the top tier, the other around the base of the bottom tier.
For a more feminine look I added a double edged decorative lace and edible buttons to the bottom and a taller flat edged lace around the base of the top tier.

Bunting was made out from pieces of left over Hessian cut into triangles with letters added to spell out a birthday message, attached with piped string and more vintage edible buttons.

Any One For Tennis!

This tennis court cake is great for Wimbledon fans. Grass effect green sugar paste/fondant, crisp white lines, net with posts, racquets, new balls, and not to forget the score, which is a great way to add a persons age and a sneaky little message!

The grass effect can be achieved with a veining mat or with a kitchen scourer, a new one of course!
Cover the cake with green sugar paste/fondant and immediately press on the mat or the scourer for the grass, this needs to be done before the paste begins to form a skin and starts setting.

For the white lines, roll out flower paste very thin, cut into even width strips and attach to the cake with edible glue to form the lines of a tennis court.

The net is also made from thinly rolled flower paste, cut into even strips, long horizontal strips the width of your cake and shorter vertical strips 2" long. Space the 2" strips evenly along some non stick paper and apply edible glue, then place the long strips evenly spaced across, attaching a extra wider band along the top of your net and a thicker band down the centre, like a real net and it also adds some extra support. Leave this to dry thoroughly.

Lolly sticks are supporting the wooden posts, they are pushed down into the cake and brown flower paste is rolled into a sausage shape then placed over the stick to cover it. Using a craft knife cut down the inside of the posts to make a slit which will hold the net in place with the help of some edible glue.

Racquets are made with sugar paste rolled into really thin sausages, shape into an oval about the size of a ten pence piece, then add a "V" shaped sausage for the neck and a black handle. The strings are piped royal icing as are the little bouncy lines around the cake.

Tennis balls are also sugar paste in yellow with piped white markings to give a better effect. For the top of the cake the balls are completely round and for the sides they are cut in half with the flat part attached to the cake.

Any Score can be added, in this case it was a 50th birthday cake for a lady from her husband, hence "50 - Love". How Sweet!

Piñata Cake With Surprises Inside!

This Piñata cake is packed with surprises, brightly decorated with multi coloured sponge layers to match and filled with yummy sweets. Kids love them!

I made this one for my 29 year old big kid and she and her friends loved it! Filled with their favourite sweets it's a great surprise, in my daughters case it was Dolly Mixtures, Skittles and M&Ms, but you can use any. It's more effective if they are out of the packet so that they tumble out of the cake as the first slice is cut!

For this cake I used a basic sponge recipe as gel colours needed to be added to the mixture which would require a good bit of mixing, if you use something like a genoese recipe you will end up beating all the air out.

Ingredients

225g (8oz) Self Raising Flour
225g (8oz) Butter, at room temperature
225g (8oz) Caster Sugar
4 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

Method

Mix all the ingredients together in one bowl, divide into 2 and colour each one differently.

I used Pink, Yellow, Green, Blue, Orange and Purple. You can fill two 8" lined and greased sandwich pans out of each batch so you will need to make 3 batches in total for 6 brightly coloured layers.

Make sure you use bake stable food colour to achieve a bright baked finish, in a gel or paste so it will not alter the consistency of the cake mixture.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180°c/ Gas mark 4 for approximately 15-25 minutes.

When cooled cut out the centre of 5 of the cakes and stack using butter cream, fill with you chosen sweets and add the last layer. Thinly coat the outside with butter cream.

Using your food colours from the sponge make 6 different coloured batches of butter cream and with a frill tube pipe from the bottom of the cake to the top and then into the centre, alternating colours as you go.
We got about 30 portions from this cake and they were generous! So you could get more!

If you would prefer to watch how this Piñata cake is made and decorated there will be a video following shortly.

Hope you enjoy making this cake, it's well worth the effort for the surprised and happy faces!
Let me know how you get on and what you filled yours with?

Edible beads for cakes!

Silicone bead moulds are a very effective way to make edible beads for adding detail and enhancing the finish on your cakes.

See how easy it is with this video tutorial and give it a go!

They make a lovely border around cake bases as an alternative to ribbon or royal icing. Draping them down the sides can help achieve that very popular vintage look with different sizes and patterns available to choose from.

Using shimmering dusts can give a pearl effect or to add drama gold and silver edible paints are great.

Sprinkles aren't just for sprinkling!

Fab & Fun Rainbow Sprinkles Cake!
This eye catching cake is oh so simple, all you need is sugar paste, sprinkles and edible glue.

After covering your cake with sugar paste, apply a thin layer of edible glue all over the surface and press the rainbow sprinkles on flat with your hands removing any excess. Placing it on a white covered cake drum emphasises the chaotic pattern of the sprinkles, as does having a plain white cake to set off the numbers. These are cut out of flower paste and left to dry before applying the glue and sprinkles in the same way.
It's advisable to keep patterns separated to avoid clashing of colour and design, complementing your creation.

Mix And Match Side Design Cake

A set of side design cutters have been used to create this dramatic cake, with metallic gold modelling paste and Midnight black "Roll n Cover" sugar paste, set off by a black cake drum.

Gold modelling paste is a great product, after cutting into small pieces it's best warmed in the hand before working a piece at a time to make it pliable. It's then ready to roll out nice and thin on a surface greased with a small amount of petal base, this makes it easy to release and prevents it from drying out. Lightly grease the cutters before cutting out your shapes, this 8" round, 5" deep cake needed 20 pieces. After covering your cake with Midnight black sugar paste you can attach your decoration with edible sugar glue, making sure you line them up straight and put one directly above the other. Ruffle flowers are made from three different sized circle cutters after preparing the gold paste the same way, you fold the circles into ruffles and glue together before drying in some formers to hold there shape. They can be added to the cake when they are dry.

How To Make Edible Sugar Blossoms

In this tutorial you can see how easy it is to make edible sugar blossoms using a set of cutters, a non stick rolling pin, a foam flower pad and some odd bits of sugar paste.
They look great in different colours, sizes and with contrasting centres.
It's a really easy way to add some colour and some extra detailing to enhance a pretty and feminine cake.

A foam pad is a must for a cake decorator, it's handy for drying cut out pieces as the air can circulate and speed up the process.
My blossom cutters are always in use, they are great for filler flowers in sprays and space fillers on cakes to help bring a theme together and add a splash of colour.
Delicate centres can be added with a piping bag filled with royal icing using a small plain nozzle.

How To Create A Wood Effect With Sugar Paste

This tutorial shows you how to use a wood grain impression mat to give maximum effect on sugar paste/fondant icing.
Adding some colour helps bring out the grain and any added detailing for that WOW factor.
Why not give it a go, it's surprisingly simple?

Teddy brown "Roll n Cover" sugar paste is a great base for a natural wood effect and is very easy to use. It takes on detailing well and remains pliable for longer so you have more time to create your masterpiece.
Dark brown paste food colour mixed with rejuvenating spirit, painted on with a brush is how the detailing is enhanced. Changing a wood effect in to a WOW effect.

How To Use A Silicone Lace Boarder Mould

This tutorial shows you how to use a silicone lace boarder mould using a mixture of modelling and sugar paste/fondant icing.
It's very easy to use and can be added to the sides, base or top of your cakes to give a vintage effect result.
The lace can be made in any colour or have colour or lustre added to it to achieve many different looks all with the same mould.  

White "Roll n Cover" sugar paste has been used mixed with left over flower or modelling paste to a ratio of 50:50, this ensures detail definition and enables you to bend and move the lace around your cake without it cracking or breaking.
Non stick knives are very useful with any silicone moulds as they will not sharp enough to cut or cause any damage, they are also great for trimming off excess sugar paste from the base of your cake without damaging your cake board or drum.

Edible Sugar Plaques For Cakes

This video shows you how to make and decorate edible sugar plaques for the top of celebration cakes using sugar paste/fondant icing and edible pens.
It's very simple, can save lots of time and if piping is not your thing, it enables you to personalise your cake by adding an inscription, age and name, without all the fuss of mixing icing or cutting out lettering.
Children have great fun drawing and writing on these for that special someone.

I've used white "Roll n Cover" sugar paste mixed with Gum Tragacanth for the hardening agent and a variety of edible food pens in the making of this tutorial.

Edible Teddy Bear Step by Step Tutorial

Watch and follow this tutorial to make your own edible sugar paste/fondant teddy.
Perfect as a celebration cake topper, ideal for a birthday, Naming Day or baby's Christening.
Dress it up by adding a party or top hat or some flowers to the head or a tie or bow tie to the neck.

Our own, very popular "Roll n Cover" Teddy Brown sugar paste is used in this video as it is easy to use, pliable, great for covering cakes and model making too!
Try a different colour, baby pink or baby blue teddies are great on Christening and Naming Cakes.

Click here to see our range of "Roll n Cover" sugar paste, available in many colours, white and ivory.