Spooky Happenings

This has to be the most fun cake we've ever made! We made it for an 11th birthday but it being halloween meant we could make it just a little bit gooey and spooky. This meant a cauldron full of eyeballs, green slime and skulls was the order of the day!

We started by making the skulls from chocolate as well as small pumpkins to hold sweets. The board was up next with a stone floor effect and some logs to rest the cauldron on. The cauldron itself was quite interesting to bake. Rob ended up using both of our spherical tins, suspending the smaller one inside the large one with barbecue sticks and then weighing it down with baking beans. It worked a treat, although next time we'll take the smaller tin out before the cake cools down and sticks to it!

 

Covering the cauldron was also a rather tricky job luckily we had many hands helping and soon got it done. Once it was covered it was time to have fun with the green slime (green buttercream) and start placing the eyeballs and skulls to look suitably spooky. To finish things off we added a couple of monster tentacles and brains!

 
 

Blue Nose Friends

This week we made my favourite cake order so far, a colleague at work asked for a cake featuring the Blue Nose Friends. Originally to be featuring Giggles, Cheddar, Goldie and Snowdrop only 3 made the cut in the end but the result was worth all the hours of modelling put in.

As this was a quick turnaround cake we made our standard plain sponge cake with chocolate ganache and Italian meringue buttercream (of which Rob is now a master). We used our favourite round tins by Silverwood (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15096/Silverwood-Victoria-Surprise-Cake-Set), these clever tins allow you to create a hollow in the middle of the two cakes halves. This make it a lot easier not to get a bulge running around the centre of the cake caused by escapee buttercream.

The cake was covered with white sugarpaste and models of 3 characters were placed on top (Giggles the Baboon, Goldie the Labrador and Snowdrop the rabbit). But we couldn't stop there.... small party hats were added to each character and we placed some edible balloons in the background to set the scene. Finally we finished the cake off with a fondant bow and number.

The first animal I attempted was Goldie the Labrador as he was a fairly basic shape. To make the body I coloured some icing ivory and made a large ball then slightly tapered it at one end. To give the model a bit more support and make sure his head stayed on I stuck some dried spaghetti through him.

The head was made by rolling out a ball and then shaping it to have a muzzle. The ears are just small teardrop shapes attached with water. The arms and legs are sausages with tapered points and flattened ends for the feet. The next job was to make a small football for him to hold, next time I will do the football markings before placing it on the model!

Here he is all propped up by various piping nozzles, decorating tools and kitchen towel to harden before being given a cute little blue nose, small eyebrows and patches.

 I then applied the finishing touches (the eyes took forever, so small!) and voila!

Next up was Snowdrop, he was made in a similar fashion to Goldie so I've just included a few progress shots.

Next up was the Baboon and to my childish delight the soft toy includes a little pink bottom. I made certain not to miss this detail when making the model!

Now the fun part, assembling everything without breaking any of the models.....

Stay tuned for a rather unique cake next week!

Super Safari Cake

Our latest order was for a 65th birthday meal, the birthday boy is keen on wildlife and had recently returned from a safari. The idea for the cake was to have silhouettes of some of the animals he'd seen on the safari along with some numbers reminding him of his age! Additionally our client requested a fudge filling for her Dad's cake.

After baking the cake we made the fillings and tried not to eat them both before they made it to the cake. We poured the chocolate fudge filling into the bottom layer of the cake and left it to set.

Now it was time to make the decorations whilst trying really hard not to look at the cake in case we were tempted by it. We used cardboard templates for all of the cut-outs and hand-painted the designs on the numbers (should have done bigger markings on the giraffe - it took forever to do!).

Finally the cake was gently transported down the motorway in a car running out of fuel - a very nerve racking journey - and made it intact.

The ups and downs of Raa Raa the Noisy Lion

We recently got asked to create a cake based on Raa Raa the Noisy Lion (a character in a childrens TV program). It didn't matter what the cake looked like, it just needed to have Raa Raa on it. We decided to do a 3D standing model of Raa Raa, initially all went well....

 We created the supports then built his legs, arms and tail before putting him in the fridge to set.

  

 Once he was set he got measured up for his rather large tummy and head:

And then the unseasonably hot British weather struck (even with all the windows and doors open), he melted! First his legs became nothing more than short stumps and his belly connected with his toes. Finally his waving arms dropped forward and fell off! And so we started again, theres no pictures of this bit as we were in too much of a rush making 36 decorated cupcakes at the same time.

 In the meantime we made, filled and decorated 36 cupcakes, mostly with small coloured butterflys:

To decorate all of the cupcakes we had to flatten each one by cutting the top off. Instead of throwing the tops away we sandwiched them together with Italian Meringue Buttercream and Milka Ganache:





















Finally I managed not to get lost delivering them ready for the big 2nd birthday party