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

Our first cake order!

This week we've been busy making our first ever ordered cake! The cake was for an 80th birthday with the birthday girl enjoying walking, cycling, croquet and gardening. The initial design was 2 cakes (an '8' and a '0') with the 8 being a croquet course and the 0 being a small park scene. We started creating elements of the cake early on in the week:

However the watering can just looked a little bit droopy :( Attempt number 2 went a lot better and was deemed good enough to be used on the cake along with some cute duckies that got made in the mean time.

We also made some small flowerpots and croquet markers/balls for decoration before starting work on the main cakes.

The '8' was a plain sponge cake and the '0' chocolate. Both had a Milka ganache and italian meringue buttercream filling with the same ganache used for the crumb coat. Once the ganache had set slightly in the fridge we covered the cakes with sugarpaste and added the final decorations.

Our first attempt at grass went horribly wrong, the heat meant the sugarpaste was too soft and squidged through the sieve rather than creating the individual grass strands seen on the flowerpots. Having loads of buttercream left over we dyed it green and covered the top of each cake, poking it with a paintbrush to give it a more textured look. We then added the croquet markers, balls and mallets to the 8 before hitting our next disaster.

It all appeared to be going very well, we made a thick semi liquid substance from arrowroot, water and blue food colouring to act as the water in the 'pond' on the 0. It ended up semi transparent and looked the part when poured into the center of the 0. We added a duck, who promptly sunk and then was accidentally be-headed during his rescue. At least the other 3 ducks were ok! Then it got worse, the 'pond' starting melting the sugarpaste, dissolving it in a watery sugary gloop. It had to be scooped out and the hole filled with blue tinted buttercream instead. Below you can see photos of the original 'water' and its replacement. Luckily the ducks floated on the replacement and can now be seen happily swimming in their pond.

After the final few decorations were added the cake was packaged for its journey across the Solent on the hovercraft.