April has been a busy cake month for me, with four big cakes, plus a order of iced biscuits for a baby shower. It has been a lot of fun putting all of these cakes together, but they all took a whole lot longer than I thought that they would!
So firstly, the volleyball cake. It actually turned out looking more like a volleyball than I thought it would. There was a minor drama when the first cake cracked through the middle. I would usually just try and stick it together with icing, but I thought that it was asking a bit much to expect the ball to look round when I finished, if it was falling apart before I started :) Anyway, the second one came out of the tin intact and I learned from my trial run and took a lot of time to make the buttercream layer smooth. I had to re-do the blue icing a couple of times as my pattern didn't work as well this time, but I was happy with the end result. A tip for making the stars on wires - this is really easy and really effective. Roll the icing a little thicker than if you were going to put the fondant cut-outs on the cake so that you can put the wire through without tearing the icing. Dip the end of the wire in a little cake-friendly 'glue' (aka sugar glue from cake decorating shops), then thread on the fondant stars. You can get different gauge wire from cake decorating shops so that the wire stands up straight, or bends a little. Just make sure that you buy the wire from a cake decorating shop so that you know it is cake-friendly and not going to poison your guests. I usually make these the day or so before so that the fondant dries (leave them to dry standing up in a glass or something otherwise the fondant will stick to your table) and only leave the wire in the cake the same day that you serve it.
The handbag cake also turned out well. Probably the hardest part was attaching the handbag chain that I had been given to add to the cake. I didn't want any of the metal to go into the cake, and so encased the ends in fondant and attached it to the outside. 
Getting the cakes to the venue was interesting. Thankfully my hubbie was home and so he drove while I held the handbag cake. It seemed a little top-heavy and I was worried that it might topple over. I took some back-up icing and flowers so that I could fix (or hide) any cracks that might appear, but there was no need, and both cakes arrived intact.
The next cake is for another 21st birthday... a dolly varden cake. I think that some of you have no idea what that is - stayed tuned :)
-N-
