Embroidered Bag Cake

It's been a while since I have posted, but I have still been baking!  And now I get to use my new oven, in my newly renovated kitchen (which is very exciting!)

 

Here is my latest cake - a friend's in-laws recently celebrated their 40th Wedding Anniversary.  As part of the celebrations, all guests were given an embroidered bag from India.  I mentioned that the design would make a great cake - which turned out to be a little more complicated than I had anticipated!  Here is the cake (top) and the original design of the bag.

 

The images are all made from fondant, and then hand-painted with edible metallic paint.  I got to play with some new moulds and practise my embossing skills.  It was a fun (and time consuming!) project :)

 

Happy Anniversary!

 

-N-

Flower cakes

Nov 2013

2012

Flowers can be tricky to make, but it's funny how a bit of practise can change your skills - here are some flower cakes that I have made over the last couple of years, using the same technique, as described in a cake decorating book.

 

Oct 2013

 

 

 

2011

I'm glad to see that there has been some improvement! 

 

These are all made out of fondant or flower paste, and without wires.  The cake decorating books all say that these are 'simple' sugar flowers - which they are (in comparison to complicated wire ones) but I still find them a bit fiddly.  

 

I think the next workshop that I go to will be about making flowers - I still have lots to learn!

-N- 

1st Birthday Cake

Another catch-up post.. This is a 1st Birthday cake that I made well over a year ago!  This one was a vanilla cake with vanilla butter-cream.  Since making this one, I have invested in some large number cutters, which make using numbers a lot simpler! 
 

Jet Jaguar Cake

 

Jet Jaguar cake

My husband always chooses something rather challenging for his birthday cake, and last year he wanted a Jet Jaguar cake to go with his Cult Movie Marathon themed party.  Don't know who Jet Jaguar is?  Me neither until I watched Godzilla vs Megalon.  He is the robot that fights with Godzilla to defeat the other monsters (no idea who the other monsters were - I assume one of them was Megalon :) 

The cake was definitely a challenge, and I wasn't sure that the top of his robot head would defy gravity for any length of time, but it did, and it turned out pretty well in the end after a few attempts (and after a while of the back of his head resting against an empty fondant bucket while it set).
 

I also made a bunch of movie themed biscuits which were served during each movie.  Can you guess which movies??

 

What will be the challenge for 2014?  Have to wait until September to find out...  although I do have an idea for my Royal Show entry this year :)

 

-N-

Mario Kart Cake

 

 

My nephew wanted a Mario Kart Cake for his birthday, and this was my version.  I made lots of different Mario Kart icons out of fondant to put around the bottom tier, including bullet bill, calamar, thundercloud, banana peel, a question block, green shell, mushroom & lots of monster flowers.

 

He loved it!

-N-

How to Make an Easy Spider-man Cake

So, a while back I posted a 3D Spider-man cake, but I forgot to post the easy version that I made last year for Will's birthday.  This one is much simpler to make.

 

First, I searched on the internet for a colouring-in page that had the shape that I wanted, enlarged it so that it became the correct size, and traced the image onto baking paper as my template.

 
 

I baked my usual chocolate mud cake, but instead of using a 9 inch cake pan, I used an 8 inch and 6 inch cake pan (with the same amount of mixture).  Using the baking paper template, I then cut around the two cakes so that they made the right shape, and added a few little bits of cake on the sides (so that he didn't have holes in the side of his head).  Then I stuck the whole thing together with ganache.  This then became the head, which I covered in red fondant. 

 

I used the template again and cut out his eyes from black and white fondant.  Starting with the black layer, roll out the fondant thinly and use a sharp knife or cutting tool to cut out the whole eye from black fondant.  Next, roll out the white fondant thinly and cut out the inner part of the eye.  Using a paintbrush, lightly brush sugar water or cake 'glue' onto the back of the white fondant and position on the black layer.   This then gets stuck onto the cake.

 

Next, pipe on black royal icing for the webbing (again, using the template as a guide).  My friend used licorice on her son's cake for the black webbing, which is a great idea!

 

And voila! Easy spider-man cake done. 

-N-

Hamburger Cake

Hi all - I know, it's been a while.  I have been making cakes, but forgetting to post them!  Anyway, I should be able to catch up in the next week, as I will be at home - our bathroom is being renovated and I get to 'supervise'.   Our oven has also finally died, so our kitchen is being renovated in April (which is more exciting).  Can't wait to get a new kitchen :)

So, here is the first of my catch-up posts.  This is a hamburger cake that I made at a class at The Cake Gallery. It is surprisingly easy to make.  The hamburger is made from 1.5 cakes - one cake split into two to make the 'bun' and another half cake for the 'burger'.  This was my first lesson in air-brushing with food colouring, which is how you get the uneven colour on the bun and chips.  The salad and chips are made from fondant, and the sauce is royal icing.  The sesame seeds on the top of the bun are also made from royal icing - you just pipe them on top and then air-brush (and yes, the food colouring did go everywhere when airbrushing - I think you would have to do it outside).  I'm yet to try getting the same effect with just a paint-brush and food colouring.  Don't you think it would be a great cake for a vegetarian??

 

-N-