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-

 

Jake the Dog - Adventure Time Cake

Jake the Dog - Adventure Time Cake



 

 

 

Looking for a quick and simple Adventure Time cake?  Here is a Jake the Dog cake that I made for my brother-in-law's birthday. 

 

It's a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.



Happy Birthday!

-N-

How (not) to make a figurine

My friend asked me to re-create this birthday cake from a picture she found - problem was that the only figurines I had made before were a teddy bear and a diver.  As usual, I said that I would be able to make it... and eventually I did. 

 

The cake was the easy part - each tier is one and a half times the height of a regular cake (not quite as high as a barrel cake so I could still put the fondant on as usual).  The bottom layer had dowels in it (I use wide drinking straws) so that it didn't collapse - it had to be extra sturdy as the cake needed to make a 3 hour car trip down south.

 

The '50' was made from flower paste, then coated in food-safe glitter.  The ends of the feathers were wrapped in florist tape and then stuck into a lump of fondant which was hidden behind the figurine (they didn't touch the actual cake at all).

The difficult part was the figurine.  I actually started this first as I knew it would take me a while to figure out.  I started with the head - you can see my attempts in the background of this photo.  My first attempt was the one at the back on the left-hand-side.  It was made by following directions from a book, which suggested that you start with the round head, then make indentations for the eyes and add bits of fondant for the nose and mouth.  Then a very thin layer of fondant is added on top to create a type of skin.  This was really time consuming, and although it was slightly more realistic than the final version, it also looked like it belonged to a horror movie. 

 

My second attempt (at the back on the right-hand-side) just looked wrong and like she had put on her make-up in the dark. The third attempt was better - basically I forgot the directions from the book and just treated the fondant like it was playdough (yes, I work with kids for a living).   

This is how I made the figurine (although I am sure that there are much quicker ways!)

 

Just remember:

*Don't use wooden skewers or toothpicks if the cake is for kids!! (you can use raw dried spaghetti instead). 

*Add tylose powder to the fondant as you go along so that it sets harder.

*To get this skin colour, I used ivory gel paste, with a little pink added in.

 

The head:

*Shape the round head from fondant.

*Secure the head onto a toothpick or piece of raw dried spaghetti which has been coated in sugar glue and let it dry so that the head doesn't swivel (unless you are after the horror movie look)

*Make indentations for the eye sockets (I used a frilling tool).  Add white and black fondant to make the eyes.

*Roll a small amount of fondant for the nose and stick on with sugar glue

*Make the indentation for the mouth (I used the rim from a lid to get the shape)

*Once it has set, draw on the eyebrows and lipstick with food-safe pens.  Add blush with petal dust or equivalent food-safe colour.

*Leave to dry over-night.

 

The body:

*I essentially just moulded a lump of fondant into the shape that I wanted (helpful, I know!)

*Secure the body with a skewer (or raw spaghetti) which has been coated in sugar glue so that it can be stuck into the cake once the figurine is complete. 

*Once the body has dried, cut a rectangle of black fondant to make the dress and stick on with sugar glue.  (The dress ended up much more low-cut than I had anticipated, but, as it turned out, the birthday boy didn't mind!)

 

The hair:

*I tried this a couple of ways, but then ended up cutting thin strips of fondant and adding them piece by piece.  It needed a few layers to get the volume that I was after.

The arms:

*This was the difficult bit - I'm sure that there is a much easier way of doing this, but I shaped the arms out of fondant, inserted wire into the ends and let them dry, resting on tissues to get the right angle.  I made quite a few back-up arms as I thought that they would break (which they did).  My husband thought that it looked like there had been a massacre :)  The wire then gets inserted into the body

The hands:

*Shape the end of the arm into a teardrop, then flatten a bit.  *Make a cut for a thumb on one side and pull it down a little.  *Make three cuts along the top for the fingers. 

*Twist each finger to lengthen. 

*Press gently in the centre to make a palm and then shape downwards towards the wrist.

 

Does any of this make sense?  I hope it's of some help to someone.  Confused?  If yes, then just have a go and you'll figure it out :) Make sure that you leave yourself a lot of time to get it right and have fun!

 

-N-