Abundance of Birthdays...

Abundance of Birthdays - Danny's 21st

Danny adores cards and poker so what better way of celebrating his birthday with a card themed cake.
I actually thought this cake would be the hardest to make because it seemed so fiddly but it wasn't too bad. 

Steering away from the usual hemisphere cake tin, I decided to go for a normal round pan this time as I wanted a flat surface at the top.

This cake is a Victoria Sponge (usually I just make a normal sponge cake) so I made my own buttercream and used non seeded jam in between the two cakes. Instead of using two cake tins, I used one and divided it into two with a cutting wire so I knew I would get two equal sizes.

To make the cards I cut out the fondant icing using the red tool from the Wilton Icing Tool Set (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/15936/Wilton-Icing-Tool-Set). I had to pick the icing up with icing tweezers so I wouldn't deform the card shape. 

I attached them to the cake using water, however, when attaching the card suits it proved better if attaching them with icing pens and the water made the colour run.

Unfortunately I don't have a third photo as Danny decided to do the honours of taking a photo and I forgot to mention I usually take a side angle photograph. But, the suit card shapes are still visible so this isn't a problem :) 

I used the heart plungers to make the hearts (be silly not to) and the spades as I knew it would be difficult carving them out of the fondant and making them look the same. For the diamonds I made strips and cut them diagonally so they would be of a similar size and shape. Then for the clubs I used the flower plunger and cut it into half.

If to do this cake again I would use cut out a thicker piece of fondant icing for the last card (hearts) so an imprint of the other card couldn't be seen through it. I would also use icing letter cutters to write the 'Happy 21st' instead of using icing pens to give it a fuller appearance.

Checking In Again!

Checking In Again!

It has been so long since I have posted on here so I thought I ought to post about the cake I made for my sister's birthday (28th June - woops).

So here it is! 

I decided to make this cake at home rather than at my university house because I was worried that transporting it might damage it. But I managed to take over the whole kitchen - sorry nan!

I used the hemisphere cake tin again to make it look like a hill and rolled green fondant icing onto it. As I had to create the cake quickly I didn't make my own fondant icing.Ruby wanted butterflies and flowers on it so I used my favourite plungers to create this effect. 

 I decided against covering the cake board this time as I didn't like the effect of the stretched fondant. However, I think for my next cake (that will have inspiration from this cake) I will use piping bags and use green royal icing. I didn't use that for this cake as I thought that the cake would already look too busy with the butterflies, hearts and animals. 

But I had to make the cake quite crowded anyway as she wanted lots of little pretty moulds

Here's the gorgeous birthday girl! 

6 already... Argh!

'I don't know your name...'

'I don't know your name, but your birthday cake was delicious.'

As most of us are leaving before Tom's actual birthday, we thought it would be good to make him an early birthday cake. So to celebrate his birthday, my best friend Jess and I decided to bake him a Victoria Sponge! 

I've made one before but, because I got too excited and took the cake out the tin whilst it was still warm, it kind of went wrong. Then, when I was spreading the jam and buttercream icing, I got too excited again and didn't work... I'm sure you can guess what happened. All the cake crumbled off.

So, this cake was much better as I learnt from that silly mistake.

Instead of baking two separate cakes, we thought it would be a good idea to bake it in one tin and then use the 'Kitchen Craft Cake Cutting Wire' to divide it (we also used this device to slice off some excess cake so that it wouldn't wobble around). Being lazy students, we didn't want to wash more than we had to, so we kept the utensils and tins down to a minimum! 

After dividing the cake, Jess and I spread the jam (Hartley's No-Bits Strawberry Jam) on one half of the cake and placed the other half on top of it. We made our buttercream icing by following Mary Berry's recipe, rather than using Betty Crocker's, which actually worked out well since we could spread it easily. The buttercream went on top of the cake (instead of in between the two cakes) so that we could decorate it. 

We used icing pens to write the '20' on the cake so we could cover it with the smarties and then added the different coloured candles to make it a bit more exciting.

For the sides, we used small stars and positioned them in a zig zag pattern. Unfortunately, this isn't a fantastic photo of it as the buttercream wasn't spread well along the sides so it doesn't look as smooth as the rest of the cake. 

I was going to add a photo of the birthday boy with his slice of cake but I thought he might not appreciate a photo of him on here. But...

Happy 20th Birthday to Tom on the 29th of June! 

The Start of Something New...

The Start of Something New...

Well, I've been thinking about doing a blog for a while now and I've finally persuaded myself to do it, and what better thing to do it on than the wonderful world of cakes! It also means I have an excuse to spend some time making yummy cakes (and eating them, of course). 

So here's the cake that I made yesterday for my nan and grandad's silver wedding anniversary:

To get the round shape of the cake I used a hemisphere cake pan (purchased from Lakeland) and filled it to about two thirds with a sponge mixture and popped it in the oven for about half an hour. 

I'm new to cake making so I thought it would be a good idea to use roll out icing as I don't quite trust myself at this stage to make my own fondant icing, but I'll get there! So I covered the board with green icing and measured how big the cake would be so that I could decorate the board with the butterflies and flowers (which were moulded using plungers).  

Once the cake was cool, I positioned it onto the board and placed the red icing on top of it. It was easier  since I had already cut it down into a circle so I could just position and mould it on top. I then cut out a strip of black icing to create the look of wings and a semi circle for the head. Using cookie cutters, I made the spots and eyes for the ladybird.

I also made cupcakes and cake pops but, with the excitement of this cake, I completely forgot to take photos. Hopefully next time I'll remember to include the extra cakes and take better photos!

Ps. Thanks to Helen Petty (http://aboutanail.blogspot.co.uk/) for the idea to make a blog. By snooping through her beautiful page it gave me the inspiration I needed to create my own. Thank you also to Sophie Renwick as her ladybird design was so pretty that it made me want to do a similar design.