Hand Painted Floral Cake

This was an 8” Victoria sponge covered in ivory fondant and decorated with hand painted flowers.

It’s the first time I’d hand painted a cake and it was only because the customer had said ‘I’ll leave the design up to you’ the only specifics was the theme - floral and garden.

I’d recently bought some new paints that were specifically for painting on to fondant, the only thing I had to do was come up with a design and then put brush to fondant, or something like that. It was quite scary painting the first flower, I kept thinking ‘I hope I’ve started in the right place’ and ‘what do I do if I go wrong?’. But once I got going it was just like painting on canvas.

The only thing I was disappointed with was that the paint in some places didn’t dry and was still slightly wet when the customer picked it up. So that was disappointing but thankfully they all enjoyed it and I don’t think anyone ended up with paint on their teeth. I’ve not used those paints since, they are probably best used in fruit cakes so there’s more time for drying, I know for next time.

Heart Dome Anniversary Cake

I’d been asked by a customer to make a filigree heart dome out of royal icing. My first thoughts were eeekk, and then I explained to the customer that I hadn’t worked with royal icing since my sugar craft course a number of years ago but that I would give it a go if she was happy with that. Thankfully the lovely customer was and said if I was unable to make the dome that a flat filigree heart would be more than ok. I’m quite a stubborn person and when asked to make something I have to make it exactly how they imagined it to be so I set about mastering royal icing.

The first thing I did was go shopping for a heart shaped mould of some sort so I could pipe on top of said mould and then lift it off once dry, easy right…. Wrong, it took a number of attempts just to get a nice filigree design and then lifting it of in one piece well there’s the tricky part. Four attempts down and I’m starting to consider a flat heart until my fifth heart dome came off in one piece and looked lovely. Hallelujah! All i had to do then was dust it with lustre and not break it!

Next I made the Victoria sponge, covered in cream fondant with a lattice design around the sides and finished off with the heart dome that I secured in place with royal icing pearls.

I had to deliver this cake so I packed a tool kit to fix any problems that may have happened on journey over, thankfully it was plain sailing and got there in one piece, phew.

Pink Bow Christening Cake

I was originally given a photo of what they wanted the cake to look like but they were wanting it to feed 120 people and that cake wouldn't have looked right larger, so I took the elements they liked in the original design and designed this cake. It’s a two tier gift box cake with the baby pink and white colours, topped with a giant pink bow and finished with the name blocks.

The first thing I started making was the bow, I wanted to make sure it had plenty of time to dry along with the name blocks.

The cake was a Victoria sponge with jam and butter cream filling, covered in baby pink fondant for the lower cake and white fondant for the top tier. The box designs were quite simple so that the main attention would go to the bow and blocks, I didn’t want it to look too messy.

The finished cake looked like how I’d described it to the customer and it weighed a ton. 

Ruby Wedding Anniversary Cake

This was a 10” fruit cake with a medium rose spray in red for the couples ruby wedding anniversary.

The cake’s covered in white fondant and pearl trim, topped off with red roses, white blossom flowers and an arum lily spray. The spray was all wired and made with flower paste so it should last for a long time. I wonder if it will last 40 years like their marriage? Who knows.