Bike Cake and Cupcakes

The Bike cake and cupcakes were for friends of mine who recently turned 30 and 36. The bike cake was for Ian who turned 36 and was a surprise gift from Sarah. My brief was very detailed she wanted a figure of Ian with a pint in his hand and sat up against a tree, bench or wall along with a bike in a country pub garden scene.

The figure and wall I knew I can do easily but as soon as she said bike I panicked slightly as I've never made one before. I had a look through all my cake decorating books but they had nothing on bikes so I went to the Internet to see if anyone had any suggestions. I found several options but the one I went with had clear instructions and pictures for ever stage. 

Before I started piping out fondant I printed out a picture of a bike at the size I needed and then placed greaseproof paper over the picture so I could pipe straight onto the picture. The wheels were the hardest part as the spokes are made out of angel hair pasta and painted in a silver dust. I had to make two handlebars as one broke as I tried attaching it to the bike and the peddles broke as well but other than that it was a case of building it in sections, allowing to dry thoroughly and then fitting it together starting with the wheels to the frame, allow to dry and then glue the peddles, seat and handle bars on. 

I finished the pub scene of with a fence around the cake and piped green royal icing around that to look like grass which I also used on on the wall. The final stage was placing the figure and bike on top.

The cupcakes were for Sarah who just turned 30 and her favourite colours are black and pink, the pink is my fault I think I had an influence on her at uni. The flavour of the cupcakes was lemon with a pink vanilla butter cream icing and black flowers, butterflies and a big glittery 30. 

Word of warning: My first batch of cupcakes were ruined due to the black paper cases peeling away after being baked, the second batch I used the metallic black cases which were perfect so be careful when choosing your paper cases, cheap isn't always cheerful!!! 

Pink and Blue Floral Cupcakes

The floral cupcakes were an order from a newly wed who wanted to thank her florist, she had an image of what she wanted which makes my life easier as sometimes its like pulling teeth with some customers who don't have a clue what they want.

The cupcakes were vanilla with a vanilla butter cream in baby pink and blue shades. The flowers are combinations of roses and blossom flowers.

Handbag and Shoe Cake

My inspiration for this cake was from the Chanel bags and the quilting effect they use on their lovely handbags. I'd been asked to design a cake around a mum who loves shoes and handbags. Her daughter was helpful with providing favourite colours and liked the Chanel based design.

To create the quilting effect around the cake I used the very useful printing mats and then carefully went over that with the notched quilting tool. After that stage I added beading.

After finishing the sides I added the birthday message so I knew what space was left for a shoe and handbag, usually I make the toppers and then realise I've not left enough room for the message :-)

The handbag is based on a Chanel classic and the shoe is from my imagination but I though it worked well with the bag.

Pink Birdie Cake

The Birdie Cake is based on one of my fake cakes I made for the bakery with a few little changes. On the fake it had the eggs on the trees not around the edge but the trees were too small in scale from the eggs so I used blossom flowers to add colour to the trees.
The bird and house on top are also smaller to fit in with the smaller scale as the original was a 10" and this was an 8".
The flavour of the cake is chocolate with chocolate butter cream and its covered in pale pink with white chocolate fondant birds.

Pink Princess Castle Cake

The Pink Princess Castle has to be the most structural cake I have ever made so far. Its made with 3x12" cakes for the base and turrets, 2x6" cakes for the second tier and 2x4" cakes for the top. All of the cakes were Victoria Sponge with jam and butter cream and it took 8 packets of pink icing to cover it all. The roof is the only part of the cake that isn't edible, I tried to make it out of cake but the angles were to awkward to cut so I used card then covered it in fondant to give me a base to stick the lilac fondant which I cut into strips with a ribbon cutter to get a curved finish.

To keep the cake sturdy I placed four dowels in the base cake then placed the 6" and 4" cakes on a thin cake board to sit on the dowels. I had originally not put dowels in the 6" and 4" as I didn't think the roof would be that heavy but while decorating the castle I notice the icing on the top tier had a curve appearing so of came the roof, in went two dowel and a thin cake board to rest the roof on. Thankfully this did the trick. 

The cake took two days to decorate but once I had finished it I was very happy and more so when they came to pick it up and got it home in one piece.  

Daisy Cup and Saucer Cupcakes

The cups I used for this order are silicon and can be baked in the oven. I did a mixture of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with green coloured vanilla butter cream which was piped on with my new favourite nozzel. The order was for half a dozen cup and saucer cupcakes decorated with brightly coloured daisies, the grass icing was instead of fondant discs over butter cream I think the piped grass looks more realistic. For the daisies I went with red, orange and pink.

Black and White Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes about a month ago but had just found them on the other camera. The party theme was silver, black & white plus the young girl wanted butterflies so I incorporated the black and white with the butterflies and the silver with the candies sprinkled on top of the chocolate icing.

70th and 80th Birthday Cakes

For the 70th Birthday cake I was asked to make a popular design using the red roses and message. Its a bit like a bus this cake, one minute I had only made it once for my cake course and then a year later three people want the exact cake within months of each other. Its lucky I enjoying making it!

The cake is a Victoria sponge and covered in white fondant.

For the 80th birthday cake I made a fruit cake, the cake was for a gentleman and they wanted to keep the design simple with a birthday message, so I went bold. I was a bit worried with it being such a straight forward design that they wouldn't like it but thankfully they were pleased.

Air Max Trainer Cake

I got a phone call from a girl who wanted a cake making for her boyfriend and it had to be a 3D version of an Air Max Trainer. With not knowing what an Air Max trainer looked like she sent me a picture of the exact one she wanted making. 

As it had to be carved, the cake I used was Madeira in a vanilla flavour with vanilla butter cream. The carving was the most difficult part as its knowing how much to cut off and what can be defined once the fondant goes on. 

Once I'd finished carving I covered the whole cake in white fondant and then work with the other colours for the detailing. For the cake board I used the three main colours and piped on the birthday message.

Super Mario Birthday Cake

I'd been asked by a family friend to make a cake for her son who was going to be turning 6 and she wanted the cake to be in the shape of a 6, for the rest of the design she left it up to me, eek.

With not having any kids and not really knowing any 6 year old boys I was totally at a loss for what they are into so of I went again to the trusty Internet. This is where I saw Super Mario, I sent her a text to see if he liked Mario and thankfully he does so I went with that. I also like playing the Mario games which came in useful. 

The cake is decorated like a level in a Mario game with the nasty bullets and piranha plants and then the super cute mushrooms and of course Super Mario. The bulk of the cake is covered in blue fondant and the edging is finished of with green for the hills and brown for the money blocks.

When picking up the cake she told us her son had asked for a Super Mario birthday card but had no idea his mum had ordered a Mario cake, I think that was a successful choice.