Fireman Sam Birthday Cake

I've not made many vehicle cakes so I was a bit apprehensive when asked to make Fireman Sam's fire engine, its usually the tyres that go a bit squiffy.
For the engine part of the cake I made it in a tray bake pan, once cut in half its the perfect size and starting shape for the fire engine. Before I started decorating the engine, I got the base cake decorated first. I wanted the cake to look like a scene shot from the new version of Fireman Sam, so around the side I built up the image of Sam holding the water hose tackling a flame. The hose I put on last with it being attached to the engine. For the top of the cake I laid a strip of grey fondant to look like a road for the engine to sit on.
With the base cake finished it was time to start on the engine. Before covering with red fondant I carved the top to create definition from the front of the truck which is slightly higher than the rear where the ladder lives. The other section I carved out was for the wheels. After carving and dirty icing I covered the cake fully in red fondant and then added the details. The only sections I cut out of the red fondant was for the windows, which I replaced with white fondant that I painted with light blue lustre dust.  

Liverpool FC and Mario

As you have probably worked out by now I'm very much in to the floral and pretty style cakes not football, so when I was asked to incorporate Liverpool's emblem with Mario and Luigi I was a little bit nervous to say the least. 
The specifications for this cake were red fondant to cover the cake with football shape on top along with the Liverpool emblem (the one with the Liver Birds on) and Mario & Luigi. eek
The first thing I made was the football shape, my thoughts were I could make the top part of the cake first so I could slip the design on top of the red fondant covered cake, simple. Once the football was assemble which I have to add was no mean feast, I started on the emblem. Thankfully the customer had provided me with all the necessary pictures so I had something to work from. The Liver Bird was the fiddliest part with all the small details that kept wanting to break on me.
Last part was Mario & Luigi were I did my usual created a patchwork design from print outs and built them directly on to the football.
With the topper finished I started working on the cake and then I started to worry that the topper, after all that hard work might not come of the cake board in one piece. Thankfully it did, woohoo.

Wedding Cake with Real Flowers

The cake is a chocolate cake in 10" and 12" with cream fondant and pearl detailing.
For this wedding cake I had originally been asked to make lemon and lime coloured roses for the top but about a month or so before the wedding the bride decided on real flowers. I have to say the flowers do work great with the cake. Its a simple but elegant looking wedding cake that fit the venue.

Piano Wedding Cake topper

I'd been asked to make a wedding topper for a couple who weren't wanting the traditional wedding and who had a love for music and in particular the piano. Another addition to the topper was to have a small boy figure hiding under the piano to represent their son.

With the topper I started with the piano. I bought some wooden dowels and cut them to about 2" in length, drawn an outline of the piano so I knew where to secured the dowels on the 6" cake board and then put 3 pins in. Next I cut the base of the piano out of foam board to give the main section support, as the bride figure would be sitting on top. Once secured with 3 more pins I placed edible glue around the legs and wrapped them with black sugar paste. Then turned it upside down and covered the bottom of the piano in black sugar paste, so that none of the foam board would be showing once it's all finished. After that I cut a thick piece of black sugar paste about half an inch thick and slightly wider so that it would cover the side of the foam board as well as the top.

Once the piano structure had dried I cut out a section at the front for the keys and then added a lid to the back section so that it had a Grand Piano look to it. For the keys I placed a strip of white fondant and then (with a picture of the keys in front of me) coloured in the black notes and scored the white notes, I couldn't quite fit the right amount of octaves on but it was near enough.

With the piano finished and drying I started working on the figures. I've spoken about figure building before, I'm not very good at getting the faces to look super realistic so I stick to a characterised face.
As I built each figure I always had the piano with me so that I could get the sizing right (not because I couldn't bare to be without it). I thought the most problematic part would be making sure the blokes arms didn't fall of mid ceremony but that wasn't a problem, I think its because I made them slightly smaller and made them look like they were bent slightly, also the piano helped keep them in the right position.

The finished topper was exactly what the customer had asked for and she was thrilled with how it looked, she even brought some photos in to show me the wedding cake all set up with the topper on. It looked really cool and fitted the theme perfectly.

The horse cake did have matching cupcakes but I can't find the photo's, which is rather annoying. The last time I made a cake for this little girl it was her with her pony having a picnic on top. This time with little girl being a little bit older I made the design represent that.
The image on top of the cake is a patchwork design that I made from a picture I'd found on the Internet with the addition of the dog as she loves the family dogs too. To make the hair look more tasselled I placed a rolled up piece of light brown fondant on the mane and tail areas and used the scallop & comb tool to give it texture.
To finish the design I added bunting around the edge to give it a birthday / celebration vibe.