My latest commission has been to make an Afternoon tea table cake, and the last couple of weekends have been taken up with making all of the decorations for the top. Besides sugarcraft flowers I don't usually sculpt a lot of other decorations, so I made sure I made lots of sketches to help.
I eased myself in slowly by making some little pink and white daisies with pearl centres dusted with a little coloured lustre to make them look realistic. I always like making these as they look so effective when used to decorate a pretty cake. I also decided to use a silicone mould to make roses for a change, as I hadn't used it before, and after dusting them with lustre I was quite pleased with their appearance. They're not quite as effective as my hand-moulded version, but they look very sweet none the less.
I tried to make sure that everything was to scale as possible, but whilst making the tea pot I discovered why I am a cake maker and not a potter! Sculpting vases and teapots is hard! I was very impressed with my Victoria sponge cake though and I did like the fiddly little strawberries that were added to the top.
As well as the Victoria Sponge cake I also made some cupcakes and some macaroons to add to the plates. I was surprised how difficult the cupcakes were to make. Something that you can bake in your sleep suddenly becomes a whole lot more challenging when made out of fondant.
I left the tea set to dry overnight then the next day I painted it using food colouring and also some gold edible paint for the details and highlights.
Once I began painting the designs on to the tea set I felt a lot more in my comfort zone. I was making pretty patterns in pretty colours which is much more up my street! I used four basic colours in a floral pattern to decorate all of the set, leaving each one to dry slightly before I went on to the next.
Green vines and leaves with tiny blue flowers.
The finished floral designs on the plates.
Once I had finished the floral designs, I used gold to edge the plates to add an extra luxurious touch.
The tea cup and saucer. I also added gold details to the handle and the rim of the cup.
Gold details on the tea pot lid, handle and spout.
Gold details on the vase to give a little more definition and shape.
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