A Week of Baking...Lemon 'Bubbles' 40th Birthday Cake

My most recent cake commission that I worked on last week was a 40th Birthday cake. One of the major parts of the brief was that it had to be transported to Cornwall for the birthday celebrations, so this was the major factor to consider in my designs. There is nothing worse than worrying about a cake all the way to your destination (as I always do when I am delivering) so intricate designs and gravity-defying design elements were a definite no-no!

The client decided on a simple 'Bubble' design with added pearls and daisies to make the design a little more feminine, and chose a vanilla sponge and buttercream with a zingy lemon curd filling. To add to the design we added some candy-cane striped numbers and some polka dot letters to finish off the cake.

Making the decorations

To make the candy stripe letters I rolled out two long sausages of fondant...

...and then twisted them together to give the striped effect. I find that it helps if your fondant is a little sticky at this stage as it is easier to bond the two colours together. If they are too dry they may start to peel away from each other when you start to form your letters.

It's entirely up to you what style of letter or number you make, but I like to add twirly ends to mine. I always check the size of the figures on the base of the cake tin to make sure that they are the correct size when the rest of the elements are applied.

I then cut out a range of yellow and white daisies and added their pearly centres.

Cake assembly

After baking I split the cake, filled it with lemon curd and vanilla buttercream, crumb coated it and then chilled it... 

...before covering it with white sugar paste and adding the yellow ribbon.

I placed the wording and candy stripe numbers to check the placement, before sticking them down with edible glue and royal icing.

To tie the letters in with the polka dot theme, I then added tiny gold dots using edible gold paint.

Once the central elements had been applied, I then started adding my sugarpaste 'Bubbles' in a mixture of yellow and gold. I sprayed the white bubbles with a mixture of gold lustre and edible glitter before sticking them to the cake with edible glue.

The only thing better than normal glitter...is edible glitter!

When I had added all of the bubbles I used two different sizes of edible pearls to highlight the letters and decorate against the ribbon. I then added the daisies last in key places around the cake.

The finished cake was beautifully sparkly under the lights in the kitchen, and had a lovely sheen when I photographed it in the morning. The client really liked it when I delivered it, so I really hope the cake made it to the birthday celebrations with all decorations still in tact!

A Weekend of Baking...Beachcomber cupcakes

I haven't done any baking and experimenting in the kitchen for what seems like aaaages! So when I found myself with some time this weekend I decided to get to grips with my new seashell mould and cupcake corer. I used to just hollow mine out with a knife, pah! What an amateur! I also wanted to try out just what else I could do with salted caramel sauce (everything apparently!) so I designed my 'Beachcomber' cupcakes. Golden vanilla sponge with a salted caramel sauce core, vanilla buttercream, shortbread 'sand' and handpainted fondant seashells.

Making the fondant seashells

I went for a mixture of a pinky-beige for the seashells and pure white to see what would look best when painted.

Dusting the mould with cornflour using my new duster, an excellent invention!

Pressing the fondant into the mould. I found it easier not to overfill each section as they came out with fuzzy edges when I tried to trim them with a knife.

I waited for the icing to harden slightly in the mould, then turned the seashells out. Some of them were released slightly easier than others and some were a little less than perfect, but when have you ever found an absolutely pristine shell on a beach...?

Painting the seashells

Once the shells were dry I used a mixture of pink, lilac, green and brown to paint them. I found that the neater I tried to be the worse they looked, so I just ended up splodging the paint on and then blending the colours together with water which gave a lovely effect.

Coring the cupcakes

Once I had baked my cupcakes...(look how even they are!)

...I used my cupcake corer to twist into each cake...

...pulled out the centre...

...filled the core with a teaspoon of salted caramel sauce...

...and then put a little lid back on.

Decorating the cupcakes

I used a basic shortbread recipe and baked it in a sheet to make sure it was nice and crunchy. Then when cool I crumbled half of it into a bowl to make my sand!

I frosted each cupcake with a swirl of vanilla buttercream icing. I was debating mixing some of the salted caramel into the buttercream, but I wanted the salt to be a little bit of a surprise amongst all the sweet, so I decided to leave them as just plain vanilla.

I then used two shells to top each cupcake, making sure that each pair was different.

Then to finish them off I sprinkled on my shortbread sand and voila! My 'Beachcomber' cupcakes were complete. 

I suppose I could have added the sand first and pressed the shells in afterwards so they stood out a bit more, but I like the way it mimics how you actually find shells on a sandy beach. 

I was so pleased with my cupcake experiment and I shall look forward to making these again. I've got lots more experiments planned with my cupcakes, so watch this space!

A Weekend of Baking...Tropical gerbera birthday cake

Once I had baked both cakes (Victoria sponge with strawberry jam and chocolate mud cake with white chocolate icing) I covered them in white fondant and left them to rest. I then measured the top tier and drew out my design for the polka dots, taking into account the size of the spots, the spacing from the top of the cake and the width of the ribbon.

Once I was happy with the design I then wrapped the greaseproof collar around the cake and transferred the design using a pokey tool.

I cut out my fondant spots using my smallest round plunger cutter and then stuck them on one colour at a time to ensure they were all in the correct place.

I was originally going to stick my gerberas on to the cake using just royal icing, but when I picked one up and felt its weight, I realised the icing probably wasn't going to support the weight. Luckily the gerberas were not completely set hard, so I managed to push cocktail sticks into the bases which I could then secure into the cake with royal icing for support.

You can see the finished polka dot tier in the background.

To finish the bottom tier I cut lots of coloured stripes and let them dry slightly before attaching.

I then used sugar glue to attach each stripe, and then cut them to length with a knife once they were attached to make sure they were flush with the top of the cake.

Here you can see the completed and dowelled tier without its ribbon finish. 

When I assembled the cake I stacked the polka dot tier on top of the striped tier and added all of the ribbon in complimentary colours to the fondant colours chosen.

When it came to placing the gerberas on top, I didn't want to have them flat as I thought this wouldn't really do them justice. I made a cone of white fondant and stuck this to the top of the cake, then arranged the gerberas leaning up against it. To cover the cone I used the remainder of the polka dots scattered down the sides to add a little more decoration.

I attached the gerberas to the sides of the cake with a dab of royal icing on the back then pushing them in using the cocktail sticks, which held them perfectly secure.

I was really happy with the finished cake and was lucky enough to see this one cut and even got to sample a bit at the party, which was fantastic. I'm so glad the couple loved it as much as I enjoyed making it.

A Week of Baking - H&T Wedding Cake - Day 6: Delivery, set up and the final cake

Finally, the day has arrived! After months of planning and a week of baking today was the day when I got to deliver all of my hard work.

I packed my bag the night before including extra hundreds and thousands, icing glue, extra ribbon, dowels and anything else I could think of, then my lovely mum arrived to help me transport the precious cakes to the venue. 

We got the boxes into the marque, stacked the cakes up using the icing glue to hold them all together and finally the cake was complete! It looked absolutely gorgeous in the marquee which was decorated with colourful and bright paper fans and lanterns, and with its cascading ribbons, bubbles of H&T and carnival colours it couldn't have been a better fit.

I really hope that the Bride and Groom were happy with their cake and it was everything that they wanted and more for their special day. 

The cake on the dance floor looking towards the stage and showing the coloured fans hung around the walls. 

The fully assembled cake

A close up of the top tier and the cake topper.

A view into the marquee showing the tables and the coloured paper lanterns.