A week of baking...Vintage floral wedding cake - Top tier - Day 3

Of all the days that I had marked out on the timetable for the wedding cake, unfortunately today has been the one I was least looking forward to. Covering cakes with fondant seems to be my nemesis. I can always get it looking ok, and it tends to be passable, but it's the one thing that I just cannot seem to perfect, and it does fill me with dread and stress when I have to do it. However, I will not be deterred, and as you can see below the end result was actually quite pretty.

I set up all my equipment for baking this morning, using yet another Peggy Porschen recipe. Instead of whole vanilla beans I used Taylor & Colledge Organic Vanilla Bean Paste which I have to say was delicious! It contains the seeds of the vanilla pod so you get a pretty speckled look to your batter and I also added half a teaspoon to the vanilla buttercream which gave a delicious taste. You can find out more about Taylor & Colledge here. 

Once the cakes were baked and cooled, I levelled them all to make sure they they were all flat.

Next I spread a thin layer of buttercream onto the cake board to keep the bottom layer in place.

I then started to layer the cake. When making Victoria sponges before with jam, I have sometimes had an issue with the jam seeping out and staining the buttercream and sugar paste covering, so this time I made a dipped ridge all the way around the outside with the buttercream, and added the jam to the centre.

This meant that when I sandwiched the next layer on top, the jam stayed securely inside, meaning no leakages, yay!

I have never done this with a cake before, but I actually go a spirit level out and placed it on top of a cake lifter to check it was level, and to my amazement it was pretty spot on! I then put a wooden dowel through the centre of the cake to keep everything centred.

I invested in a side scraper for this cake, and it really does make a difference when putting on the crumb coat. Everything looked neat and precise and was perfect ready to go into the fridge for a chill.

Once the cake had chilled, I put the first layer of sugar paste on down to the bottom of the cake to make sure that the sides down to the board were straight. I was not happy with the bottom layer so I covered the icing with a thin coat of clear alcohol and added the second layer.

With some judicious smoothing I was fairly happy with the top layer so I cut my ribbons to length ready to be attached.

For the satin ribbon I used a thin layer of water added with a paintbrush to stick it to the sugar paste, however the lace was trickier. I made up a sugar glue from icing sugar and water, dotted a small amount on to each petal of the flower in the lace and then held it in place until it dried. Maybe it was because I was at the same level as the cake for a long time that I began to notice a few more flaws...!

Once the ribbon was attached I had a play with all of the sugar paste elements to check the colours. The rose petals are going to look lovely against the nude cream and the lace, and even through the butterflies and small roses will be on the cupcakes, it was just nice to see that the colours for the whole display will work well together.

A week of baking...Vintage floral wedding cake - Sugarcraft - Day 2

Yesterday and today I have continued with my sugarcraft preparations as I needed to finish off my roses and bring a bit more life to my hand moulded roses and butterflies.

The next stage of the roses was to use a larger cutter to cut out seven more petals to build up the layers around the central bud. The petals had to be left for a little while so they dried slightly but were still malleable when added to the rose. I used this dimpled foam tray to give them a little shape whilst they were drying and the shape gives the petals a chance to curl.

Once the next layer was added, the rose has to dry upside down. This is the bit I hate as I'm always terrified all my delicate petals are going to crack and break, but the stiffener kneaded into the sugar paste at the beginning really comes into its own here and keeps the flower strong. Gravity also helps the petals to stick to the bud before you start adding more layers.

Whilst the roses were drying, I started to add the coloured lustre to the small hand moulded roses. I use a small amount of 'Very berry' to add a light pink shimmer to the centre of the rose, then went over all of the petals in a light metallic to add shimmer and dimension.

The addition of a little colour really brings the flowers to life and gives them just a hint of sparkle.

Once the roses had had been drying for half an hour, I cut out anther nine large petals and left these to dry slightly. These are the biggest petals I have used so far, and the first attempt did not go very well as they all flopped off as I tried to add them to the rose! On the second attempt and by overlapping the petals more underneath each other as I went around I was really pleased with my rose! 

At this stage the rose needs to rest for another half an hour upside down so gravity can do its work again.

Once half an hour is up, I poked a hole in the bottom of a cupcake case and sat the rose into it. This allows the rose to open up again very slightly without the petals falling off. At this point I left the rose to dry completely overnight.

The next step was to decorate my plain white butterflies. I thought they looked a little dull just with a white and shimmer lustre, so I added a little lilac details to their wings with some food colouring.

They looked a little vibrant once painted as the scheme is more towards a lilac than a purple, however  I left them to dry overnight and decided to look at them again in the morning.

When I began to add the pearlised lustre to the butterflies, it muted the cover to a lovely shimmery lilac which I was really pleased with. The shimmer isn't so noticeable as it is on the roses, but when you catch it in the right light it is very pretty. 

The final step was to add a little shimmer to my large roses. They did look very pretty as they were, however with the addition of the lustre it brought them to life and made them look lovely and dewy. I now have a lovely rose for the top cake plus a spare in case anything should happen. I also made some extra rose petals to add around the rose once it is positioned on the top of the cake to fill any gaps. 

The next step, bake all of the cakes, eek!

A week of baking...Vintage floral wedding cake - Day 1

This week I have taken a holiday from work to get stuck into a fantastic project. I am honoured that my friend has asked me to make the wedding cake for her future sister in law, and finally after months of planning the week is finally here! The bride has requested 80 cupcakes and a 6" cutting cake and they will all be arranged on a clear perspex cake stand.

Today I have been working on all of the sugarcraft decorations, including a large open rose for the top tier, butterflies and hand moulded roses. As before with the white flowers I made for my Wedgwood blue cake, I am using the Peggy Porschen Cakes in Bloom book, as it gives perfectly clear step by step instructions to ensure beautiful results every time.

Setting up all of my equipment ready to start. After making the Wedgwood roses and keeping them upright by sticking them into an orange (necessity being the mother of invention!) I bought a polystyrene cake dummy to hold the flowers as I worked, and already it has been invaluable as I know my roses will be safe from knocks and wobbles.

The rose on the right has four petals and the one one the left has 9. These roses have to be made in stages to make sure that the weight of all of the petals doesn't cause them to droop. I will finish them off tomorrow.

The first stage of the roses is complete. They will now need to dry overnight.

I am using a plunger cutter to make the butterflies for one set of the cupcakes. I read somewhere about using a concertina of paper to set them on so they have a more lifelike look, so I folded a sheet of A4 to make a drying rack. I will paint the details with some lilac food colouring and then dust them with pearl lustre once they are dry.

The other set of cupcakes is having hand moulded roses as their decoration. This is a simpler way of making roses that are slightly less detailed, however they still look just as effective. I like the slightly frilly edges of the icing as it gives them a pretty vintage look. Once these are dry they will also be dusted with pearl lustre.

A Crafty birthday present - Fitting and tweaking

For my birthday present this year, my mum said that she would make me a lovely vintage style jumpsuit. We had the first fitting with a toile, and next it was on to the actual fabric!

Once it was pinned and tacked together, we did a lot of fitting in the proper fabric to ensure a perfect fit. We changed the bust darts and also the side seams to provide better shaping. We also lowered the neckline a little more than in the pattern, as with so much fabric and pattern, it seemed to be a little high for my body shape, and I thought it looked much better to show off the sweetheart neckline.

To make sure that the jumpsuit looked as good from the back as the front, mum cut the long parts of the jumpsuit ties so they would be the correct way up when you saw them from the back.

In todays fitting the bodice was attached to the trousers and we edited the fit around the waist. 

The bodice was slightly too long so the trousers were raised at the seam attaching them to the bodice to improve the fit.

The back was pinned to check the fit and I love the way the pattern on the ties is the right way up at the back. I think this gives a lovely luxury touch to a handmade item.

The next step will be to tack in the zip and then check the fit one more time before it is all sewn. It will then be fitted once more before the final stitches are made, then we will confirm the length of the trousers to finish the outfit. I think a lovely jumpsuit like this calls for a new pair of summer wedges...!

A Weekend of Baking...Yardley buns!

This weekend we fancied doing some experimentation in the the kitchen, so I decided to try my hand at something I'm not very confident with, dough!

I love chelsea buns, and they always remind me of carol signing at Christmas, where we were always given the most amazing buns warm from the oven to thaw our frozen fingers on. I had a look through my Paul Hollywood 'How to Bake' book to find a good recipe and found his recipe for Christmas buns. The filling for the Christmas buns called for Apricots and cranberries, however we decided to use a mixture of dried apricots, cherries and raisins and called them Yardley buns after our village. Plus it's far too early to start thinking about Christmas yet! 

I have never had a huge amount of luck with raising dough to extraordinary heights, a loaf of bread I made with my mum when I was younger you could have provided an excellent foundation for a new building, so I have always been wary of it. 

We started kneading the dough using the KitchenAid dough hook, and then proved the dough for two hours.

After the first prove we rolled out the dough to a rectangle, brushed the surface with melted butter and then scattered over the dried fruits, sugar and cinnamon mixture.

The roll of the chelsea bun is very important, and I think mine may have been a little too lose, as I had to poke some of the escaped fruit into the swirls before their second prove.

After their second prove I put them in the oven and waited for the delicious sweet bread smell. Once they had cooked I brushed them all with apricot jam and waited until they had cooled just enough so we could try them!

Unfortunately I found that the buns didn't last very well (both in freshness and in number!) so I think in the future I will have to make them for an event so they can all be eaten at their very best.

A Crafty birthday present

This year my mum gave me a fantastic birthday present which was to make me an outfit for my holiday. We bought the Margo pattern from Sew La Di Da vintage when we were at the Knitting and Stitching Show earlier this year and I fell in love with it the minute I saw it on the stand.

I originally contacted the company to see if they would be able to sell me the fabric that they had used to make it on the cover, but my mum found an equally lovely fabric to make it up in. It is a lovely light and breezy blue cotton covered in lots of different sailing boats, very apt with the America's Cup coming up this year.

Last weekend I went over for a fitting and mum had made up a toile in a striped cotton to test the fit and the style before cutting out in the final fabric. I really liked the stripe (despite it being an old duvet cover!) and I think I may be putting in another order for the short version of the pattern in a pretty stripe!

Unfortunately the photos didn't come out very clearly, but hopefully you can get the gist of the progress, and I will be sure to take some more detailed photos as it goes along!

The striped cotton toile of the bodice to test the fit. We took it in at the bust darts and added a little length to the torso

The Margo pattern with the final boat print fabric

Cutting out in the final fabric

The bodice in the boat print cotton

The trousers have long wide legs with deep pockets.