Knitting Lady Watching TV - "Mums favourite things cake"

This was mums birthday cake and was a scene showing all of her favourite things including knitting whilst watching Midsomer Murders and some cheeky treats like chips (crisps), coke and chocolate.

Elements of this cake were a bit time consuming but was so much fun to make...Now when I had finished doing the fondant lady, I had noticed that she looked alot like a blow up doll ha ha. What I was going for though was a surprised look due to watching the TV, but it worked out as everyone had a bit of a laugh when it was done. The cake was a chocolate fudge cake with a Coffee Cream icing...very tasty and mum really enjoyed it.

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Tea Party Cake

This was a cake I made for little Missy and her friend who had an afternoon tea party at our house the other weekend. The girls loved the cake and especially the little fondant food.

It was very fun to make, everything was edible, looking at these I think I should have taken some close up pictures...oh and it is a common misconception that the below green things were a plate of peas but they are actually meant to be grapes lol :)

  

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Fairy Princess Castle Cake...The Cake that started it all

This was the first cake...this is the one that kicked off the obsession!!

It was coming up to my little girls 2nd birthday and I asked her what she wanted for her cake. Little Missy said she wanted a fairy princess castle cake and this got me thinking how I could pull this together, after purchasing the Women's Weekly Birthday Cakes book I used this as a reference to create the below.

On my first attempt (crazy me left it to the day before) I baked butter cake and burnt it :) I then whipped out to Woolworth's (local Supermarket for the international readers) and bought some slab cake. 

Then it was all in the decoration. The butter slab cake was filled with strawberry jam and vanilla butter cream. The turrets were made out of upturned waffle cones and the whole cake was covered with butter cream.

Smarties and marshmallows were used to decorate the castle. Spearmint leaves were used around the bottom of the castle. Wafers were used as the doors at the front with musk sticks over the top. The top flags were toothpicks with little fondant squares placed over the top. The unicorns and fairies I bought at a $2.00 shop.

I will never forget the look on little Missy's face when she saw this cake...this is what got me hooked.

It is just priceless seeing the joy, the awe and sheer delight...so the journey for me began :)     

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Fondant Floor Lamp

Another item for mums cake...hmm can you guess what it is yet? This floor lamp is going to be a cute addition to the cake..coming shortly is the TV.

Step 1 - Materials Needed 

• White fondant 
• Brown fondant 
• Rolling pin 
• Fondant knife
• Round cutter (size 
• Foam pad
• Ball tool
• Cling wrap
• Styrofoam block (or Florist block)
• Lollipop or bamboo stick
• Spray oil or butter

Step 2 - Making the Lampshade

Take some of the brown fondant and roll into a long sausage, this will be the lamp pole.
 
Spray some oil or rub on some butter onto the skewer. Thread the bamboo skewer through the brown fondant sausage leaving some of the skewer exposed at the top and bottom, I am really bad at doing this - if you find that the skewer pierces the fondant just re-correct the path of the skewer and reshape the fondant around the skewer....I had to do this several times :)

Once you have finished threading through, insert the bottom of the skewer into your Styrofoam block. 

Take a small amount of white fondant and shape into a teardrop shape. Place the white fondant on top of the lamp pole.   





Take a small amount of brown fondant and roll into a ball the slightly flatten with your fingers, this will be the base of the lamp.

Brush a little bit of water on the centre of the disc. Remove the skewer from the Styrofoam and place the brown disc onto the bottom of the lamp pole.

Take a larger amount of the white fondant and roll into a ball.

Roll out the fondant thinly and cut out a circle with the cutter.

Place the circle on the foam pad and using the ball tool thin out the circle - including the centre of the circle.
 

 Take another ball of fondant and wrap in cling wrap.

Place the fondant circle you rolled out earlier over the ball of cling wrapped fondant and commence to shape the top circle into the shape of a lamp shade by gently pressing down over the rolled up fondant and frill up the bottom.

Brush a small amount of water all around the top of the teardrop shape on top of the lamp pole and place the lamp shade over the top. Using your fingers, gently shape the lamp shade into place.

Take a small amount of brown fondant and roll into a very thin sausage as shown 

Shape the sausage into a small circle, this is going onto the top of the lamp shade.

Brush a small amount of water around the top of the lamp shade  and place the circle on top. You may need to gently work the circle down onto the lamp shade. Just be careful not to break the circle and not to use too much water as the brown fondant can leave marks on the white fondant.

Now let there be light...



Sourced from doublemcakes.blogspot.com

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Miniature Fondant Coke Can

This Coke can is so cute, it is a bit fiddly but worth it. This is also going onto my mums birthday cake..picture coming soon.

 

Step 1 - Materials Needed 

• Red fondant (I suggest using actual red fondant rather than colouring white fondant red, although there is a way around this shown below)
• Red food colouring (if colouring your white fondant)
• Grey fondant (I took white fondant and mixed with a little bit of black fondant to make grey)
• Fondant knife
• Rolling pin 
• Piping Tip (I used Wilton Tip #10)
• Small paint brush 
• Water 
• White paint

Step 2 - Making the Can 

Take a small amount of red coloured fondant and roll into a ball. I didn't have any red fondant so I coloured white fondant with red colouring, it is actually very difficult to get a deep red colour when doing it this way and you will  notice from the below photos that the best I could get was a deep pink.

So to get the red colour I painted the Coke can once complete with the red colouring and had a bit more luck...anyhow moral to the story is ...start with red fondant :)

 Roll the ball into a small sausage with your fingers.

Cut the ends off using your fondant knife to shorten the sausage and to get flat edges on each end.You may need to reshape the sausage back into a can shape.  



Take the grey fondant and make two very small balls (these will be either end of the coke can)

Flatten the two balls with the end of the rolling pin, then using the piping tip cut out a small circle shape and match the size of the grey circles to the ends of the Coke can. To make them slightly bigger you might need to flatten them a little more with the rolling pin - you don't want them so big though that they hang over the Coke can sides.

Brush a little bit of water onto the ends of the Coke can and stick on the grey fondant circles on each end, you may need to gently work the grey pieces in place so that they fit correctly on the ends and don't overhang.  

 

 

As mentioned before I painted the Coke can with red food colouring to get that classic Coke red colour...if you do it this way, you will need to let the food colouring dry on the fondant before proceeding to the next step as the white writing will turn a pink colour...yes I know this as this is what I did :)

Step 3 - Writing on the Can 

Next get your small paint brush and place a little bit of white paint on the end and start writing Coke on one side of the can. This is a bit tricky I won't lie, you definitely need a good eye, a steady hand and all the kids and significant others in bed for this one as you can see how small the can is below.

I also put a little swirl underneath the writing as it does on a regular Coke can. Repeat this on the opposite side ensuring that you write Coke the correct way up.

Step 4 - Making the Ring Pull

 Take a very small amount of grey fondant and roll into an oval shape.

Place the grey fondant onto the foam pad and slightly flatten, take the fondant knife and place a small oval hole into one side of the fondant.

Next brush a small amount of water onto the top of the Coke and adhere the ring pull to the top of the can, and you are finished..looks good enough to drink doesn't it...boy I feel like a Coke now!!

  

 

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Strawberry and Chocolate Cake

This was a 2nd birthday cake for hubby to take to his family birthday bash, the cake was red velvet with vanilla buttercream piped into a basket weave design (first attempt at basket weave). Covered with fresh strawberries and crushed chocolate curls......hmmmm.

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Lawnmower Man Cake

This was a cake for fathers day, my daughter thought it was absolutely hilarious, it was a red velvet cake with coloured butter cream icing using a grass tip. The man and lawnmower are modeled from fondant. I love making novelty cakes like this they are so much fun.

Adapted from flickr.com/smallthingsiced

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Hightea Cupcakes

Pretty vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with coloured butter cream and fondant decorations, perfect for a high tea or fancy catchup with friends.

I had cheated and used the good old packet mix for these beauties. Some of the decorations were also made using silicone moulds, I will post a tutorial on how to use these moulds soon.

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Ladybug Cupcakes

These were cupcakes made for visiting kids, they were vanilla cakes with coloured butter cream, I used licorice for the spine and the face - I found the straps of licorice was the best for this. I used a round cutter to cut out the licorice for the face and used M&M's for the spots on the body. For the eyes I used a dot of white royal icing, the kids loved them but boy they didn't last long so I am lucky I got this photo before they were devoured. 

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Easter Cupcakes

These cute little cupcakes were for my daughters childcare at Easter, they were vanilla cupcakes with a lemon curd filling.

To fill the cakes I had a piping bag with lemon curd and small tip on the bag to squeeze the luscious curd into the middle of the cake, then topped with vanilla butter cream. I used pink marshmallows cut in half for the ears, brown M&M's for the eyes and a red M&M for the nose, small pink  marshmallows cut in half for the nose and a cut small marshmallow for the mouth with licorice strands for the whiskers. They were very tasty and a hit with the kids!

Adapted from www.bettycrocker.com


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Birthday Cake with Blueberries and Raspberries

This was for a friends surprise birthday afternoon tea, the cake was gluten free red velvet with vanilla butter cream and raspberries and blueberries arranged around the top..very yummy.

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Chocolate Explosion

This cake was for my hubby's birthday...and it was soooo chocolatey. He felt very special getting this, safe to say there needed to be a little exercise to compensate for this one. Tutorial to follow. 

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Mermaid Cake

This cake was for a little girls birthday, she absolutely loves mermaids and had an underwater theme for the party, the mum wanted mainly pastel colours and everything else on the cake was customised for the special birthday girl.

Tutorial to follow on elements of the cake.

Mermaid tutorial sourced from the Artisan Cake Company


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