First Birthday Cake

I've bought a new cake decoration book recently called Cressida Bell's Cake Design. I'd really recommend it if you are looking for something a bit different. She is actually a textiles designer and I think it's that background which makes her cake designs really original. She uses edible decoration to achieve her designs, so although the designs can be time-consuming, they are easily achievable for any amateur (me!). It was Emma's first birthday this week so Vicky asked that I bake her a 'spotty themed' birthday cake. Yippee, the perfect chance to try a Cressida Bell inspired cake. I went a bit mad...

The cake itself was a plain sponge. I baked two and sandwiched them together with strawberry jam and buttercream. To create a crumb barrier between the icing and the cake I then covered the whole cake in strawberry jam and a layer of marzipan. This also creates a smooth base for the roll-out  icing - I used white. 

Using various sizes of circular cookie cutters, I then lightly pressed them into the surface of the icing to give a template for laying on the decorations. To stick the smaller decorations to the cake I used a clean paintbrush and edible glue. For the larger decorations I used icing sugar and water to create a thick paste. Sticking icing to icing simply requires a little water.

Now onto the decorations, what did I use? I had coloured roll out icing in pink, blue, yellow, green and orange. I rolled it out thinly with a rolling pin and sprinkled cornflower to prevent sticking. The cookie cutters again came in handy to cut out the circles I required. I also rolled out icing 'sausages' by hand to add a ring of an alternate colour around the outside of some of the circles.

I used chocolate m&ms to add additional decoration and colour. The bonus was, as the red and brown m&ms didn't match my colour scheme, the lovely Tim and I enjoyed a bit of a scoff.

I also used some cake decorating sprinkles and sugar balls. The large flower in the picture above is formed by four sugared almonds, a yellow m&m and blue sugar 'glass' (bought at Waitrose).



I also used large white chocolate circles covered in multi-coloured hundreds and thousands, bought at the local sweet shop. Really there was no plan, I just bought anything that took my fancy.

 

Finally, here is the birthday girl enjoying her cake (she wasn't actually that keen!). She even blew out her birthday candle - a child genius for sure.

 

 

Happy Birthday Emma, love Auntie Sally

xxx

 

 

 

 

Icing Christmas Trees

I've made a start with the icing design for my Christmas Cakes and thought I'd share it with you. It's Christmas trees this year. Obviously.

I used flower paste for the design as it is so nice to work with, you can roll it really thin and it sets hard. The cutter and green food colouring I bought from my Imaginative Icing. Sorry about this next photo - it's food dye honestly!

 

I use the paste colours when dying flower paste as it stops the icing getting too wet and sticky and gives a much stronger colour than traditional liquid food colouring. I use the tip of a paint brush (never used for paint!) and dab a small amount onto a a third of the required flower paste. Working the dye into a smaller amount of the flower paste, then adding the remainder of the icing, helps achieve an even colour and avoids streaks. I then rolled the icing out on baking parchment dusted with icing sugar.

 

 

Then got cutting...

 

 

and cutting...

 

 

and cutting - Phew. I also cut some stars that I might use for the tops of the trees.

 

I'm letting them dry out this evening but I'll add a bit more decoration to the trees tomorrow.