Hummingbird and Hibiscus

A hovering hummingbird drinking sweet nectar from the vibrant hibiscus flower. 

I wanted to create a cake to elegantly reflect the paradise of Jamaica. 

After all it's the summer of 50 years of Jamaican Independence, an astonishing Olympics medal haul for the Jamaican Athletics team (4 golds, 12 medals over all, third place on the Athletics medal table!

 Yeah!), and the big birthday of the one and only Auntie Sharon!

This cake was part of an amazing table of desserts at a big old barbecue garden party. 

There was carrot cake, cheesecake, raspberry pavlova, fresh fruit salad and birthday cake. 

Yum!

 

It was Olympics time too, so periodically we went inside to watch the races. Oh what a night! First Mo Farrah then the Jamaican 4x100m relay team. Plenty of cheering, shouting and flag waving! 

Then more cake and rum punch to wash it down!

 

On the outside: pale green fondant covering; hand-painted hummingbird, royal icing inscription and hummingbird details; flowerpaste hibiscus; modelling paste candle spheres.

On the inside: Jamaican Rum Cake of course. 

It couldn't be anything else for this wonderful woman's birthday.

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60th Birthday Part 2

 Part two of the Pumpkin Patch theme from my last blog post. 

Same person, same birthday, bigger party in the garden with all the family and friends. 

So naturally, I kept the same theme: pumpkins!

 

 On the outside: green marbled fondant; modelling paste numbers, pumpkins and gardening tools at the corners; royal icing inscription and vines.

 On the inside: Jamaican Rum cake! A recipe passed down through the years, it's become my most popular cake flavour. Heavenly. You should try it!

The perfect way to round off a great year of celebrations. 

Everyone should have two birthdays!

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The Pumpkin Patch

This cake is for all the allotment people out there! We all know them. The species is often found collecting rare seeds (6 different species of tomatoes), constantly checks the weather forecast for rain and always has time to show you the size, weight and quantity of their onion harvest!

So to celebrate this allotment man's big birthday, I created a than a bumper crop carrots and a healthy pumpkin patch!

Very fun, very apt and very much loved by the recipient!

On the outside: modelling paste root vegetables and details. 

Royal Icing vines and inscription.

On the inside: Vanilla genoese sponge with raspberry mascapone filling.

Happy birthday Dad!

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