Red and Floral Vans Birthday Cake

Sohray-Tai and Davahna-Jay celebrated in style with a cake based on their shoe obsession: Vans! It was a pretty cool birthday cake for two pretty cool young ladies.

So I created a cake featuring a personalised Van Authentic for each of them to sit on top of their cake.

Classic red for Davahna-Jay and funky floral for Sohray-Tai. Sculpted using modelling paste and hand painted, they reflect the girls' personalities perfectly.

Featuring the Vans logo in striking white, red and black, the cake went down a storm!

I love the Vans on top set off by the black and red background. One of my favourite cakes of recent times. Can't wait for their ideas for next year's birthday!

On the outside: hand painted modelling paste Vans, sugarpaste and royal icing details.

On the inside: sumptuous chocolate cake with chocolate ganache snuggled between the cake layers.

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Burnt Orange Calla Lilies. Wedding Cake: Gilly & Donovan

At the beginning of the month, my amazing Uncle Donovan married the beautiful Gilly...

and I was asked to bake the cakes! Woohoo!

 

We talked together about creating a cake to reflect their personalities. 

Something classic and beautiful but in an unexpected colour palette. 

Hence burnt orange, chocolate brown, gold and a hint of ivory became the colour scheme.

. 

A three-tier cake in a warm chocolate-brown. Each tier was tall so the layered cream and sheer gold ribbons stand out. 

Plus it's more cake! 

The bows were there to elegantly tie each tier (haha!) together. 

 

 

The flowers Gilly chose to complement her look on the day were burnt orange calla lilies. 

So we decided to make them a part of their cake.  They were chosen to provide bright accents in between tiers and on the top.

 I hand made them in different sizes and coloured them to reflect

 the individuality the flower has in reality. 

Brushed gold columns separate each tier - a hint of the classic but very contemporary - when paired with the chocolate coloured cake covering.

 I also baked them a vanilla sponge cutting cake covered in a matching but simple daisy pattern.

On the day before arriving at the church ceremony I was working hard to assemble the cake at the reception venue. 

I was piping and placing flowers and constantly checking the cake was level!

On the inside: Jamaican Rum Cake of course! A rich, blended fruit cake (it's not a fruit cake as you know it) with glugs of Jamaican rum.

On the outside: chocolate-coloured fondant covering. Royal icing piped details around the base of each tier with gold dragees to bring on the bling! Cream and gold bows are a simple accompaniment to the vibrant orange flowerpaste calla lilies on top of each tier. Gold columns and boards unite the design and the topper finished the whole look!

The cake looked amazing in the reception room tucked in beside the top table! You couldn't miss it. It was well received by all and I was very pleased to show them my interpretation of their design! A big cheer rose up as they cut the cake and tasted a piece! I was so pleased!

Congratulations, Gilly and Uncle Donovan, it was an amazing day, and thank you for requesting I be such a special part of it.

 

 

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Red, White and Blue!

 

Clarice's 21st birthday party was red, white and blue themed:

So with all the "Hooray for GB" events around this summer I had plenty of inspiration! I managed to cram in plenty of bunting and union flags before softening it up with some forget-me-not flowers springing up out of the blue.

Then a royal icing inscription.

You just don't see enough overpiping around on cakes these days.

 That's when colours are piped on top of each other à la the inscription. 

It's effective and really fun to do as well. 

Sugarcrafters: more overpiping please!

On the inside: vanilla madeira cake and vanilla buttercream.

On the outside: fondant covering, flowerpaste forget-me-nots, royal icing inscription and board details, modelling paste giant wobbly 21, flags and bunting (hand-painted union flags).

Sorry the photos are a bit shadow-y!

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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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With fronds like you, who needs Anemones?

 
It's been a while, hasn't it? My laptop broke (boo hiss) , but never mind.

Don't worry, I have a few posts to put up so I can fill you in on what's been happening. In the mean time, here are some anemones I have crafted today.

They're so beautiful and a little weird looking. Not sure if they're spider-UFOs or anemone centres?

When they're finished though, they're incredibly striking. I also found them really enjoyable to craft. Would look great in any colour.

When will the rain end?

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