Monday 29 April 2013

Sand, sea and 60!




    I was recently asked by a good friend of mine if I would make a cake for her dad who would be turning 60! Never one to turn down a friend (or an opportunity to do something new) I of course said yes! And then she asked me to make a bottle of gin cake... Now, I'm not a big fan of printing images for cakes, and my painting skills leave a lot to be desired!! So, it was back to the drawing board! (Maybe next year??)



    Usually men are pretty easy to make cakes for, but not this time! Does he have any hobbies? No! Does he play any sports? No! So, what does he like to do?? Go on holiday!! 
And so we had our theme!



     After some Google searching and a browse on Pinterest (my favourite 'go to' at the moment for cake ideas!!), We came up with a suitable design - two tiers of cake with a beach theme and 2 deckchairs on top.


     Then I had to get my head round how to make it... Of course I always agree to things I've never tried before because I like to learn new things, but boy did this give me brain ache!!





 I started by mixing up some modelling fondant with CMC, and after a little play with some cardboard cut outs and a bit of sketching I just went for it! These are the man parts of the chairs drying over some cardboard. I have to say this was actually the easiest part! What came after was a fiddly half hour of sticking on the legs!! Yes, I did swear! Quite a bit!!


     The result though was totally worth the effort! Although slightly fragile, they came out looking just as I'd hoped!


We had agreed to a sea colour and theme to the bottom tier, and after much thought I decided to make the waves very pronounced.
After covering the base case in the yellow sand coloured fondant, I then dusted the entire of the top with cornflour, and then covered it again with the blue! The thought behind doing it this way was that there would be no seams and the waves would run smoothly the whole way around. It worked very well!




     Here is the back of the cake. Going slightly nautical with a life belt, I like to add a bit of detail to the back of a cake.



Here is the finished cake after adding all the little embellishments - it is easy to get carried away sometimes!! It is definitely one of my favourites to date.




Friday 5 April 2013

Welcome!

Welcome to George's Marvellous Cakes!

I have set up this blog to share my cake decorating journey with you!
As a mother of two small children, I don't have the time to start a business, so spend my time making cakes for friends and family instead!

I have so much more yet to learn, but for now will just share all of my successes and failures with you!

Enjoy!

George.