17 And Mad About Marvel

My eldest is 17!! How did that happen??

Nicola (the one turning 17 and pictured above cutting her cake, with little sis looking on) asked for a Captain America, Winter Soldier themed cake, with emphasis on Winter Soldier. She asked for vanilla cake with chocolate orange ganache. We've been a bit mad about chocolate orange ganache ever since we tried it a few months ago. We tried both chocolate ganache with fresh orange rind, and ganache made with Terry's chocolate orange. The ganache with the fresh orange rind won hands down! 

We both started browsing the images of the comics for inspiration, and originally I was going to have both Captain America and the Winter Soldier on the cake, but in the end an image of the Winter Soldier captured both our imaginations. It's in black and white (and a tiny bit of red): 

Because of the image, instead of a round cake, I decided to go for a rectangular cake. I printed the image off, put tracing paper over it and traced the image, then when the cake was covered in sugarpaste and ready, I placed the image pencil side onto the cake and traced over the image with a pencil. The image, as you can see, is very detailed, so I did leave out quite a few details. Also the cake wasn't wide enough so most of the soldier's backside isn't seen on the cake. More's the pity.

Painting the image was a painstaking task. The pencil outline wasn't that clear. I used a black food pen to try and get more of an outline, using the printed image as a guide.Then with a small brush and a mixture of black dust and confectioner's glaze as paint, I painted the shadows on bit by little bit. 

I asked Nicola if she'd like a quote from the movie included on the cake as well, and she immediately said 'Who the Hell is Bucky?' (the Winter Soldier IS Bucky). 

Lastly, I made Nicola's name and age with black gumpaste. I downloaded the Captain America font, typed Nicola's name and age in word using this font, printed it out then cut out the individual letters and numbers. I rolled the gumpaste to the required thickness and let it set for about 20mins. After the gumpaste set, I put trex on the gumpaste so that the letters would stay in place, placed the letters on top and cut out with a craft knife. This is never an easy task especially when curves are involved, but I managed!

Happy birthday to a wonderful daughter... I love ya x

A Cake For Nan

I had the privilege of meeting Martin Pawlett of Martin Pawlett Photography. We met through Cheshire Ladders' Pay It Forward game, where we swapped skills with other small businesses. Martin offered photography, so I offered cake! Here are some photos taken by Martin himself, and with my own phone camera with Martin's help :) It was his Nan's birthday so he asked for a victoria sponge cake for her. 

His only brief was to use light purple, and the rest was left to me, so this flower design was what I came up with. Some flowers are 'real'- gerberas, daisies and so on, while others are 'fantasy'. I piped royal icing dots on some of the flowers to give a bit more visual interest and texture. 

I had painted the sides of the cake with a purple shimmer, but it needed a lot more coating of the shimmer and so it didn't shine as much. I was also working with what I had- vodka - which made it quite difficult to paint on. I will need to buy some rose water for any shimmer work next time!

I will feature more of Martin's photos of my other cakes soon :)