Week 3

Areas covered:-

 

1. Novelty cakes

2. Basketweave rolling pin

 

This week involved making novelty cakes.  We had to bake a cake or cakes at home which we would then carve (gulp) into our chosen shape. Then we would use the basketweave rolling pin to design the top. We also had to make some fabric effect roses which we had practised last week.

I chose a pillow cake design. I started by cutting the top of the cake to make it level then carving the sides using a template. Finally I used the knife to carve of small amounts of the edges to soften them.



I split, filled the cake with buttercream and crumb coated the outside the make the icing stick.

I then rolled out the icing for the bottom using a template and practised with the basketweave. Once the bottom was stuck and dry I repeated to add the top. Using a template meant the edges matched well.

I then smoothed out the corners and used the twisted rope technique to cover the joins.

Once dry I placed it on a prepared board and put flowers on the cake and the sides. I used leaves to cover the joins in the corners.

Next week we will be looking at the frill cutters.



Week 2

Areas covered:-

1. Fabric effect flowers
2. Using creative plaque cutters

A busy lesson! For homework we had to bake a madeira cake. We then had to split and ice it.

We used a mixture of flowerpaste and sugarpaste to create modelling paste for making the fabric effect flowers. I made purple and pink and used green to make leaves.

The leaves were made using cutters. I used ivy for this piece and allowed then to dry on foam so they were not completely flat and looked more interesting.

The fabric flowers were made using a rolled out piece of modelling paste, folding it over and then rolling it in.  This gave the basic rose shape. Pleating can also be done.  These were left to dry are we moved onto the creative plaque cutters.

These cutters are great! They can be used as plunger cutters or for embossing.  We iced a board which we then embossed using the cutters.  I loved the rose design as some colour could be added. The trellis design could also be used to create a boarder.

We then used the creative plaque as cutters to create many different shapes. I created a butterfly and handbag but there are many other designs that could be made in a variety of colours.

The flowers were then arranged onto the cake. I loved the pearl lustre spray which we used to make them sparkle!

Next week we will be using the basketweave rolling pin.  We will be baking a chocolate madeira cake which we will then carve into the shape of our choice.

Week 1

Areas covered:-

1. Split and fill a round madeira cake
2. Ice the cake with sugarpaste
3. Crimping
4. Sugarpaste decorations

We had to bring a 7 inch round madeira cake to work with.

We started by removing the dome, slicing the cake into 3 levels then filling with jam and buttercream. Using a cake leveller gave a great result.  We then rolled out the sugarpaste and covered the cake and board (I found using a turntable made it easier as it was higher).

Once we had smoothed out the sugarpaste to give a professional finish we crimped around the top and the board. There are many different styles of crimper available. Top tip: using a turntable makes it much easier!

Next we used 2 chosen colours of sugarpaste to produce decorations.  The first were using different size circle cutters to produce different effects.  Then we rolled the two sugarpaste colours together to produce different twisted rope effects to go around the bottom of the cake.

To finish we used double sided tape to attach ribbon to the side of the board.

Next week we are doing sugarpaste flowers and using the plaque cutters.