Farmyard cake

This cake was for a friend's daughter whose only request was that it had farm animals on it.  It was a quick cake to make as I didn't have very long to do it, but I think she liked it in the end.  Everything is edible (except the candle!).  I textured the cake to make it look like grass by pressing over the fondant with a Wilton tip 233.   I made the animals out of fondant and let them set up a bit before placing them on the cake.  FMM cutters were used for her name.

Here is one side of the cake.  Little piggies having fun.

A lost, but happy sheep on another side of the cake.

 And more pigs on the top of the cake, playing in the mud.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baaaa.....how to make a cute little fondant lamb {Tutorial}

I was clearing up my flash drives today when I found some old photos I had taken when I made this little lamb quite some time back.  It is amazing how much we accumulate in photos that we forget where we stored them.  It was a lot easier with film rolls I think.  Much harder to misplace a photo album than a flash drive!

Well, thanks to these old photos, a little lamb is born.  :)  I must have made him when I first started playing around with fondant figurines and he is such an easy thing to make.  I compiled what photos I had so have a look and I'll explain along the way.

Steps:
1.  You will need some white, pink and black fondant.

2.  Roll the body into a tear drop shape.  The arms and legs are sausages that are tapered at one end (kinda like a long tear drop).

3.  Flatten the bigger end of the arms and legs and stick a small piece of pink icing at the bottom.  I made the pink circle by pressing down on a small ball of pink, but if you want to be more exact, then use a small, round icing tip to cut out the circles.  I used the end of a dresden tool (at least that's what I think it is, to mark and texture the fondant on the body, arms and legs, but you can also roll or pipe tiny round balls and stick them on).

4.  Stick the arms and legs to the body with a little water or some edible glue and stick a piece of spaghetti or a toothpick down the middle of the body (not shown in picture).  If you are using a toothpick, make sure to tell the recipient about it as you don't want them biting down on it!

Steps:
5-6.  Make the head by rolling a smaller ball of white into a tear drop.  Mark a smile using the end of a round icing tip.  I used the Wilton number 12 but use whatever you have.  Mark two dimples at the end of the smile with a toothpick.

7.  To make the ears, roll small pieces of white and pink fondant into tear drops.  Flatten them and stick the smaller pink onto the white.  Mark out the eyes with a toothpick.  Add a ball of pink for the nose.

8.  Glue the ears on and roll a couple of tiny black fondant balls for the eyes.  Roll some balls of white for the 'hair' on top of the head.  

 Baaaaaaa.....and your little lamb is done.

If you found this tutorial useful, I would appreciate some comments on it.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Monica

Elmo, Dorothy and Books I love

 A quick post to show you my finished Elmo and his pet goldfish Dorothy on her stand for a student of mine.  She wanted one done for her son's first birthday and I am very pleased with how it has turned out.  I added tylose to my fondant to make it stronger and dry hard.  I also textured Elmo's fur using a Wilton tip 233.  You can pipe fur using this tip too if you wish but since it was going to be moved around, I thought it was safer to texture it.  Didn't want Elmo losing his fur when he was moved!  Unfortunately, (as seems to be always the case), I forgot to take any photos of the process, but I will try to do a tutorial to show you how I did Elmo. 

Thinking about how I started off with my first figurine, which was little Harry Potter (see post here),  I have learned a lot along the way.  I get lots of useful information through Youtube and the web, but also through books.  One book that I have found really useful for stand-up fondant figures in particular is Squires Kitchen's Guide to making Sugar Figures by Jan Clement-May.  In this book, she shows you the basics of figure modelling before going on to more complex figures.  The book is divided into chapters for Occupations (like builder, nurse and fireman), Hobbies (like horse rider, ballerina and footballer) and Celebrations (like Santa, bride and groom).  A very useful book to read if you want to progress in making stand-up figures.  If you are keen on making fondant animals, another book I love is 100 Fondant Animals for Cake Decorators by Helen Penman.  Her animals are easy to do and look cute too (which is sooo important)! I made this cute little zebra for an upcoming cake with her book.

If you'd like more details on these and other books that I read and love, you can find them on my blog through the Amazon link.  If you have any questions or comments, I'd  love to hear from you.  Happy decorating!  :)

Horse cake

I made this cake for a friend's daughter who loves horse riding.  She didn't want any too complicated so I made a simple horse topper for the cake and added some fondant flowers, butterflies and buttercream grass to finish the effect.  The horse is made out of gumpaste.  The cake is covered in green buttercream and I made some swirling effects with the end of the spatula.

The birthday girl loved it and so did I. :)

Kokeshi Japanese doll cake

I wanted to make a cake for a dear friend who has been really wonderful and helpful to me, especially in the last couple of months when I've had to juggle a few things.  I really don't think I could have managed without her and this was a way to say thank you to her for being such a wonderful person.

'Taylor Swift' birthday cake

My dear friend's daughter turned 11 a few weeks ago and requested a 'Taylor Swift' cake for her birthday.  She specifically wanted a 'Taylor Swift' figurine playing a guitar in a red dress so this is what I came up with.  The main cake is an eggless vanilla cake covered in vanilla buttercream.  I decided not to cover the cake with fondant so I had to spend a bit of time smoothing out the buttercream before piping musical notes on the side with black buttercream icing.

 
The name and stars are made with fondant, as is the figurine.

The birthday girl really liked her cake, as did her other friends at the party.  Glad that went well!

Thanks for stopping by!

Angelina Ballerina and Tinkerbell figurines

A while ago, I was asked by one of my students if I could help her make a couple of figurines for her niece's birthday.  I jumped at the challenge to make Angelina and Tinkerbell and I was really happy that she liked them.  Angelina was pretty easy to do, but Tinkerbell was a challenge.  I guess it's harder to try to sculpt a  'human' face than a cartoon (for me anyway) and it was my first time doing both.  I was really pleased with how Angelina turned out and Tinkerbell came out alright as well I guess. 

I used a long bamboo skewer as a head to toe support for both figurines as well as thin florist wires to help hold the arms and legs up.  If you've ever watched Cake Boss, you will see they do something similar so I was trying to go with that in mind.  I think they use modelling chocolate for their figurines as it is easier to sculpt with and perhaps even more forgiving, but I used fondant.  Certainly something to try in the future with modelling chocolate.  I started of making the wings for Tinkerbell with gelatine but they didnt turn out too well (too many bubbles) so I will have to work on that.  As they did not have to be edible, I finally went with plastic transparency and I painted them with silver dust. 

For a basic tutorial on how to make a simple fondant figurine, please click here.

Happy decorating! :)

Stargate cake

If you are a fan of the show, you will (hopefully) recognize this cake.  Otherwise, you may be forgiven for thinking it is a swimming pool with a man jumping in :)

I made this cake for my hubby who is a fan of the show.  It didn't start off as a stargate though.  We had a long discussion (as we usually do) about what he would like for his birthday cake this year, and it always comes down to these themes: Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate or Lord of the Rings.  Well, the original plan was Minas Tirith from LOTR but I wasn't sure about making a 7 layer cake.  Then we decided on the Enterprise from Star Trek, which then changed into a hobbit hole (LOTR again) and finally into Stargate.  That was straightforward enough, I thought.  And with so many wonderful ideas on the net from people who had made a Stargate cake (yes there are quite a few!), I started on the cake.

The cake is a chocolate mud cake covered in chocolate ganache.  It has 3 layers, and for the top layer I cut out the centre before placing it on the cake.  Then I cut into the inside of the ring to make it dip a little.  There is an excellent video on You tube by someone who made a Stargate cake.  She shows you how to cut into the ring, which I found very useful. 
Here is the cake already iced with some ganache.

Next I covered the cake with light grey fondant and made some markings around the cake using a small star cutter and a knife.  You could use a triangle cutter if you had one.  I also used a larger star cutter (or a triangle cutter) to cut out the chevrons (triangle markers) around the cake.  Cut the tip off each triangle and space them apart around the cake. 

I then made some markings on each triangle with a spatula and added some red fondant to complete it.  I struggled a little with the event horizon (middle bit).  I thought of using blue jelly, marshmallow icing or piping gel and I am sure it would have looked great but in the end I went with something I had which was royal icing.  I filled the centre with white icing and piped a border of blue around it.  Then using a toothpick and brush, I blended them together till I got the effect I wanted.  On hindsight, I could have made the lines more wavy than straight.  To complete the cake, I used the rest of the royal icing to pipe the letters on the cake as well as some of the symbols from the Stargate.

Of course, hubby had to decide that it would look more exciting to have one of the characters jumping into the wormhole so Teal'c was made, carrying his staff weapon. :)  I made him using my basic tutorial on "How to make a simple fondant figure".

I did use some wire support for the arms as it was made last minute but luckily he stayed upright ok. 
Here is the cake lit. :)

Pretty cool, huh?  Well hubby thought so, thank goodness!  Are you a fan of the show?

Happy Birthday, sweetie, I am looking forward to our discussion about your next cake. xxx  :)

Russian and Welsh Wedding Cake

I had the honour and pleasure of making a cake for a student's friend this week.  The bride is Russian and the groom is Welsh and they wanted a Russian doll and Welsh dragon as toppers on their cake!  It was a very unusual combination but I think it came together very nicely in the end.

My friend, Jin, a very talented cake decorator, made the dragon and helped cover the cake as well.  Check out how elaborate the details are on the dragon!  Amazing work!  I hand-painted the Russian doll from a picture that they gave to me.  I was really pleased with the results.

They were very happy with the cake.  It had to travel all the way to the Bay of Islands so I hope it made it ok!  Here's to the happy couple.  May they be blessed with lots of love and good wishes on their special day! :)

How to make a fondant bee {Tutorial}

When I was making the farm cake for my friend's daughter, I also made some bees and ladybugs to put on cupcakes and on the main cake as well.  So I decided to multi-task and take some photos along the way on how I made my ladybugs and bees.

They are both very simple to do and here is my way of making a simple fondant bee.

1.  Roll a ball of yellow fondant into a tear drop.

2.  Cut thin strips of black fondant and lay them over the yellow.  Tuck the strips under and cut off any excess strips.

3.  Roll 2 balls of white fondant into a tear drop.  Press flat to form wings.

4.  Use two tiny pieces of black fondant for the eyes.  You can also use a toothpick and simply poke two tiny holes for the eyes.  I used a modelling tool for creating the smile but you can use a small round tip and press half the tip into the front of the face to get the curve.

5.  Leave to dry and then place on cake or cupcakes.  I used some buttercream icing to secure it to my cake.

And there you have a very simple and easy fondant bee!  I hope you have fun making them. :)

How to make a simple fondant figure {Tutorial}

Over the last year or so, I have had the pleasure of being able to make more and more fondant figures, either for practice or for specific birthday cakes and so on.  And since another tutorial is looong overdue, I thought I would share with you a simple way of making a fondant figure.  The basic steps are the same for any figure, just let your imagination run and put in your personal details to get what you want.  :)

1.  Roll a sausage shape for the legs and bend into U-shape.

2.  Roll a cone (slightly flattened) for the body and two sausage shapes for the arms.

3.  Stick the body and arms on top of legs.  Insert a toothpick (or dry spaghetti) through body to hold head.

4.  Roll a ball for the head, poke eyes using a toothpick.  Use a round piping nozzle or tip for the smile.  Roll small balls for nose and ears.  For the hands, flatten a tear drop and cut a V-shape to separate fingers from thumb.

5.  Put it all together and add some hair.  You can make individual sausages for the hair or a round flat disc and run a knife or scissors through the disc to make it look like hair.  Add ovals for the shoes.  And voila...

Get as creative as you want and enjoy making your fondant figures.  There are also so many videos online nowadays that give you tons of ideas on how to make different characters.  See how to make a mummy-to-be on Laura's video page.  She's amazing!  (Thanks for sharing Laura!) :) 

It also helps me when I look at photos of characters I want to make to get a more accurate costume.  Like for my cricketeer...

Most importantly, have lots of fun!

Happy decorating! :)

How to make a fondant teddy bear {Tutorial}

As promised, here is my way of making a fondant teddy bear.  Now, by all means, it may not be the 'correct way' (is there a correct way?), it's just the way I've decided to do it.  Feel free to adapt and change it as you go along so your bear has it's very own personality.  So let's get started.  Depending on how large or small you want the bear to be, adjust the amount of fondant accordingly.  Just try to make sure that the body parts are in proportion.  This is also my second attempt at making a bear so I'm still learning too.  :)

I've broken it down into 8 pictures and I'll explain along the way.

1.  Make a large tear-drop shape for the bear's body. 

2.  Make a smaller oval shape for the head.

3.  For the legs, start with a tear drop shape and then using your thumb and forefinger, pinch the bottom part of the tear-drop to shape it into a foot.  This is shown in Picture 3 (before and after).

4.  Make longer tear-drop shapes for the arms.

Now that we have the main parts done, it's time to piece teddy together.

 

5.   Gently stick a piece of spaghetti or a toothpick into the bear's body.  If you're using a toothpick, then please let whoever it is you're giving the bear to know about it.  Otherwise a spaghetti stick would be safer and edible.  Attach the legs with a bit of water from a brush to the bottom of the body.  Attach the arms around the top of the body with some water too.  You can arrange how you want your arms to hang.  Mine are going to hold a heart.

  

6.  For the head, flatten a small ball of fondant for the snout.  Use 2 tear-drop shapes for the ears.  Attach the ears by poking a small hole into the sides of the head and inserting the ears with a bit of water.  I usually like to flatten them out a bit more once they're attached and make them more oval.  You can also use a ball tool to imprint a small dent into each ear if you like.

7.  Run a stitching tool up the bear's front body, over the top and bottom front of the head and snout.  If you don't have a stitching tool, use a knife to gently run a line or a toothpick to poke holes along like a stitch.  Or you can leave this step out.  I used the broader end of a piping tip as a curve to indent a smile on the snout.  Now gently attach the head to the body with a bit of water, poking it into the toothpick (or spaghetti).

8.  Add final details for the eyes and nose with a bit of black or brown fondant (or even blue, your choice!).  For the nose, roll a piece of fondant in the shape of an oval (or triangle), and for the eyes, two tiny balls of black fondant.  I made the heart by rolling a tear-drop shape then denting the broader part with a toothpick.  Shape it to the way you like it.  I used a couple of heart sprinkles for the bottom of the feet.

And that's it, your bear is complete!  Add your own personality to it by changing colour or size.  Have fun and do let me know how it turns out!  :)  

If you found this tutorial useful, I would appreciate some comments on it.  Thanks!

Hello Kitty cake topper

Here is another figurine I made today.  I love trying to make new figurines and am rather pleased with how this turned out.  Hello Kitty is sitting on a 4 inch cake base so it is quite small but would be perfect for a small cake.  I am also very pleased with my new flower cutters and love using them!  :)

Mermaid cake

I did another cake for my friend's 4-year-old daughter (lucky girl!) for a second party she had today.  She wanted a mermaid cake and I thought I'd take it to the next level by making matching cupcakes and setting it all up in a cupcake tower.  I was so excited to set up the whole dessert table - though the background was not quite ideal for a photo shot, the birthday girl absolutely loved her cakes!

Here are some more close ups.

Rows of cupcakes on the tray.  The cupcake toppers were made by me.  I was quite pleased with how they turned out.  :)

  I love the whales!

The crab and octopus are pretty cute too!

And here is a close up of the cake.

And the back of it.

It was sooo much fun to do!  I can't wait for my next cake! :)

Pink elephant

This is another figurine I made out of fondant.  I think it would have been better to use gumpaste as it sets better and is harder too but I only had fondant to work with. I followed a video on You Tube for instructions on how to make it.

If you want to learn how to make this cutie, check out this other video by yourstrulytx.  Have fun! :)

my lil pony

After the success of making little Harry Potter for the Castle cake, I decided to try making some other figurines.  Having no experience on where to begin, I started looking through the Net and You Tube to get some ideas.  Thank goodness for kind people out there who share stuff with you.  I watched this video by yourstrulytx on how to make this cute lil pony and thought I'd share it with you.

Isn't he adorable?! :)

Let me know if you make one too!