Cake lull...

Just saying I've not forgotten this blog, I've just actually had no cakes to do lately! I've just had a request for one for early next month, and I'm contemplating one for the end of this month for someone else as a present, but other than that it's a little quiet, unless my mother in law is keeping some quiet that she'll spring on me later!

I can show you something else I'm working on at the moment, it's not a cake but it's inspired by the last cake I did for my mum. Several people said how they loved the birds and would love it on canvas, so I've been working on that. Here's a sneaky peek, but it's not finished yet :)

I should probably enjoy the peace right now before the mad rush of Christmas cakes. There always seem to be birthdays and Christenings muddled in around Christmas too, but the peak wedding season in nearly over...

I'll trawl back through the archives sometime and find some photos of cakes I forgot to post here if it stays quiet on the cake front, or maybe post tutorials if anybody has anything they'd like to have explained to them? I have spare icing for now I can experiment with if I get bored :)

Bird cake

Well I promised I'd post it, and thankfully I'm actually really pleased with the outcome!

I hand painted the design using dust colours and gin and an itty bitty paintbrush, and the leaves, flowers and lettering are all from cutters. I dusted the flowers with some iridescent dust and then added edible glitter to the centres. The letters were from a ready mixed brown icing I bought (cop out, sorry!) and the leaves were made from the same stuff, but I put some dust colour and gin over the top in a darker brown, then wiped off the excess so it left the colour in the veins. Very simple and effective. Once it was all painted on, I also added edible glitter to the centre of the tail feathers and the wings on the birds.

Don't ask me what type of birds they are (like my dad did!) they jut came from my head. The whole design was from my head. They're probably like something else I've seen in the past, but I just did some sketches in preparation and this is what I came up with.

Overall it came out very well. It's not the flattest cake ever, but I don't care. I put a lot of love into that cake for my mum :)

Super husband has made a video again. YAY! I should make him do this for all cakes from now on.

Cake in progress

I'm currently in the process of making a cake for my mum's birthday, and I'm nervous because this is the first cake I'll do 100% start to finish! I've baked them and they're cooling ready to sandwich later, hopefully, then I'll have to ice it with no assistance! I may have to rope in my husband as a second pair of hands to flat-ice it.

I have several plans for how it will be decorated in case of disaster (some cover up more flaws than others!!) so I'm not disclosing any design ideas yet! Luckily it's a gift and my idea, so I'm not working to any brief bar my own, so if it all goes rubbish, I'll throw a load of edible glitter at it and pretend it was meant to be that way!

Watch this space, I promise to post pictures even if it's awful...