MY GRANDAUGHTER'S COOKIE MONSTER CAKE

This is a cake made last November (2013).  My daughter baked and decorated the two tiers, and I made the fonfant figure for the top of the cake. Somehow  I never had time to upload the photos,( my card making takes up quite a lot of my time!!) So they arent recent photos. However,I still think they may give you a few ideas!

My eldest grandaughter is an unconditional Sesame Street fan! She loves the live Sesame Adventures Show at our local Warner Theme Park( Port Aventura). So we knew exactly what theme to chose for her 6th Birthday Cake!

 My daughter baked and filled the cake and covered and decorated it with fondant.
 I made the fondant  Cookie Monster and a fondant  tin of cookies to go with it .

I've shown one or two of the stages, as I went along. I started the figure about a week before I needed it to allow for drying  and setting it into place on top of the cake.

The fur effect is achieved  by snipping minute snips with tiny little nail scissors. It's quite time consuming, but it looks very effective.

Munching on a chocolate cookie!

Cookie barrel with cookies included!

The jars  and kitchen paper were to hold the arms in place overnight while drying. Luckily it was November, and I didn't have the humidity problems that are common to the Summer months, when it is quite hot and sticky and it's a nightmare getting arms and legs of fondant figures to stick! I often use cocktail sticks to be sure.

 It was a two tiered cake and the design of the lower tier was taken from the entrance to the younger childrens' play  area at Port Aventura in Vilaseca( near Salou) in Tarragona,Spain.

It was well worth it, to see how happy my grandaughter was with her Birthday Cake!!

Birthday Cake Topper: TOM & JERRY

For the birthday of a little boy, Eric, we were  asked to make a Tom and Jerry themed cake with fondant  figures, just before the summer.

My daughter was baked and decorating the cake itself.
 So  once we decided upon the colours, I set to work!

It was a first for me , so I spent some time looking at photos and prints  for a bit of inspiration. 

I often print out an image to make sure  I keep to the estimated size.
Then I can reduce or enlarge on future occasions.
 This is always helpful for expressions too.

Here are some stages in the making, although I don't always remember  to take photos until Ive stuck on  several parts!!( mental note to myself).

As I made fairly large figures I used coctail sticks with a dab of food glue to add limbs and head.
 Of course, we always advise of this when it is the case. 

Sometimes I use spaghetti or just a little edible glue, then support the part in question with kitchen paper or bobble plastic  and generally position to allow for drying.

Here along the coast in Spain, it can be very humid, and Summer months can be  complicated to get fondant to dry.

 I sometimes use gum paste which I colour or otherwise, fondant mixed with tragacanth gum or
tylose powder.

Fixing limbs on: these were quite light,so I just glued with a dab of edible glue and supported the limbs with lightly rolled kitchen paper overnight.

                     limbs in place.

I used cocktail sticks to fix the arms in the position I wanted and a dab of edible glue.

You can see the roll of kitchen paper supporting and positioning one arm. 

The cheese also was placed as it had to go on the cake,to get the right height.

Tom's other arm was to be waving,so I used a tall glass with rounded bottom that I could rest the hand on without deforming the hand or arm. I had glued the hand(paw) to the arms the day before.

You can see the tail and white tip which I did at the same time.

Here you can see  the hand positioned a bit better. I also rolled out(very finely rolled) the whiskers and tufts of hair from black and gray gum paste and left these at least 2 days, making extras,as there's always ONE that snaps off! I make the holes with the end of my cocktail stick or a pointed shaping tool. 

Tom and Jerry about ready for going on the cake! The cheeses look good and are very simple to make,As long as you use different sized flat ended tools to make them more realistic, You could do a big round one,with a bit cut out or whatever.
I also punched out a circle of white gum paste and stamped T and J with a little heart in the centre! Then I fixed it to the end of a wooden skewer(kebab stick).

My daughter made a lovely job of the cake.
 I love that light turquoise blue  with the yellow and red name and age!

Thank you for looking at my photos.
 I hope they will be of use when you need  Tom and Jerry figures!
Have a crafty day!!

GUITAR THEME BIRTHDAY CAKE

My son Alex loves his guitar,so I decided to make him
 a guitar themed cake for his last Birthday.
 It's a while ago,but I think you will enjoy looking at the photos.


A mi hijo Alex,le encanta su guitarra.
Así decidí hacerle un pastel con guitarra
para su último cumpleaños.
 Esto fué hace tiempo,pero creo que las fotos son divertidas!

The guitar was a biscuit covered with fondant.I used florists wire for the strings.

The cake was vanilla sponge, covered and filled with chocolate ganache 

and finished with cherry red fondant(his favorite colour)

I made a piano keyboard from white fondant,
 cut out the keys and added once the white fondant had been put in place.
I used a little edible glue for this .
I made a treble clef from a string of rolled out black fondant
and cut out some white quavers and crochets to decorate the top.

As I made the cake a rounded,I made a small wedge from cherry fondant
 to place the guitar in position. I added a black oval in front
and made a letter A from my funky letter set.

You can see how pleased he was with the cake! Here he is blowing out the candles.

Here he is with his papa and Mum(me)!

And to go with the cake, I hand crafted  a super card designed bty Eva Cano, complete with odd socks,guitars,C.D,Headphones and plenty of CDs to strum along to!!

BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR TINA

We have been baking biscuits together for a while now and I wanted to bake a special cake for daughter Tina's birthday. I had a good idea of what I wanted to do , but needed a bit of inspiration to get started.
There are lots of great blogs for decorating with fondant and I came upon one from an English lady , Astral de la Mare owner and baker at the Buttercream Bakery in Brighton who specialises in miniature fondant/sugar paste toppers and figures for cupcakes . Her blog is " The Extraordinary Art of Cake "
As soon as I checked out the blog I saw just what I had in mind! But I wanted it for a cake not a cupcake. However, the principal is the same so I just adapted it to my needs.
I made a victoria sandwich style cake with 3 layers filled with jam and buttercream and also covered with a smooth layer of butter cream as a base which I left overnight before adding the fondant .

Meanwhile, I prepared all the plates,napkins and mini cakes.
The plates are small biscuits, which I had shaped before baking,covered with fondant.
The napkins are thinly rolled and cut out squares edged with a modelling tool and folded. The first ones I did, I didnt add trag gum - so they cracked! So I had to do them again!! They were fine the second time round! I painted the decorative edge with a pearl food paint.

Here are a few photos so you can see the results. I had great fun with decorating this cake.
 And I know Tina was delighted with it!!



Hice esta tarta para el cumpleaños de mi hija Tina. Hacemos las galletas y pasteles juntas, así queria hacerle un obsequio especial!

Me inspiré de un blog de Astral de la Mare del Buttercream Bakery en Brighton,Inglaterra. Su blog"The extraordinary art of Cake" es fuera de este mundo. Hace verdaderas esquisiteces para "toppers" de cupcakes y galletas. Adapté la idea para un pastel y hecho a mi aire...

La masa es la que uso para las monas de Pascua. Es entre un"Madeira cake" y un "bizcocho". Tiene un poco mas de consistencia. Lo rellene (3 pisos) de buttercream de vainilla y mermelada de frambuesa.

Hice las miniaturas con varios dias de antelación para que se secaran bien. Las photos os dará una idea del resultado. Me lo pasé pipa haciendo todas las decoraciones.

 

 

la mesa a punto para la hora del té!

 

It's tea time!!

 

 

Pastelillos y detalle de una servilleta.

 

Fondant napkin  and chocolate slices. Plates are biscuit based covered with white fondant.

 

  Bandeja de pan con panecillos.

 

Bread basket with mini rolls