Calla Lilies - 17/2/11

These are some calla lilies that I made in sugarpaste. I adapted the instructions found here to make them.

The stems are made out of kebab skewers cut in half, but I made the stamens too big at first so a couple of them are out of proportion.

You can see the two on the left where I made the stamens too long. 

A problem I encountered was that the amount of colour needed made the paste very sticky and so I had to roll out the icing a few too many times. This meant that by the end, the colour had been reduce by the amount of icing sugar I was using to stop the icing from sticking to the worktop.

One on its own. They look quite like the real thing.

Two together.

These are still made of sugarpaste, not flower paste which may be why I had problems with the icing. However they look quite effective for a first attempt at this flower.

More flowers and inlaying - 12/2/11

Some more purple flowers and petals on white sugarpaste. These are fruit cake with a layer of marzipan under the icing again.

Some of the leaves come from the cut-outs of the purple cake below.

I also made a cake with purple as the main colour, with white leaves inlaid into it.

The leaves were cut out of the main colour before it was laid on the cake, and then the white ones inserted.

These will be the last small cakes for a while, as i now need to practise covering with larger pieces of icing.

Sugar flowers - 6/2/11

My first sugar flowers are simple five-petal flowers.They are made of five identical petals which are stuck together with water and then left to dry for a while.

Close up of a flower

Flowers and leaves drying. All cut out with the same cutter.

The sugarpaste is coloured with food colouring paste, not liquid, so the colour is much deeper without making the icing too sticky.
Flowers and leaves on madeira cakes:

Edges of the cake are painted with silver dusting powder.

Bottom of the cake edged with twisted strips again.
The edges of the flower petals are highlighted with silver.

More practice - 1/2/11

To make my practising more interesting, these are chocolate cakes. They don't have marzipan on, just a layer of sugarpaste, which got a some chocolatey crumbs mixed up in it. Perhaps next time I should do two layers of sugarpaste if i don't do marzipan.

A different shaped leaf this time to the ivy leaves.Instead of round rope,
I twisted flat strips to make an interesting texture with less work than the twisted rope!

The same cake, from a different angle.
You can see the join on the corner of the cake which annoys me a little.

The second cake has red icing this time, for a change from blue. This came out a bit better as the icing was thicker.

Twisted rope around the base, and twisted flat strips for the sides.

A long leaf this time for variation.

The next post I'll start on sugarpaste flowers as well.

First attempts - 29/1/11

These were the first cakes I made to ice. They are fruit cakes, approximately 3 inches square.
They're iced with sugarpaste (aka fondant or ready to roll icing) over a layer of marzipan.

First cake. 2 ivy leaves with a band around the base.

Second cake. One ivy leaf with twisted ropes around the edge.

Third cake. Two ivy leaves, no other decorations.

You might be able to see how my covering of the cakes improves from the first to the third one!
Stay tuned for more of my cakes.