Postman Pat Cake Topper

A lady got in touch with me for a cake, but unfortunately she lived too far away in Cornwall so she asked if I could create just the cake topper to go on top of a cake which she could make herself. When she said that she wanted a Postman Pat and Jess cake topper I was very excited to take on this challenge. Postman Pat is very iconic and I knew that I had to get this exactly right else if wouldn’t look like him.

I really enjoyed creating these characters and hope that I did them justice. The models are made out of gumpaste which sets completely solid. I thought this was the safest option considering they were being sent by post. They both have a dowel through them to allow the lady to push this into the cake she makes and secure them. Along with the characters I also made 3 parcels and the boys name also out of gumpaste which can be seen in the photo below.

The hardest part I think was packaging these up to send. I placed the Postman Pat and Jess onto a piece of polystyrene and placed cocktail sticks around then to stop them moving from side to side. I then covered them in tissue paper and lightly wrapped some string to stop then moving upwards. Then came the bubble wrap. I really hope the little boy likes them.

F1 Square Cake

I have made lots of formula 1 car cakes, but this time I was asked to make a square cake with a model of the McLaren f1 car on top and also bringing in the chequered flag effect…

The cake itself was a 10 inch square sponge cake which had the model of the f1 car on top. In order to create the model of the car I followed the same methods I use to create the carved f1 cake but used icing/fondant instead to create the car body shape. The front and rear spoilers were made out of gumpaste to allow them to keep their shape and all the logos were hand painted.

To create the chequered effect on the board I used a 1 inch square cutter (actually it was the lid of a pot of cocktail sticks but it was the exact right size!). When covering a board with a chequered pattern you only need to do as many rows as will be seen once the cake is placed on top, but it always seems to take a lot more than you initially cut out, but its definitely worth it. I love the effect once the white cake is placed on top, it really makes it look like a cake fit for a racing fan.

Phantom of the Opera cake

A little while ago I was asked to create a cake for a true Phantom of the Opera fan. The cake was based on the poster for the stage show with the half face Phantom mask and the red rose…

This was such a fun cake to do as it is such an iconic part of theatre and I wanted to get it right. The cake was a 10inch chocolate cake covered in black icing / fondant. On top sat the iconic mask and red rose, both made out of gumpaste. To create the mask I brough a childs face mask from a local hobby craft shop and using cling film I was able to adapt the mask to have more male features to chow the brow line and the cheak bones. Then using gumpaste I cut out the shape of the half mask and laid it over the top of the adapted plastic mask and left it to go hard.

The rose was also made out of gumpaste and wired up with leaves and a green stem to make it look realistic. This was my favourite part of the cake. I loved how the red rose looked on the black cake, it really stood out. I was so happy with the finished cake and everyone seemed to really like it.

Rabbit in a Hat Cake

In May it was time for me to make a cake for my biggest critic: My Nephew. I knew I had to get this cake right as last years I was informed that his Ben 10 cake was a little short on characters. This year he turned 5 and he was having a magician come to his party. Well there only seemed 1 idea that was fitting for this party. A rabbit coming out of a magicians hat…

From the photo its hard to grasp the size of this cake, it was big. The hat is made of 4 layers of cake 8inches in diameter. The cake was covered in back icing / fondant with a slight dip in the top cut out to put the rabbit. The rim of the hat after many ideas was made from thick cardboard covered in black icing which worked really well. Because of the amount of cake that I had made I had no need to make the rabbit out of cake also so I cut down a polystyrene egg and covered that in white icing. The details on the rabbit are made from icing / fondant and gumpaste with the addition of white florist wire for his whiskers.

I really loved making this cake and Kai loved it which was the main objective and it fitted in so well with the Magician themed party.

In the Night Garden Cake

I recently got asked to create a cake in the theme of In the Night Garden, I have to admit that at the time I had absolutely no idea what in the night garden really was, so after borrowing a book from my niece and looking online this was the final cake which was to feed around 20 people at a little boys birthday party…

This cake was so much fun to do, the more detail that went onto it the more it looked like In the Night Garden. The cake itself is an 8inch chocolate cake with a 6inch vanilla cake ontop. I used dowels and a 6inch board under the top cake to separate them.

There are so many areas of this cake that I like, but the most time consuming part must have been the little flower balls which are dotted around the side. Each ball formed from a rolled up piece of icing covered in tiny individual flowers which took ages to make, but looked really effective once put on. I also really like the effect that the trees create all the way around the back, I wanted to create the scene around the whole cake, not just on the front. To create the detail on the leaves I used the smallest size of the PME rose leaf plunger/veiners.

Once all the detail was on the cake it was time to create the characters (Iggle Piggle, Makka Pakka & Upsy Daisy). All the characters were made out of icing / fondant, so were completely edible, apart from the dowel that I placed through the middle of them to help them stay up. I really loved how this cake turned out and I was so happy when the boys little sister liked it when they came to collect it. There are more images of the characters and cake close up in my cake gallery, so check those out…