Figure modelling course with Lorraine McKay

After a relatively quiet beginning to the year things have suddenly got insanely busy again.  Once again I am burning the midnight oil trying to keep up with my cake orders while dutifully going to work every day.  I  also spent two wonderful days in Maastricht, Holland last week-end, attending 2 days of courses with Lorraine McKay.  This doubtlessly has contributed massively to the need for late nights this week.

During the weekend I learned how to fashion this bride out of sugar paste, complete with dress details and jewelry, and also a cute mermaid in a bathtub.  On Saturday there were about 16 of us there, of which 10 were bona fide professionals.  Two participants were authors of cake decorating books!  So, yes, I definitely felt out of my league at first.  Yet everyone was super friendly and the atmosphere was relaxed and positive.  Lorraine herself was terrifc, who constantly cracked jokes and bantered with all of us.  For me the pace was punishing on Saturday.  It seemed I was always 2 steps behind everyone else  which meant that I was constantly having to ask Lorraine to show me again, as I had had time to forget in the meantime.  But at the end of the day, when I was checking out everyone else's projects, I realised that I was far from being the worst in the class!  The slowest, definitely, but not the worst.  That in itself was such a confidence booster!

On Sunday I schlepped all my stuff from the hotel to the course venue in order to make the train on time in the evening.  This time there were only 10 of us and the pace was noticeably more relaxed.  Fewer professionals and more hobby bakers so all in all an easier day.  In just one day I noticed a marked improvement in my face-making skills and in my ability to make hands (including the fingernails!).  In the end most of us relaxed too much and ended up not having time to fully complete our projects, me included.  Luckily we were allowed to keep our left over bits of fondant and sugar paste, so I was able to complete both projects at home.

All in all I learned more than I ever thought I would in one weekend.  Best of all the skills I have learned are easily applicable to other kinds of projects.  I now felt confident making a 3-D fairy for a birthday cake ordered for this weekend.  My fairy has bare feet, and I realised I could apply the techniques used for making hands to make realistic feet with toes and toenails.    See my next post for pictures of that cake and a dinosaur birthday cake I was also working on!

Witch's Hat cake

Tonight I am a very happy blogger.  Since my last post I found a better tutorial on making marshmallow fondant; one that made extensive use of a KitchenAid mixer, and this time I hit the jackpot!  My fondant had the perfect consistency and with the addition of bourbon vanilla tasted devine.

About the same time I received an order for a Halloween-themed birthday cake, so naturally I was  keen to try out my new fondant.  The birthday girl had requested a Witch's hat, but could not decide on flavour or colour.  After a moment's thought and a twinkle in my eye I jokingly suggested a rainbow-coloured vanilla cake with chocolate buttercream filling covered with purple and orange fondant.  I figured this would cover all the bases, but she loved the idea!  And truth be told I loved every aspect of making this cake.

It was fun dividing up the batter and colouring each batch a different colour.  It's a pity I can't show you what a slice would look like......Anyway, since I didn't have the appropriate shaped cake pans to make this cake, I improvised with three different ceramic bowls, the smallest of which was a cereal bowl!  Once baked, cooled, torted, filled and stacked I had to trim the cake into shape.  To say I "sculpted" the cake would be a serious exaggeration.

Once the hat was covered in buttercream it was time for the best part, namely rolling out the fondant.  It was smooth, it was pliant.  There was not a crack or a crease to be seen.  This was bliss!  I felt like a professional!  It was also time to try my new imprinting mat, which worked a charm!  Positioning the fondant on the cake was somewhat tricky, as I really could have used an extra pair of hands to hold the fondant aloft while I shaped the very top of the hat.  However, both my kitchen elves are in England right now, and hubby was working late.  Nevertheless, I got the job done and all that remained were the hat band, star and moon decorations and the birthday message.  The letters and shapes I had made ahead of time, so that took no time at all.  On an impulse I decided to add pearl lustre to the whole thing.  Together with the patterned "fabric" of the hat, the lustre just made the whole thing better.

Tomorrow the Hat goes to it's new home and I hope it is well received.  Yet even without compliments this cake was truly a feelgood experience.  I get such a rush when things finally fall into place and work the way they're supposed to.  I've been doing cakes for friends and family for as long as I can remember, but working with fondant is a whole new area for me.  Every cake I make is a learning experience.  These days every free moment I have I am working on new techniques, or practicing the skills I already have.  I get an almost child-like sense of happiness when I'm up to my elbows in icing sugar creating flowers and figures out of fondant and icing.

Birthday cupcakes

This has got to be the fastest cake project I have ever done.  My daughter comes to me after school all flustered because she has remembered too late that it is a good friend of her's birthday the very next day and there's no more time to shop.  So I suggested a box of personalized cupcakes.  She thought this was a great idea and after a short brainstorming session to determine the overall look and flavour, we came up with strawberry and vanilla cupcakes frosted in vanilla buttercream decorated in flowers and hearts.

Whilst I set to work making sugar paste flowers, hearts and cutouts for the message, Caitlin carefully went about baking the cupcakes.  After the decorations were completed and left to dry, I whipped up the vanilla frosting and covered the cakes.  Meanwhile I recruited my other daughter to cover a shoebox with wrapping paper, as I have yet to order boxes for my cupcakes.

Amazingly all this took only 2 hours!  The next morning I assembled the decorations on to the cupcakes and packed them carefully with tissue paper to prevent them sliding around in the box.  For a rush job we were pretty pleased with the result.  The birthday girl was both surprised and delighted.

With the summer holidays over, I am finding it hard to find time to work out a logo for my burgeoning cake business.  I have a couple of ideas in my head that I just need to try out on paper.  Once this is done I can go ahead and order business cards and labels to stick on delivery boxes.  On a more positive note I have located a dealer who can provide me with smaller numbers of cupcake boxes  at a reasonable price.
At this stage it would be slightly premature to order thousands of boxes!!!!