Cake Note 59: "I have everything now I had twenty years ago except now it's all lower" Gipsey Rose Lee

A birthday cake to celebrate 80 Glorious Years! This cake was almost a cake wreck...in fact the original cake is sitting in a box, hoping someone will take pity on it and eat it!

The heat this week has been dreadful for covering cakes and this cake was no exception. After several hours of trying to cover and recover it, I ended up tearing bits of cake off with the sugarpaste that I had to remove. I gave up in the end and started afresh this morning - early start, got my fresh ingredients from the supermarket and by 09.30 the new cake was in! It's been just as hot today but the breeze has made it easier to work with the sugarpaste - so here is Mark II of the cake:) The cake is actually ivory but the sunlight was so strong, it looks almost peach. The 80 year old loves peach coloured roses, so that's what she got. Happy Birthday Mary

Cake Note 58: "Chains do not hold a marriage together. It is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years".

What a lovely sentiment.

 I am a member of the British Sugarcraft Guild and this weekend, the Guild is holding an exhibition. My Guild branch decided to have a display table at the exhibition to show the range of skills our branch is capable of :) The theme was wedding anniversaries, to tie in with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. I chose the 12th anniversary, which is traditionally silk or linen and more modern, pearls.

I was a bridesmaid when I was a little girl, and wore one of those  old fashioned flower garland headdresses. I decided to re-create that garland using  flower (gum) paste  to make  Orange Blossoms, buds and small pulled flowers, to represent the marriage; and to represent the silk aspect of the anniversary, I covered an oval drum with 50/50 sugar/flower paste, rolled thinly and then rolled with a silk impression ceramic rolling pin and draped to look like fabric. I finished it off with pearl lustre spray.

I'm very pleased with it:)

the silk effect pin makes the paste look like silk fabric

This brighter photo doesn't show the silk effect as well as photo 1.

Close up of the blossoms

Cake Note 57: " It's important to have a twinkle in your wrinkle!" Unknown

 And at 90 years old this guy has loads of twinkles! he is my best friend's Dad who hit the grand old age of 90 at the weekend and I got the honour of making the cake. He goes to the pub every day, likes whisky and betting on the Gee Gees! So here's my interpretation of his great age and his hobbies!

Tech details - 10 inch square rich fruit cake - sugar pasted board and cake, model supported by 7 inch cake board.