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.

Cake Note 56: "When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies"

And we all believe in fairies, right? It would be lovely wouldn't it! This cake is for a Grandma who wanted to buy a cake for her Grandson's baptism - she'd seen one of mine with the blocks and caterpillars and asked for something similar in a single tier cake - she asked for pastel blues and white (right up  my street) and this is what she got. I wish her Grandson a life full of love, health and happiness...now that's a fairy wish if anything is:)

Thanks for looking!

Technical details: 10 inch vanilla sponge with jam and vanilla buttercream, sugar paste (fondant) to the board and the cake - I like to imprint the board with patterns that match the theme. The blocks are made following Marion Frost (Patchwork Cutters) kit, the rabbit is courtesy of Debbie Brown's Baby Cakes Book (thank you ladies for the inspiration) and the caterpillars......they're mine! I liked this cake:)

Cake Note 55: "Babies are such a nice way to start people" Unknown

Oh here I go again - a short sweet post though as I have to be up for work in the morning. This cake is a gift for a friend at work who is starting her maternity leave this week. The colour of the cake will give away the sex of the baby! A girl of course.

The little Baby in a Bunny suit on top is one I made courtesy of Frances McNaughton's book, Modelling Fancy Dress Babies, the originator of the models  - they come in a range of cute animal suits! Thanks Francis:)

Here it is, 7 inch chocolate mud cake iced in...well, pink of course!

Cake Note 54: “For all the advances in medicine, there is still no cure for the common birthday.”

As if 50 is a 'common' birthday:)

Well I can tell you this cake aged me overnight...well, over a few nights and days. Could I make a number 50 cake please? The 5 in fruit, the 0 in chocolate cake? A bit of bling and feathers?

Yes I think I can.......Big head springs to mind, know your own limitations is another thought that crashed across my mind too. That number 5 singlehandedly floored me. It was the hardest cake I have ever covered in Marzipan and sugar paste - it was so difficult to get a smooth, clean finish and I didn't like that.

Still, after days of covering and smoothing and modelling, and nights of nightmares, I finished this blessed cake - the recipients were my friend's sister and her husband, both 50 in the same week. I think she liked it - I, for one, was glad to see the back of it!

Number cakes?? Never again!

Cake Note 53: 'Happy Birthday, Two Today'!

A birthday cake for a cute little girl called Sofia. It was a short notice cake (very!). I don't like doing short notice cakes as I don't feel I do justice to them under pressure, but it was for a friend of my daughter. Anyway, Mum wanted a small cake with a princess....I didn't have time time to make a Disney princess which is what I think was wanted, so I made a 'cute' one! Haven't had any feedback, so I hope they liked it:(