20 November 2012

White Chocolate and Roses 30th Birthday Cake

Ask any woman what they love and they will say...chocolate! Now add some flowers to that chocolate and you have one happy woman! (take note men) hehe.. with this in mind I decided to make my lovely neighbour a 30th Birthday cake to remember.

I decided to make her a Vanilla Cake with chocolate ganache filling, vanilla buttercream icing, white chocolate sleeve around it and pretty sugarpaste roses.





I used my delicious and trusty Vanilla Cake recipe. Get recipe here (link coming soon)

The bottom tier is two layers of vanilla cake and the top tier is one layer. I filled the layers with white chocolate ganache. Get recipe here (link coming soon)

I then frosted the whole cake with vanilla buttercream icing.

I made a white chocolate sleeve that I wrapped around the two tiers and decorated with sugarpaste roses that I handmade.






I also made a number 30 out of green sugarpaste and decorated with pink flowers. I thought this was a nice touch.

 
 
 A cake pretty enough to eat!
 

05 November 2012

Mad Scientist Birthday Cake

I don't know about you, but I just love kids birthday parties! Especially if it is my son who is having a birthday and I get to organise the party and bake the cake!!

His birthday is a pretty big deal around here probably because he has been my baby for the last 7 years and his is the only kids party I get to throw. Lucky for me we have a brand new addition to the family so come next year I will be organising two kids parties!!

After months of deciding about a theme for his party he settled on a Mad Science Party. I could finally become creative!! I searched all over the net and in books for ideas for a cake and finally we came up with this Mad Scientist Cake.





Mad Scientist Birthday cake


The cake is two layers of Vanilla Cake. You can find my Vanilla Cake recipe here (link coming soon)

The Scientist's body and head is made from Rice Crispy treats. I decided to make it from Rice Crispy treats because it is much lighter than cake and because the two layers of cake at th bottom where more than enough for all the party guests.

I covered the body with icing so that the fondant would stick better. I then sculpted the head by covering it with skin coloured fondant (MMF works very well for this as it is soft and flexable). I then formed some ears a nose and hands from the skin coloured fondant (sugarpaste - because it dries quick and hard). I made a jacket from white fondant and a bow tie from red.

I made a small amount of yellow and purple fondant which I used to make small balls  to place around the cake. I also put some small red balls inbetween.

I made eyes with white sugarpaste and I used a edible ink pens for veins and pupil. I then covered the dried eyes in a layer of edible glue and let it dry. This gives it that glaze look which looks very realistic.

I made my own very strong sugarpaste that dries almost instantly and used that to make the test tube and beaker. I coloured the bottom of the test tube and beaker with some metalic edible paint. I also made some bubbles from the same sugarpaste that bubbles over the beaker and stuck them with edible glue. I then cut my son's name out and stuck that to the bubbles so that it looks like his name is coming out of the beaker! He loved that special touch. I also made some green goo that is running out of the test tube and it falls onto the cake plate in the shape of an 8!

I made some grey royal icing and I added some tylose powder into the icing to make it dry super hard and fast. I used it to pipe some hair onto our scientist and I also used it to make his moustache.

The cake is covered in bright green buttercream icing and then the same bright green fondant.

I then placed the scientist on top  of the cake and started addding all the different elements.





Name and age detail

 
 



My son was very happy with his cake and his friends were super impressed! His science party was a huge sucess and so much fun for everyone.

I cannot wait for next year's party..........