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This unique bespoke 3 tier wedding cake is inspired by the day the groom proposed to his bride on a gondala in the romantic city of Venice.
Inspired by a Venice proposal
I was supplied with photographs of the bride and groom, flowers for the brides bouquet, colours and an idea of a gondala complete with the bride and groom to sit on top.
At first I sketched out a preliminary design that was 2 tiers for the bride and groom to approve. Eventually they changed it to 3 tiers as the wedding got bigger.
All the decoration was made in advance ready to be applied to the cakes which would be covered a few days before the actual wedding.
3D Gondala made of modelling paste
This gorgeous cake topper was made separately from the cake. I like to make it this way so it is detachable from the cake and can be kept as a keepsake of their special day.
When designing this topper, I focused on looking what a gondala really looks like in photographs, and in doing this I found out that if I created one true to an original it would be very large with very small people on it which wouldn’t work.
So this gondala is a stylised version to create impact and therefore characters that are a good size for the cake.
Making sure the figures and gondala are the correct size for the cake is important
‘Blue Moon’ roses, white roses, Lavender, Gypsophila and ‘Dusty Miller’ silver leaves (all in the brides bouquet) were hand made. The Lavender and Gypsophila were created using florists wire and was removed before the cake was cut.
The bottom tier comprised of an elaborate quilt effect on which the delicate flowers sat.
Roses, Lavender, Dusty Miller and Gypsophila flowers adhorn all side off the top of the third tier
It was safer to take the cake and topper in separate boxes so it was assembled at Woodborough Hall, Nottingham ready for the evening reception.
Wedding cake taking pride of place at Woodborough Hall
My original sketch outlining the design for the bride and grooms approval.
A sketch of initial concept
Well I am back. It’s a while since I posted anything on my website.
So it’s sunny outside and I think I may go out in the garden and mow my lawn so this will be a small blog.
I just thought I would have a go at making a rag doll that would be perfect for a little girls birthday cake. It’s around 5 inches in height and took around 4 hours to create.
Designed and created by Copper Top Cakes
This cute little rag doll is made entirely of modelling paste. I first started with the legs then attached the feet. Putting a stitch effect around the booties to emphasize that is a rag doll made of fabric.
I used a lollipop stick to hold the body to the top of the legs and hold the body up straight.
Using embossed rolling pins I then dressed the model body with a pretty skirt and worked upwards towards the shoulders.
Just getting the basics down, I moved on to the arms and hands with more stitching embossing using another lollipop stick to hold the arm up (I had to prop this up for 24hrs to dry and hold).
Detail of back of model
Making the face was fun and enjoyable – just to see what I could do – I surfed the net to get an idea of what rag doll faces were attractive and put my own stamp on it.
All the pretty flowers, dots and detailing were the last job of the day.
I also am thinking of making a little boy rag dog in blue to match at some stage.
I will always endeavour to reply to your enquiry within 48 hours. If you have not heard from me in that time it suggests that there is an error with my mailbox or server which I am currently unaware of and I would therefore ask that you try to contact me by phone or text. Thank you.
This 10 inch square sponge cake was created last week. It needed to have a clean and simple but intricate stylish design for Bill’s 80th birthday party.
Bagpipes, Canal Boat and Aeroplane 80th Birthday Cake
Firstly I consulted with the client about what kind of style, detail and colours they required which then followed with a computer generated design sent by email for approval.
It’s always best to ask about the person whose birthday it is; what do they like to do, follow, hobbies etc., and then it gives you an idea what to make for the cake.
Designed on a computer first.
To give you an idea of the scale (how small) this design is the plane was about 70mm long. All created using modelling paste onto a board covered with sugarpaste, this was produced a few days before covering the cake so it gave me plenty of time to get it right. The board was then attached to the cake with royal icing which meant that prior to cutting the cake, the design could be removed and saved for memories.
Bespoke 80th Birthday cake
Techniques used in this design involved hand modelling, hand painting and piping and therefore take time and care to reach the desired effect.
I will always endeavour to reply to your enquiry within 48 hours. If you have not heard from me in that time it suggests that there is an error with my mailbox or server which I am currently unaware of and I would therefore ask that you try to contact me by phone or text. Thank you.
Hello all. It’s a while since I have been on here – getting a lot of house renovating and other stuff done. Now we are in the new year it’s an exciting time. British Sugar Guild exhibition at Telford in May – our branch, Burton Joyce, have all hands on deck producing a design I created for entering a table in the exhibition branch competition… that will be thrilling.
But for the time being I have been thinking of new designs to take with me when I am demonstrating and this one, would you believe it, was inspired by a cushion.
Mainly hand cut flowers and leaves with piped stitching effect
I was just sitting in my living room when I glanced across at a cushion on my chair and thought that would make a lovely cake… then I did nothing with it and 6 months later I finally got around to it. It is not copied exactly like the cushion but I just used it to get my brain in gear.
Pretty Cushion Inspired Cake Detail
To start with I made templates out of watercolour paper for the leaves and large flowers (it’s quite stiff but easy to cut and store templates). Rolling out the modelling paste to about one millimetre I proceeded to use my templates and cut out my pink and blue flowers. This style does not require any thinning on the edges with the ball tool – just cut and use. I then used blossom and forget-me-not cutters on the smaller flowers.
Making the leaves are the same process as the large flowers. When attaching these to the cake they were not glued totally flat – it’s nice to lift the edges off the cake slightly to give it a 3D effect. Then trimmed with a little delicate piping with royal icing to look like stitching.
With the balls around the bottom I made one the size I wanted and then keeping that aside I measured all the others next to it to get roughly the same size throughout. Now there is probably an easier way or a tool to do this but as you know I do not own a lot of tools and the least amount of tools I use the better – it makes you have more creative flair.
This cake design is ideal for any type of celebration cake – pretty cake for a teenagers birthday or it can even be translated into a beautiful wedding cake.
If you’d like me to decorate a cake in a bespoke style or something completely different for your special occasion then please feel free to contact me for a quote. Copper Top Cakes is based in Nottingham and delivers to the East Midlands area. Please feel free to leave me an email or a message and I will always get back to you as soon as possible.
I will always endeavour to reply to your enquiry within 48 hours. If you have not heard from me in that time it suggests that there is an error with my mailbox or server which I am currently unaware of and I would therefore ask that you try to contact me by phone or text. Thank you.
This cake was designed around a Play Station hand console for a boy who loves playing all varieties of computer games that are available in todays world of new technology and gadgetry.
Hand Made Modelling Paste Hand Console Cake
Firstly I don’t play computer games so I had to research what a hand console looked like. I basically printed a photo off the internet to the correct size and cut out a template of the shape. After rolling the black modelling paste to the desired height I used the template to cut out the main body of the console then proceeded to rub my fingers around the sharp edges to soften. Creating the handles was a different technique of rolling the modelling paste into a sausage, then reducing one end to a soft point and then cutting out the other end to fit the main body again using the template. This was finished by hand painting all the symbols in edible food colouring.
Birthday Wishes
The square sponge cake is covered in pale orange sugarpaste on which the console sits. Finished off with royal icing piped birthday wishes and black and red stripes to create a striking cake.
If you’d like me to decorate a cake in a bespoke style or something completely different for your special occasion then please feel free to contact me for a quote. Copper Top Cakes is based in Nottingham and delivers to the East Midlands area. Please feel free to leave me an email or a message and I will always get back to you as soon as possible.
This amazing cake was created last week for a lovely couples 25th Wedding Anniversary party. They do a lot of walking with their dog Minty who loves to chase squirrels and this is what the bespoke cake design is based upon. This beautiful cake topper is actually sat on a cake board so it could be removed before the cake was cut and saved as a memento of their special day.
These hand-made figures are sat on a log which was based around a photograph that was supplied to me when the cake order was placed.
This is their cute little West Highland terrier called Minty which is roughly around 1½ inch wide and 1 inch high. He is eyeing up the squirrel which is even smaller than Minty and holding an acorn.
Around the actual cake a meadow was hand-painted with edible food colouring featuring daisies, butterflies, dragonflies and ladybirds surrounded by bright green grass.
When designing and creating cakes it’s best to make sure the cake decorating looks good from all angles – even behind.
The result of all this hard and enjoyable work was a cake I was very proud of and was just what the couple had in mind – and they loved it.
This kind of cake decoration could be applied to wedding cakes as well as all the other varieties of celebration cakes too.
If you’d like me to decorate a cake in a bespoke style or something completely different for your special occasion then please feel free to contact me for a quote. Copper Top Cakes is based in Nottingham and delivers to the East Midlands area. Please feel free to leave me an email or a message and I will always get back to you as soon as possible.
This cake was designed with Ascot in mind. I basically wanted to create some dahlias for a demonstration I have coming soon and thought it would look fantastic on my exhibit table.
These subtle pink hand-made dahlias look stunning on the hat cake – it took a few evenings to complete them by letting them dry at different stages. A ruffled piece of modelling paste that looks like draped fabric draws the eyes to the delicate flowers sitting on top.
Mounting the cake on two sugarpaste covered boards with ribbon around the edges turns quite a simple cake into a stylish hat.
If you’d like me to decorate a cake in a bespoke style or something completely different for your special occasion then please feel free to contact me for a quote. Copper Top Cakes is based in Nottingham and delivers to the East Midlands area. Please feel free to leave me an email or a message and I will always get back to you as soon as possible.
Nottingham LocalCard have just celebrated their 2nd Anniversary and kindly requested I make them a cake with their logo to celebrate.
I recently added my business to their website www.nottinghamlocalcard.com so this cake will be featured in their January newsletter too! How exciting!
When designing a cake you need some inspiration so the best place to look for it in this case was their website. I needed to see what the membership card looked like, fonts, colours and any other unique feature to them that might make the cake special. Sometimes it can help by doing a very quick sketch.
Creating cakes has been in my life for over 3 years now and I never stop amazing myself at what I can do or new techniques I can teach myself – there is always something new to learn. I still like to be true to myself and produce a pleasing design out of my head rather than someones book or off the internet with as little cutters as possible (all hand-cut and hand-made; the only shop bought cutters used in this design is the flowers on the girls shoulders and a frilled circle cutter for the skirt). I still get thrilled when I am working on a cake and seeing it evolve as every cake is different and beautiful.
I decided on making a rectangle cake that I could place a plaque (credit card shaped) on top. Firstly, I started the membership card by mixing a similar colour referenced to the website colour (you are never going to match exactly) into some white modelling paste, rolled it out thinly and then cut a rectangle with round corners out of it. This was then left for 24 hours to harden.
The next step was to cut out the logo with a scalpel in white and black modelling paste, let them harden and hand paint a keyline in black around the white letters. After that they were attached with edible glue.
I kept cross referencing to the membership card to make sure I was getting the style correct and that the logo was in the right position before hand-painting the rest of the lettering directly onto the plaque in black and white again following the brand. When all this was complete I carefully lifted the finished plaque up and attached it to the top of the cake with more edible glue.
The website features members’ holding their membership cards so this inspired me to make characters doing the same. I created a man and a woman, both holding tiny cards, wearing the same colours to reflect the rest of the cake and make it all coordinated.
The characters were started from the feet upwards. For the girl the feet and legs were made separately then the skirt is attached on top of that. Then it was time for the body then the arms followed by the head. The man was created in the same way but obviously wearing a suit. The finer details such as the painted toe nails, buttons and small membership card were added last. Inside each figure is one plastic dowling which must be removed if the figures are to be eaten but the rest is all edible.
LocalCard loved the cake and took photographs for their newsletter to come out in January. I hope you enjoyed reading about this.
If you’d like me to decorate a cake in a similar bespoke style or something completely different for your special occasion then please feel free to contact me for a quote. Copper Top Cakes is based in Nottingham and delivers to the East Midlands area. Please feel free to leave me an email or a message and I will always get back to you as soon as possible.
Well I know I have been away a bit but I am in the middle of renovating our bungalow – I had itchy fingers and needed to get ready for a British Sugar Guild demonstration I had coming up. The theme was ‘Painting on Icing’ and therefore I came up with a few different ideas to show everyone.
I created each piece on a 9 inch square board as this was a much better size to demonstrate (cheaper than a whole dummy cake) – Look out for more of my samples over the coming days and eventually I will make them up into cakes and show them on my blog too!
Bronze and keyline painting of poppies
This was my first example of what can be done painting with edible food colouring. I have been to art college and have been trying to replicate gouache paints and have therefore been experimenting with mixing different makes of colouring to achieve my desired effect. I wanted to paint with as little brush strokes showing as much as possible on the finished product and have a sharp edge. Quick drying on the cake but not in the palette was also needed – you know how the powder and vodka mix dries too quickly.
Inspiration came from all different sources of media. Firstly I had my design mapped out on watercolour paper so this could be tweaked on the actual design on icing.
The basic design was traced on to the icing and then the background colour applied leaving the desired white areas. After this had dried I used a fine art brush to trace the white poppies and then all the rest of the lines were painted freehand. This unique sample looks amazing and could easily be applied to make a spectacular multiple tiered wedding cake with petal paste white poppies on the top.
If you’d like me to decorate a cake in this style for a special occasion then please feel free to contact me for a quote. Copper Top Cakes is based in Nottingham and delivers to the East Midlands area.
This comission was for an elegant ivory coloured wedding cake covered in edible lace and lace roses delicately placed on top.
Around each tier a delicate edible lace in white was place over the ivory coloured sugarpaste for a subtle and stylish contrast.
Mounted on the cake to finish the design were some beautiful hand made roses created in the same delicate lace.
The cake is pictured displayed on the optional silver wedding cake stand which can be included for an additional charge.
If you’d like me to decorate a similar cake for a special occasion then please feel free to contact me for a quote. Copper Top Cakes is based in Nottingham.
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