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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.
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.
I was commissioned to create this bespoke wedding cake with its cascade of hand-crafted flowers for a couple who loves owls. These cute owls sit on the branch of the delicately hand-painted bride and groom’s names in a beautiful script font.
A single tiered wedding cake with hand-made flowers, hand-painted names and owls
Small pink roses, purple pansies, pink hydrangeas and tiny lily of the valley flowers adorn this one tier fruit cake. All of them made from petal paste and some piped royal icing for the the lily of the valley stems.
Roses, Hydrangeas, Pansies and Lily of the Valley hand-made flowers
The owls were gently sitting with the names so it would compliment the design and add to the overall effect.
Close-up of the hand-painted detail
These hand-made owls are so cute…looking into each others eyes that they make this a special and unique wedding cake.
Overall view of the 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.
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.
This was a first for me…to design a cake topper incorporating a man fishing for a 50th Birthday cake. I had to do my research for what he would wear and what shape the fishes would be. When I create my designs I like some form of realistic reference (not anybody elses cake ideas I must stress they are totally original) and then just let the idea flow and take a form of its own.
He had to be decked out in his fashionable fishing gear with his catch of the day…well nearly anyway. So sat on a lush green bank at the edge of a bright blue pond he is relaxing in the sun and enjoying trying to catch the biggest fish ever.
I used modelling paste for my character and fishes and modelling paste with Tylo powder for the sign, rod and basket as these needed to be harder so they could stand up andnot flop over.
I started off by covering the square vanilla sponge cake with green sugarpaste and then after leaving it to harden I then proceeded to make the pond with marbled blue sugarpaste.
Using the end of a paintbrush I formed small ripples around the waters edge to give it some movement.
For the grass I first attached a large piece of green sugarpaste and moulded it into a shape that resembled a mound. To get a rough texture I used a cocktail stick (any pointed tool will do) and dragged it upwards and all-over until all the green turned into grass.
I built the little man (he ended up about 6 inches tall) from his feet up. I first applied the boots and then the legs went on separately. The next section was his body and then his arms. At this point I inserted a lollipop/modelling stick to secure his body in place and then finished off with his head and hat.
The fish that’s caught on the fishing line in the pond was created our of white modelling paste and then hand painted. On the basket I used my pallet knife to draw the basket weave pattern onto it before constructing it with edible glue. After leaving it for 24 hrs to dry I filled it with white sugarpaste and then painted the fishes in it too.
The fishing rod does have wire inside it to stop it flexing and breaking and the same wire then is the wire on the rod to catch the fish. This part is removed before eating the cake as it is not edible but needed be this way to get the best results.
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 leave me an email or a message and I will always get back to you as soon as possible.
Well it’s nearly that time of year again…time to get ready for the big day and organise all the food, puddings and Christmas cakes a few weeks in advance for the big parties. I just had to make these cute little snowmen throwing snowballs at each other, having fun at Yuletide and perched on top of some yummy mini fruit cakes.
Handmade snowmen throwing snowballs at each other
This snowman got bowled over by the snowballs
Snowman enjoying his snowball fight
Ideal to make all Christmas parties festive with that special touch
These unique hand-made snowmen have their hats and scarves hand-painted in edible gold to match their gold buttons and the gold snowflakes. They will look great on any festive table.
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 leave me an email or a message and I will always get back to you as soon as possible.
I’ve been waiting to have a go at this creation that’s in my head for a little while now. If you have followed my blogs before you will have seen the square plaques I have painted for my previous demonstrations; now I wanted to have a go on a cake and I know butterflies are in fashion so I felt one large butterfly would complete this dynamic cake.
I love the pinky lilac colour of this cake and felt it was delicate enough to hold and show off a strong design with a large butterfly.
Now I already had my painting inspiration from my previous designs so I decided to dive in and paint straight on the cake with no patterns to follow, no traced pattern. Basically I doodled this freehand onto the cake then just kept repeating a similar pattern and making it up as I went along – I love this style has it as a vintage feel and looks a bit like a henna tatoo too.
Free flowing doodle
Now to the butterfly…I did not use any cutters in this process. I found photos of butterflies and cut out my own card template to get the wing shapes. It was like producing flowers really; cut out shape, insert wire, use poppy veiner to create wing veins and ball tool to soften edges. The body was more tricky and that was moulded around florist wire too. These were left for 24 hours to dry then painted and taped together to form this striking butterfly.
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 leave me an email or a message and I will get back to you as soon as possible.
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