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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.

3 tier sponge gondala wedding cake

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.

 

Bride & groom sitting in gondala

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.

Bride & Groom sitting in a gondala

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 made in petal paste

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 matching all the brides table decorations

Wedding cake taking pride of place at Woodborough Hall

My original sketch outlining the design for the bride and grooms approval.

Sketch outlining design and colours

A sketch of initial concept

You will probably recognise this cake but notice that its more vibrant in colour than before. I decided to take my first design one step further to show how the design can evolve into this beautiful celebration cake.

Extra Beautiful Butterfly Celebration Cake

All the previous hand-painting made the the gold, turquoise and a hint of silver easy to apply – like a childs colouring-in book.

Butterfly Celebration Cake Version 2

This design would be wonderful for any type of celebration cake – even a wedding cake with a difference.

Hand-Painted Butterfly Cake

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.

Purple Butterfly Celebration 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

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.

Lilac Butterfly Celebration Cake

 

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.

The lady I designed this cake for has taking up running marathons in the last couple of years so for her 50th birthday she wanted to celebrate it with a special cake.

50th_running_shoe_trainer_birthday_cake_full

The handmade running shoe (trainer) was created without any use of moulds – just sculptured from viewing a photo of her actual shoe. The shoe’s pink, grey and white colours are continued around the rest of the cake.

50th_running_shoe_trainer_birthday_cake

The ‘VW’ stands for Veteran Women running category.  Dainty flowers were arranged around the edge to frame the centre piece.

50th_trainer_birthday_cake

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 and delivers the East Midlands area.