Sugarcraft chat

[wem]

I started a thread for cake people a while back but it got a bit lost in Chat so thought I'd try to tempt people into our lovely new baking topic.

Hopefully I'll see some of the posters from the chat thread, but for any new people popping in, introductions: I'm wem, I'm a recent cake obsessive and have been bothering mumsnetters about it a fair bit as I'm starting up cake decorating business. I don't have anywhere near the experience or knowledge of some of the posters in here, but I do have an excessive willingness to chat about cake :)

Let's try this again, eh?

I'm not very good at quiches...but always happy to lurk on a cake thread.

Hello fillybuster, I'm not very good at quiches either, unless I start them, in which case I talk incessantly at people until they decide to leave me in my corner muttering about cake

oh i thought this was about how to make a sugarcraft quiche

I'm beginning to regret using the word quiche...

Wem - Helloooooo.

I am working on a Jubilee cake - 2 tiers bottom tier I am going to do white with shadow cutouts of marching guardsmen and/or corgis. Top layer is going to be bunting. Am going to attempt a pasitillage crown for the top. BUT before that I have a 2 tier wedding cake to make with rose spray on the top!

Can I join?

I make cakes for friends and family, not all the time but a few times a month.

Next few projects are a yellow/white baby shower coffee cake, a 40th birthday cake and a carrot cake, which I'm struggling to decide how to decorate. Any suggestions very welcome!

blueberry Jubilee cake sounds amazing :)

wem those cakes on your profile are gorgeous, how did you do those daffodils

Hi blueberry, will you use fresh roses or sugar ones? I want to try a big flouncy wedding cake with loads of cascading sugar roses, but that's a lot of work just for fun. Good practice though.

debka, I'll have a think about the carrot cake, not getting beyond mini carrots and rabbits at the moment! Is it for a particular occasion? I've got an 80th birthday and a 40th birthday coming up. The 80th will be fairly simple, but the 40th should be fun, I keep having to rein in my ideas because they usually involve buying one more essential tool

For the daffodils I followed , and put coloured pastillage through a sugar gun for the stems, then attached with more flower paste, though I think I'll try with pastillage next time I do them as after a while the heads started dropping off

Loving the new cakes, is the vase of daffodils a cake too???

I'm confused by 'quiche'? I'm also marking my place as I want to get into cakes/sugarcraft and am reading as much as I can....

Hello Viking, yes, the bottom two thirds of the vase is cake, with a pastillage section on top. It was a trial run for a wedding cake where the vase will sit on a couple of square tiers.

Oh god, perhaps I should ask MNHQ to change to title! 'Quiche' is a MN thing, it sort of means clique, but to me seems much friendlier than that :)

I am in awe! I bought the book you used for the stencilled cake but it is far too complicated for me! Maybe I'll have time to have a go during the summer holidays! Bupcakes wants to make her DC a cake for Sunday, maybe she could benefit from your experience? There's a thread about it.

I saw Bupcakes' thread, but it looked like she was in good hands. And I'm really such a novice, I'm finding stuff out as I go along, I don't have the knowledge base there to actually give advice and stuff!

I've now seen your post on her thread and am very and can't possibly post now! Ack!

Yes yes, of course you can!! Because you're a novice you can help her even more IMO! didn't mean to embarrass you, sorry !

Morning.

Wem, I did a cascading sugar rose cake recently for a wedding it was LOTS of work but was fun. The bride wanted it very simple and wouldn't let me trace her lace design onto the middle tier of the cake. hee is a pic what you can't see are the 3 enormous full roses on the top which were amazing! The next wedding cake is sugar flowers, again simple but I need the spray making practice!

Aaaah, blueberry, did you start on the last thread with a different name? I recognise some of the beautiful cakes on your facebook page. Those blue roses are exactly what I want to do. How do you attach them?

Wem , I think I did. I made the made them all on wired cellbuds, it made them easier to store standing up, then cut the wires off and attached them with royal icing. The top 3 roses I florist taped and put in a flower pick. I guess you could keep the wires and use tiny flower picks to hold the wires in place.

Ooh, MNHQ have changed the title, thank you! Hopefully there'll be a little less confusion around :)

Thanks blueberry, I wondered if they'd be too heavy to attach with royal icing and whether you'd need something like flower picks.

Can I join? Have just started up my own cake baking business - busy getting website and FB page all ready.

Could do with a few tips as well - am doing a birthday cake for Sunday for a friend's mum - design was all sorted, very springy, lemon cake with lots of flowers, butterflies etc. She now wants it to be for her brother as well so has asked for it to be a bit more masculine Any ideas? About the best I can come up with so far is to add a few toadstools, ladybirds and bees maybe, but it still won't be very butch....

Hello Tabbykat, and welcome :) You sound like you're at the same stage as me with business etc. My friend is doing a website for me and I keep wanting to chase him up, but it's a favour so I don't feel I can...

For the cake, maybe you need some slugs and snails (and puppy dog tails?!) in amongst the flowers :). How about a gnome or something?

Or, a shed does he have any hobbies that could be incorporated?

Hi Wem, hmm - he's 33 so no hobbies that sit well with a cake for a 65 year old lady's birthday!

The snail is a great idea - thought I would fondant the board green to look like grass and then add insects on there, so the top of the cake will still be mostly flowers & butterflies and still look pretty, if you see what I mean. Will all be a bit last minute as they want a buttercream finish rather than fondant so can't decorate too early or it'll collapse..living on the edge, here!

Wem - I used polystyrene celbuds which are much lighter than the traditional gumpaste centre so the royal icing held them on quite well.

Tabby - Could you do it a bit more forest floor ish, with logs, leaves and little primroses, toadstools, sprigs of grass etc. poking out the earth top?

Oooh. I do a bit of baking- but its (up to now) been just 'cake' with/without icing.

Am interested in getting into decorating next.

My DS is 5 in a couple of weeks and I want to make 2 cakes- I'm trying to work out how to make a monster themed cake (not buttercream- got to be divvied up and wrapped for party bags)- going to try and going to copy this for my sealife cake.

Monster ideas anyone?