Yes, I am rather late with the photographs, I know. Or, since I've only just set up this page, you could say that I'm incredibly early! Either way, here is my Christmas candle cake with my first ever attempt at wired flowers.
I made this cake in an evening sugarcraft class that I completed in the autumn of 2010. The design was from a Cake Craft & Decoration magazine and involved stacking three 4" fruit cakes and covering with marzipan and sugarpaste. The motif sits on a countersunk piece of coloured sugarpaste and the wired holly, ivy and Christmas rose spray is made from flower paste.
I enjoyed making the spray. I hadn't had a chance to make wired flowers before this class and found the process interesting. The holly leaves were made from ready coloured green flower paste, however the ivy and Christmas rose were made from white, with the colouring painted on the ivy using Sugarflair gel colours and for the colouring on the rose I used Sugarflair dusting powders.
Although I'm pleased with the end result, I had many issues during the making of this one. The evening class was a two hour session once a week, which meant that there were several stages. This alone caused problems for everyone in the class. Transporting it to and from the college each week was difficult as it was stacked and covered in marzipan one week, but not secured to the board. Then the following week it was covered in sugarpaste, but again, wasn't secured to the board. It fell over as soon as I drove over the speed bump at the exit of the college carpark :(
But overall, it held up fairly well and really came together in the last evening of the course. Looking back, I really would have preferred to have placed it on a larger board so that the spray didn't overhang the edge, however this is something to remember for future cakes.
Oh, and the reason I still have a Christmas cake which I completed in early December, despite it now being the end of March, is that I don't actually like fruit cake... :\
I enjoyed making the spray. I hadn't had a chance to make wired flowers before this class and found the process interesting. The holly leaves were made from ready coloured green flower paste, however the ivy and Christmas rose were made from white, with the colouring painted on the ivy using Sugarflair gel colours and for the colouring on the rose I used Sugarflair dusting powders.
Although I'm pleased with the end result, I had many issues during the making of this one. The evening class was a two hour session once a week, which meant that there were several stages. This alone caused problems for everyone in the class. Transporting it to and from the college each week was difficult as it was stacked and covered in marzipan one week, but not secured to the board. Then the following week it was covered in sugarpaste, but again, wasn't secured to the board. It fell over as soon as I drove over the speed bump at the exit of the college carpark :(
But overall, it held up fairly well and really came together in the last evening of the course. Looking back, I really would have preferred to have placed it on a larger board so that the spray didn't overhang the edge, however this is something to remember for future cakes.
Oh, and the reason I still have a Christmas cake which I completed in early December, despite it now being the end of March, is that I don't actually like fruit cake... :\
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