My First Ever 2 Cakes, Im Hooked

Decorating By olsjhs Updated 4 Dec 2008 , 5:16am by lifonahil

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olsjhs Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 4:54pm
post #1 of 15

Hello Ladies. I thought I'd post my first 2 cakes Ive ever made and decorated for some constructive criticism as family & friends ALWAYS say things are great just so as not to upset you icon_biggrin.gif

I started out making a cake for one reason only, we needed a Christening cake for our sons Christening and to be honest we were a bit skint as we had just got back from holiday & had spent all our money ha so I set about going to a few cake making stores to get prices and the basic of basic cakes were not really what I was looking for and we couldn't really afford to pay more so I told my parter I would make it myself, to which he laughed his head off and said i'll tell everyone their wont be a cake then icon_redface.gif thats confidence fo ya!!!

Anyway I had never even baked a cake before and stumbled accross this site & Anmie (if that is the right name!) blog & You Tube tutorials, I didnt even know how to cover a square cake without having seams at the corners!! So I have to deeply thank you guys here at CC as I combined everyone hints and tips and came up with my first ever cake (under alot of pressure seen as it was my sons big day!)

Anyway I must admit I am quite proud of my first every atempt and enjoyed it SOOO much I decided to practice at every opportunity!!

My first cake is covered in white fondant, I made the Teddy & Building blocks out of Fondant (the teddy went in the fridge and then went shinny and it was only after I read NEVER to put fondant in the fridge!) and the Writing is Royal Icing. The cake was a basic Victoria Sponge (which was a little soft for cutting and it colapsed at some points and I had to stick it together with buttercream and eddible glue ha - Ive changed my recipie now) Ok here it is (I removed the thing coming out of teds back when it arrived at the venue, he kepts slouching!)

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So after this was halloween and we were having a little party so I decided to make another cake, now this IMO was a disaster! My timings got all messed up, my son was poorly, my OH got called in to work so I was on my own looking after a poorly boy, decorating the house, doing other food and making the cake, I was stressed and it wasnt pretty! The shop didnt have the right colouring pastes so the colourings went funny and the Fondant didnt seem firm enough and my models kept slouching, in the end I thought it looked like pretty pants and think everyone said it was great to make me feel better - good job I have nice friends icon_biggrin.gif

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The Halloween cake was supposed to be this one from Debbie Browns Party Cakes book
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Can anyone tell me what I need to do to stop my figures from slouching, Im makeing some more for another cake and I dont want the same problem, should I not be modeling my figures out of fondant?

14 replies
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ranbel Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:13pm
post #2 of 15

To not have taken any classes, you did a terrific job. Can I ask you how you got your blocks so pefectly square and the exact same size? I have some baby blocks to do next week and I like the way yours look.

Thanks a Mill.. thumbs_up.gif

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buzymama Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:14pm
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Your cakes are great!! I used to make the same mistake with the fondant, gumpaste dries quicker so the figures don't slouch as much, but it does NOT taste good, hehe. I'm not a pro though and I'm sure you'll get a lot more help from other people.... The bear was really cute!!! Congrats and keep moving forward!!

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alanaj Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:17pm
post #4 of 15

Great job on your first 2! If you do a mix of 50/50 gumpaste and fondant for your figures they will not slouch.

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juleskaye518 Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:23pm
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I can only see one picture, of the haloween one, but it looks so awesome! Keep it up!!!

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Mom2ANC Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:28pm
post #6 of 15

I absolutely refuse to believe that your sons Christening cake is your first cake ever. No way!!! That is so perfect looking, even your writing looks really good. (I can't write on a cake nicely to save my life, because my IRL handwriting is terrible!)

And I agree, isn't this site the best??

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olsjhs Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:46pm
post #7 of 15

Thanks for all the positive replies guys & the help with the figures, I will get some gumpaste to give it ago mixed 50/50 with fondant. Im really pleased you all like them!!

Ranbel : The blocks took a long time to get so right, I basically did one long 2.5cm wide block and smoothed it with the smoother, then I got a sharpe knife and a ruler and cut it down the middle and then along at 1cm intervals so I had about 30 little blocks (all about 1cm by 1cm) then I picked the best half of them and used the smoother on one hand and the flat ruler (another smoother would have been ideal but I didnt have one so used the ruler as it was a flat plastic one) and flattened all sides barley touching them, then I didnt do the writing till I had left them to firm up so that I could touch them - closer inspection to the cake in real life will reveal the blocks are not perfectly the same size! I made a few errors and pretty much used up all of the square blocks!

Mom2ANC: I promise that was my first proper cake, the writing was difficult but I picked up a great tip from here, if you can see in the pic you can see the corner of a piece of paper with computer print on, well I wrote it out on word, picked a font that was quite spacious, messed round with the size, printed it off then I lay it on the cake, went over it with a blunt squer so it indented the cake, then just went over the indent with the royal in a piping bag, by hand was shaking like a leaf the whole time, I did do about an hours practice before hand on greaseproof paper in order to get my ''flow'' going! (Oh and my IRL handwriting in real life if very very neat so maybe that helps!)

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Shazzicakes Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:57pm
post #8 of 15

The 50/50 gumpaste and fondant works well, but you could also just add tylose (also called CMC) to your fondant (half a teaspoon to 250g fondant / sugarpaste) - works for me, and aine2!!
Awesome chritening cake, by the way!

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dmich Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 5:59pm
post #9 of 15

Fantastic job on your cakes. I am so surprised that these are your first attempts. Now there will be no stopping you! It is rather addictive, isn't it?

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pkinkema Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 6:21pm
post #10 of 15

WOW. Your gift is that you are very artistic and creative! With those qualities and this website, there's no telling what you'll be doing! icon_smile.gif

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panchanewjersey Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 6:24pm
post #11 of 15

I think tour fondant is better than mine on your square cake, good job. That's how it all starts and then ........your hooked and you find yourself buying cake stuff instead of new panties and bras. lol Oh and countless hours on cc which is why dinner is never made on time. Hahaha. Ooooh boy I love CC.

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olsjhs Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 6:32pm
post #12 of 15

Shazzicakes : Ill try the CMC thing as well (hope the local cake store has some) then all see which one works best for me, thanks for the Tip.

I have always been artistic (I was always in trouble at school for drawing and designing my books icon_lol.gif ) and I have always been very good at copying what I see, so as long as I have a pic/model/video I can have a good go at re creating.

The only problem Im seeing is the time! The cristening cake took from about 9am till 6pm (including the baking of the cake) and the Castle mo
monstrosity I baked it the night before and the decorating took me about 4/5 hours which I think is a long time!!

Re the christening cake I was EXTREMLY proud at how it turned out which is why I think im so dissapointed with the castle, I think I aimed to high with it, but the Christening cake has perhaps photographed smoother than it was as it wasnt perfectly flat and had a fair few bumps and dents in it!!

My neices birthday is going to me similar to the christening cake with Peppa Pig & her brother George on it so need to get practicing these models!!!

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olsjhs Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 6:34pm
post #13 of 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by panchanewjersey

That's how it all starts and then ........your hooked and you find yourself buying cake stuff instead of new panties and bras. lol Oh and countless hours on cc which is why dinner is never made on time. Hahaha. Ooooh boy I love CC.




icon_lol.gif I actually believe that!!!

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candynumber1 Posted 3 Dec 2008 , 6:50pm
post #14 of 15

YOUR CAKES LOOK GREAT! TO BAD HUBBY DIDN'T HAVE MUCH CONFIDENCE IN YOU, YOU SHOWED HIM! LOL!

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lifonahil Posted 4 Dec 2008 , 5:16am
post #15 of 15

Great job. Wow.

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