The case of the happy brown dog

The brief was a happy brown dog with houses for 5 year old Rachel and that was it not a lot to go one except it needed to be vanilla sponge for 10people.

I started with a sketch of a work in progress.

I started with 3 layers of 7" round vanilla sponge filled with vanilla buttercream and seedless raspberry jam then coated them with a peppermint green buttercream to the sides of the cake. I cut out a round of mid green sugar paste and placed it onto of the cake. 

The cake board was covered in poppy red sugar paste and the cake placed off centre on top.

I made the happy brown dog complete with red collar and golden dog tag he came out a little larger than I anticipated so I just went with it as he was sooooo cute! Because of the size of the model I had to place he houses to the front of the cake otherwise I would run the risk of the dog looking like 'Digby'.

I made the houses using shades of brick with one house having a thatched roof ( it just seemed more romantic) I used sugar paste and stuff them to the buttercreamed sides of the cake. 

The finishing detail was the writing a large number '5' using white sugar paste rolled out thinly to create the shape on top of the cake.I then used this technique to create 'Rachel' on the cake board. The finishing touch was a a red gingham ribbon around pad the board. And voila the cake is complete.

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The year of the Horse

With the beginning of another year I thought it was time to knuckle down to getting my business SugarBees Essex back up and running as I seem to have neglected it due to a change of circumstances.

So as it's the beginning of the year of the Horse and I thought that I would revisit some of my horse themed cakes.

The beginning of my love affair with horses heads (not in a macabre way), this cake was carved from a slab of Madeira sponge  and then hand cut in the various levels to make a Multi dimensional cake I then built up the head with paste before covering the whole head with chestnut coloured sugar paste. I love this horse as it looks like it has just won its rosette in the pony club gymkhana. The personalised rosette just finishes it all off.

Version 2was made on a tighter budget but it is still a beautiful cake a lovely bay horse with black muzzle with beautiful deep blue reigns and rosette for Katie's 6th birthday.

The final horses head was a grey fantasy horse with a pink mane , very 'my little pony'. The budget was even tighter for this cake and the design is very simplified. 

And so we move onto the inspiration for the 'Year of the horse' a collection of pictures that I hope to inspire you as they have me.

I hope I've inspired you and I'm working on some projects to do with the Chinese New Year for next time.

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