Not another edible image of Justin Beiber?

I was asked by the client to create a special cake for her daughters 14th birthday party, she adores Justin Beiber so would love a cake with him on but under no circumstances was it to be an edible image of the boy/ man!

When you taking a call you have to think fast Justin Beiber ( kid rock star, lots of money, screaming girls, trousers around his ankles, hat back to front, bubblegum pop songs, more screaming girls, tattoos, fainting kids, more screaming and so it goes on....), my idea Marquee lights and a sugar model of Justin Beiber, mainly because I wanted to have a go at edible marquee lights I'd seen a tutorial on Pinterest to make them, so I pitched my idea, gave the client some size and price options.

Settled on chocolate cake , 3 layers with chocolate buttercream filling with purple fondant icing.

Marquee lights for age , name on cake and a model (gulp!).

1st step Marquee lights follow the YouTube tutorial: http://pin.it/KekS80L

Here's my 1st attempt which I went with

Next make the cakes, 3 simple chocolate cake layers each with a 7" diameter , filled with chocolate buttercream and crumb coated, then smooth coated with buttercream and left to setup in the fridge. 

I iced the cake drum in black  keep to the brief of rock star cake and covered the cake with a deep purple coloured fondant using the upside down method to get the smooth sharp edges that I love ( thanks Jessica Harris for teaching me via Craftsy ).

Next for the model , I looked through loads of images of Justin Beiber, boy does he have a lot of images on Google most of them inappropriate so I narrowed it down, I didn't want to make a straight standing figure I needed the challenges of I found this image on Google.

Most of his body is covered up but he has a clean look and he challenge of a squatting figure. How do I achieve this with plenty of CMC in the paste and an armature of jewellery wire inside his boy to support the weight. The only real problem I had was the hands ( I just can't get to grips with them, must try harder), the shirt and tattoos were all hand painted, I really don't think it's too bad and I was really chuffed with the end result. 

 I just hope that Anya was pleased with him, I know her parents were thrilled with it.

Let me know what you think too!

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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New venture

Another phase of 'Sugar Bees' evolution has begun, with a venture into Cupcake decorating classes and 'little old me' becoming a teacher!
How did that happen ? And how fast did that happen?
It's all been a bit of a blur I must confess, but a lovely blur, with a trial run at home with 7 ladies squished into my dining room to see if I would be any good as a teacher, and Wow they were all really impressed with the results and wanted to know when the next class was.
So class 2 & 3 was thought up with valentines in mind.
A Basic valentines class and a vintage valentines class were introduced and I started to look for a venue, the village hall was booked and classes were full, lots of happy people who didn't mind coming out early on a Sunday and me being exhausted from teaching up elated from the 'buzz' of being able to show people something exciting and teach them something they didn't know before they walked through the door.
But the village hall wouldn't do, so 'the Hive' was found on a trial run, and I love it. It still looks like an office but its mainly my space and I have filled it with lots of things, but more need to be found until I'm happy with it.

Cath Kidston Inspired cake.

Cath Kidston inspired!

This cake has created a huge amount of interest on my FaceBook page.It is a Cath Kidston inspired Hand painted No.1 cake.
The cake itself is palest green and the pattern has been painted with edible cake dusts mixed with rejuvenator fluid and SuperWhite powder .
it took forever but I love it!
Happy Birthday Leila!
I think that this could start a trend for Hand painting and finally I may get back to my Fine art Roots X

A fine Vintage?

It turns out that 1972 wasn't a good year for wine, however, the fact that I was the first born to my parents ( makes me think otherwise). Anyway enough about me back to the booze!

Photocake images are amazing, as there is no way that I had wanted to paint the vineyard design , as unknown to me I was about to be struck down with a chest infection.

The rest of the wine crate however is all my own work, just wish that we could get a corkscrew and open the wine up! 

Vintage Pin-up girl

I will start my Blog with my cake of the moment a 1950's pin-up girl. This cake was a 12" square vanilla sponge which I covered with a 'Nude' coloured icing.
The image was copied from a 1950's glamour magazine, and totally free-hand painted with edible paints.
I love creating something different and getting back to my Fine art roots, just give me some paint brushes and watch me create a picture. The lettering was taken from a Vintage poster and adapted, then hand painted with Midnight black dust/ rejuvenator fluid combo.
The cake was finished off with a string of Ivory sugar pearls, and an ivory & black satin ribbon with a bow to the side.
I love it and I hope you do too!