Saturday, January 28, 2012

Wedding cake practice

 The year has got off to a nice, slow start which after an incredibly hectic November and December I am actually relishing!  Best of all it has given me time to practice new and trendy techniques which can be used for wedding cakes and anything else really.
 I had been dying to try out this new technique called billowing for ages; I just haven't had the time or the opportunity until now.  It looks just like puffs of fabric and I loved how very easy and effective it was.

Then I bit the bullet and tried brush embroidery on the middle tier.  I admit I have tried this once before, but the results were so dismal that I never photographed it.  This time it came out better, but is clearly something I need to practice a lot more!  I liked the way the blossoms came out, but next time I will leave out the vines.  It made the whole thing look a bit clumsy in my mind.
 My original plan for the top tier had been to try some royal icing string work, but after several hours of trying I scraped the whole thing off and decided to try ruffles instead!  I do want to master stringwork, but it will be some time before I am confident enough to go public with it!  After a lot of headbanging with the royal icing, the ruffle technique was gratifyingly simple and pretty.

Then this cake had to sit patiently for a week until I found the time to make a peony for the top.  I have been doing quite a lot o roses lately, so I thought with spring just around the corner, it would be good to practice my peony.  I have a new set of peony cutters, so this looks rather different from the peony I learned to do with Alan Dunn last year.

Next on the list is something romantic for Valentine's Day.  Orders are picking up, so hopefully I will have time to create something:)

Thanks for stopping by!

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