I baked a half sheet white cake, (I add sprinkles to the batter before I bake it to give the white added color) and butter cream frosting. I use a variety of paste food colors and Wilton tips.  The cake looks flat but it is actually raised and detailed.

My brother turned 40 recently. We’re pretty close and he’s recently separated from his wife of 13 years. So I thought he deserved a most awesome cake! He owns a business that exports logs and clears farmer’s forestry blocks. His crew only use Stihl chainsaws, so I wanted to make a masculine cake that was kinda cool and edgy. I searched online for ages, for inspiration, but I didn’t just want a boring old chainsaw and a log for a cake. I came across Lauren Babis’ cake called The Red. She had a 3 tier cake all in red, with a girl with a chainsaw, it was pretty amazing. Anyway, I made a figurine of my brother and his beloved chainsaw and changed the icing to look more wilderness-like and just did 2 tiers.

The figurine took me 8 hours in total to do. I did this while I watched TV at night over a a couple of weeks. I don’t have all the fancy cake decorating tools or knowledge like professionals, so I assume it takes me 3 times longer to complete anything compared them! (I seriously wonder how I’d make any money, given the time it takes me)!

So, firstly, I made the boots and socks, then the legs (in one night). I stuck a toothpick up each leg for stability and in to the boot. I kinda criss-crossed them at the top slightly (see below for tip on royal icing the legs in to the boots)! The next night, I made the torso and stuck a toothpick out for the head to sit on another night. I inserted toothpicks for the arms to cling on to later. I made the black shirt that night and inserted a toothpick through the tummy for the chainsaw to go on later. I made the shirt in 2 pieces (a back and a front), by measuring the torso and used sugary water to glue it on. A few nights later, I made the vest (see pictures), stuck it on the same way as the shirt and used silver food powder mixed with vanilla essence to paint on the reflective stripes. I had a picture of my brother at work, to copy his clothes. The shorts were made in 4 pieces.

I made the chainsaw separately, but all in one night, so that it could be inserted over the toothpick. I just found a pic online to copy. I painted on the detail and used sugar water as glue. I made the blade 2 nights later (the chainsaw had a toothpick at the end just for it. The blade was made with 2 pieces of fondant, left to dry for 30 mins or so, then stuck on either side of the toothpick I had left sticking out the end of the chainsaw. To make the chain, I just used a fork to indent it around the edges. I painted it with the silver I used above and left it to dry while balancing on a container I found, just the right height, (so it didn’t droop). Once dry, I painted the black chain around the edges and the logo.

Then I did the head and arms. I used brown coloring for the goatie beard and hair. I brushed the sunglasses with water to give them a little shine. For the arms, there are online tutorials, use a knife to make fingers and round them off to look natural.

I left it all to dry in a container for a few weeks. Horror (!) when I pulled it out and the boots fell off the legs! I used royal icing to fix it as it sets hard.

Two days before his party, my Mum baked the cakes. Chocolate and nutmeg with chocolate cream cheese icing. The day before the party I sliced them in half (horizontally!) and filled with the icing filling and jam. I used the choc cream cheese icing for the glue for the fondant too. Mixing the green dye in to the fondant was horrible and took so long, I wished I’d just bought green fondant, all ready to go. It’s so expensive though. It took a good hour or more just to get the fondant the correct color  Grr. I rolled it out to about 3mm thick, enough to drape over the entire bottom layer. I put the bottom cake on the cake board and picked the fondant up with the rolling pin and draped it over the cake, then gently pulled the edges out while tucking in to the bottom of the cake. You Tube has loads of tutorials how to do this. Use sprinkled icing sugar on the clean, dry bench to stop the fondant sticking whilst rolling. Cut off the excess fondant and smooth with a fondant smoothing tool.

I used the excess by remolding in my hands then re-rolling thickly (about 6mm) and using number cookie cutters to cut out the ’40′. I poked up toothpicks before they dried (not too far so you can see them)! These then went in to the cake so they could stand up. Once they dried overnight, I colored some royal icing orange and piped around the edges. Make sure you dry them hard on waxy paper that won’t stick.

The top layer was done in the same way. I cut some dowel rods (3) to poke through the bottom cake to the base of the board below, then set a cake board on top that I’d made from thick cardboard and covered with board foil. This stabilises the top tier so it won’t sink through the bottom tier. Use some royal icing or the filling to stick the board to the bottom cake, then the top cake to the top of the top board. Once done, I used a knife to cut zig-zags around the front of the cakes then carefully peeled back the chain sawed bits. I left it at that for the night as I didn’t want to massacre the cake or it would’ve dried out.

The day of the party, I got a fork and carefully started to pull away some of the cake, leaving some crumbs around the base. You can pick up some of the crumbs and stick them back on as the filling does come out a little. An old friend turned up and relieved me of the crumbs, lol! I used royal icing dotted on in 3 or 4 places around the cake to stick on the ribbon and massacred the ends of them. I used royal icing to stick my brother on to the cake board.

He was so happy when he saw this cake that it made the time and effort all worthwhile. He reckons he’s going to use the picture of the figurine as his profile pic since it’s so much like him. My friends think this is the best cake I’ve done thus far (despite it being inspired by someone else). I can’t believe a cake could bring so much happiness; people are still talking about it days later!

The cake is covered with a crumb coat and chilled to make sure it hardens. Then I put fondant on to give it a nice smooth finish. The wheel and the needle all of the sewing items are made of fondant with Tylose powder to make it like gum paste so that it hardens. I used a lot of fondant and gum paste to make this cake but it was a lot of fun.

The recipient was very surprised. I hope you enjoy it also.

I was getting very nervous about not having enough cake to feed the amount of people I needed to feed so I decided to make a different style of purse. It worked out because the purse ended up being my own design and creation and that felt good. I then decided to make a shoe to match but, of course, at the party I noticed that the shoe looked odd next to the purse because it was not facing the opposite way but I was assured by my husband that I was probably the only one noticing that!  I guess he was right!

Anyhow, everyone at the party was very impressed and thought the cake was a real purse. I even had someone come and tell me that the cake was awesome and wanted my business card so that made up for all the stress I went through!

I worked out how big the bed was to be and cut out a template and then I drew a template for the head board and foot board and also the side rails. The headboard, foot board and rails were made using roll out icing and flower paste so that it hardened. These were cut out in white, left to harden and then painted using silver metallic dust mixed with a little alcohol and then set aside.

I then made the nurse using 1/2 flower paste, 1/2 roll out icing. I colored enough for the body in navy blue, some in skin color for head, arms and feet and some in yellow for the hair and modeled this into the nurse and set it aside to dry out for a couple of weeks. I then made the hat for the nurse and attached this using a little royal icing. Now I drew on the eyes and mouth and wrote the name on a small piece of flower paste I had put aside to dry for the nurse’s badge and attached this when the name had dried.

I now cut out the table out of a template I had made earlier to make sure it was the right size and molded the table support using 1/2 flower paste, 1/2 roll out icing and set this aside to dry out. I made some cards out of flower paste and some slippers and a glass. I cheated with the Campaign, I used a plastic ready made bottle. I also made the pillows out of roll out icing and set these aside to dry.

When all the items were dry and it was 3 days to the collection date I made an A4 size cake in vanilla sponge and cut this to size using a template I made earlier. I filled with jam and butter cream and then covered in a layer of butter cream and placed in the freezer until chilled and then I covered it in pink icing 2/3 of the cake and the rest was covered in white icing placing a strip of white icing to resemble the sheets turned over. I set this aside over night to harden, meanwhile with the left over cake I molded it into the shape I needed to make the cupboard and then covered in a thin layer of butter cream and chilled before icing with some icing I had colored in light brown marble effect. With the excess brown icing I cut out a square to fit on the top of the cupboard and cut out the draws and made some draw knobs. I attached these all together using a little royal icing and left overnight with the rest of the things I had made. I now covered the cake board in white icing and made square indents to represent tiles on the floor.

The next day it was time to assemble the cake together. I attached the cake onto the board and pipe iced around the cake. I then attached all the rails to the bed and placed the table aside the bed, then placed the nurse on the bed and placed the cupboard the side of the bed and pipe iced around this, then I attached the cards to the cupboard and the table and attached the glass and the bottle, and attached the slippers by the side of the bed.

To finish off I cut out the lettering for the message and placed this in place on the cake board. She was over the moon with the end result and so was I.

I started by making the cake top decorations. I made a man on a lounger and the top half of a woman, as she was going to be in the sea. I made a base for a parasol and I used a parasol I had in a cocktail while on holiday. I set all these aside to dry out. A couple of days before dad’s birthday I baked an 8″ round vanilla sponge and when cold I filled with butter cream and jam and then covered in butter cream and chilled in the freezer for 20 mins.

Now it was time to cover the cake. I colored some icing in blue and when all blended in I added a small amount of dark blue and kneaded it till I had a marble effect. I covered half the cake and ruffled it to resemble waves around the cake board. I then colored some icing in a sand color and colored the rest of the cake and cake board and then scraped some icing in white where the join is to resemble the waves on the sea. I did this in a few more places on the blue on the top of the cake. I then added the man on the lounger and the parasol to the beach and the woman in the sea.

With the left over brown icing I added a little white and mixed till I had a wood effect and cut out a plaque resembling wooden planks. I then cut out the letters DAD and attached these to the wood effect plaque. I left this to harden slightly and when It was hard enough to move I attached it to the front side of the cake.

The cake was now finished and he loved it.

I made the cake with fruits and chocolates. Then I decided to make the fondant marble for the base cake, though it didn’t turn out as well as I expected, this is the first time I have marbled a fondant. Wondering what I did with the cardboard?? I cut it out to make the castle pillars and then I colored it with pink fondant coloring,  just to make it look kind of real, up to you to decide if I nailed it,lol. Then on the last layer of cake, I used Q as a window, cos she’s a Queen. The pictures above shows how it all turned out. The bottom line my daughter loved it and her loving it, made my DAY!

I decided to be bold and try and make a cake with ‘fur’.  The advice given was to use the ‘grass’ attachment for my piping bag. I bought this two weeks prior to the party and the week before made some cup-cakes and had a practice run. Not bad, reasonably easy, but hey, there were just four little cup cakes.  Not a fully grown big brown bear. But undeterred I hired my teddy-bear cake tin – baked a chocolate cake and Friday evening 6.00pm  (the party was 11.30am Saturday), I commenced my fur enhancement to my teddy bear.

I did a light coating of butter icing first so my fur had something to adhere to, then off I went. It was a bit of a marathon and my wrists were rather sore by 1 am when I had completed it all (including fondant paws, ears and heart).  My daughter (Casey’s Mum) reckoned it was my best yet.  Casey loved it – and it did look like my teddy bear had fur – be it squiggly fur.  Mission accomplished.

The day I baked the cakes I made  one 10 inch, one 8 inch and one 6 inch chocolate cake. I then made one 10 inch, one 8 inch and one 6 inch  vanilla cake. Putting the cakes together using one chocolate and one vanilla using a raspberry filling covered in butter cream frosting. I then did the same for the 8 inch and the 6 inch cakes.

I then put supports in the 10 and the 8 inch cakes. I made blue fondant and covered the 10 inch cake. Using red fondant for the 8 inch and yellow for the 6 inch. I used butter cream frosting to attach the figures to the cake. I made stars out of the left over colors of fondant.  I used cookie cutters for the star shapes, cutting out the letters for DAVID’s name and placed it on the cake.

He loved it!

I used chocolate  cake 1/2 sheet for the bottom layer. Using a  mold for the cross in vanilla, I then frosted both cakes in butter cream frosting. I put supports in the bottle layer where the cross would rest on. I then covered the bottom layer in white fondant. Rolling out the white fondant for the cross after I reached my desired size, I then layered the fondant on a cut out from Wilton that had a flowery design….leaving a imprint on the fondant. I then covered the cross with the fondant.

Placing flowers on the cake I then made leaves out of green fondant  to fill in the empty spaces. I used the pink fondant to cut letters out. The trim was made of butter cream frosting and small flower buds.

I then used gel and blue coloring to create the “water”. I covered the sharks with the blue gel to make them appear under water. I overlapped the blue gel where it met the graham cracker mixture to make it look like a gradual beach. The dark areas to the far right of the cake are where I left the chocolate cake unfrosted because I thought it would create the illusion of “deep water”. I wasn’t thrilled with the way that turned out and in retrospect I wouldn’t have left the chocolate cake exposed like that.

The rock pile is made with candy rocks. The rest of the details are just piped icing. I used chocolate candy coins to accent the sides of the cake. The sharks, rocks, and coins were all purchased from a local candy store. This cake was a huge success and my little boy loved his “pirate cake”!  I do think this was my personal best as far as cake creations go!