1950's Vintage Dress Cake

A few weeks ago I attended a course at the Cake Parlour with owner Zoe Clark. Zoe produces the most beautiful cakes for weddings and other occasions and also supplies Fortnum and Mason. Her latest book is Chic and Unique Vintage Cakes and this vintage dress cake is from the book along with other designs such as a Singer sewing machine.

One of the reasons I wanted to go on this course is due to the gravity-defying design. The cake is suspended on a dress makers dummy. The design is also so chic, any lady would love this cake for a birthday or special occasion. This cake requires some construction including cutting foam board, attaching a threaded rod and nuts and using a glue gun but the finished product is worth the effort. The principle can also be applied to other designs such as a Christmas tree or bird house.

The dress I made is quite 'poufy', Zoe's original is a bit more slim line which is a little more elegant. However, the more poufy, the more cake! The body for the mannequin is made in advance with lots of CMC added which allows it to set hard. The cake is carved out of three different layers of cake to give the shape and some folds were also carved in.

The skirt part of the cake is covered in sugarpaste and then the body is added on top before adding the bodice in flowerpaste. I had a little bit of a problem with the sugarpaste as it buffed up to a really shiny finish and then it didn't dry and set as you would expect, it seemed a lot stickier than normal so I ended up with a bit of a wonky hemline but it was just about rescued!

The finishing touches were the necklace which was made using a First Impressions pearl mould, the bow around the waist to cover the join and the top of the dummy with the wooden handle. I particularly like the floor boards on the cake board, they were made using the edge of a ruler to mark out the boards and then a Dresden tool to mark the grain. Finally, to give the colour, a little paste colour was mixed with water and brushed on.

This is a lovely idea for a cake from Zoe. If you want to see more of her designs, check out her books.

Vintage Bird Cage Cake

It's been one of my cake decorating ambitions to make a bird cage cake...and now I have! Last Sunday I attended a course at The Cake Parlour in Wimbledon Park (yes I know...another one...I think I'm addicted to courses!). The Cake Parlour is owned and run by Zoe Clark who makes the most beautiful cakes, Zoe has also released a range of cake decorating books.

This cake started life as a 12 inch slab of vanilla sponge. In order to create the shape we cut out three 6 inch rounds from the slab. To create the rounded top, an upturned cake baked in a hemisphere tin was added. Each layer has buttercream and jam in between and the whole think was then crumb coated before being covered in sugar paste.

All the bars were rolled by hand and stuck on, as were the swirls at the bottom. To create the bird an outline of royal icing was piped on acetate and was then flood filled, I'm sure you'll agree that the bird really brings it all together.

The pink flowers are rolled roses and the white blossoms were made using a cutter. To give them a bit more depth they were then dusted with a pink colour. Finally, to tie everything in we piped small green leaves around the flowers.

I love the finished effect and as usual was very loathe to cut into it but in the end the lure of cake to eat won out! :-)

I really enjoyed my course at The Cake Parlour and if you've got a minute or two to spare, I'd definitely recommend checking out Zoe's cakes.