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I have a new kitchen. And, in my new kitchen I have space for a kitchen table in the window. I am absolutely certain that this will become one of my favourite places.
My sister has been staying with us and it was her birthday about a week ago, so I decided to surprise her with a cake. On Saturday, when everyone went out for the day and I stayed home to have a bit of a general catch up, I baked a cake and set about decorating it.
I sat at my kitchen table with everything laid out around me and found myself humming in pleasure.
I spent a lovely hour creating a flower garden. I couldn’t find my flower cutters (currently lost somewhere in the chaos of the move!) so I used stars instead, but I was rather pleased with the result.
Here’s what I did (and what I used):
1. After baking a basic two layer sponge cake (cheating as usual with a mix!) I layered it with buttercream and raspberry jam.
2. I then rolled out a circle of white ready to roll fondant. I made a circle that was slightly larger than the cake so that it would cover the edges. I dirty iced the top of the cake with buttercream and then laid the fondant down, smoothing it over the edge of the cake.
3. I then mixed ready to roll green and white fondant together for the grass. Alter the proportions to get the colour that you want, I used about 60% white to 40% green.
4. I rolled out strips of the green fondant to a height just taller than the cake so that some of the grass could curl over on to the top of the cake. I then cut different sized triangles out of the top edge to create a varied grass effect. I dirty iced the sides and placed the grass all around, taking some of it up on to the top of the cake. I used a little fondant adhesive to make sure that the grass stuck to the white icing.
5. Once the grass was in place, I used the green fondant (unmixed) to make ‘stalks’ for the flowers and used them to cover the joins in the grass! Again, I used a little fondant adhesive to keep them in place.
6. I then cut out some leaves (by hand) from the same green fondant I had used for the grass.
7. I mixed some pink/white and purple/white fondant and cut out different sized stars in a selection of light pink/dark pink and light purple/dark purple to create a variety of flowers. I would have preferred to use a flower cutter, and if I’d had a little more time I would have made more flowers.
8. I arranged leaves and flowers around the stalks and using a little of the adhesive fixed them in place.
And, that was it. It was well received by my sister and the other family and friends we have staying with us; and with seven children and six adults, it was finished in one sitting. Not a scrap was left!
Very pretty! I’m impressed with how smooth you have the white icing, mine’s always lumpy & bumpy.
Thank you! I’d highly recommend investing in a proper fondant rolling pin :)
This looks really lovely! I’m not surprised you all finished it in one sitting :) #letkidsbekids
Thanks Tarana, it was tasty :)
What a fabulous cake! It looks so professional, I bet your sister was over the moon with it :) #tuesdaytutorials
Thank you, she was nicely surprised!
You are such a great baker and creative too! I love this. Looks so pretty. I haven’t ventured out with making cakes and pretty design tops. lol I will have to try this out. Love the photos. #tastytuesdays
You should definitely give it a go, you are so creative, you’d be brilliant at it. Thank you for such a lovely comment x
I can tell you used to be an engineer in your past life.
If you ever come back to the UK I’d love to see you on the BBC’s GB Bake Off.
LOL! I might do okay on the decorating bit, not sure about the baking without cheating bit :)
Love your cake and your new kitchen sounds perfect
Thank you Fiona x
It looks beautiful! Isn’t amazing how a creative project in a quiet house can feel so wonderful?!? :)
You are so right Marie, it was just lovely!
Oh how pretty. I can never decorate cakes nicely but this actually looks like something I could make. Lovely to have a new kitchen
Thank you, working with fondant and cutters is really quite easy, and effective. Definitely give it a try x
What a delightful cake! You are such an accomplished baker and cook-gorgeous photography too. Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays
Very nice cake decoration.