Cakes For Romantic Occasions (12 page)

For this cake, I wanted to design something really bright and fun. The vibrant pink flowers set off the sunny yellow cake beautifully. Violet is classically the complementary colour for yellow, but I felt that this pink just adds a little more merriment! It would be perfect for a summer wedding or garden party.

SERVES
About 70

MATERIALS

• One 15cm (6in), one 18cm (7in) and one 22cm (9in) round yellow iced cake, each set onto a cake board the same size as the cake • 2.5cm (1in) ivory satin ribbon • White flowerpaste, 125g (4½oz) • Food colouring: pink and spruce green
EQUIPMENT

• No.2 icing nozzle

• Piping bag

• Small leaf cutter or medium daisy cutter • Ruler

• Sharp knife

• PME blade and shell tool (or similar blade tool) • Stay-fresh plastic mat

• Flower foam pad

• Small paintbrush

• Small rolling pin

• Double-sided tape

• Ten plastic dowels

one
Dowel and stack the cakes (see pages 24–25) using six dowels on the bottom tier and four on the middle tier.

two
Mix around 100g (3½oz) of white flowerpaste with some pink food colouring to make a deep pink shade (
a
).

three
Roll out the icing about 2mm (¹⁄16in) thick (
b
) and use a sharp knife to cut out 45 strips measuring 1.5cm (½in) wide by 9cm (3½in) long.

four
Take one strip of icing and brush a little water onto one side. Fold the top over and roll the folded strip up creating little pleats as you go (
c
). Pinch the excess icing off the bottom and set aside to dry. Repeat to make 45 flowers in total.

five
Mix around 25g (1oz) of white flowerpaste with some spruce green food colouring. Roll out the icing about 1mm (¹⁄16in) thick and cut out small leaves, or use a daisy cutter as I have done and cut off the petals (
d
). You will need 45 leaves, one per flower.

six
Place the leaves onto the flower foam pad and score a line and vein details down the centre of each leaf with a blade tool. Pinch the end of each leaf to give it more of a 3D shape (
e
). Set aside to dry.

seven
Mix up some yellow icing leftover from covering the cake with some water to make a paste with a royal icing consistency (
f
). Fill a piping bag with a no.2 nozzle and the yellow icing.

eight
Fix the ivory satin ribbon around the base of each tier with a little of the yellow icing. With more of the yellow icing, stick on the flowers and leaves evenly spaced all over the cake, positioning the leaves at different angles (
g
).

nine
Finish the design with a bow made from the ivory satin ribbon; attach this to the base of the middle tier using double-sided tape.

Bright and Breezy

I just love the cheery feel this cake has. The colour scheme has such summery connotations. I defy any of your guests not to feel uplifted by a slice of this!

tip
Place the icing strips under a stay-fresh plastic mat until you need them so they don’t dry out.

The flowers from the Summer Sun cake and pink candy balls are used to adorn these delicious bite-sized chocolate cupcakes, covered with chocolate-orange buttercream.

one
Bake some chocolate cupcakes following the instructions on page 31.

two
Fill a piping bag with a savoy star-shaped nozzle and some chocolate-orange buttercream (see pages 18–19) and pipe the top of each cupcake.

three
Decorate the top of some of the cupcakes with flowers and leaves made in the same way as the main cake (see steps two to six, pages 47–48) but making some flowers in violet as well as pink. Push some pink candy balls (available from confectionary shops and cake-decorating suppliers) into the tops of other cupcakes for some visual variety and a bit of crunch!

Perfect Piping

Using a savoy star-shaped icing nozzle is a simple way to create a great effect. Start from the outside of the cake and pipe inwards round in a circle until you reach the centre.