It feels good to be creating and writing for The Cake Decoration and Sugarcraft magazine again. My first project, this time around, falls under the heading of ‘Quintessential British summer’. Now, I could have easily chosen rural thatched cottages, cream teas, majestic oak trees in country parks, red letterboxes etc but I decided to opt […]
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Puffin Celebration Cake
Puffy the puffin was originally going to be a llama cake! Yes really, at the time I was researching themes for my ‘One Tier Party Cakes’ book Cute, llamas were certainly very much on-trend. Llamas were everywhere, on birthday cards, cushions, bedcovers, cupcakes, cakes etc. However, something stopped me from creating one, because I guess, […]
How to marzipan a double-height fruit cake
The festive season is almost here again, so it’s time to bake, marzipan and cover our fruit cakes. Like all fashions, fashions in cake change. The current trend is bake and stack two smaller cakes to give a taller double-height finish. In this blog, I cover the basics of how to marzipan these double-height staked […]
How to paint with cocoa butter – a beginners guide
In sugarcraft, painting with cocoa butter is a relatively new technique. It certainly wasn’t around when I wrote my best-selling ‘Contemporary Cake Decorating Bible’ 10 years ago. However, I wish it had been! It’s a fabulous technique and for me, at least, it is now my favourite way of painting on cakes and cookies. I […]
Edible wildflower meadow for Harry the hare – cake decorating tutorial
Harry the Hare in his edible wildflower meadow is a cake design that I am immensely pleased with. My original idea was to create an Easter bunny amongst grass searching for decorated Easter eggs. However, the timing wasn’t quite right. My cake was being published in a magazine just days before Easter and so I was asked […]
Ideas for creating textures using sugarcraft cutters
“Ways of creating textures in sugarpaste please” is one of the most recent requests I have received from my students. There are, of course, countless ways to do this. I always like to throw something new into the mix, so decided to experiment using cutters and this blog is all about the 3-dimensional textures and […]