Sugar Craft Cake Decorations

I like to make my own decorations and sugar flowers for my cakes.  Its quick, simple, looks amazing and is a lot cheaper and funner than buying them off the shelf.

Leaves

I start with some white rolled icing, cut off how much you need, and start to need it to soften it.  Make sure your board is covered with icing sugar to stop it sticking. To start just add a couple of drops of gel colour to the centre of your icing and start to fold it in and need it until there is a uniform colour.  This is the green intended for the leaves.

Roll the icing about 3 or 4mm thick, and use a veined cutter to stamp out the shape of the leaf, i used ivy and rose leaves.

Cut as many as you can from your rolled piece of icing then roll up and need the left over, re roll and cut again, keep going until there isn't enough to make decent cuts just so you make the most of the icing.

I also added extra colour when re rolling my icing so that there was a variation in the colour of  the leaves.

To dry the leaves, put in an air tight box or container and leave for a couple of days.  The heat and humidity of the room will have a huge affect on drying times, the first time I did these they melted, so remember to put the box in a cool dry place.  Lay the leaves out so that they are not touching each other.  I also used the same box for the flowers and layered it, using baking  paper to divide each layer.

Flowers

The flowers start out the same as the leaves, white icing, needed, then colour added and rolled to about 3 or 4 mm.  I used Petunia Cutter and Mould for these flowers.

first use the metal cutter to form the basic shape from your rolled icing.  (I used pink)

Then, using the mould (also called a veiner) place the cut out flower shape on one bottom side, and press the top into the icing.  TIP: make sure the mould has been covered in powder icing to stop the rolled icing sticking to it.

Then open up the mould, and this is what you should have... a nice shaped and veined flower.  Just remove from mould by pulling one corner to loosen.

I also made some two tone flowers by placing the inner colour into the top layer of the mould first in a ball.  

then placing the cut flower on the top, when pushed together the mould will bond the two colours like this:

Small Flowers

As a little extra decoration I also made small flowers using various shapes and sizes of plunge cutters and veiners from this set.  I mixed small amounts of pink, purple, cream, yellow and some white rolled icing.  This time I rolled it a little thinner as there were some very small pieces, very simply you stamp out the shape in the same way we made the leaves.  They were also left to dry with the larger flowers and leaves, but if you prefer any of these sugar craft items can be used soft but may flatten when put on the cake.

I have used these flowers and leaves on many baked items now and even on homemade chocolates and sweets.  They give a professional look to any homemade item, here is just an example of some princess cakes I made for BabyCafe.

And on the petit fours and princess cakes I made for Jennifer's christening.

Updated: I pulled out a low bit of baking paper from the box, which stuck to another bit.... and another bit... and another bit... so this is the disaster I was left with..... not a lot usable in this mess. :(

Jelly Orange Segments

So I saw these jelly orange segments on Pinterest, and thought I would make some for Jennifer's christening buffet.  Ive since found the original post on Onehandedcooks blog.


So this is the way I made them.



1)  First I halved 8 large oranges across the middle.

2)  Scoop out the soft flesh using a spoon.  (I saved the insides for fresh orange juice)

3)  I used a muffin tin to hold the emptied peels still, this made it a LOT easier to move them to the fridge and to keep them straight when setting.  

4) Next I made the jelly, most colours were from a packet jelly (orange, strawberry, lime, blackcurrant).  The packet suggested to use 1pint of water, however I used only 2/3rds of a pint because it gives a thicker set.  For the blue Jelly, I made the jelly as follows:  Mixed 1 packet of gelatin with blue gel colouring and a pint of water, with a small amount of banana flavouring.  These are the products I used: 

  

5)  Once a colour was ready, I simply divided them into 4 orange halves, and when all were filled, popped them into the fridge to set.

(the middle row 1st orange didn't work, I think i cut a hole in it when i tried to remove a stringy bit lol)

6)  The next day once set, just cut the halves into three and then lay out on a tray for presentation.  

They went down really well at the christening, all the kids loved them, and so did the adults.

Totoro Nursery

Jennifer was born (rather early) in December and I have just finished decorating her nursery, so here are the pictures in stages.

Lets start with how it was done.
Firstly I found images online etc that I wanted and drew them onto acetate sheets then projected them onto the wall.  This is the first projection on the main wall.

Next I used a very fine brush and black matt paint to draw on the outlines.

Halfway done without projector on

Halfway done with projector on to show me whats next...

And the final outlines all done

So of course we need to add some colour to this too

And then the Totoro

And the tree branch

And finally just went over the outlines to make it neater and then it was finished.  All the colours were mixed from matt wall pain and some poster paint to try and get the shades right. 

Above the door Ive put a Mei and kittenbus going for a walk

This time I did the outline with a marker pen

meeeooowww

Hey lets go!

And now for the third wall, I decided on a tree with little surprises hidden among the leaves 

This is the acetate I drew out from a tree image I found online  

There are 5 little Totoro images hiding in the tree, so after projecting the tree acetate and drawing the outline in pencil, I did these little fellas.  The projector however wouldnt make the images as small as I needed, so i used the old school pencil transfer method.  I first drew round the outlines of printouts from the web (in thick pencil) and then put the paper on the wall, image facing in, and scribbled on the back of it.  This transfers the outline I drew onto the wall and you get a faint image like this....

I then used a superfine marker to go over the images, and the a paint brush just as fine to colour them in.

You cant see the outline but its there

And this is once I'd painted in the wood part of the tree

And I started adding leaves.  This was done by cutting out a rough leaf shape from a kitchen sponge and dipping it in the mixed leaf colour.  This didn't make a perfect image but was basically to add some uniformity to the size and shape.  All i had to do then was paint over with the same colour to sharpen the edges and take away the blotchyness

And some falling leaves for affect

I am so pleased with how this worked out, It took a lot of time and a lot of effort but its worth it seeing the final result. still need to work on some furnishings to match but the decor is finally done.

Naruto Pumpkin Carving

Heres some pumpkin carving from last year, its meant to be Naruto, not my best pumpkin but i still thought id share this one :)

Its been a while

So Its been a long time since the last post.... I have a good excuse though, I was busy making this.....

Jennifer,   Best thing Ive ever made :)

I have been keeping track of some of my crafts though and will be updating over the next few days