Pass that Dutch: Mean Girls cake.

Sebrina Miller has just celebrated her first UK based birthday in SIX YEARS! To celebrate, I made her a Mean Girls cake - one of our favourite and most-quoted movies ever. To put the cake in context, this clip is essential...



She just has a lot of feelings! The challenge was set - I was going to bake a cake full of rainbows and smiles and we would all eat it and be happy. To do this, I mixed up my cake batter and then divided it into five bowls. To those bowls I added red, orange, yellow, green and blue food colour and mixed until it was evenly coloured. I then dropped the mix into lined baking tins; a big blob of red first, followed by orange on top, then yellow, etc, etc. I did the same but reversed (starting with blue) for the other tin. I gave the tins a little shake to even and fill out the tins, then popped them in the oven for 25 minutes.

Voila! Having never tried this before, I had no idea what they would turn out like, but I was excited! Then I decorated...

I covered the cake in pink sugarpaste and then shaped five faces out of flesh coloured sugar paste. I added detail (hair, clothes, spinal support frame, etc) using more sugarpaste that I coloured myself. Karen is wearing her Halloween outfit ("I'm a mouse...d'uh?") Regina is wearing the sabotaged vest that sparks a school fashion craze and Damian is in his disguise, of course! 

I stuck the figures onto the cake surface using edible glue (I found it online, it's awesome!) and then added the speech bubbles, writing the quotes with my (favourite!) food colour felt tip. I went round the speech bubbles using a green icing pen (just to tidy them up) and then made four sugarpaste candy canes, labelled to Glen Coco ("Four for you Glen Coco, you go Glen Coco!")

If you don't recognise the figure on the right, that is OF COURSE Danny Devito....

I took the cake to Birmingham for Seb's birthday meal (it survived the journey, amazingly!) and the nice lady at Waga brought it out. She didn't understand what was going on and thought, upon reading the speech bubbles, that I had made a RACIST CAKE to celebrate a birthday! Quickly set her straight on that one.

When Seb cut into it, it was FULL of rainbows!

Absolutely bonkers. Perhaps not the MOST appetising-looking of cakes, but it tasted good!

Happy Birthday Seb!

Isle of Wight Cake: we love Steephill Cove!

For my Mum's birthday - Sue Mann, huge IOW fan - there was only one choice for her birthday cake...



As Mama is gluten intolerant, I made the cake with rice flour substituting for regular self-raising flour in my sponge recipe. I was a bit worried it would taste funny (the cake batter certainly did!) but when baked it was actually fine. I still would have preferred to use Dove Farm gluten free self-raising flour but sadly my local Tesco was out of stock when I went shopping for my ingredients so rice flour was my emergency back-up!

I baked a rectangular sponge and then, when cooled, shaped it into the IOW shape. I covered in green sugarpaste, then used white royal icing for the cliffs, green royal icing for the land surface, and blue for the sea. To create the swirled sea, I mixed a batch of darker blue royal icing and used a cocktail stick to swirl it into the lighter blue sea which produced a marbled effect. I made the coast with a sprinkling of golden caster sugar, but you can also use crumbled up cookies (make sure they are gf if you are making a cake for a coeliac!) which would look better - my sugar got a bit absorbed in the sea!

I then added The Needles and Steephill Cove Lighthouse (where we celebrated Mum's birthday!) and finally a Red Funnel ferry coming into East Cowes from Southampton. Generally a very easy cake to make, and Ma loved it! :)

Bon Voyage Tbay!

Tim Baker (Old Bailey clerk extroadinaire) has left freezing cold London and fled to Barbados...sensible! Barbados marks the start of his travels all over the world, and just in case he forgets his route I decided to put it on a cake for him...

The cake was a Victoria Sponge full of icing and jam, covered in blue sugarpaste, with green sugarpaste land (with added glace icing and turquoise glitter to make it fun!) I then made a little airplane, destination markers, and linked them all together using a fantastic black food colour felt tip I got from the Jane Asher shop in South Kensington - probably the best cake decorating aid I've ever had!

To finish off, I put it on a gold cake board, added detail and writing with a purple glitter icing pen and then an obligatory cocktail stick speech bubble....

Bon voyage, Tbay! Have fun!

Welcome....to Jurassic Park *Letter of the Month in Empire! Life made!*

For Stephen Sambrook's Southamptoversary there was only one obvious choice, frankly, for a ridiculous cake to celebrate such an occasion...

Jurassic Park! Raaa! I made loads of cherry and coconut cake (recipe: 16 oz sugar, 16 oz butter, 16 oz self raising flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 6 eggs, 4 oz dessicated coconut, handful of cherries halved - but I stuck them into the cake post-bake so they didn't sink/make the cake go squidgy) Once it was cooled, I cut the sponge into roughly the right shape of the T-Rex and the two Explorers and arranged on the cake board.

I iced the Explorers with yellow sugarpaste as a base, then a layer of green over the top. I added the detail with a black food colour pen and a red icing pen. Then I made a road out of grey icing, attached that to the bottom of the cake board and stuck the Explorers on top with edible glue.

For the T-Rex, I coloured a load of icing grey and covered the dinosaur cake shape. Then I added detail with black icing (to make him look a bit scaly!) and textured the surface with a skewer.

Then I did the face...

I used dark grey and yellow to colour more sugar paste for the eye, then used my FAVOURITE teeth ingredient - flaked almonds! I also used them on the Jaws cake, they work for any cake involving a creature with big teeth!

To finish off the cake, I used my white glitter gel pen to make rain (as there is a big storm going on during this scene in the movie) and also added detail to the road. If I was to re-make this one, I would have turned one of the Explorers upside down and messed it up a bit....and maybe added some bits of dismembered goat!

Sent a photo of this one to Empire (my favourite magazine) and they bloody printed it as letter of the month!

Thanks, Empire!

Wagamama ケーキ

Sezreg threw a birthday bash last month and so I asked what sort of cake I could make her. She requested either Harry Potter or Wagamama. I would LOVE to do a Potter cake at some point, but decided that a Waga cake could be really fun, so constructed a bowl of ramen out of Victoria Sponge and icing...

I made the bowl using my ever so handy giant cupcake tin (the same I used for Windsor's head!) but without the top, so I just got the bowl shape with the dip in it - perfect for a Waga bowl! I coloured some sugarpaste with my chestnut brown dye and covered the bowl, then used white sugarpaste to line the inside of the bowl. I then whipped up some buttercream, made it slightly lighter in colour, and used it to add detail to the bowl...

Then using sugar paste I made noodles, chicken, pak choi, greens, tofu, kamaboko and a slice of lime and layered them inside the top of the bowl. I made a thin glace icing which I drizzled over the top for the miso soup...

Then I garnished with chopsticks and some wicked Happy Birthday candles I got in Waitrose, oishii!



Tom Windsor

What better way to say happy birthday to someone than by making a lifesize cake sculpture of their head?

Happy birthday Tom Windsor! I made the head by using a giant cupcake (with the pointy top sliced off) and filled with raspberry icing (recipe: 4 oz butter, 10 oz icing sugar, glug of milk, handful of fresh raspberries - blend!) I then covered the whole cake in sugarpaste coloured to look like skin (equal parts red and yellow colour) then added ears and nose which I stuck on with edible glue...

Then I mixed up a batch of very, very, VERY orange buttercream for the hair, which I roughly smoothed all over the head with a spatula...

Then I used sugar paste cut-outs for the eyes, mouth and teeth, which I stuck on with edible glue. And voila! Windsor's cake double was done.

I finished it off with a printer (he really wanted a printer involved) and some bags of swag - my bro's idea to symbolise Winz's thievery over the years. Head cakes are clearly the future - easy to make and there are all sorts of fun photo opportunities to be had, see below:

Voodoo cake!

Looks like there's going to be a clean up on aisle five...

Sarah Wellock's birthday demanded a very ridiculous Office-themed cake, and so Threat Level Midnight cake was created!

Starring Michael Scott as Michael Scarn, Dwight Schrute as 'Dwigt' and Jim Halpert as Goldenface.

Pacman Cupcakes - Happy Birthday Janeo!

Jane gave me total freedom to choose the theme of her birthday cake - so I picked Pacman!

I had seen some cakes similar to this on another cake blog (can't find the link now to give them credit, or else I'd post it!) so thought I'd have a bash. Sadly my black food colour doesn't go as black as I'd like so the colour contrast isn't as good as I wanted, but they still came out ok. These join my Mario cake as part of the Ridiculous Cakes Gaming Series: http://ridiculouscakes.blogspot.com/2011/04/hey-maaario.html !

Penguin Flavour Cake Pops

I have wanted to have a bash at making cake pops for a while now, so decided to try yesterday as I had the whole evening free and a charity bake sale on Saturday to bake for. I made penguins, inspired by my trip to London Zoo Lates last month!

I found a recipe on BBC Food, and in a bowl combined cake, melted dark chocolate, mixed nuts and some dessicated coconut. Then I rolled the mix into balls, stuck lolly sticks in, placed them on a baking tray and stuck them in the fridge for an hour to cool. While they were chilling, I melted white chocolate and then added enough black food colour to make it a penguin-y grey colour. Then I took the cake pops out the fridge, dunked them in the chocolate, used a spatula to smooth out the surface and then let them set before adding detail.

I used uncoloured melted white chocolate for the penguin belly, then I coloured a block of sugarpaste orange to make the beak and feet. The eyes are white sugarpaste with lids and eyes drawn on with my new food colour pen I got from Jane Asher - it's awesome!!

Unfortunately, I think I made the cake pops a bit big, as LOADS of them fell off when I dunked! So I have ended up with about 12 pops, and then a small army of penguin cake balls which still look fine, they're just not pops.

So cute!

Dance magic dance!

After the success of Hayl's Jaws cake last year, her birthday cake this year had to be even better! She asked for a Labyrinth cake.

I've never seen it, but know that people go crazy for David Bowie (and his slightly-inappropriate-for-a-kids'-film bulging leggings) and the goblins and the baby and the topsy-turvy stairs and all that jazz, so after a few Youtube vids and Google image searches I created an homage to the Goblin King in baked form...

I made a white chocolate mud cake and then covered it in a caramel ganache made of dulce du leche and white chocolate. I then put halved strawberries around the edge to balance out all the sugary-ness of the topping!

The ganache made the cake SO SLIPPERY, but I made Bowie's face on a piece of greaseproof paper out of sugarpaste - coloured with chestnut for the hair and a mix of red and yellow to make the face - and then added detail with my black icing pen and some bits of fleshy colour sugar paste for the nose and lips. Then I placed the face on top of the caramel topping.

I made Bowie's orb from grey sugarpaste, then added clock numbers (1-13!) around the edge. Finally, I used my black icing pen to make some topsy-turvy stair type patterns in the background, and a Bowie Labyrinth quote from some card and a cocktail stick. Easy!

My new star cutters...

...are awesome.

I made these to take to Daz's birthday bbq, for anyone who didn't fancy a bit of the boobs cake. I made vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing, then used my star cutters to make a load of different sized star decorations. I finished them off with a sprinkle of turquoise colour glitter.

(T)it's your birthday...

Darren Smith wanted an obscene birthday cake. I refused, but as a compromise agreed to construct him some boobs out of sponge...

I baked a square sponge and then two muffins, which I placed top down on the bottom of the square. Then I used my sharp knife to narrow the top of the square and make it more 'chesty'. I mixed red and yellow food colour to make a fleshy pink, coloured a big handful of roll out icing and covered the whole cake. I then coloured a strip in hot pink which I cut into a bra shape and stuck on with jam. The black polka dot detail is buttercream and was piped on afterwards with an icing bag...

And I stuck a little bow on too, just for fun! The nipples are just sugar paste, cut into circles and textured with the end of a cocktail stick. I finished it off by writing a lovely birthday message to Daz across the chest...nice.

Not quite so ridiculous cakes...

I went to a cupcake decorating class at the Cocoa Box in Hampstead on Saturday, and the lovely (and very skillful!) teachers taught me how to make pretty cupcakes!

My buttercream piping skills need a bit of work, but at least I know how to do it now, and I've learnt how to fill an icing bag properly which was a long overdue lesson! Hopefully next time I ice I won't get it all up my elbows and 80% of it outside the bag...

The cakes were already baked (three vanilla, three chocolate) and then we had cream cheese icing, fondant and strawberry buttercream, plus bowls of sprinkles, glitter and sweets to play with.  My favourite design they taught was the cupcake on a cupcake...and my little piggy!

Oink oink.

The class was really fun, recommended! http://www.thecocoabox.co.uk/ Maybe I'll start making sensible cute cupcakes for birthdays now instead of epic 3D ones? (Although I do have a 3D one in the pipline for Windor's birthday that is going to be quite special...think Lionel Richie's 'Hello' video. Pics will be up for that one early August!)

The Tin Lizzy

For her Ruby Wedding anniversay party, my auntie wanted a cake replica of her boat, Tin Lizzy:

So I made one!

I started with a square sponge on a cake board which I covered in blue roll-out icing. I used some surplus bits of icing for the waves, and then used white butter cream icing for wave foam on the crests and around the front of the boat. I used blue buttercream in my icing gun to detail around the base.

For the boat, I baked another square sponge and cut out the shape with a very sharp knife, then covered it in white icing, and a layer of red icing underneath. I used white buttercream to detail the edges, and then grey buttercream to fill in the deck, which I then covered in sugar sprinkles.

The figures of my uncle and auntie are just sugar paste, coloured and moulded into the right shapes, although they came out a bit too pink! Getting too much sun on the boat clearly.

Finally, the sail is just two cookie sticks taped together for the mast (I have no idea what one would use a cookie stick for? I just found them at the Jane Asher shop!) and then rice paper. Easy peasy.



Father of the Bride cake - NICHE

So April Mann is a HUGE Father of the Bride fan, and I have always fancied recreating Steve Martin out of sugarpaste, so her birthday cake was a no-brainer, obviously:

To explain for the uninitiated, this is George Stanley Banks (father of the bride) in his "Armani" suit which is actually a cheap navy knock-off. The button on the floor next to him is from where he loses one at the wedding reception ("Hey a button, it's navy, must be yours!") The swans waddling around the tulip border (which Franc creates especially!) had to be included, and the border is crafted from hot dogs (8) and hot dog buns (12) which feature in one of Apes' favourite scenes....

GEORGE BANKS IS SAYING NO!

Yo, sushi!

A while ago Meals sent me a link to these beautiful sushi cupcakes http://www.flickr.com/photos/crumbsanddoilies/5529525564/ and since it was her birthday, I decided to do my own twist on the sushi cupcake theme.

I started by baking a batch of vanilla muffins and made an orange butter cream icing with icing sugar, non-salted butter and freshly squeezed orange juice (love any excuse to use my devil's elbow - thanks Lakeland!) Then I made the sushi as follows....

I made the rolls by colouring a lump of sugar paste black and making it into a ring on top of the muffin. The rice is dessicated coconut and the filling is dolly mix and icing coloured red for the pepper and neon green for the wasabi!

These were easy - just blocks of sugar paste coloured bright yellow and texturised with the end of my paintbrush, then I put strips of black sugar icing left over from my sushi rolls over the top to make them a bit more interesting. The glitter is edible and available online, it's fab!

The nigri is a cube of icing painted with edible glue (available at cakecraft.com!) and then dipped in dessicated coconut, then the prawn topper is just pink icing with a darker pink for the tail and detailing.

Oishii desu ne!