Vicky Teather of The Yellow Bee Cake Company is an award-winning cake artist from Basingstoke, Hants. After completing a BA (Hons) degree in Video Game Design, Vicky discovered the world of cake in 2011 and swapped computer graphics for sugar artistry. She spends her time creating sugarcraft tutorials for magazines and her website. Vicky will be releasing her first book in winter 2019 featuring lots of cute cakes and models.
www.yellowbeecakecompany.co.uk
www.facebook.com/YellowBeeCakeCompany
Instagram @hello_yellowbee
Equipment Required:
- 14cm polystyrene cone
- 2.5x3cm polystyrene cylinder
- 250g Renshaw Extra Green
- Renshaw Flower and Modelling Paste: Brown, White, Black
- Rainbow Dust ProGels: Sunflower, Yellow, Peach, Pink, Red
- Rainbow Dust Dusky Pink Powder Colour
- Dresden tool
- Ball tool
- Small ball tool
- Edible glue
- Piping gel
- Royal icing
- Craft knife
- Paintbrush
- Wooden skewer
- Fine scissors
Christmas Cat - 1.
Roll 15g of black modelling paste into a pear shape. Press the dresden tool into the wide end of the paste to create the front legs.
2.
Use your fingers to push the paste away on either side of the legs. Roll a 5cm sausage of black paste, glue in place at the back of the model and curl.
3.
Roll four small balls of black paste and flatten into chunky discs. Press the craft knife into each twice to create the toes. Glue the feet in place.
4.
For the head, shape 10g of black paste into a ball. Place the side of your hand on the upper side and gently press down to form a groove. Use the ball tool to create the beginnings of the eye sockets. Remove any harsh lines with your fingertips.
5.
Working at the other end of the ball, gently pinch and pull into a point on either side of the head. Use your fingers to pull and shape the muzzle of the cat.
6.
Draw a mouth using the dresden tool. Use the wide end to press the paste away from the bottom of the muzzle to create a chin. Press the ball tool into the ends of the smile and the muzzle to create the whiskers.
7.
Add a small triangle of pink modelling paste to the top of the muzzle. Press the ball tool into the eye sockets to open up the hole. Fill with white modelling paste. Use the small ball tool to create a well on the inner edge of both eyes.
8.
Fill the hole with a ball of black paste and add a tiny ball of white paste to the upper left side of the pupil. For the ears, shape two pea sized balls of black paste into cones. Press the wide end of the dresden tool into the cone and shape the paste around it.
9.
Glue the ears in place on top of the head. Press the dresden tool into the points at the sides of the head to create a groove.
10.
Shape a ball of red modelling paste into a disc and glue in place on top of the body. Glue the head on top. Shape two small cones from red paste, press the wide end of the dresden tool in to add an indent in the middle. Glue in place and add a ball of red paste to the centre to finish.
Christmas Child - 11.
Shape 30g of peach modelling paste into a ball. Press the side of your finger just below halfway and gently rock back and forth to create a groove. Smooth the edge with your fingers.
12.
Press your thumbs into the groove leaving a 5mm gap. Smooth any harsh lines with your fingers.
13.
Add a small capsule shape for the nose and draw the mouth with the dresden tool. Finish the corners of the mouth with the small ball tool.
14.
Press the wide end of the dresden tool into the wells created by your thumbs in Step 12. Rock upwards and side to side to open the eye sockets.
15.
Press the ball tool into the sides of the head just above the nose. Fill with a small cone of peach paste.
16.
Press the ball tool into the ears and push towards the head to create the inner ear. Fill the eye sockets with two small balls of white paste using your fingers to fit to the hole.
17.
Press the small ball tool into the lower right corner of each eye and fill with a small ball of brown modelling paste. Press the small ball tool in and fill with black paste. Add a small ball of white paste as the highlight to each eye.
18.
Roll a small, thin tapered sausage of black paste in your palm. Add a little glue to the upper edge of the eye. Lift the paste with the paintbrush and fit into position around the eye.
19.
Lightly dust the cheeks and nose with the pink dust.
20.
Colour 20g of white paste with the yellow gel colours. Roll four long cones and glue two in place above the eyes and the other two in front of the ears.
21.
Roll the remaining warm yellow paste into cones and glue in place around the top of the head.
Christmas Tree - 22.
Paint a layer of piping gel over the surface of the cones and cover with green sugarpaste. Cover the sides of the cylinder with brown paste. Use the dresden tool to mark a woodgrain pattern.
23.
Push the wooden skewer (trimmed to the height of the cake, plus 10cm) into the cake and pipe a little royal icing around it. Thread the cyclinder over the skewer and onto the royal icing. Pipe a little icing on top and thread the skewer into the cone. Leave to set for a day.
24.
Roll the remaining green paste into various sized balls and then into tapered sausages. Use your fingers to pinch the centre of the sausages to form the branches.
25.
Use the dresden tool to mark in the individual leaves on each branch.
26.
Glue the branches to the sides of the cone starting at the bottom. Vary the placement of each to give a more organic look.
27.
For the top of the tree, take a ball of green paste and roll into a cone. Pinch the bottom into branch shapes as before.
28.
Use the dresden tool to mark in a leaf pattern.
29.
Glue the cone to the top of the tree.
30.
Roll a sausage of warm yellow paste and glue in place around the tree. Use the scissors to cut the sausage to give the texture of tinsel. Finish the tree with balls of red, yellow and green paste.
