Learn how to create these beautiful Spring inspired design by Alice Kayley of Karen Davies Sugarcraft.
1
Preparing the Cake Cover the 10” round 3” deep cake with 1kg of pale blue paste. Stack the two 8” round 4” deep cakes together and cover with 2kg of pale blue paste.
2
Stack the two tiers together making sure that they are dowelled properly.
3
Place the cake on the board. Make a long sausage of green paste and roll out evenly with the rolling pin. Use the pizza wheel to cut one edge straight. Cover the board.
4
Making the Flower Stems and Grass Roll 8-10 sausages of green paste of various lengths. Use the smoother to help you roll smooth and even stems.
5
Attach the stems evenly around the top tier with edible glue. Use your finger to gently flatten the top and bottom of each stem against the cake.
6
Dust the Rustic Wicker mould with cornflour and tap out any excess. Roll out a piece of green paste so it is roughly the same width as the wicker. Place on top of the mould at the end with the defined wicker strands. Use your fingers to press and stroke the paste up into each strand, this will secure the paste whilst you roll. Now roll the paste along the mould. You only need to roll up to half way.
7
Turn the mould over and gently peel back. Hold the piece of wicker up against the bottom tier of the cake and mark with the dresden tool where you need to trim it to size. Place back on your work surface and trim using the palette knife.
8
Take green powder colour and dust any deep areas of the wicker/grass with a dusting brush. Work the colour into a piece of kitchen paper first before applying.
9
Attach the first piece of grass using edible glue to the front of the cake. Repeat steps 6-8 until the bottom tier is covered in grass. Any joins can be easily disguised using the dresden tool.
10
Repeat steps 6-8, except this time, you only need to mould roughly 3-4cm of wicker.
11
Attach the pieces of wicker around the bottom of the top tier pressing over the bottom of the stems. Continue to mould sections and dust them until the bottom of the top tier has to grass all of the ways around.
12
Sunflowers Mould sunflowers of various sizes in yellow paste using the large daisy on the Buttercream Flowers mould. Start by moulding 2-3 of the full flower. Next, take a smaller amount of paste and press this into the centre of the flower and only up to the third layer of petals. This will create a smaller sunflower – make 2-3 of these. Finally, mould 2-3 even smaller flowers by only pressing the paste up to the second layer of petals.
13
Dust the centre of the sunflowers with yellow powder colour and then around the outer edge of the centre and first layer of petals with pumpkin pie. Take any excess powder and catch the edge of some of the outer petals.
14
Dust a small amount of green powder colour around the centre and dust some out towards the outer edges. Roughly fill the centre with chocolate brown. Add the darker brown to the very middle.
15
Attach the sunflowers to the tops of the stems. Arrange them so they’re followed by a different sized flower.
16
Leaves Use green paste to mould the cluster of three leaves from the Buttercream Flowers mould. Mould 5-6 of these. Use the palette knife to carefully cut away one leaf from each cluster giving you a variety of singular and two sets of leaves. Dust the centres with green powder colour.
17
Attach the leaves at random to the stems using edible glue.
18
Bees Mould 5-6 bees from the Butterfly & Insect Brooch mould using yellow paste. Once moulded, place the bees around the outer edge of the mould with one wing up against the side. Allow to dry.
19
Once dry, paint the wings in pearl white by mixing the dust with a small amount of isopropyl alcohol. Paint black stripes and legs by following the imprint on the bee.
20
Use a thin paintbrush and biscuit powder colour mixed with isopropyl to paint rows of thin lines leading from flower to flower. Paint them in a loop to give the impression that the bees are flying and swooping around the cake. Finally, attach the bees at random around the cake on their flight pathway using royal icing.
