Alice in Wonderland Cake

It's finished! It didn't explode when I put in the central dowel! I'm just going to take this opportunity now to talk though the process of making a tiered cake.

I baked the cakes in advance. Once they had cooled I levelled and torted them. Each cake was cut into four layers (I use this handy little cheese wire cake leveller from Ikea), wrapped in cling film and placed in the freezer.

I took the cakes out of the freezer and let them defrost for an hour, still wrapped in the cling film. I made the icing while they were defrosting.

For the bottom tier, I put a smear of icing on the bottom cake drum before putting the first layer of cake on top. This helps to fix it to the board. I then layered up and frosted the cake before returning it to the fridge to chill.

For the smaller tiers I used 2mm thick cake boards because I was going to put a central dowel through them once the cake was assembled. I repeated the above process with the smaller tiers.

I put eight plastic dowels in the bottom tier to support the weight of the other tiers. I covered the holes with a small amount of icing (the same one I used in the cake). I then placed the second tier. I used four dowels in the middle tier before putting the top tier on.

Then came the fun bit. I bought a 9mm wooden dowel from homebase. I sharpened one end of it using a pencil sharpener. I carefully centred it and pushed it into the cake. I actually had to get a hammer out to drive it through the cake boards. That was exceptionally nerve-wrecking! I marked the top of the cake on the dowel and took it out, very slowly, turning as I pulled. I cleaned the dowel and trimmed it just before the pencil line. I then filed the top of the dowel so it was smooth and had no splinters. I then carefully put it back into the cake and covered the hole with a small blob of fondant the same colour as the top tier. Make sure your dowel is as straight as possible.

 I then attached the gumpaste embellishments with a small amount of edible glue. The fresh fondant decorations (the strips, flowers, hearts etc) were attached using a small amount of water and a paintbrush.

Once your cakes are covered in fondant DO NOT put them in the fridge, as this will cause the fondant to sweat and will ruin your cake. To make the fondant shiny, I find rubbing on a little cake release spray or shortening brings up a nice look. So here it is!

All boxed up and ready to go!

More Gumpaste

I'm continuing work on the Alice in Wonderland cake due at the end of this week. It is giving me nightmares, not least because it has to be transported quite a way from here and so I'm going to attempt to use a central dowel to hold it all in place. I have never done this before. I have images of hammering it in and the cake exploding.

Anyhew... here is the caterpillar I have been working on today.

I have also finally managed to track down the original cake designer for this cake. Here is the link to her site. 

Edited to add:

here are the playing cards 

Gumpaste Embellishments

Right now I am getting myself into a right tizzy working on two separate cakes. One is a wine bottle in a crate cake (due tomorrow, currently going horribly wrong) and the other is an Alice In Wonderland cake (due in two weeks). I say these are gumpaste embellishments, but that is not strictly true. They are actually a mixture of fondant (shop bought, Tesco to be precise) and a tylose powder. I'm working on a ratio of 1 tsp of tylose powder per pound of fondant, but when it comes to working with the itty bitty pieces of fondant for these models, it's a much less precise "bit of fondant, pinch of tylose" recipe. This is my first time attempting this and it's working pretty well so far, you do have to be quick though or the "gumpaste" will quickly dry and crack. It can be rescued with a smidge of shortening (I use crisco), but it's better to be fast.

Alice is currently waiting for her feet to be attached and I think my Cheshire Cat looks like an evil Gruffalo.
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