I thought I'd share some 'big' cakes that I'd made so that this cake blog has a bit of variety in it. These are all celebration cakes that I've made for people's birthdays; some from books as inspiration and some which I've thought of based on a specific theme. I really enjoy making novelty cakes like this as well as cupcakes, they just take sooo much longer to make than a batch of cupcakes. I'm such a perfectionist that I probably spend far more time making them than I should but I like to have things just so. I've not done any in a while now, the latest one of these is from before I left home to go to university so all of these were done from when I was 15 up to 18. I look at some now and think 'I could do that so much better if I re-did it' but still, I'm really happy with them. I can't wait to get back into making more novelty celebration cakes when time permits.
This cake I made for my niece. I totally forgot to take a photo of it before I gave it to her so this is one that she took just before slicing into it. I had no idea what to do as she has some crazy, wonderful and random tastes. Summing her up in a few words would be difficult so I went with variety as the theme. I wasn't sure exactly what to go for decoration-wise so thought I'd mix it up a bit to reflect her personality. I love the combination of stripes, colour blocking, polka dots, flowers and a big bow. It's the kind of cake that puts a smile on your face (I hope!). It was one of the first (if not the first) birthday cakes I made so it's simple enough to be replicated by even the most novice bakers (I managed it!).
This cake was one that I did for my nephew's 18th birthday. I asked my sister what he liked in order to think of some kind of theme for the cake.. she replied 'boobs'. It seemed to go down really well at the party and everyone commented on it. It was a bit of a challenge and I just made it up as I went along. Having no templates or anything for the bra proved slightly difficult as I obviously didn't anticipate quite how much fondant I'd need to cover the cake sufficiently, hence the addition of nipples to it. I never intended it to be quite so risqué but people seemed to like the cheeky aspect of it. This is still one of my favourite cakes to date.
Similarly to the boob cake above, I made this cake using a pyrex bowl. As long as it's greased enough there really is no trouble turning the cake out. I used a madeira batter just because it's a bit more robust than some others and tended to support the fondant better. The little boy who I made this for loved aliens and I loved trying to create this super cute UFO cake. I found an image in a children's cake book that my mum had bought from her school fete, but don't have the book any more. It's pretty much modelled on that but with a few extra bits that I just added when I was playing around with decorations. This one never fails to make me smile :)
This SpongeBob cake is again, a really simple one. I know ASDA sell some similar but you can't beat homemade! It really is so simple to do! All it requires is a bit of fondant colouring and cutting out shapes. I did most of the cutting out with various sized circular objects that I had to hand (of course use cutters if you have them!) and did the mouth freehand. It probably works out cheaper to buy one but the satisfaction that you get when you look at a mass-produced cake that sells in huge quantities then look at your own and it's almost identical (if not better than the commercial one!) is immense. It's a really simple cake that goes down really well!! Who could fail to know who the star of this cake was?!
This cake was for a family member's 65th birthday. She loves golf so I was asked to make a golf-themed cake. I didn't set off with any plan at all, it just kind of happened - I had too much batter for my square pan so put it into a bowl and just thought 'ahh sod it, I'll bake that too'. The little figure I got from a confectionary supplies shop in Cardiff and it was just the right size for the cake. I know the scale on it is awful as there'd be no way in hell that poor woman could hit a ball that size but I just think it's a really cute cake with a very obvious theme! For the grass on the board I just covered the fondant in some dyed desiccated coconut and the bunker is just muscavado sugar. If I was making it again I'd probably hollow out the bunker just to make it a bit more realistic and less gravity-defying.
This cake was a gift from my next-door neighbour to her friend. We, as a family, have always been really close to this particular neighbour and she's more like family to us now. When she asked me to make a cake for someone I didn't know I was a bit worried at first in case the woman didn't like it but decided to just give it a go. Sonia, the lady whose birthday it was loved reading. I was going to try and replicate a complex book- themed cake by doing a library or something but then decided to keep it simple. I just covered a Victoria sponge in fondant, used a big kitchen knife to make indentations to resemble pages and embossed some lettering in the top which I then piped over with royal icing (as my freehand piping skills were a bit pants then!). It's a really simple idea but went down well and was a good cake to cut up easily and serve to lots of party-goers.
This cake was inspired by one that I'd seen in the foodhall of a big department store in London (I think it was Selfridge's). I saw this chocolate cake with marshmallows on and thought 'I can do that bigger!'... so I did. Underneath is a chocolate fudge cake with a white chocolate ganache centre. It's then covered in marshmallows using white chocolate as 'edible glue'. I poured the excess chocolate down the outside of the cake and stuck some Dr Oetker wafer flowers to it to give it a more 'celebration cake' kind of feel. I also added some edible glitter for a touch of sparkle. I had to go to the local florist and ask really nicely for some cellophane in order to transport the cake as it got a lot bigger than anticipated and I didn't have a box big enough. This is probably the simplest cake on here but one of the most visually impressive. I loved making it and the reception it got was amazing! It's also quite a cheap one to make as it's mostly shop-bought marshmallows!
Okay, when I said I'd made these all before I left for uni, I lied. This cake is quite a recent one from a few months back. It was for a mothers' day display in work but I just loved the spring feel it gives. I'm getting quite a lot of practice in with giant cupcakes now and am totally convinced by them. I love experimenting with different flavours and styles of piping. They're so versatile!
This cake was one that I made for an 18th birthday. I decided to go big with it but still keep it simple. It's a really easy cake but it's still quite 'in your face' due to the hot pink and animal print. I found the ribbon a while back in Costco and just bought it because it was so unusual. I tend to buy lots of random stuff when I find it and tell myself it'll come in handy at some point (although a lot of it ends up in the bin as it was a crazy impulse buy for something I have no use for). I used a posy pick (kind of like the top of a biro) to put into the top tier to hold the feathers as sticking wires into a cake is something I really didn't want to do for hygiene reasons. This again is a madeira cake but with chocolate, lemon and vanilla layers just to add a bit of variety. There are sparklers on the bottom tier but it's really hard to see them and we didn't manage to get a photo when they were lit as they failed and only lasted a few seconds.
Finally, this cake was one that I made for my 16th birthday. Since I was little I've insisted on making my own birthday cakes as then the blame lies solely on me if I don't like it. I'm incredibly fussy, hard to please and a total perfectionist so really don't envy anyone who is tasked with the job of making my birthday cake, as my mother was for the first few years of my life. As soon as I was able to help in the kitchen, it was impossible to get me out of there. When I was about 5 I discovered that sticking chocolate finger biscuits in a cake made a hedgehog and was determined to have hedgehog cakes until the novelty wore off as I got older. For my 15th birthday I made a cow print cake (white fondant covered with some black royal icing piped into 'splodges' with some fondant modelled cows sat on top munching grass) but I can't find a photo. This is the first birthday cake that I actually have a picture of. I got the inspiration from a picture I saw online and just simplified it so that I could make it relatively easily. It's a really simple idea but I love the way the cake looks in its entirety. It's super cute and I love the pastel yellow against the bright vibrant decorations. It's like summer in edible form (ironically my birthday was in January so the summer theme didn't really work...).
Hope this inspires!
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