Cake Dummies and Sugar Flowers

by Kimmy
(New Zealand.)

Cake Dummies and Sugar Flowers Don't Just Dream It, Do It!

I didn’t intend to get into making cakes. I have family whose 18th and 21st birthdays were coming up and I didn’t know what to get them so I made a cake and I loved it.

A friend came to my house for coffee one day, and saw a half made cake and asked if I could make her son one. About 2 yrs later perhaps a bit more, I am getting calls without any encouragement for me to make cakes.

I did get a bit nervous at the start, I would be asked to make a cake but I didn’t know enough and I would sometimes refuse if I didn’t know them and say I only did it for friends and family. Oh, and did I forget to mention that I couldn’t bake for toffee. Something else I had to learn!

Then I found Wedding Cakes For You.

Not only did it answer loads of questions but Lorelie was only an email away if I got stuck. I loved trying things out and learning new things and at the beginning I couldn’t get enough. My poor family got fed up with eating cake – some yummy and some yucky.

I should be very thankful that I am making cakes on a regular basis, or at least I used to be. However, I don’t make any money at it as such and I only make kids, themed and the odd ladies cake (the ladies being my favourite).

Now, I think I could suck it up if I made lots of money at it but I can’t see myself on a Caribbean holiday any time soon. The only thing that keeps me going is the delivery or pick-up. To see the face of someone who sees the cake for the first time is priceless and fills you with a sense of real accomplishment. No matter what, I always do my very best to make the perfect cake for someone.

As I got more interested in the design and creation of a cake I really started to work hard at doing it myself. I have sat for hours with an up-turned tin and practised royal icing.

I have perfected my sugar flowers and search the web for pictures of real wedding flower bouquets to study. My flowers have never made it to a real wedding cake and I have never done fancy icing on a real cake. Memo to self – I hate birthday cakes!

A Light Bulb Moment

A while ago I was asked to hold a cupcake evening and with some organisation I put on the evening and we all had fun making cupcakes. I set up a table and used my sugar flowers to pretty the table up a bit. The ladies arrived, the wine was poured and they spent a good amount of time asking questions about the flowers. The penny dropped!

I was too busy wishing and dreaming about making wedding cakes and never did it enter my thick head that nobody knew what I could do. I am the kids’ cake lady. How does that saying go – Don’t dream it, do it! This is the real slap in the face that I got that night.

On the way to the door to say our goodbye’s one lady said, “Your flowers are amazing, you should really think about making wedding cakes. I would tell everyone about you if you did. Give it some thought as I think you would be really good at it” I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.

Thanks to the evening, that almost didn’t happen, I think I am on my way to having my dreams come true. I ordered three cake dummies and set to work. My new year’s resolution is to make wedding cakes without the bride and get those photos on my Facebook page.

Those of you that have seen some of my cakes will know I have made one wedding cake but it was very plain and I think that anything that got a flower on it made the grade to be posted here already.

So, the wedding cake I have posted is a little sad, she is all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Helpful Tips That I Have Learned

Some things that I learned along the way – I watched people cover cake dummies on YouTube and a few picture tutorials as I had never done it before. Most used water before the fondant and one used shortening. I did both ways to see what I thought and shortening is a winner.

Sugar Flower Tips

If you are learning to make fondant flowers, you will get to the point where you have lots of them to store. If you have some flowers, leaves and a few filler you can use them instead of a birthday card.

Make a little bouquet, pop a ribbon around the base and add a small card just like a florist would. It means so much more than a card from the shops.

DO NOT leave your half made sugar flower to dry by a sunny window. I came back a day later to find a two tone rose! Keep your flowers in shoe boxes between tissue paper. The colour stays true and there is not much chance of them suffering from any moisture.

I found ways to cut my flowers without the cutters that I couldn’t afford and I hope to make a YouTube video to show my ideas soon. I promised this once before but the camcorder broke – we now have a fancy camera to video with.

I learnt to mix corn flour with petal dust. This means you can build up a colour and shade colours from dark to light on a petal. There is a little pink berry I made as a filler flower as you can see in the close-up. I found a lot of bridal bouquets with it in and found a way to make it myself. I found it in green, pink and a pretty cream colour – I have no idea what it is called. I don’t know if it really is a berry or a bud. I would love to know if anyone can help me with the name.

I made 3 wedding cakes in the end, using my three dummy cakes. This is why the side of the cake has no decoration, so I can use them again and again. I think I am going to start enjoying the birthday cakes again because I know I have a better chance of getting a call about a wedding cake – I can’t wait. I would also do it for free if I thought I would have the chance to find myself walking into a venue with a real fine cake. It gives me butterfly's just thinking about it.

This article was printed from Wedding-Cakes-For-You.com

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