This week, I had the pleasure of making a 70th birthday cake. It's always lovely to be part of people's special celebrations and be invited to make a cake for them. The brief for this one was a 9 inch vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam to include Digby dog, water, flowers, "Mum" and "70". Hmmm...what a challenge!
I first set about making Digby and the flowers out of gumpaste to allow them time to dry. And I decided that the top of the cake would be removeable, allowing the birthday girl to keep her model of Digby. Here are some work in progress shots of Digby and one of the flowers, the David Austen rose.
I do love making sugar flowers. Although it can take a little while to wait for the different parts to dry, there's something very satisfying (for me) when the flower comes together. Digby was more of a challenge, that's for sure, but it's nice to feature something that means a lot to the person and bring it alive on a cake. I didn't take a photo, but he even has a little name tag with "Digby" stamped on it.
The cake itself wasn't the largest cake I've made and covered but it's still a lot of cake! Three layers of vanilla sponge (soaked with sugar syrup) filled with jam and vanilla buttercream, coated in buttercream and covered in fondant. Delicious! Sometimes the simplest flavours are the best :)
Here are a few more photos of the finished cake. Hope you like it!
