As I’ve said before I am really into tall cakes. they are only a bit more work but so impressive. They don’t have to be big either. This one is baked in 6 and 7 inch tins.
The thing about this cake is that I really made it up as I went along. I had an idea but I wasn’t sure if it would work out. And while it isn’t quite how I imagined it, I still think it’s amazing. If I may say so myself.
Cakes stacked into pairs with a card between for disassembling to cut, then skimmed with buttercream to contain the crumb and keep it smart and tasty. My make shift turn tables are an upturned plate and a plastic container.
I had a lot of fondant bits in my freezer (like I always tell you when you come in, put the ends in the freezer and they will keep forever, if well wrapped in plastic of course) and I picked all the fruity colours – I didn’t want any blue based colours on this occasion.
Using a simple blossom cutter, I made heaps of blossoms out of the various coloured fondants. For this work, I had kneaded a little dry tylose into each colour the day before, turning it into modelling paste. Then I gently pressed each flower on a soft surface to give it a little shape. The centres are edible pearls glued in with tylose glue – tylose mixed with water and left overnight to thicken. The pearls sat perfectly in the little indent left by the cutter.
Here’s the cake with its fondant cover, stacked and with a fondant bow also stiffened with tylose. It’s really tricky covering a tall cake with fondant, so the flowers really help to hide the dodgy bits. Remember, plain things need to be more perfect than fancy things.
Here’s the cake with the coloured flowers scattered. Amazingly the tylose glue held them on first time every time. I was worried they would slide but they didn’t. The topknot was an idea because the top looked empty. I made a ball of fondant and used it to build the wee posy. The leaves are all free cut.
About now I look at the cake and go hmm, what does it need? It really needed a finishing touch around the base, so I just rolled leftover coloured fondant into little balls and stuck them around the base like a necklace. DONE!
This is the cake on the night. Candles added for fun, a lime ribbon to trim the base which is sitting on a bigger base for ease of transport, it looked very jolly indeed!