Custom Cake Art

How Custom cake art makes The Bumblebee cake

2017-08-01T06:22:00.001-07:00

With such a huge amount of interest in this cake I’d like to talk you through the presses that Custom Cake Art went through to make this beast of a cake!. Here's a link to the video of our Bumblebee cake

Bumblebee started out life as just a few straws and hot glue, the bendable straws allowed us to play with different designs and body positions. Although not structurally strong this gave us a good idea what would work and what wouldn’t. The original idea was to have Bee standing in a battle position on one leg only, this caused some balance issues due to the weight that the one leg would support.

Once the final pose was decided on it was time to check that the structure would hold some weight. This wasn’t possible with the straws so a more stable material had to be used. We used what was lying around the bakery and decided that plastic dowels would to the trick, and they worked great. This structure held a good bit of weight and aloud us to take measurements from the small skeleton to draw up a plan for the ironmonger to follow. Obviously we scaled up the design to be made from stainless steel.

Custom made stainless steal frame with removable support stand

After consulting our local ironmonger, Ben at Pack horse steal, it was just a matter of time before we saw the actual size bee had become! I’ve got to say, he looked HUGE when I picked up the structure but looked like quite the work of art just as it was. Although very robust the frame still had a small wobble when I added weight to it so wouldn’t be ideal for a long car journey. I designed a removable frame for this purpose and kept the frame on while constructing the Bumblebee cake too.

We needed a reference picture to work from so scrolled the internet for the correct style and similar position. We printed of some small detailed pictures and then a huge picture on lots of A4 sheets and stuck them together for a real scale reference.

After fully sanitising the stainless steel it was time to get going! Ok so I spent 2 whole hours just looking at thing, maybe this is a Man thing, but I had to mentally see where I needed to put things to be sure of a good finish. After 2 hours of looking at references and marking points in the frame it really was time to stick some food to the frame.

Added rice krispy legs and arms

To bulk out the arms, legs and feet we used rice crispy and marshmallow, I’m not going to lie, this was hard work and messy but was a really good work out. Stuck on in handfuls while still warm, then compressed around the steel bars as hard as I possibly could until my hands and fingers couldn’t squeeze anymore.

Once the first thin layer was cool I added more in the area that needed bulking out, basically where you would see muscles on a human figure.

Bumblebee cake with just a fondant layer

After all the crispy had cooled I added layers of fondant straight on top, no need for a layer of buttercream or ganache it went straight on.
I made sure this was on tight and again compacted it with my hands. I then smoothed it down with a plastic smoother. Adding details with fondant and royal icing building up layers of detail step by step.

So with the arms, legs and feet all the correct shape I decided to jump straight to the airbrushing. I used a thin layer of black to get different shades of grey onto the limbs, followed by a silver spray and then a mixture of black and silver for more depth. This gave a great metallic finish but I wanted to dull it down a little to give the effect of beaten up metal so airbrushed over small parts with black.

With Bumblebee looking a little more alive with arms and legs , it was time to work on the base of the cake which was going to be a smashed up road scene , giving the impression that Bumblebee had just landed on the road smashing it up and leaving a crater in the road.

So while playing with more details my partner Lindsay baked a huge Red velvet cake batter to bake 4 x 12” square cakes and 4 tray bake tins of yellow Vanilla sponge. Lindsay also made the white chocolate and cream cheese filling for the red velvet and a vanilla buttercream for the vanilla sponge.

Prior to starting this project i made up some of Bumblebee's armor from fondant icing and tylo powder, this was left dry for two days until hard.

As they were white in colour i used this opportunity to airbrush them yellow and gave them a beaten up look by giving a light spray of black. these are then added to the arms and legs , really bringing them to life.

After the sponges had cooled it was time to place them in position under Bumblebee’s feet. The 4 sponges made 3 cakes. Two under the feet looked a little flat and boring so I sculpted them and added more layers at the back. Once happy with the design a layer of white chocolate filling coated the whole thing. 4kg of fondant icing was used to cover the base.

I used black, brown, yellow and green airbrush to make the smashed road and also added blues and purples to add water to a broken pipe line under the ground. Built up in fine layers to get to the desired effect.

Once dry, I added crumbled up cake to a crumb to add a soil and mud effect to the crater.

I covered up the base with a large black bag and then started on what I thing was the most difficult part of the project!

The body!

Here lies a whole heap of issues. The body sponges are held in two parts to reduce the weight impact on the bottom sponge. As they are relatively thin but tall cakes, keeping them in position requires a thicker buttercream than normal and a lot of patience. Once in position I added a crumb layer of buttercream all over the body. Adding 3kg of fondant was difficult to apply and took what felt like forever!

This is where it got stressful!! I had made fondant chest plates for the Bumblebee cake in advance to save time, unfortunately the were way to heavy and once stuck to the body they started ripping and pulling the body apart, not good.

body without black detail

My second attempt was to make thinner chest plates but even the weight of this was damaging the body and exposing the sponge inside. This was an AGGGGGGHHHHHHH moment for sure. I thought this cake had finally beaten me. After taking a break and having a good think I came up with the answer.

Bumblebee cake body with black detail

I made a cardboard template that would hang from the steal neck bar and attached a new fondant chest and bonnet to that. Although not edible, it became a great support and could be removed easily with the head and could be kept as a keepsake after the event. So turned out great in the end.

1st Head made to small !

Final head made to correct scale

I pre made Bumblebees head before starting the body as I wanted it to set hard. What I did not do was measure it to scale!

So the original head was about half the size which looked ready silly. I made another one to the correct scale from fondant and added tylo powder to the mix to harden the fondant icing faster. I used a smoothie straw to make a hole in the bottom of the head so it will stand on the neck.

Well after I thought id finished the whole thing, I stepped back to admire the work as you do Ha ha

I wasn’t happy! Something just wasn’t right and I wasn’t sure what? It took a fresh pair of eyes to point it out as id been working on Bumblbee for over 13 hour that day. Lindsay reluctantly told me the arms and legs are too thin and the head lights could not be seen on the chest?

Addition of Bingo wings and Kanckles made a better looking Bee

She was right, I had to paint around the lights with black to frame the lights, it just made them visually pop out. I added more detail while I had the black fine brush out.

To solve the skinny arms and legs I had to add extra yellow armour which I called Bingo wings on the arms and Kankles on the legs. That was exactly what was needed. Job done.

Transporting the 20+kg cake is another story ………………..

Just about fit in our vehicle by 2 mm !

Bumblebeee cake firing of his weapon

If you would like to order from Custom cake art please click this link to pop over to our web site

One Direction Harry Styles Cake

2013-11-28T12:04:00.001-08:00

Pop over to our Face book page Custom Cake art for more pix www.facebook.com/customcakeart

Bolton Town Cake

2012-07-27T02:47:00.000-07:00

Teddy bears tea party Cake

2012-07-26T17:09:00.000-07:00

USA Hotair Balloon Cake

2012-07-26T17:04:00.001-07:00

Wedding Truffle pops

2012-07-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

Spitfire Birthday Cake

2012-07-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

Custom made Spitfire made from fondant icing, Air brushed with edible paint.

Strawberry Daydreams Cake

2012-05-01T18:03:00.001-07:00

Strawberry Cake
Custom Cake Art Facebook Page

Strawberry Cake Topper

Giant Bride and Groom Cup cakes

2012-04-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

The Happy Cup pull !!!!

The Giant Bride Cupcake

The Giant cup cake Groom

Mr & Mrs with the Cocktail cupcakes

3D Interactive Jurassic Park Cake

2012-02-03T14:55:00.000-08:00

3D Interactive Jurassic Park Birthday Cake

I made this cake for a 3 year old little boy called Hugo, amazingly he asked his Mummy for a scary Jurassic Park birthday cake, well not one for wanting to frighten children i decided on not making the T-Rex to nasty but to introduce some fun in to this birthday cake...

Any one who knows me , knows how much i love to play with food, i have done from a young lad, i loved dinosaurs and defiantly loved to play in the mud, so this was the perfect cake for me to make as i still thnk im a child at heart and many will agree.

Cakes look and taste nice, but what better than playing with your food, I know lots of mums and dads tell their kids not to but i have to disagree, its all about the fun.

So i decided that for Hugo's cake i was going to make it a little interactive, and give Hugo the chance to dig and excavate his own dinosaur.

Fondant T-Rex skeleton

I firstly made up the T-rex skull by accident. I had never made a dinosaur out of fondant so practiced with white fondant icing, well, my first attempt didn't go to well and looked more like a skull, and as a skull it didn't look to bad at all, so proceeded to make the rest of the skeleton and ended up with the above design.

After a few practice attempts at a T-Rex head i finally got it to something resembling the beast, at this time he was toothless. after doing a little Dino dentistry the gummy beast finally came alive and resembled a T-Rex.

T-Rex missing Front Teeth and eyes

Completed head and claws

I made some basic claws from fondant to go either side of the head to give the impression that the animal was clawing its way through the wall.

In this design i wanted the T-Rex to be smashing down the gates of Jurassic Park almost pouncing out to get you, i think i got the effect i was looking for. My major concern for this part of the cake was how on earth i could stand it up on the cake without it tipping over as the head was solid fondant and was quite heavy.

I like to make all my cakes completely edible if i can , especially if its for a child. So to support the large door i made the frame from Chocolate and rice crispy s, another child hood favorite of mine.

The gates to Jurassic Park

Covering up the bones

So next i had to cut some holes in the cake to hold the heavy gate and head, then arranged the skeleton on the cake board as if it had been their for thousands of years. I made a boarder of rocks and stones so i could cover up the skeleton with edible soil, this also helped it stay on the cake board. I mixed black and white fondant until the rocks had a slight marbled effect to make them a little more realistic.

I Simply used crumbed Chocolate cake to get the effect of soil and added a few scattered fondant pebbles for good measure.

More Pictures

Uncovered T-Rex Bones

Eat or be Eaten

Hugo's Jurassic Park

Peek a Booooo

Dino Skull

An edible Discovery

Done !!!

Coming to get you !!!

Side View breaking out

Rice Crispy cake

Chocolate Cake Soil

Messy Boys Bedroom Cake

2012-01-11T16:15:00.000-08:00

Messy Bedroom Cake

Thomas the Tank Engine Birthday Cake

2012-01-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

Thomas The Tank Engine Cake

Apache Helicopter Birthday cake

2011-12-06T11:17:00.000-08:00

APACHE GUNSHIP BIRTHDAY CAKE

I've always said I enjoy playing with food and this birthday cake is yet another example of having fun with food. I spent many hours building and playing with air fix models as a child, that experience certainly helped with this Birthday cake.

With this particular birthday cake ive tried to use different tecniques and equipment to create a modern yet realistic look. When given the brief of an Apache cake i first had thoughts of an Apache indian , however I was soon corrected and my face lit up when I was asked to make The Apache Gunship Helicopter.

The classic helicopter is a favorite of mine and although a little tricky to recreate in icing I was gunning to give it a go..

Sculpting the fuselage

Unsure where to start with this epic birthday cake , I decided to research the plans of the gunship just to find the proportions and designs ect. I found copies of the blue prints on the internet , Im guessing not the real ones though, these were not only helpful but useful in another way which i will come to later.

So, first i started by sculpting a rough shape of the fuselage, I used cardboard to create the rota blades. this part was easy as I used pictures as reference. The picture on the left is the original fuselage.

Although quite heavy, due to it being solid icing it looked quite accurate, so I decided to use this for the cake with the addition of some sculpting and shaving.

For the tail I played around with rolling sausage shapes, way to messy and very floppy. So decided to remake the air fix model kit. Plain Fondant icing would not harden enough nor be strong enough so I used the addition of a powder called TYLO powder. you bacicly sprinkle it on the icing and mix it together, I tested how much i would need just to make sure it made the icing solid.

I made a mold of the tail using some old marzipan and covered it with clingfilm so the icing didn't stick, and waited for it to harden.

Mistake number 1. After taking it off the mould it looked great but soon snapped, I wasn't a happy bunny!!! So second time around I built in some ribs with the same icing to strengthen the tail, this worked a treat.
I made the rota blades with the same icing and simply used the cardboard as a template.

All parts out in place

You may have noticed the broken tail, this was the first attempt, and the photo was taken while the second was drying !!! But you get the idea.

The blue prints , printed on icing.

I started off this birthday cake by getting my inspiration from the blue prints of the helicopter, as they are the building blocks for the design I decided to incorporate them in to my cake. This was done by having them printed on to icing. Lots of bakery's can do this for you, you just need to ask nicely .

The Cake with the Apache Blue Prints

The shape of the cake has been designed as a stand for Apache Gunship so made the angles this way to hold the helicopter nose down. The blue print design is attached to the icing using vodka, as the alcohol evaporates, you can just use royal icing or even water.

Nose down

A Splash of colour

Adding the colour to the helicopter was always going to be the difficult part, well i could have made it from coloured icing but I wanted to spray the whole thing as it gives a better effect, plus id never sprayed a cake !

I've only ever used a spray gun on air fix models, so how much harder could this be?

I didn't have a spray gun, but asked my local cake shop if i could use theirs and they were happy for me to use it.

Quick and easy that's all i can say. Defiantly got to get one in the future.

I decorated the cake board with the same blue print design and put everything together and that was that.

APACHE GUNSHIP BIRTHDAY CAKE DONE !

Giant Cupcake Birthday Cake

2011-10-25T16:29:00.000-07:00

Giant cupcake, mini cupcakes and cupcake lollypops

In The Night Garden Birthday Cake

2011-10-25T16:24:00.002-07:00

In the night garden Birthday Cake

In The Night Garden Birthday Cake

2011-10-25T16:24:00.000-07:00

In the night garden Birthday Cake

Bolton Wanderers- Reebok Stadium birthday cake

2011-06-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

Reebok Birthday Cake

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 2

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 3

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 4

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 5

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 6

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 7

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 8

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 9

Reebok Birthday Cake pic 10

How To Make a Fairy Tale Castle Birthday Cake

2011-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

Girls Fairy Tale Birthday Cake

Basic Turret shape

All the Bits and Bobs

This is my first attempt at making a Fairy tale castle and is quite special to me as it was a Birthday cake for my 7 year old little girl so her expectations were high to say the least.

Before playing with sponge or icing i drew up a template of each part of the cake , walls, turrets, roof ect, i find it easier to work from templates especially for a larger cake as this one.

I simply rolled fondant icing around plastic pipes for the turrets and allowed to dry slightly before adding the roof tops, I added cocktail sticks to attach the flags later.

Using a polystyrene block I was able to hold all the parts upright. This makes things so much easier and helps thing from rolling of the table.

To make the stone blocks for the door way and path I simply rolled sausages of gray icing and sliced if individual slabs.

For the walls of the Castle cake, I cut the shapes out from the template and allowed to dry over night just to firm them up a little as I wanted to stick them to the cake, rather than cover the cake totally in the pink icing, although this method would work just as well.

After baking the two sponges one round for the base and a square for the castle, I covered the round with butter icing and then covered with a white fondant taking care to keep any air bubbles.

Placing the square cake on top in the centre I began to stick the castle sides on to the sponge using butter icing small ajustments needed to be made to the sides to fit the turrets snugly.

With the rough shape of the castle now completed I added a simple flat top to the cake made from the same coloured icing as the walls, I made sure this was firmly attached to the sponge as it will be holding the final turrets.

As in the picture bellow I made the turret roofs from wrapping gray icing over paper cones, the paper can be wrapped in cling film before covering with icing, if done in advance these can be dried and the paper cones can be removed if preferred.
I added the cocktail sticks while the icing was soft so I could add flags later.

Castle Cake Coming Together

Adding four more turrets to the top of the cake really gives the cake some hight, I used several different sizes to give this effect. I added more detail to the roof tops by using the end of a clean pen lid to add tile effects, which turned out great.

After looking at the cake for a while it became apparent that the base cake colour just didn't seem to match the bright pink Castle so I added a pail pink design around the sides to tie in the White and pink colour, I could have saved myself some time and done this before adding the castle on top. Sometimes you have to take a step back and ask for other peoples opinions on your design, some you like some you don't but they always seem to help.

Final Fairy Tail Birthday Cake

Pink detail around the base cake

Making A Vivienne Westwood Birthday Cake

2011-05-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Orb Cake Topper

There are two parts to this particular cake, the cake its self and the cake topper which is the Vivienne Westwood symbol and logo known as the Orb.
I started the Orb by taking a large sheet of tinfoil and rolled it into a ball, a child's ball would do just as well. I used yellow and green food colouring to colour the fondant icing, which I wrapped around the tinfoil. I wanted a pearl colour for this part of the cake, the colour was a little bright to start with but with a day placed by the window the colour faded to the perfect shade with the help of the sun light.

I stuck on two ribbons of fondant around the Orb with vodka , the alcohol evaporates and doesn't leave any taste "unfortunately". The second part to the Orb is the ring which I rolled out really thinly and dried over night in a warm cupboard until hard, I made lips in the centre to attach to the Orb. I also made the cross for the top of the Orb in a similar way. Once dry I used edible paint to decorate them, adding a little glitter to add a shimmer.

To attach the pieces together I used paper clips to stick into centre, it also helped to add support to the ring.

Chocolate and Vanilla sponge

Sliced in half sponge cake

I made up the usual Victoria sponge cake mixture and split the mix in half, adding cocoa powder to one half. I placed the mix into two separate piping bags as I wanted a rustic marbled effect to the sponge. I simply piped the mix in lines into the baking tin.

Quilt effect

A similar effect can be made by using a spoon to gently stir the sponge mix in the tin its self.

Once cooked and cooled I sliced the sponge in half and added Strawberry jam and a layer of butter cream then sandwiched the two halves together.

A liberal coating of butter cream was applied all over the surface of the sponge before laying over the rolled white fondant.

I used a metal ruler to make a quilt pattern onto the top of the cake and the end of a pen to make small indentations where the lines crossed.

The Battersea Sky line template

For the decoration around the cake I used the Battersea skyline used on many of Vivienne Westwoods bags. I first cut out a template using black card and placed it around the cake to make sure I had the measurements correct and that it gave the effect that I was looking for.

Using sugar paste I rolled it out between two pieces of cling film, I did this for two reasons. I wanted a textured surface for my sky line so once rolled I placed it on a large sushi mat and gently rolled over it to make the indentations off the mat, the cling film simply stops it sticking.

Sugar Paste Skyline on Cling film

Once rolled out, I took off the top layer of cling film and cut out the sky line using the template while still on the bottom layer of cling film. I had to do the sky line in 3 parts to make it easier to attach to the cake. I used the cling film to help attach the sugar paste to the cake, as it was quite thin and may have warped the sky line if I tried to simply pick it up and stick it on.

Battersea Skyline with Textured surface

Gold Ribbon added around the cake

After adding the gold ribbon around the cake I added edible silver balls to the quilting effect. I thought gold balls would be to much for this design after playing with that idea. White icing was then added around the base of the cake. Finally I placed the Orb onto the top of the cake glueing it with icing to prevent it rolling off

Marbled sponge centre of the Vivienne Westwood Cake

Playing with Cakes

2011-05-23T12:25:00.000-07:00

Easter Cake , Roses and Lilies

You may have noticed that its been a while since my last post. For the past few weeks I have been busy playing with cakes, a love of mine since my very first Christmas cake, made when I was only 8 years old.

My Aunt has a real gift for making cakes, and is most certainly is one of my inspirations to get into the catering trade. Although I am a trained chef and have many years under my belt I am no expert at making and decorating cakes.

I find them a great way to use the ideas that floating around in my head, the kids love to help and everyone love eating them.

Over the years I have gained valuable information and tips talking to Chefs, Bakers and Butchers, all who are passionate about what they do. You cant teach this at collage!!!

Here are a few of the cakes i have been playing with....

Vanilla and Chocolate Sponge Centre

Wedding Cake Tester

Vanilla Rose Cupcakes

Ivy top tier, White Daisy bottom tier

Fondant Carnation Flower

Vivienne Westwood Battersea Cake

The Royal Wedding Party Buffet

2011-04-29T08:35:00.000-07:00

So its all over, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves

Princess Kate and Prince William have officially tied the knot. I wish them all the best.

Street parties are all in full swing, all over the country with a huge turn out in London.

The Buffet

Little Lemon Crown

We had an excellent turn out to the children's Royal Wedding buffet, all the food devoured by all the little kids, and the adults !

Traditional Beer Battered Cod and Chips

Union Jack Summer Fruit Salad

Water Melon Crown with Spun Sugar

Summer Fruits, Strawberry Will & Kate's, Crown, Papaya and Cranberry's

The Bride & Groom Strawberry's

Full House in the Members Lounge

Chocolate, Strawberry Prince William & Kate

2011-04-28T14:33:00.000-07:00

Chocolate dipped Strawberry's

What is more romantic than Chocolate dipped strawberry's? Well Chocolate dipped strawberry's that look like the Bride and Groom. Well these are British strawberry's for a very British Royal Wedding.

I will be serving these on the children's Royal wedding buffet ( Lucky kids ) to garnish the desserts hopefully giving a little of the wow factor to the table.

It is also a great way to get the kids eating fruit as well, even if the chocolate does not look like bride and grooms its still mighty tasty and kids will love to dip the fruit.

A simple Fruit Salad For the United Kingdom

2011-04-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

What could be more simple than a Fresh Fruit Salad,

Summer Strawberry's
Blueberry's
Black Grapes
Water melon
Honeydew Melon

Placed correctly this could be a great centre piece to a buffet, I will be serving this salad with a fresh mint syrup made by boiling caster sugar and water for the syrup and blending fresh mint in to it.

It just screams SUMMER !!!!

Playing with Bread for the Royal Wedding Buffet

2011-04-27T04:18:00.000-07:00

An idea I had for the Kids Royal Buffet was to make a giant Lancashire cheese and Ham toastie.
First I had to make the bread its self. I uses an old recipe I have used for a long time which I think works great for this kind of loaf.
You would never know by looking at the picture above, but for the first time in my catering life, I added food colouring to my bread dough. Playing with food is what I am all about and will admit, it does not always work out as planned, as you can see the colour has gone from the surface of the bread !

My Bread recipe is-

2800g Bread flour
1680ml Warm milk
58g Butter
50g Salt
28g dry yeast
20g sugar

This recipe gives quite a large amount of bread dough, in this case I needed lots.

After the dough had risen I split the dough in to half and rolled out one half onto a large floured bread tray.

The second half was split into two and I added red colouring to one and blue to the other, lots of kneading was required for this.

I simply used the coloured doughs to make the shapes for the Union Jack, I rolled out then cut these to shape and placed them on top of the plain dough using a little water to stick them down.

As you can see, the colours look quite bright at the moment don't they!

I left the dough to prove a little more until it doubled in size, then baked it in the oven for about 40 minutes.

Garlic bread

While waiting I had a play with the left over dough and made a Union Jack Garlic Bread. I simply brushed over some home made garlic butter after it came out of the oven.

The final Bread result, Colour Gone!!!!

Red and White bread

As a result of the baking, the colour seem to vanish, but I was still quite happy with the result. To finish of my giant toastie I trimmed of all the edges and sliced through the middle to add the filling grilling each layer. Surprisingly after slicing the bread I realised that the colour was in fact still in the dough .

Stay Tuned for the final result on the day of the Royal Wedding , save A Simple Chef as favourites or follow via the RSS feeds.

Union Jack Cup Cakes, For the Royal Wedding Buffet

2011-04-25T15:14:00.000-07:00

This was one of my original ideas for the buffet I am catering for, the theme is Red, White and Blue for the Royal wedding celebrations on the 28th April. The inspiration for these cup cakes is obviously the Union Jack. I have already played around with individual cakes with the United Kingdom flag, these can be seen in my earlier posts. http://andy-asimplechef.blogspot.com/2011/04/royal-wedding-street-party-ideas.html

I won't bore you with the recipe because its a simple sponge mix piped into the small paper cup cake cups.

Filling the paper cups using a piping bag for less mess

As I will be catering for children on this themed buffet I decided to use mini cup cakes. These mini cup cake cups are great for children as they can take one of each colour You can purchase many colours and designs from the web or a professional store.

So I baked these for just 10 minutes at 180 C in the oven.

I let them cool for half an hour and topped them with icing, I used a liquid food colouring for this icing, and added pasteurised egg whites to the icing sugar. The icing soon starts to go firm to the touch and will take a day or so to harden completely. I prefer the icing to be crisp on the outside and soft in the centre.

Iced Mini Cup cakes

Arranging the finished cake was the hardest, I had to make sure the colours were in the correct order and changed them several times. I've placed them out 12 x 15 so a total of 180 cup cakes, I am so happy I decided to make them smaller, I would have no room on the buffet table for the rest of my dishes.

Another great idea for this type of cake is a butter cream topping, a simple mix of icing sugar and softened butter, you can also add food colouring to this, but I would recommend using a colouring paste rather than the liquid colours. I find that much less is needed to produce a deeper shade of colour.

The finished Cup Cake Union Jack

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