Posts Tagged "decorating"

How to make simple sugarpaste leaves

14th April 2015
by M-admin-bakehouse
blog, cheshire, decorating, easy, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, tutorial, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This technique is one I use when making lots of simple sugarpaste leaves when modelling a small tree or plant, when leaf cutters are too large. It’s one I’ve used on lots of cakes, but here’s a picture of the way I used it a couple of different ways on the cake which won me a gold a few years ago at Cake International 🙂
Sugarpaste leaves

And this is how you make them!

1. Roll a small piece of green sugarpaste into a smooth ball.
2. Roll the ball into a sausage shape, making sure it is not too thin.
3. Using the end of a paintbrush press into the sausage shape as shown in the picture.
4. Pinch the paste at either end. The leaf is made!

You can follow Marie on facebook and instagram to see the latest makes.

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Gold Winning Wizard Of Oz Cake From Cake International Manchester 2015

22nd February 2015
by M-admin-bakehouse
blog, cake, cake international, celebration, cheshire, decorating, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

dorothy model
 
You may have seen all of these photos before, particularly if you follow me on facebook or on pinterest, but I thought it would be a good idea to have all the pictures in one place together. And here’s Dorothy. I chose this theme in the end as I’d had a cake order for a Wizard of Oz themed cake and really enjoyed making Dorothy, so she’s the little lady that started it all. You can see the detail on the yellow brick road here. I scored the yellow paste with a Dresden tool and then used dusting powder to add the shadows to give more depth to the cake. There was a lot of work in the dusting on this cake! Hours and hours!

front view of cake

The front view had all the main characters in together so they could all be seen in one shot, but the story continues around the cake…….

side view cake house

On the side here I added Dorothy’s house with the witch’s feet poking out. I decided to take the shoes off her- not something you often see on other Wizard of Oz cakes, or in pictures, but the Dorothy figure was wearing the famous shoes, and I thought it would be odd to have two pairs on the cake. The roof tiles were dusted with a dark brown colour in the joins, and the white of the house was given a dusting of light brown to pick out the detail of the scored bricks. All the grass you can see is hand rolled, and all the leaves under the rainbow are also individually scored with detail, and then dusted. The rainbow on the top tier also has a dusting of a darker shade of each colour, on the bottom half of each strip of colour, to tie it in with the rest of the cake. The blue birds are there as a reminder of the famous song. The Emerald City you can see is dusted with sparkling gold dust.

side view trees and sweetcorn cake

The other side has all the detail of the corn field for the scarecrow, complete with crows, and the orchard underneath is from another part of the film. I glazed all the apples to make them shiny.

sweetcorn and apples close up

You might be able to see the detail a bit better on this picture. The tree bark detail was made using a Dresden tool and a ball tool, and then dusted with dark brown. The leaves on the trees and around them were all individually modelled , scored with the Dresden tool and then dusted to pick out the detail. I used the Dresden tool (my most used one- can you guess??) to create the mud/soil texture under the sweetcorn, and the sweetcorn was textured using the end of a piping nozzle.

lion named

The Lion- I love his cute face. Obviously the most time consuming part of this one was his mane! All hand twisted and stuck on individually.

scarecrow model

The Scarecow, with all his straw poking out of the sleeves and his trouser legs. He was deceptively time consuming with his details, including the twisted belt, and getting his hat just right to sit on his head.

tin man model

The tin man. My favourite! But absolutely the most time consuming! I made the accessories to go with him, which the others didn’t have, but the most time consuming part was getting a good coverage of silver paint. I think he was painted at least 11 times!

I really enjoyed making this cake, despite the fact that it took over 40 hours, and I’m really proud I got gold 🙂

You can come and learn how to make these characters with me. We’ve made Dorothy in our Monthly Modeller Class already, but if you’d like to make the others, you’d be more than welcome to come along. Our classes are held at The Croft on Church Road in Flixton, Manchester. The dates for the modelling classes are:

The Lion- Monday 9th March 2015 7-9pm

The Tin Man- Wednesday 1st April 2015 7-9pm

The Scarecrow-Monday 11th May 2015 7-9pm

They are £25 each, with all materials, equipment and refreshments included. All you need to do is bring a box to take them home in. If you’d like to book, you can email me on marie@mariesbakehouse.co.uk or contact me on facebook or phone me on 07940121872.

 

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Monthly Modeller Classes

24th January 2015
by M-admin-bakehouse
baker, blog, cake, cake maker, cheshire, class, classes, decorating, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , ,

At Marie’s Bakehouse we offer a range of different classes, but one of our most popular ones is the Monthly Modeller Class. As the name suggested we meet once a month to model something different each time. Here are some of the things we’ve modelled already……
a witch
witch model
an elf
Elf model
an owl
owl model
a dragon
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
a beach scene
BSN1
and an afternoon tea
afternoon tea
And these are all the work of students- not mine. We’ve also made a mermaid, Santa, a pirate, handbags, a princess, trains, cars and teddy bears to name but a few!
If you’d like to join us, you can find a full list of classes here with our next class being Ronnie the Robot on Wednesday 28th January 7-9pm.
Ronnie Robot model
We do have a regular group of ladies who come to most classes, or those that come to ones that take their fancy. As well as learning, and being creative for two hours, we have a good natter, cups of tea and coffee and I bring along something I’ve baked (using my ladies as guinea pigs for my latest recipe hahaha), or if I’m very lucky, one of the ladies bakes for us instead!! Everything is provided, all you need to bring is a box to take your creation home.
It’s a really nice relaxing evening, so if you fancy coming one night to one of our Monthly Modeller Classes, you would be very very welcome!
You can message me on my fb page www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse
or via email at marie@mariesbakehouse.co.uk

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Vouchers available for presents

26th October 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
birthday, Christmas, class, decorating, marie's bakehouse, presents, vouchers, , , , , , , , , , ,

If you have someone to buy for who is into baking and decorating vouchers could be the perfect present for them! Equally if you are stuck for what to buy them, an ‘experience’ present always goes down well.  They’ll also have something to take home with them at the end of the class. A class voucher for Marie’s Bakehouse might be the answer to your present buying worries. We run classes for children and adults, from our very popular Monthly Modeller Classes, to cupcake decorating and celebration cake classes. There are lots of opportunities for people to come along and learn something new.

voucher for Marie's Bakehouse

You can have the voucher personalised, and if you are on the last minute, we can email the voucher over to you for you to print out and give to the recipient.

Our new class list for the Spring term will be published in the next few weeks. If you would like to book for a private class, please contact us and we can discuss what might like to be taught and give you a price accordingly.

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90th birthday cake for a very special lady

14th October 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
birthday, cake, cheshire, edible, flowers, lace, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 
Last week I had the honour of making a very special birthday cake for a very special lady- my Gran! She turned 90 this weekend. 90!! Imagine what amazing things she has seen in the last 90 years!

Alice named

It’s not often I get free reign on a cake, or the chance to make a really pretty girly one. Most of my cake orders involve modelling of some description, but not sugar flowers. I’ve also been itching to make some edible lace but haven’t had an order that has required it yet.  So edible lace and pretty flowers were the order of the day for this cake.

alice name plaque named

For the edible lace I used Claire Bowman Cake Lace. I have to say it was straight forward to use and I would highly recommend it if you are thinking of having a go. I also used the lace in the name plaque to tie it in with the rest of the design.

Alice flowers named

I really enjoyed making the flowers. This is about the fourth time I’ve  achieved roses I would say had a ‘real’ look to them, and I really like the dusky pink tones in these roses. I added carnations as a contrast and then used gooseberry and lilac shades in other wired flowers to complete the look.

Alice with Alice

All in all, I was really pleased with the way the cake turned out, and my Gran was too, which was definitely the desired outcome!

In case you are wondering the top tier was lemon cake, with lemon buttercream, and white chocolate and lemon ganache, and the bottom tier was rich chocolate mud cake with chocolate flavoured buttercream and milk chocolate ganache. Two of my favourite flavours 🙂

I’m looking forward to the next pretty cake I can make!

www.facebook.com/MariesBakehouse

www.mariesbakehouse.co.uk

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French Cake Breaks

4th February 2014
by M-admin-bakehouse
1 comment
break, classes, decorating, French, holiday, review, , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s February. It’s cold, wet, pretty dull most of the time, and we’re desperately thinking about some summer sun to brighten our days, and booking a holiday to keep us going til then aren’t we? Well, if you are into cake baking and decorating I have the perfect holiday for you!

Last May I was lucky enough to go away on a French Cake Break with two friends, one who has a cake business not far from me in Manchester, and another who is a keen baker and just starting out on the road of learning how to decorate her masterpieces. A fairly mixed bag of experience between us, but what we produced pleased all of us in equal measures.

French Cake Breaks are run by my wonderful friend Rhu of Pimp my Cake and Claire of Gite La Nougayrede.

Now don’t be fooled into thinking that I’m giving a glowing report because Rhu is my friend, what you are about to read is a true reflection of how much I enjoyed the week. Because I did enjoy it. Immensely.
Of the week we spent away, two days accounted for travelling there and back, and relaxation time, and on one day we had a visit to Sarlat Market, a wonderfully typical French market town where you can buy souvenirs to take home, including all the local delicacies.

The remaining time is spent at the gite in classes with Rhu, who is very generous with her knowledge and I picked up lots of extra hints and tips along the way, as well as the teaching for all three projects. Rhu runs a beginner’s week, an intermediate week, and now also a fabulous week learning how to make Marissa the mermaid. Oh how I would love to go back and take this week of classes!!

During our stay we made a bride and groom, a high heeled shoe and a car, all of which came back in the hand luggage!

(I know my groom has a bit of a lean- but I know why it happened and I learnt from it- all part of the class experience!)

 
The accommodation is extremely comfortable and the meals provided are amazing, Claire is a fabulous cook, also making some amazing puddings. Add some lovely local wine to the mix- I’d make sure you pack the elasticated trousers!
If you are thinking about taking a French Cake Break, I can honestly, whole heartedly recommend it. I had the most wonderfully relaxing week, enjoyed fabulous hospitality and learnt an amazing amount in the short time we were there. I’d definitely go back if I had the opportunity to. Don’t hesitate any longer- go and book that holiday!!!
 
You can find out more about French Cake Breaks here, hear the latest news on fb here and find more about what Rhu is up to here .
Let me know if you go- I’d love to see the holiday snaps!
 
 
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Tutorial for how to create a simple leaf effect on sugarpaste trees

25th July 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
blog, cake, decorating, Manchester, maries's bakehouse, tutorial, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , ,
A quick ‘how to decorate today’ rather than a recipe to share 🙂
I’ve used this technique on a few cakes, most recently on the sides of this Fireman Sam cake.
It’s super simple, and quick to do, but adds a bit of texture and interest to your cake.
What to do:
1. Colour some sugarpaste green. It can be marbled, you don’t need to colour it completely.
2. Roll out the paste to make it thinner, and pull off the desired size.
3. Tidy up the edges, and make into a ‘cloud’ shape.
4. Use a daisy cutter, or similar flower and press randomly into the paste (without cutting all the way through), over and over again to create a texture which gives the impression of lots of leaves.
5. Stick it on the top of your ‘trunk’, which can be made using a lump of brown sugarpaste, flattened slightly and score lines into it with a knife.
6. Add as many as you need to create the desired effect.

 

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Cake International Manchester 2013 – my experience of entering the competition!

19th March 2013
by M-admin-bakehouse
1 comment
blog, cake, cake maker, cheshire, decorating, Manchester, marie's bakehouse, Urmston, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Have you been to Cake International? It’s been running for many years, but I’ve been to the Birmingham one for the last three years.  The first one, I drove there from Manchester with my mum, spent a fortune on goodies and came home full of ideas, and totally in awe of anyone who entered the competition, thinking it wasn’t anything that I’d ever do myself.

The second and third years I went with cake friends and stayed over near the NEC. It was a really social experience, spending time in person with ‘real live’ cake friends, not just chatting to them over the internet! Each year different friends entered the competition and, with them, I lived through their anguish beforehand whilst making their competition piece, their nerves when waiting for the judges to announce who had been awarded what grades, and their joy and sometimes disappointments at how they had been scored.

But I hadn’t ever entered the competition myself. Well, I lived in Manchester, and the cake had to be delivered to Birmingham before 8.45am on a Friday morning, and I had work, or had to take the children to school, so I couldn’t possibly get it there, could I?
Good enough excuse I thought.

Then Cake International moved to Manchester. And not just Manchester- to Event City, which is less than ten minutes away from where I live in Urmston. So the ‘I can’t get it there’ excuse was no longer relevant. Hmmmmmmmm.

So, when the time came to think about buying my tickets for CI, it was crunch time.  Was I going to buy a three day pass? Or enter the competition and have a three day pass because of it? So I entered the competition. I read through the rules of each class and decided on Class B: Celebration cake with all edible decoration.

I decided to stick with something I knew I could do. Some people enter CI to really challenge themselves, and hats off to them for doing it. There are some absolutely fantastic pieces there, such as this amazing piece from Rhu at Pimp My Cake By Mama Rhu. But I thought I’d make a cake which I’d make for a customer, and just have fun making a cake I enjoyed. Which is exactly what I did.

I like making cakes with lots of detail. Cakes which make you look a little bit closer. Cakes which have decoration at the back as well as at the front. So I kind of went to town with it on this cake.  I didn’t stress, I didn’t worry, I just enjoyed making a cake that I wanted to make.  So far so good I thought.

On the morning of delivery I was still fairly relaxed about the whole thing. Until the point of putting it on the table. Then I started to feel nervous. Lots of people would be looking at my cake over the next three days. The judges would be scrutinising it in a matter of hours. People might wander past it and criticise it. I might be there and hear them! Suddenly I wasn’t quite so calm! But I felt confident enough in my cake to think I might be awarded a merit, and if I was lucky enough to get a bronze, then I’d be thrilled.

After taking the children to school, and going home to bake for a order, I returned to CI at about 11am. As soon as I arrived I went to the competition area and saw a judge with my cake! Suddenly I felt very sick.  Suddenly it really mattered to me what this person thought of my cake, and I needed to know as soon as possible. 

Then I, and other cake friends, waited for the results to be announced. And waited and waited and waited. Three o’clock came round and I had to leave to collect my children from school. On returning home I was glued to my laptop, waiting for Rhu to let me know what the results were. Then Rhu posted a picture for me.

Stunned. Totally stunned. In fact I think my first response was ‘Noooooooooooooooooooo!’ But completely and utterly pleased and proud. Thrilled that one of my cakes, one I’d make in the same way for a customer, achieved a gold at Cake International!
Quick jump to Sunday afternoon, and the award ceremony, and not only did I manage to meet John Whaite (winner of GBBO) who presented my certificate, I was also awarded best in my class. Here’s me with a daft grin, and trying not to cry!
Happy caker 🙂
And just because I have one, here’s a picture of Mary Berry with my cake. Well, almost with my cake. I’d like to think she was at least looking at it!
Would I enter CI again? Yes I think I would. I might even step out of my comfort zone and enter a class I’m not so confident in. I have a few ideas forming…….
So that’s it, my journey to Cake International Manchester.
Any ideas how many eggs the Easter Bunny hid in the garden?? ;0)
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