I can sing a rainbow…sing a rainbow….sing along with me!

Its been a while (yet again) since I have blogged and I have been constantly on the go with different styles and types of cake, however when deciding to do a blog post today the one that has stayed in my mind as my favourite of late is the rainbow cake I created for one of my best friends birthdays.

Rainbow cake is one of those surprises that can’t help but make people smile when they cut into the cake and discover the multitude of colour inside! For this blog post instead of just posting pics of the finished cake I decided to take step by step photographs to give you a true idea of the work that goes into a cake like this – soooo much fun though!

I choose Americolor for creating my rainbow colours, you need so little to create a really vibrant hue, the cake itself is a simple vanilla layer cake recipe.  This cake comes out very tall so ensure you have plenty of people about when serving it up!

Step 1 – Create your cake mix using a tried and trusted recipe for vanilla layer cake, once this is done share it out equally between 6 bowls.  Using your americolor (or whatever colourings you prefer) add a couple of drops to each bowl and mix to desired shade.

Step 2 – Pour your cake mix into fully lined 8″ cake tins and bake according to the recipe you are using.

Step 3 – Once they are cooked leave to cool in the tins for about 5 mins and then turn out onto racks and leave to cool completely.

Step 4 – Layer the cakes (make sure you are stacking in the right order, if it helps you can always sing to yourself – but do this while no-one watches!) between each layer add a generous amount of vanilla buttercream – keep this a simple white/ivory colour as it will help set off the rainbow of colours in the cake already.

Step 5 – add a crumb coat of buttercream to the cake layers and leave to set – then add a final thicker layer of buttercream to the cake, I like to take a palette knife and spin the cake on the turntable while the tip of the palette knife touches the buttercream creating a ridged effect.

Step 6 – Now its up to you to decorate the cake how you would like! On this particular occasion the cake was for a keen seamstress so I chose to create lots and lots of sugar buttons in rainbow colours and cascade them down the cake to match the layers inside that when the cake was cut would look oh so pretty….

 

Choir Themed Birthday Fun!

Its been a while since I have had chance to write a blog post – summer has come and gone and with it lots of new wonderful memories have been had! I thought I would start the month of September off with this blog post about a very musically themed birthday cake!

I was asked to make this cake for a gentleman called Bill who was in the prime of retirement and enjoyed in his spare time singing in an all male choir – so what better way of celebrating this than creating a birthday cake with all his fellow choir ‘boys’ (should I say men?!) singing their hearts out…with happy birthday I am sure!

The cake was a simple vanilla pod sponge with creamy buttercream…simple pleasures in life are sometimes the best.

We all *heart* Cupcakes!

This post is short and sweet, well, everything here at RosyCheeks Bakery is sweet but you get the drift…

More Personalised Birthday Cupcakes to brighten your start to the weekend!

Claire x

Secret Garden Cake – Spring is in Bloom!

You may remember me mentioning I was working on a very special cake that remained top secret to ensure the Birthday Girl did not find out – well that cake has now been revealed (and devoured) so I can finally showcase the Secret Garden Cake.  The cake was for a 60th birthday celebration and I wanted to make it extra special as Caroline deserves only the best!

Caroline has an absolutely beautiful garden which blossoms with lots of bright colours and really lets you know when Spring has arrived and Summer is on its way.  With it being an April birthday a Spring Garden themed cake seemed entirely appropriate but I wanted the cake to have that overgrown, enchanted feel about it.  The birdhouse was suspended on the cake using a wooden skewer and then the edible vines entwined their way up on to it finished with beautiful little pink flowers and a carefully piped number 60.  The characters; A Snail, Caterpillar and happy little ladybirds are happily sitting amongst the green buttercream grass and the terracotta plant pots are overspilling with bright spring blooms.

The cake itself was a very rich dark chocolate cake (by rich I mean 12 eggs and over 600g of dark chocolate!) filled with a gooey chocolate fudge buttercream.

There are a lot of photographs of this cake because there are so many details I want you all to see! Enjoy…

Personalised Birthday Cupcakes

It’s been a while since I have had a chance to post – what with my day job and the numerous cake orders its been crazy hectic busy! Now it is the Easter Hols and I have time to breath I am going to catch up with a bit of blogging.

This blog post is dedictated to some personalised birthday cupcakes for a young lady called Bronte who loves making cakes almost as much as she does eating them!  Her lovely  mum ordered a dozen cakes with me and asked for them to be girlie and pink…and we all know that is a Rosy Cheeks speciality!

The cakes are a mixture of chocolate and vanilla all filled with a gooey rich toffee caramel centre which oozes out as you bite in…

No sooner had this order come in – another two popped up as well so I am afraid my blog is going to be a little cupcake orientated for the next couple of posts!  However there is a very special birthday cake I have been working on over the past couple of weeks I will be posting up soon…I just have to wait as the recipient reads the blog so its all a little hush hush!

Claire x

A 21st Birthday Cake to Remember…

Sisters are one of those things in life that can one minute drive you crazy and the next fill you with love (trust me I have three of them!).  Well I am pretty sure that when the sister of this birthday girl got in touch to ask me to make her sister a surprise birthday cake for her 21st it was all about the love…

Sometimes when your making someone a cake they give you complete creative freedom except maybe a colour theme or a favourite flower and this was one of those occasions the only word I was given was pink…and we all know I can happily work with that!  The other request was that the birthday wishes were to read ‘Happy 21st Ickle Pickle’ something I am sure is an inside joke that only sisters can have!

I chose to keep to two shades; a deep hot pink and a baby pink complemented playfully by the gentle soft green used in the leaves, swirls and lettering.  I added tiny sugar pearls to the cake for that added touch of girlie glamour. And finally a few tiny butterflies gently landing on the flowers collecting sweet sugar nectar.  Creating sugarcraft flowers this way and in this quantity may seem like a nightmare job for most but for me, somehow I get a sense of tranquility and peace as I work and this transcends into the cakes I create, or, at least I hope it does.

This cake was genuinely beautiful, each individual flower sparkled as the light hit the petals; roses, petunia’s and hydrangea’s.  Perfect for a weekend when the Spring sunshine is high in the sky.

The final picture? The two sisters at the moment the birthday girl received her surprise cakey goodness; I mean that’s what Rosy Cheeks is all about; Love & Cake…and of course a sprinkle of glamour!

Claire x

 

Cascading Floral Beauty

You may remember a couple of weeks ago I put up a post titled ‘Turtle Power’ showcasing a two cute little fondant turtles I had made in anticipation of a 12th birthday cake I had been asked to make for twins Billie & Frankie.

The cake was inspired by a hint of vintage (of course!) combined with the girls love of pink and flowers so I decided to theme the cake as though the turtles had been caught in a gust of wind that had blown beautiful flowers cascading down all around them.  This is to date my favourite cake to have made and I really hope that when the two girls in question see it for the first time they are as happy with it on their Birthday as I was to make it for them.

Claire x

‘Capturing’ 30th Birthday Memories

A good friend of mine turned 30 this week and of course an event like this cannot be allowed to pass without the addition of a birthday cake to remember! The birthday boy in question is an architectural photographer (you can check out his work here!) so naturally it seemed right to create a camera out of cake…overambitious? yes.  Up for the challenge? erm yes. Camera Cake here we go…

It started with some different angled photographs taken of his very own Canon EOS 5D Mark II – If I was going to attempt a camera cake then it was going to be his camera for sure!  I then baked a huge 14″ chocolate cake to carve all of the relevant pieces out of once baked and cooled using cardboard templates I had drawn out using the photographs.  As I was carving the cake the word ‘overambitious’ sprung into my mind again and there was a definate moment of panic where I wondered what I could do with the now massacred, sorry I mean carved, cake.

I covered each of the relevant pieces in black fondant – and just so you know what a job that is in itself, I still have black fondant adorning my work area!  I then proceeded to assemble the cake using chocolate buttercream as an edible glue.  All that was remaining was to mix some edible white paint with clear alcohol and start adding all the details that stop the cake looking like just a big black blob!

As I finished the last bit of hand-painting a took a step back, a sigh of relief and a small but sure smile crept across my face as I realised that it did actually look like a camera, and not just any camera – his camera – happy days!

Turtle Power

I thought I would share these adorable little sugar paste turtles that I spent yesterday afternoon making ready for a 12th birthday cake I will be making in a couple of weeks! (full cake post then)  They just have that ‘awww’ factor that perfectly suits a cold winters afternoon snuggled up in doors!

Claire x

Monochrome to Paris with Love x

Here is another birthday cake made in the month of December for a 90th Birthday Celebration.  The cake is a very simple and stylistic monochrome two-tiered creation. 

The birthday boy…no, gentleman (probably more appropriate) has a love for the wonderful architecture in Paris and so the cake was themed around this.  The cake is a rich and delicious carrot cake spiced with cinnamon and frosted with a sugary vanilla cream cheese buttercream. 

It was finished with a hand drawn Eiffel Tower using edible ink – for which I cannot take the credit – The talented Gareth Thyer  bravely took on that task!  I think the finished cake was very elegant and appropriate for a 90th birthday, take a look…