Mel, thats so cute, its like the top tier on a display cake I did a while ago.

Oooh so it is Natt LOL! That looks fab - I love the witches legs poking out from under the house! :D

AThanks Mel.:-)

Your cakes fabulous!!!;-D Mel, is it ok if I point out something?

AThanks Mel and your cake fantastic !!!! :grin:

Natt, your cake is fabulous too but only thing I would do is to attach a ribbon around the cake board?:smile:

Mel that cake is fantastic. I love the yellow brick road. And the poppies. Infact I love it all! How did you make the people?

Your cake is amazing too natt I love the little house at the bottom hehe

AThanks guys :)

The front of brick road was done with a Purple Cupcakes imprint folder, which was great! As it got 'further away' I marked it by hand with a Dresden tool.

For the people it's actually a panel of flower paste, which I cut out to the shape of my template and then I painted the characters on, left it to dry over the side of a cake tin so it had the curve. Once dry I stuck it to the side of the cake with royal icing :)

Thanks guys!

Bashini - there is a ribbon on it now, before the fayre I did it for I had no tape though so I had to pick it up on the way and attach it at the fayre, I have better photos for my website lol!

Mel - my favourite part of yours is the people, I love all things Oz though so I feel I am biased!

AOohhhh... That's great natt. It gives a complete look to the cake.:grin:

AThose people look great in very impressed that you painted them yourself. That would be far beyond my capabilities hehe

ANatt and mel, your cakes are soooo flipping good, where did you get your ideas from?

AAw thanks Nanny :) For this one it was googling images really, I found a couple I liked which matched the customers request, and then just worked out the best design that I could do with my skills, and playing about with forced perspective to be able to get the city and the figures in!

I knew I couldn't do as good a job as I'd like if I tried to model figures, so I thought about doing a painted plaque like the one I did for the Welsh flag dragon. Thought it would look a bit more grown up, with a slightly more vintage feel and I could get more detail with painting, and I think it worked :)

I on the other hand have never had a request for an Oz cake but am super obsessed with Oz so since I made these characters for a competition in my 1st year of cake dec in college I figured as a wedding cake dummy I could make a 'travelling through the lands of Oz' cake.

ABrilliant Natt.

AWow they are brilliant Nat, love the tin man & Toto!

AMorning everyone, just a quick update on types of fondant we all prefer, normally I rave about covapaste, but as you all know I had some issues last week with bubbling and bulges, so had a word in the cake Dec shop, and the lady in there who makes the cakes said she had to, so she suggested I try renshaw's as she was going to, so I bought some yesterday and there is a vast difference, just thought I'd on the good news. I havn't finished my cake yet so pics to follow later.

How you all doing then? Anyone baking today?

AMorning all. :-) Blimey, I've missed loads! Beautiful flowers Bashini, and I love your cakes natt and mel, favourite bits, hmm, I think the characters on yours Mel, Having their backs to us is such a good idea! I too like the witch's legs stuck out from under the house natt! It doesn't look like the most difficult bit but it tickled me. :-) I had a terrible day yesterday, a family drama had me out of the house for more than 5 hours, then I had to take my daughter dancing so I didn't really start my cake til 9pm. I finished it about 2am and got to bed about 3am by the time I cleaned up. Not happy with the cake if I'm honest but I am at least glad I managed to do it cos it looked for a while like I wouldn't! Nothing to do now til the 19th and I'm glad of the break! (I look forward to seeing all your beautiful works of art while I'm "resting!) Nanny I can't stand Renshaws, far too soft for me.

AP.s love your tin man natt, don't know how I missed those! They're fab!

AThanks guys, I did them years ago but they are still one of my favourite things I've done. The tin man caused the most trouble so I'm glad you all like him, makes him worth the effort, lol.

I've got 4 cakes on the go today, need to get all my work done by Friday night so that I can just deliver all on Saturday morning and then am gonna visit a friend in Cardiff at the weekend.

Hi everyone,

I just recently joined the forums. I hope to meet bakers and hopefully contribute as well (though I have VERYYYYY!!! limited knowledge about baking ). I am willing to learn though.

I need some advice choosing cooling racks. Which would you say are the best and sturdiest. I have looked almost everywhere and read reviews but most reviews are mixed. Any help would be appreciated.

Ta muchly!

AThank you Maisie, I am with you about Renshaw. I hate it too!!

Sochique, welcome to the thread. :) All my cooling racks are cheap ones. Don't want to pay lots and lots for something like that. Sorry not much of a help.

AAdd another name to the can't stand renshaw list!

As far as cooling racks go I have a stackable set from Lakeland that are great food cookies and cupcakes cos they then take up less room on the counter when cooling but the other set I have I'm pretty sure was 2 for £1.50 in wilko. Quality isn't necessarily a high priority for me with cooling racks.

A

Quote:

Originally Posted by bashini 

Thank you Maisie, I am with you about Renshaw. I hate it too!!


Sochique, welcome to the thread. All my cooling racks are cheap ones. Don't want to pay lots and lots for something like that. Sorry not much of a help.

I have only just this week tried SP from sugarpaste direct assuming for three years that all SP was like renshaws and you had to just deal with it!!!! what a fool I have been! lol

AHmm I'll have to try SP Direct. I use Renshaw all the time with no problem, but it would be nice to try some others.

Oh dear Maisie, hope everything is ok now with your family x

Hi Sochique :) Same as Natt, I use the Lakeland stacking set of 3. They are nice and sturdy, and very handy as they take up less space! I use them for everything, cookies, cupcakes (I can get at least 60 on all 3!) and also for drying sugar decorations on my craft mats.

Goodness - I haven't been "on" for half a day and there's pages to catch up on!

Natt and Mel - your talents are obvious.  I love your cakes - I am totally in awe of the figures and the lion is the one I think is sooo cute.  May I ask what colour yellow you are using?  I am now replacing all my colours (they were just too old and most of them had leaked) but I am going to be doing a garden cake in a couple of months and I am missing yellow from my collection of colours.  I used to have Egg and Melon but can't seem to find the latter.

Sochique - welcome!  I am new to this forum also.  A returning baker - so it all feels very new (and a tiny bit scary) to me.  These bakers are very talented on here!

Sorry everyone - bit dim - but what is the problem with Renshaws?  I just noticed this comment and I don't want to get stuck with something.  Crazy Gray - where do I find SP???  :)

Thanks everyone!

Thank you Kathy!

I have Egg and Melon but I mostly use Melon cos it's more yellow. Maybe order online if you can't find it locally?

I can't stand renshaw because I find it far too soft! Even the white and ivory I find difficult to work with, once they have colour in them I find them impossible to work with.

AThanks mel, everything's ok now, I hope! Welcome Sochique, I'm new too and I love this thread, you'll learn loads from all the lovely people here, I have already. I used my grill pan rack for ages til I bought a cheap one from Tesco! (I still get the grill rack out if I need extra room!) I'm going to try Sugarpaste direct too, from "sugarpaste direct" I believe.

AWelcome to the thread Sochique.

Wow no one likes Renshaws then, I did find it softer than covapaste not so much kneading which is why I thought maybe I got too much air in there.

Awww Maisie, hope everything is OK soon.

Found this on a site of a woman who made an amazing Marie Antoinette cake at Cake International last year:  http://www.amandamacleod.co.uk/blog/sugarpaste-review/9228/#comment-37861  I used to use Satinice and it's interesting to see all the comments.  Now I am totally confused!

Kathy

AKathy, I've used satin ice as well. It is quite similar to Covapaste but slightly softer. Really easy to handle. You have to try few different brands and find the one that works best for you. :)

Great Oz cakes Mel and Natt. Like I said they are calling me to get my figures out of the storage box and on to a cake.

Mel were the figures edible images?