50th Birthday Cake

50th Birthday Cake

A shaped 50th birthday cake in pink and white colours decorated with flowers and piped decoration. 

Numbered cakes can be quite tricky to ice depending on what number you have, 1's are great, as for the number 5, lots of angles to play with here.  It was virtually impossible to ice the cakes using one complete piece of icing, there was just no way the fondant could be tucked into the gaps without it tearing, so I had to use my trusty teaspoon to help blend the icing together and get it as smooth as possible.  I use a teaspoon as a smoother, it's perfect for small areas and corners and works brilliantly. 

Adding the piped detail around the bottom of the cake was a challenge in some areas as I needed to do this with the cakes on the board, which didn't leave much room to get my piping bag into the gaps.  I decided to pipe the icing without using a piping tube, opting for a smooth finish, that way I could use a disposable piping bag and just cut the end to the size I needed.  The disposable piping bags are fairly narrow at the point which meant it fitted in the gaps quite easily, I just needed plenty of icing in the bag in order to squeeze it from higher up.



Gumpaste flowers

The flowers are made out of gum paste, rolled nice and thin for a delicate look, and I've painted the centre of the flowers with pale yellow food colouring mixed with luster dust for a touch of sparkle.