Gaming – Baking for Therapy

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Fortnite Cake …….again!

November 15, 2020November 15, 2020 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

This Fortnite cake is for the same young man I made the last one for, I can’t believe a year flew by so fast!

It seems that as the game evolves, different elements become popular. This time a ‘battle bus’ needed to be incorporated into the design, so off I went to good old google images!

Some of the many images of cakes brilliantly made by the artists shown

For my cake I just needed a topper as it was to be one of a few elements.

After trying unsuccessfully to use a kinder egg as the balloon (too heavy) I eventually raided my cake stash for a polystyrene egg instead. It was probably a bit small scale wise, but otherwise worked perfectly. Note to self: buy bigger polystyrene eggs!

It’s not an exact copy of the actual bus, more a representation! I think to get all the details right I would need to make an actual ‘Battle Bus’ cake! Maybe next year Josh? 😉

I used Renshaw flower and modelling paste for all the toppers, coloured with Coloursplash gels.

I used a double batch of my chocolate cake recipe, chocolate buttercream, and milk chocolate ganache under the sugarpaste, which is Select Ireland Platinum coloured green. Renshaw yellow was used for the lettering which was created using Cake Star Push Cutters

Josh looks really pleased with his cake, and apparently when he saw it he said ‘that’s definitely a Debbie cake’ bless him. Josh is one of the kids from Panto and even though I’d decided when I resigned the chairmanship this year, that I wasn’t going to be involved, I’m really missing the rehearsals and get togethers which usually start in September, and I can imagine the frustration and disappointment that the pandemic has brought to the society, and lots of amateur theatre groups this year. Let’s hope we can all get back to normal soon and live theatre, both amateur and professional will be back in our lives sooner rather than later!🤞

Until next time

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

Baking for Therapy, Birthday, Cake decorating, Cake decorating products, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration, Family, Fun, Health, Learning, Therapy

How are you coping with lockdown fever?

May 17, 2020June 4, 2020 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

Hey everyone

Here in the UK, we’ve now had 2 months of ‘lockdown’, and I must say that for the most part, it has been rigorously observed. Community spirit has never been better, with heartwarming stories everywhere about what people are doing to help others cope with being isolated.

My hobby is being supported brilliantly by frequent Sugar and Crumbs Facebook ‘lives’ broadcast several times a week, either by Carol McFarland or Karen Griffith from S&C itself, or guest tutors filming in their own homes. Each time, we are shown how to achieve a different recipe. These are absolutely free to access, and you can do so via the Facebook page ‘Sugar and Crumbs with Nifty Nozzles’. All you need to do is like the page and you’ll be notified every time there’s a tutorial 😀 You can also find all their past ‘lives’ there or on their YouTube channel, so there’s no excuse to get bored anytime soon!

Carol has also featured on ‘Cakeflix’ another cake community run by Paul Bradford. He and his partner have set up ‘Caking all over the World’ and have got lots of renowned ‘Cakers’ doing guest slots for them.

If Cake isn’t your ‘thing’ try searching for something that is! Crafters TV (Crafters Companion) is also providing ‘lives’ for its followers. This company is owned by Sara Davies of ‘Dragon’s Den’ fame, and they have lots of different activities to join in with. Whatever your hobby, I’m willing to bet there’s something out there to keep you from lockdown fever!

Since my last post, there has been another Cupcake bouquet class too. Sadly I wasn’t able to do it along with Carol and my fellow ‘bouqueteers’ on the day, as I wasn’t feeling too well, but I watched it all and managed to produce my bouquets a few days later. The great thing is that I can rewatch both previous classes anytime I like, and any others going forward 😀 There’s a mini nozzles class already set up for 26th May, and another full class scheduled for June 13th. Although this is a paid class, it’s extremely good value for money, as it’s a one off payment giving you access to every previous and subsequent broadcasts! At £50, it’s an absolute bargain, and as it’s online it can be watched from anywhere in the world! If you’d like to join the merry band of ‘bouqueteers’, click the link here: Cupcake Bouquet Class

Along with my new bouquets, I’ve also made another Pokemon themed cake since I last saw you. This one is ‘Gengar’ and was made for Robb, my niece’s fella who had his birthday last week. You might recall that my niece, Amy, had a beautiful baby boy two months ago. Lockdown has prevented any of the family having a cuddle yet, but we are being kept well provided with daily photos. He’s way too young to appreciate Pokemon cake, but Robb has two girls from a previous relationship, and they waited to cut it until they were there ❤️

Gengar ……bit of a Cheshire Cat vibe going on

The girls enjoying a slice of the Gengar cake

Gengar was made from purple velvet cake (red velvet with purple food colour instead of red!) with purple tinted white chocolate buttercream. The whole cake was then covered in sugarpaste* I also got the opportunity to try out a new gadget ‘the lil’ rolly’ by the company ‘Evil Cake Genious’ and I must say, I’m impressed! It is for smoothing out ridges and bumps in buttercream, ganache and Royal Icing, and resembles a tiny paint roller** Evil Cake Genius is an American company but Sugar and Crumbs is their uk supplier, and does currently have stock. There’s a brief video tutorial by Evil Cake Genius on YouTube here: and a more in depth one by Sugar and Crumbs where Carol tries it out for the first time here:

*I used Select Ireland Supreme Silk White, and Renshaw Deep Purple Renshaw Tiger Orange, Renshaw Jet Black, Renshaw Emerald Green (mixed with white) Gandar has one support dowel (milkshake straw) right down the centre and is sitting on a.10” round cake drum

**This product is food safe. Please do not use any similar items from a diy store!

Well, that’s all for now, keep caking, crafting, sewing or whatever is keeping you sane!

Most of all

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

Baking for Therapy, Birthday, Cake decorating, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration, Fun, Recipes

DJ Marshmello is in da house!

October 12, 2019October 12, 2019 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

Hi!

Before I start, I have a confession to make. I had no clue who DJ Marshmello was until I got this cake request! Up to a few months ago when ‘Fortnite’ cake tutorials appeared on YouTube, I’d never heard of that either!

My first ‘Fortnite’ cake was inspired by a tutorial by Sweetie Darling, a lovely lady I follow on YouTube and Instagram.

Sweetie Darling’s tutorial

So when I was asked to make a feature of DJ Marshmello, I turned to Google images, found one I thought I could replicate easily and set to work!

I panelled the side of the cake in white sugarpaste, leaving the top roughly frosted with green buttercream to represent a grass effect. I then rolled out another piece of white sugarpaste with a little added tylose, and left it uncovered whilst I traced the image onto baking parchment. I cut that out and rubbed a bit of Trex (shortening) on it before placing it on the sugarpaste. I went over the details with the pointy end of a Dresden tool, to give me some guidelines, and then cut round the outline with a scalpel. I then rolled out some black sugarpaste, cut out the eye and mouth shapes from my image, and used those on the black sugarpaste. The other details and the outline, I did with an edible food marker. It was then easy enough to apply the whole thing to the cake 😀

I really struggled with the loot llama. I don’t know if my tylose has gone off (can it do that?) but it didn’t seem to be hardening at all! And the colours seem a bit ‘wishy washy’ on the photo, although they did look a bit brighter in real life. All in all, I prefer the llama I made in the first version, but the birthday boy loved it, and that’s all that matters! I also made some bandages and a treasure chest to keep the llama company, and I thought the bottom of the cake looked a bit bare so I used some green sugarpaste rolled quite thinly, to make a long grass effect border.

The cake itself was chocolate fudge, filled with a fudgy frosting, and crumb coated with milk chocolate ganache. You can find the recipes on the recipe page, if you want to try them 😋

So, here’s the final result!

Lettering by Sweet Stamps and Sugarflair Gold lustre mixed with rejuvenating fluid

After I’d taken these photos, I decided that I didn’t like the positioning of the Fortnite logo ( I had thought the jaunty angle was a good idea) and moved it so that it was more central. I also noticed that there was some cornflour ‘dust’ on the board…Doh! So I brushed that off too. Unfortunately, by that time it was evening so the photo has shadows. Nevertheless, here it is. The birthday boy’s Mum sent me a photo the following day when he saw it, and gave me permission to include it in my post 😀

NB: I went over the lettering again before the cake was collected too!

The birthday boy! His friend in the red t shirt looks pretty impressed too 😂

Well, that’s it from me for now

Until next time

Stay safe and healthy

Debbie ❤️

Products used in the making of this cake:

The Sugarpaste

Wilton gel colours – leaf green, violet, royal blue

Renshaw’s Belgian chocolate modelling paste

Renshaw’s coloured sugarpaste red, black

Sugarflair lustre dusts – Silver, Gold

Colour splash edible marker black

Sweet Stamps Sweet Stamps lettering, vanilla set

turntableAluminium turntable 12”diameter

Baking for Therapy, Cake decorating, Cakes, Bakes, and Me, Celebration

The long awaited pictorial!

July 6, 2019 Debbie, Baking for Therapy

You may remember that back when I made the ‘Zelda Cake’, I promised to document it photographically and produce a pictorial. Here’s a reminder of the finished cake……

And I shall now attempt to get all the pictures in the right order! Here goes…

I made 2 cakes separately as I only have one 9″ Cake pan! So you’ll need to double the ingredients if you want a taller cake 🍰

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter for 3-5 minutes until smooth and pale in colour. Add the sifted icing sugar in 3 or 4 additions, scraping the bowl down frequently. Add the vanilla and beat for a further 5 minutes on low to medium setting.I found a template for the emblem on google images and used it to cut it out of yellow fondant, rolled to about 3mm. I also found pictures of various items associated with Zelda, and just copied them the best that I could. I made the sword, stone, chest and winged ball thingy (it has a name but I’ve forgotten it 🙁) by adding some tylose powder to coloured fondant. This makes it dry harder and quicker. I added guide holes with cocktail sticks where needed while it was still soft. Once the main pieces of the sword and chest were dry, I added the extra decorations to them with normal fondant. I rolled out green fondant to cover the 12″ drum, and top of the cake, and used a marbled grey round the sides. I rolled this a bit thicker, about 5mm, so that I could use a PME cobblestone impression mat to create the ‘wall’ effect. I used Renshaw’s premium Coverpaste coloured with Wilton gel colours throughout.