Each year a friend of my brother has a Halloween party withall of the costumes, craziness and fun that comes with it. Christmas is my favourite time of the year,but for Sarah – Halloween is HER Christmas!
After seeing my success with the Alice in Wonderland cake, Sarah asked whetherI would be able to make her a cake as a bit of a centrepiece. Although I was not attending the party thisyear (having a holiday for a few days with a wonderful friend) I was happy tomake her one. I think I was also stillcoming down off the high from the success of the Alice cake (or was it from all that sugar inthe gluten free mud cake??!). Either wayI agreed with only one week to make it. Crazy!
I quickly got an idea in my mind that I wanted to create awitch and make it look like she was flying out of the cake, along with spooky scenery. I’m not great with physics, but figured if Iused a dowel as her broomstick that I could push it into the cake as an anchorto achieve my desired outcome. In theend, it would have been fine, however I decided to add a supporting piece underher bottom to allow for the cake to be transported a little easier.
A big thank-you to my fellow cakey girls (Kylieand Jen) who suggested I could hide it with fairy floss (candy floss) – as Iwas pondering cotton wool. Much nicer tohave something edible and I was happier with the blue contrasting the orangeand black of the cake!
Making of the Witch
When making the witch I encountered some of my usual issues – I messed up her face on my first attempt! The more I played with it, the scarier she got. I know this is a Halloween cake, however I had more of a ‘sexy witch’ in mind than a freak! Once I took some time to quietly work I quickly had a new face made and was much happier! Success!!
This time I also tried the suggestion of joining her with spaghetti (another cakey friend suggestion); however I will reconsider it for future figurines. Spaghetti might make a figurine fully edible, however it also allows a lot more movement than toothpicks due to it’s smooth surface. I found the witch quickly became a poltergeist! With her head swivelling so much, I had to handle her a little more and so she ended up with a little broader neck than I would have liked. Another lesson learnt!
Making the decorations - pumpkins, stars, city
Other than that, the decorations were easy to make, although a little time consuming. I used black icing to make hand-cut scenery and stars (covered in edible glitter) and orange/light orange icing to make pumpkins. I also made a cat, however he didn’t suit the end result I desired, so he went home with Sarah to find a new home elsewhere. Finally I made some pumpkin toppers for some cupcakes, so no shortage of sugar at this party!
For the cake, I realised that one week is not enough timefor me to think about the purchase of non gluten-free flour, so instead I useda packet butter mix cake. In order tomake it a little more special I added some orange essence, filled the cake withorange butter cream and crumb-coated with a chocolate butter cream. All was then topped off with a thin layer ofa very orange fondant. My secretsurprise for Sarah was that I made the cake using the Zebra cake technique(LINK) – alternating with orange, purple and cream cake batter. Apparently the cake was delicious, so I amdefinitely sighing with relief!!
Anyway, I hope you enjoy this newest Kreation! I expect the next one will be a little whileaway, so in the meantime I might start playing with some Christmas fun!
Ciao
Kerrie
Decorating the cake
