Father's Day gifts to make or buy

This week has begun so much better than last week! Our cat is on the mend, we have a diagnosis (he has a heart condition), and we now have the right medication for him. He is going to have to take the tablets for the long term but he is back to his normal self and it is wonderful to see!

With all that has been going on with our cat and the renovation of our bedroom, I am glad I have already sorted out my husband's Father's Day gift. However, I wanted to share my favourite home made gifts from around the web, and some of the ideas I have either bought or would buy for my husband, Dad or Father in Law. I hope they inspire you!

Let's start with the creative side of things! Those gifts you have to make!

On EverythingEtsy they have rounded up the best leather gifts for men. Check them out here.

I only pinned this the other week. What a fun thing to do with a glass! There are so many possibilities with this one. The original blog post can be found here.

Something personalised is always a lovely idea, totally unique to the person receiving the gift. I liked this t-shirt because she added Est. to it. It makes this t-shirt even more unique. Find the tutorial over at She Knows.

There are all different tutorials for Sharpie mugs. My son and I used this tutorial to make a Christmas gift for his teacher. It makes a nice token gift and the mug can be filled with some of their favourite treats. The tutorial for this particular one can be found at Glued to my Crafts blog.

There is no tutorial for this pen holder but it is very easy to do. My son made one like this for his Dad. We took an old coffee can and hot glued the keys to it. We didn't have quite enough to cover the whole tin so we painted it black before gluing and painted 'Dad's Pens' around the middle in white.

These bookmarks look very simple and can be added to their favourite book to make the perfect gift. The tutorial for these can be found at The Casual Craftlete.

Another good round of ideas can be found at Polkadot Chair.

I just love the idea of these home made spicy nuts with free printables at Bird's Party!

Home made lunch bag for his bike? Find this on EvilMadScientist.

 

How about a tool belt for when he needs them right away! Find the tutorial for this over at About.com.

If that's all a bit too much you can't go wrong with a gift from NotOnTheHighStreet.com. These are a pick of my favourites from that site.

1. Beard Grooming Kit   2. Message Chocolates  3. Daddy and Me Keyring

4. Circuit board cufflinks  5. Engraved Mason Jar  6. Personalised Pocket Cushion

7. Dad and Child Hobby T-shirts  8. Guitar Pick Holder  9. The Day you became...Keyring

What will you be making or buying?

Hobby related cakes for men

Does your Dad, Husband or Grandfather have a hobby? A lot of men are of course into football (soccer) so it makes a perfect cake when turning it into a ball or using the colours of the team they support. There are of course many other hobbies which seem to get forgotten about when you think of men. My son and husband are not huge fans of football but have many other interests. This opens up the realm of ideas for cakes, far beyond the usual football. Here are some ideas to either copy or inspire you when thinking of your next male cake!

So this first one isn't strictly hobby related but plays into the interests theme!

I simply swirled the cupcakes with a bright blue icing, then cut circles of white and black fondant which I placed on top of some of the cupcakes. The interests here surrounded the recipients work and likes. I used an edible food writer for the messages in the middle. I let the fondant dry up a little before writing on them. I also didn't place them on the cupcakes until I had done this. The Audi logo cakes where made using 2 different sized tips. I turned them over and simply used them as mini cutters. I painted the fondant with edible silver paint and left them to dry before placing on top, attaching them with a little edible glue. I followed two tutorials for the coffee cups and ties. You can find them here and here. The Android cakes I copied from a picture I found of the Android logo. I rolled and cut shapes to fit the robot. The laptops were inspired by some cakes I saw online. I cut two rectangles of black fondant, stuck them together and left them to dry off a little. I had to prop them up so that they wouldn't fall over. I then took two smaller white pieces and attached these. I wrote on the 'screens' before I attached them. I indented the other piece with a knife to represent the keys. A small white piece of fondant was painted with gold edible paint and placed on the front to represent the catch.

Is DIY classed as a hobby?  I guess it depends what you are making!  I took this idea from a Wilton yearbook. You can find the tutorial on their website here.

Are they an armchair hobbiest? Do they enjoy watching lots of different sports? This is perfect for anyone who enjoys a wide range of sports, or who indeed plays them! I again found inspiration from Wilton for this cake in their fondant book.  You can find a similar version on their sister site Bake Decorate Celebrate here. You can purchase the Wilton book on Amazon.co.uk.

Perhaps they like to do a little fishing? This cake was made using an old Wilton pan called Handsome man! You could easily trace a fisherman on a large sheet or rectangle cake. There is a lot of inspiration for fishing cakes out there, so you could follow this theme over a few occasions! There are sadly no instructions for this on the Wilton website. It is fairly straightforward to copy though.

Over in the UK, bowls is a big past time, especially with older people. My Dad has loved bowls since his early 30's so naturally I had to make him a bowl themed cake. I searched for pictures of bowls cakes and at the time they were pretty limited. I did find a figure preparing to bowl and that's where I got the idea for this one. I covered the cake in green fondant to represent the green. I made bowls out of black fondant balls with small yellow hoops. I also made a small white ball. The words were shaped from black fondant. The figure was extremely tricky. I didn't have any tutorial to follow, and if I had, I think it would have turned out better. For some great figure tutorials, head over to my Pinterest board Cake and Cookie tutorials. They would have helped me greatly if I had had access to them at the time!

From leisurely pursuits, to more high octane fare! The recipient is very much into motorbikes and this manufacturer in particular. I found a number of cakes I liked, but settled on this one as inspiration. I shaped the cake from a large rectangle but believe it could be achieved using a heart shaped pan. I made the key, tags and letters first, leaving them to dry before placing on the cake. I printed out the letters and used them as a template to cut from so that they looked like the actual logo. I used grey and white fondant that I painted with edible silver paint.  I buttercreamed the cake and covered the sides in black fondant, with the top in red. The grey fondant band covered the join between the two colours. I marked out a checkered patterned on the black fondant and used a ruler to indent it. Once the grey bands were on, I painted them with edible silver paint.

Cycling has become big news these past few years, so more and more designs have sprung up, so plenty of inspiration for the cake decorator! This was my first try with gum paste. I knew fondant would not work for the bike. I followed a picture rather than a tutorial and I painted the bike with watered down paste colour rather than colouring the gum paste. I'm not sure if I would do this again as the paint didn't really want to stick. The spokes were made with painted bits of dry spaghetti. I made fondant 'rocks' and pressed out flowers which I arranged on top of a simply iced cake. I then used the Wilton multi opening tip to pipe 'grass' around the rocks. I laid the bike on some rocks as if someone had left it there. A sign was made using card and lolly sticks.

This bike cake was made to look like the recipients gear. A large cake board was iced with swirls of brown and green icing to look like mud. I made a few grey rocks to place around. The t-shirt was made using the Wilton T-shirt pan which is sadly discontinued, but again this could be cut from a large rectangle cake. I copied the t-shirt and used fondant to make the design. The helmet was made using an oval shaped pan. I covered the shape in black fondant, then made large white sausage shapes to place over the black fondant. I used watered down paste colours to achieve the look of the helmet.

You could make a cake that represents all their interests!

I simply iced the cake in white fondant so that all the little details would pop.  The recipient used to be in the air force so naturally a plane had to feature! I found a fondant plane which I copied, leaving it to dry. The wings were propped up with cardboard tubes so that they would not droop. The scarf was made in the colours of their favourite football team and the cards were made using edible food writers. I followed the same method as before for making the bowls balls and coffee cup. This is a great design if you want to incorporate all their interests.

Have a great weekend!

Cakes for Dad!

Sorry for being absent for over a week. Things have been pretty shaky here, at least for the latter part of last week.

Things started off well with plenty of progress being made in our bedroom makeover. Paint was going on the walls, floorboards were up, radiator was fitted and all rubbish had been taken away. We managed to get a day out with some friends, then I took my son out to a theme park to blow off some steam. When we came back, one of our cats was not behaving in his usual way. He was very listless and moving very slowly. I took him to the vets where they suspected asthma. This seemed a reasonable explanation as there had been a lot of dust from sanding the walls and lifting the boards. He was given some shots and we took him home. Unfortunately he did not improve so back we went again. This time the vets hung onto him and did lots of tests. We picked him up with pills and special food to give.  Well the weekend was just horrendous. He hated being force fed the food, he wouldn't drink, he would just lay there on the floor, and after fighting us over food he just lay in my husband's arms for 20 minutes, all the fight out of him. It was truly heartbreaking, especially for my son who has a very special bond with this particular cat.  Yesterday we appeared to turn a corner. He began to eat and drink on his own, he purred when we petted him and even got on my son's lap for a cuddle. His energy levels are still pretty low and he does have fluid on his lungs. He then started to groom himself yesterday evening which is a huge sign he is feeling better. The vet called this morning to say the test results look good but that they want to do a final couple of tests to rule out some other things.  I am very hopeful today that things are going to be OK for our cat.

Here's my beautiful boy. Get well soon!

I feel I can move on to thinking ahead now that he appears to be on the mend. The next big thing is of course Father's Day. If you like to home make something token for Dad, Grandpa or Husband, you can't go wrong with some cake! I've gathered together some of the cakes I have made for the men in my family and how easily they can be adapted for Father's Day. Most of these incorporate chocolate into the design as well as flavour! Well you can't go wrong with chocolate and what do they say about the way to a man's heart?

Let's start with something super simple!

Here we have a simple square cake. This was done in a sheet pan and decorated by myself and son! Perfect base for kids to get involved! We purchased ready coloured fondant, ready made chocolate icing and icing shapes.  I let my son cut out stars and hearts from the fondant, and after liberally applying frosting to the cake we went to town on the decorations! I made sausage shapes with some more fondant which I flattened with my finger and placed around the edge of the cake.

If you like to decorate but you prefer simple decoration, then this cake is for you. I adapted this from a Wilton design I found in a year book. The simple rectangle cake was covered with chocolate fondant and ready made chocolate frosting was used to decorate. I used tip 4 for writing the message and border along with a star shaped tip to add a zig zag border to the base of the cake and top edge.

Perhaps the man in your life prefers cupcakes? You could just make up a batch of his favourite recipe and cover them with a rich icing. That is pretty much what I did here, except I wanted to add a little decoration that was becoming of the recipient! I took some light brown and white fondant and made little beer jugs. I just manually shaped the mug, rolled out a little white for the handles and frosty tops, then scored the mugs with a knife to get the beer mug shape. Extremely easy!

This cake took some patience to buttercream smooth but it was worth it. I copied the design from an English decorating book that used a lot of royal icing. As I did not enjoy royal icing at the time, I did this completely in buttercream. Simple borders and simple colours fit well for a man.

Is your man always on his phone??? Perhaps a cake shaped like his own would work? Here I used a play phone as I could not get hold of the recipients actual phone (always with him!). I shaped the cake from a square pan so it became double height. I covered in buttercream to secure the layers in place, then covered it in black fondant. Using the play phone as a guide and cut grey and white fondant to size and used buttercream for the details of the buttons.

Perhaps Dad is a gardener? Loves to tend to his plants and flowers? Howabout an edible bouquet just for him? I did this cake during my Wilton 1 course and was given to my Dad when he retired. The cake was iced smooth with chocolate buttercream. I made the roses ahead of time using the Wilton method (find the instructions here), and placed them on the cake in a bouquet. The gaps were filled with leaves made with a Wilton leaf tip. Again the bow was piped following Wilton methods (find that tutorial here), and a shell border was added to the edge as well as a piped message. This cake is more involved but the results are worth it.

As you know, Wilton do lots of shaped pans. They brought out an Animal Crackers pan a few years ago which I snapped up as it looked so much fun! Sadly the pan is discontinued but if you search EBay you should still be able to find it.  I just loved this Go Bananas cake so had to do it for my husband! Find the details on how to decorate here.

Another Wilton inspired project was this fun lion! The pan they used had long since been discontinued so I again used the Animal Crackers pan. They do not have the instructions for this one on their website sadly. The method for outlining the features is the same as for the monkey above. I then used star tips to create the mane and face. I used a large open tip like tip 12 to fill in the tongue, eyes and nose. I dipped my finger in cornflower to flatten and fill the shapes with the frosting.  I made the crown from a piece of card and piped the message onto it. The mane is made by pulling long shapes from your icing bag, quick and simple!

Something a little retro for Dad to remind him of his youth! I had no method for making these cakes, just a picture I found on Pinterest. They use a combination of buttercream and fondant shapes. Here's how I made them :-

Beaker - I swirled some frosting onto the cake. I then took some flesh coloured fondant and formed an oblong shape. Using a knife, I indented a mouth. I rolled a small ball of orange for the nose, and two smaller white balls for the eyes. Small dots of black fondant were used for the pupils. I took another piece of orange fondant and cut it into rectangles which I then attached to the top of the head to make the hair.

Scooter - I swirled frosting onto the cake. I rolled out some yellow fondant and cut it into a face shape. I again used a knife to indent for the mouth, but this time made it wider so that I could fill it with other colours. I cut a small amount of bright pink to fill the mouth gap and layered this with a small piece of red as the tongue. I rolled two small yellow fondant balls which I shaped into ears. I cut a strip of black fondant for the glasses and attached flattened balls for the eyes. Hair was made with tiny sausage shapes.

Kermit - Swirl of frosting on cake. Roll out green fondant in the same way as for Scooter. Cut mouth in the same way as for Scooter. Fill in gap with pink. Roll and flatten white fondant for eyes and use an edible food writer to fill in the pupils.

Gonzo - Rather than swirl frosting, tint some blue and attach the Wilton multi opening decorating tip to a piping bag. Use this to cover the cake in blue 'fur'. Roll orange, white and black fondant balls for the eyes as before. Take a piece of light blue fondant and roll a large sausage shape for the nose. Dent the fondant 1/4 way down from the face to crook the nose. You may need to place something under the nose while it sets in case it decides to fall off the cake!

Miss Piggy - Swirl some frosting. Make a small flesh coloured circle with some fondant and place on the cake. Take some cream coloured frosting, and using the same tip as for the swirls, pipe random swirl and tufts to represent hair. Roll and large ball for the nose and flatten. Take a fork or toothpick to indent the nostrils. Indent the mouth as before. Take 2 small balls of flesh fondant and shape them like leaves for the ears. Indent these with a toothpick. Make the eyes as before but use an edible foodwriter for the eyelashes.

Animal - Using the multi opening decorating tip, pipe longer strands to cover the cake in 'hair'. Use some black fondant to make a wide mouth and rough up a couple of pieces to make the eyebrows. Make the eyes and nose in the same way as before. Take a small piece of fondant and roll into a fat sausage shape which you can flatten. Shape it into a teardrop shape and place on the face as the tongue. Indent the middle with a toothpick.

There you have it! Easy and fun ideas!

Look out for Thursday when I'll be sharing my ideas for hobby themed cakes.