Fondant Guitar and a Happy Birthday!

After a couple of busy weeks I am back to blogging.  The summer holidays were full of days out, lots of playing out for the young man, a birthday and a gorgeous break in Italy. I certainly didn't feel like doing much crafting and having a break from the blog was just what I needed to recharge. I hope to have plenty of fun craft ideas up over the course of the next few weeks.

During the holidays my son turned 10! 10! I still cannot get my head around that figure! This year he wanted a complete surprise for his birthday cake. Normally he picks a cake design and I theme his party around it. Now he is 10 he wanted to have a completely different celebration. He picked some of his closest friends and they went Go Karting followed by a meal out. 

One of his passions is guitar. He has been learning since he started Junior school, and this past Christmas we bought him an electric one. I had seen some great guitar cakes on Pinterest along with some helpful tutorials on how to make one out of fondant. I decided this was the way to go with his cake and thankfully it was the right choice! He totally loved his cake (design and taste!). Win win!

The guitar was pretty easy to make and I based the design on his electric one. I firstly took pictures of the guitar and amp. I then resized the guitar so that I could use the print out as a template.

I started with this tutorial as a guide and printed out 2 copies of the guitar.

I carefully cut out one of the guitars and just the white part of the other. These would serve as my templates for cutting out the fondant shapes.

I laid the full guitar on a piece of rolled black fondant, and using a craft knife, carefully cut around it.

I then did the same with the cut out portion of the guitar.

I then overlaid the pieces secured with a little clear alcohol.

It was then time to add the details. I used small pieces of fondant to shape the frets and buttons on the cake. I also took a small piece of light brown fondant and cut around to add the top of the handle.

I added another strip of black fondant to the handle to build it up. I took some silver edible paint and began adding the finer details. I also used an edible food writer to add the name of the guitar to the handle.

I left this to dry for 3 days. I also shaped the amp from a large piece of black fondant and left this to dry.

I made a caramel cake with salted caramel buttercream and frosted the cake smooth.

I didn't frost the cake to the bottom as I was adding lots of extra buttercream to the sides due to the design! This cake was seriously sweet!

I tinted the remaining frosting orange, yellow and red. I then striped this into a piping bag so that the colours would swirl together. Using a large star tip, I started piping 'flames' on the side of the cake. Using the Wilton method of flames I built this up over a few layers on the sides of the cake.

First row of flames.

Building up the flames.

I had seen some cakes on Pinterest which used fondant for the amp cable, spelling out a name or Happy Birthday. I placed the guitar and amp on the top of the cake, leaving room for the message.

I rolled out some black fondant into a thin sausage shape and started to add this to the cake as the cable.

I found I had to do this in stages as it kept breaking if too long and thin. It was easy to blend the pieces together so that it looked like one long cable.

Here you can see the cable is spelling out my son's name. I worked backwards from the guitar to the amp. To me this was easier!

Once that was done, I used buttercream and tip 1 to pipe the strings for the guitar. Not quite 6 but near enough!

The piped smaller flames around the top edge of the cake to complete the design.

Apart from the guitar, this is a very simplistic design.

The amp speaker was made using my craft knife to score the front of the fondant.

Tons of buttercream flames!

Today marks another birthday. It is a year today that I started this blog. Thank you to those of you who have followed my little piece of the internet. I love hearing from you! Here's to another year.

No sew Burlap Table Runner

How did your Father's Day go? I was sadly working but as I work at a gliding club, I was able to treat my husband to a flight in one of the club's gliders. He liked it so much he went up again later that afternoon. I got to spend lots of time with him and my son who became our youngest receptionist that afternoon! My manager kindly took my boy for a trip round the airfield which he was super excited about. It's lovely working in such a nice sociable relaxed environment. We treated my husband to a meal out in the evening rounding off a lovely fun day for him.

When we aren't out to eat (which isn't very often I have to say), I love to cook. Since I began meal planning, I've found how much easier it is to just make something from scratch that we can all enjoy and love to eat. Sure I pick quick and easy meals (I fully utilise my slow cooker!) for weekdays but knowing it's all homemade is very satisfying.

We have not changed our kitchen since we moved into the house over 7 years ago. It was put in the year we moved so we decided to live with it, even though the layout is bonkers (lots of wasted space) and the style is not to our taste. We were pretty appalled by the state of the ceiling and the walls however, so a couple of years ago I painted it a lovely warm yellow and bought and made some wall art to make the place feel more like ours. I got some new appliances and cake stands which has transformed the kitchen into a place I like to be. 

We have this gorgeous tile top dining table which went beautifully with the changes, but it still felt like something was missing. I started looking for ideas on Pinterest and saw lots of crafts with burlap. I really liked the idea of a table runner and decided burlap was the way to go! I like old fashioned, vintage style items over modern and burlap fits the criteria, not to mention blending in well with my kitchen!

I remembered seeing some small rolls of burlap in Hobbycraft, so went off to investigate. I bought a large 2m roll in cream (you can purchase online here) rather than the darker more usual shade of burlap. I also bought some cream fabric paint and a reel of lace trim (purchase here).

I already had other fabric paint colours, so gathered them together so that I could decide what would look best with the cream.

Firstly I unrolled the burlap and laid it out on the table.

The 2m roll was the perfect size for my table with a little overhang at each end. As you can see it is frayed as you would expect. I have very little sewing skills and decided that I would glue the lace trim to the edges of the burlap.

I trimmed the frayed part down but left a little for the lace to adhere to. I found some large pieces of card and placed them under the burlap to protect the table. By completing the project on the actual table it was for helped with the design and scale.

I measured out some of the ribbon for the ends and cut with just a little overhang. The reel I used was 5m which was the exact amount I needed to do all four edges.

I next drew a thin layer of fabric glue and gently placed the ribbon down from one end to the next, pressing down as I went along.

I followed this same method on the sides. I glued both ends first and then the sides so that the ribbon from the sides would be stuck over the top of the ends. When the glue was dry, I trimmed away the last pieces of the frayed edges that were showing next to the ribbon edge. For the detail on the runner I used a home made stencil. You could easily buy one.

I found a leaf border over on The Graphics Fairy which reminded me of the painted olives on my dining table. They seemed Italian in design! I then used PicMonkey to design a monogram with the border and printed it out on A4 card.

I chose a fairly simple border that would be easy to cut out. The font was kept simple for the same reason. I used a craft knife and carefully cut out each segment of the border and letter. This was surprisingly easy and took me about half an hour to complete.

I laid the runner out flat so I knew how much overhang there would be on each side. I then laid the cut stencil out on one end of the runner near the edge of the table. The cream fabric paint I purchased was too close to the colour of the runner so I decided to use yellow and blue to match the kitchen and the table. I took a small sponge to dab the paint onto the stencil.

I used a bit of tape to hold the stencil in place and used the fabric paint very sparingly so as to not bleed or smudge the design. When I took the stencil off I took a very thin paintbrush to fill in any gaps or pale areas of the design. I also decided that the F looked a little washed out on the burlap, so outlined that in blue to match.

Before edging.

After!

Some of the paint I used was actually acrylic craft paint rather than fabric paint. I have read that to set this in place you should iron it. I have to say I have yet to do this, but I am only planning to sponge clean the runner rather than wash it to stop it fraying any further.

I am so pleased with how this turned out. It has given my table a new lease of life!

I decided to keep the design uniform and re used the stencil on the other end of the runner. The stencil could probably have been used a couple more times if I had wished. I would certainly use that method again for customised designs.

When the sun shines the whole kitchen feels warm and cosy!

Do you like burlap? Have you used it in any crafts? Do you like a more vintage look or are you modern all the way? Share your experiences on my Facebook page. 

Have a great day!

Rose and Lemon Ombre Birthday cake

The Easter holidays ended on a bang for us! My son has been desperate to grow those few magic centimeters to allow him to ride the big theme park rides. On Sunday we headed to Thorpe Park for our first visit there. We headed straight to Nemesis Inferno where the queue was very small to try our luck. When I say 'our' I mean my husband and son! I do not do the big rides, even Dumbo in Disney has my belly doing somersaults! 

On this first ride they didn't even check his height! He must have looked the right size so he got to ride. The look on his face when he came off was priceless! One extremely happy boy! So we headed to another of the big rides, Swarm. This looked worse than the last one! Off they went again to try their luck. My husband could see in front that the attendant was checking heights, so he told my son to play it cool, as if he's been on it before. The attendant measured him and the bar touched the top of his head! As he was so ecstatic he forgot all about playing it cool and made a fist bump and screamed 'Yes!'. Needless to say this ride was an even bigger hit than the first. All I have been hearing these past few days is how he can't believe he went on them. When we measured him before we left he appeared to be just under the minimum height requirement but I guess we were wrong. I am glad we were as he has been waiting a long time to ride the 'proper' coasters and thrill rides.

On Sunday it was very cool and cloudy, not a hint of the lovely weather we have had lately. This week so far has brightened up a bit, so this makes it the perfect time to share with you this ombre birthday cake that I made for a dear friend.

A few years ago I attended some Wilton cake decorating classes. I finally learnt how to make buttercream roses. Before that, everything had been self taught, looking at the instructions in the back of Wilton books or just having a go! I had never attempted roses before and once I learnt I did them loads! However, more recently I haven't done them at all! I have made roses out of fondant but the buttercream skills I let slip. I decided to have a go for my friends recent birthday. I wanted her cake to be feminine but also bright for Spring. The cake itself was a light white sponge so I made delicate lemon flavoured frosting to complement it. 

The roses are not perfect, some looked a little cabbage like, however, seeing as I haven't even attempted any for about 3 years I was pleased that you could at least tell what they were supposed to be! The main thing I was disappointed with was the consistency of my frosting. It is supposed to be stiff for making the roses so that they hold their shape and so you can easily remove them from the flower nail once piped. However, my frosting must have been too stiff as the petals cracked as I piped them. Next time, use more water!

I followed the Wilton method for the roses which you can find in the back of any of their annual cake decorating books or here on their website.

I made the roses a couple of days in advance and left them in the fridge to firm up.

I kept them on their wax paper squares until it was time to place them on the cake. I do have a tool to remove the roses from the paper, however, as I had left them in the fridge for a couple of days I was able to gentle remove them by hand and place them directly onto the cake.

I went searching for some ombre techniques on Pinterest. Most ombre cakes go for just one colour, which of course makes sense! I decided I wanted to incorporate 2 colours in my cake, merging into one another somewhere in the middle.  I found this tutorial for an ombre cake and frosting by Java Cupcake here and decided to follow the basic principal for frosting the sides of my cake.

I started by crumb coating the cake and placing it in the fridge for a short while. When I brought it out I started at the bottom with a bright lemon colour.

I followed Java's instructions and spread on the frosting nice and thick. I then moved onto a slightly lighter lemon colour and frosted further up. I finished with a pink but left the top of the cake white for the roses to sit on.

I did take the pink up onto the edges of the top to blend into the white. As I was using 2 colours rather than one I decided I wanted a different finish to the sides. I used a comb that I purchased from Hobbycraft, and using a turntable, I spun the cake round carefully while holding the comb against the side of the cake to create the lined effect,

I did this once or twice to get a nice defined line going round the cake.

I then took a toothpick and marked out roughly on the top where the roses should go. I then piped a little buttercream onto the base of each rose before placing it on top of the cake.

I did start out marking a heart but decided the roses looked best in a round wreath shape.

Finally to finish off the cake, I piped a row of lemon drop flowers around the base. Whilst I don't mind that the cake had a rough finish to it I didn't want it to look 'unfinished' which is how it felt before I piped the border.

I left them plain rather than adding in middles so that the colours would continue to flow.

As you can see from the close ups I did cover my board with yellow fondant to complement the cake. I didn't like the gold edges of the board showing so I added a fun Spring themed ribbon to the sides. I piped the initial of the birthday girl in the middle of the roses to finish it off.

If you are looking for a quick and easy technique, you can't go wrong with buttercream ombre. Plus it was really fun to do!

Have a great week!