Friday 11 July 2014

A Tea Party Cake

For my mother-in-law's 50th, I wanted to make a special cake for her to celebrate.  She is an avid tea-drinker, so I figured a tea set would be the perfect decoration.
Tea set birthday cake
I made a 9x13" sheet cake for the base (my fave 4 egg yellow cake recipe) and filled and crumb coated it with an orange buttercream.  I covered it with homemade marshmallow fondant tinted with brown gel food colouring, but not fully kneaded in to give it a marbled look similar to wood grain.  I made a table runner from a strip of fondant, then got to work crafting the toppers.

I made a teapot, creamer, sugar bowl and two teacup shapes from rice crispy treats, then coated them with icing to make them smoother and covered them with white fondant.  I sculpted the handles, spout, and lids from fondant and let them dry overnight in the desired shape, otherwise they were very droopy.  Using a quick confectioner sugar icing and a small circular icing tip, I piped a floral/vine pattern onto the tea set, and used the brushed embroidery technique to make it look like china.
Tea pot with brushed embroidery flowers

Creamer


Sugar bowl
I painted the inside of the teacups with brown gel food colouring to make it look like they were filled with tea.

Tea cup filled with "tea"
I attached the much stiffer dried handles/spout the next day with toothpicks, and stuck the tea set to the cake with skewers.  I piped a Happy Birthday message in the corner and the cake was ready to present!
The finished cake
Bird's eye view
This was a fun project, and tasty too (love that orange buttercream).  I love the brushed embroidery, it is an easy technique with big results!


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