sparkysmum Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 A bit out of my depth here I've volunteered to make my Mum's 80th birthday cake and much as I enjoy family baking I've never done anything on this scale. It needs to serve about 30 people. Any ideas I like the look of Mrs Webmuppets birthday cake but it looks a tad too difficult for me. Love to hear from any bakers with foolproof designs Thanks in advance. Allisonxx Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 If you don't feel that you're able to make the whole thing then you can buy ready-made sugar flowers from ebay cake decorating shops or from a cake decorating shop if you have one nearby. You can theme them with any fresh flowers you may be using on tables. You could then make a plain, white roll-out icing covered, cake to put them on - or you can buy the iced cakes from Marks and Spencer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karen & co. Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 For my Grandads 80th I made dozens of little tiny cakes and put white icing on all of them and a few silver sprinkles on a few. I used a florists cone about 12" high covered it in foil and bought some silver coloured pipe cleaners and rolled them round a pencil to make spring like shapes. Start at the bottom of the cone and with a half a cocktail stick in the bottom of the cake stick the other half into the cone and make a circle around the cone, then go up a layer and put the next one in the gaps and carry on up the cone With the springs the poke them ito the cone at various intervals until you like the effect It can be done with all coloursand chocolate icing or just white and coloured 'springs' it is something I've done so many times as it is so easy, as everyone just takes a cake off, just be careful that they don't get cocktail stick as well. No cutting no serviettes simples!! Sarah had a joint party with her friend in a playbarn type thing and even parents who weren't at the party came over to see the cake If I can find a photo I'll pop it up for you, but then again I am useless at that kind of thing Karen x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Webmuppet Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 LMW birthday wasn't that tricky to make..............I used ready rolled icing, ready coloured icing and icing cutters..........try this website ( I've used them a few times and they are really good) http://cakestuff.bpweb.net/ If you would like the step by step instructions for the cake just let me know ( trust me it took longer to bake 4 cakes than it did to decorate them!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lydia Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 What about a photograph of your mum done in icing? Most cake decorating shops will do this for you (costs about £9). All you have to do is supply the photo and wait about 10 minutes (then be very careful with the icing photo until it dries!). Then you just make or buy a cake, apply ready made sugarpaste and stick on your photo. To feed 30 you'd need a cake approximately 6-8" if you were doing fruit cake. If doing a sponge you'd need something a little bigger, say 8-10". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkysmum Posted July 17, 2009 Author Share Posted July 17, 2009 Thank you all so much for your replies. I would like to try a cupcake tree but I don't think my decorating is up to it. So I'm going to do a single tier 9inch cake (thanks Lydia for the size) and plain white icing Thank you Lesley for this. We have a little cake decorating shop nearby and I had a look around today. They do lovely sprays of hearts and flowers and things which I will use to decorate it with. Thank you all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craftyhunnypie Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 I still want to see this cake tree Karen! I used to work as a Saturday girl decorating cakes, making sugar flowers & animals etc. If you buy a larger round cake board, ice the board, then the cake, put ribbon round it & buy some silk flowers - you have an easy hat cake! Looks nice in lemon coloured icing. Emma.x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley Posted July 18, 2009 Share Posted July 18, 2009 Don't forget that the number of slices for a particular cake size is based on cutting properly. Some good diagrams here http://www.fantes.com/manuals/cake-cutting-guide.pdf ....although, I never cut a round cake in that way - always the same as they show for the heart or oval. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majorbloodnock Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I know I'm a bit late to this thread, but just a couple of thoughts.... Firstly, I'm sure you'll have thought of it already but I mention it for safety's sake. Given your target audience, I'd suggest steering clear of any crunchy or hard ingredients (nuts, decorative sugar balls etc.), since not everyone's dentures will be problem free. Secondly, when my wife and I got married, we only got a wedding cake because everyone else placed such a store on it (we weren't concerned really), but couldn't bring ourselves to have something elaborate. The design we ended up with was several square cakes decorated with a wrapping paper design and stacked to look like a pile of presents. It looked really effective, but was actually very easy to do. Might that be appropriate here? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
