Ivory & Platinum Diamond Wedding Anniversary Cake

I love it when my crafts cross-pollenate; and that certainly was the case recently when it was my parents Diamond Wedding Anniversary.  I've already shared with you the card that I made for them, which acted as inspiration for the cake I made for their surprise party.

Platinum and Ivory Diamond Wedding Anniversary Cake and Card

The cake is a two-tier sponge - using my own recipe, and I can promise you, it's moist, tender and yummilicious.  The bottom layer was 8"/2ocm and is covered in platinum-coloured sugar paste.  I achieved this finish by colouring my sugarpaste grey - which doesn't look good until you add the magic touch of Pearl Lustre spray! The top-teir is an offset 6"/15cm cake, covered in ivory paste.

When I first started cake decorating in earnest two years ago, I invested a wide range of Little Venice Cake Company baking and decorating equipment.  The equipment is made by DoCrafts, a brand I was familiar with from my papercrafting and I have to say I have been extremely impressed with the quality and value of the kit that I've bought from LVCC.   I especially like their baking tins (I have 2 complete sets in both round and square), the extra long rolling pin, their cake knives (serrated and cranked) and my absolute favourite - the acrylic work boards that I use all the time and is actually the bases beneath both cakes (don't do this if you're giving the cake away, but it's saves so much money on disposable cake boards if the cake is for a personal event or occassion).

However, this is most definitely a fusion of crafts - for my regular blog readers, can you guess what I used to emboss my flower cut-outs?  Yes - my new Tonic embossing folders!  I need to give a disclaimer here, as obviously these folders were not designed to be used with food.  Also, I have kept the ones that I used for sugarpaste work entirely seperate from the ones I use for papercraft. I washed the folders in warm, soapy water and dried them thoroughly with a clean tea-towel before use.  

My technique was to roll-out the sugar paste into sections roughly 15cm x 15cms, then I transferred it into the embossing folder which I had lightly dusted with cornflour, closed the folder, then rolled over it 2-3 times with my medium sugarpaste rolling pin.  (I did not put the folder through my Grand Calibur, as I think this would make a very sticky mess). Then I carefully lifted the embossed paste onto my acrylic workboard and cut out the flowers (again, please note, I did not cut out the flowers whilst the paste was still on the embossing folder, in case the cutting edge of the dies damaged the surface of the embossing folder).  I used Tonic Studios Martha and Amelia Embossing Folders.

The focal point of the cake is this fantasy flower with a pave-pearl centre, made with the same ivory sugarpaste as I used to cover the top tier but strengthened with some CMC.














Finally, I added a kaleidoscope of butterflies, also decorated with sugar pearls, echoing the design of my anniversary card. Here's one final look at this cake and card together.  Do you combine crafting inspiration across more than one craft, do let me know?

I'd like to enter this cake into the following challenges:
ABC - J is for Just as You Like
Crafty Calendar - Things with Wings
Crafty Catz - B is for
Creative Card Crew - Girly
Really Reasonable Ribbon - Monochromatic with Ribbon Pin It Now!

Final Presentation Board & Celebration Cake PME Professional Diploma Course in Sugarpaste

Sugarpaste Bird Cage Shabby Chic

This is my final review of the Intensive 5 Day Course for the PME Professional Diploma Course in Sugarpaste, tutored by Annabel at Confection Perfection, Barming that I recently completed.


In this post I’ll be showing you my final presentation pieces, which included a Technique Board (I themed mine on The Four Seasons) and a Celebration Cake (the celebration I received was 21st Birthday and I themed the cake on Shabby Chic Vintage).






My Presentation Board demonstrated the following techniques that I learned on the PME Diploma in Sugarpaste course:
Crimping, Twisted Rope, Rolled Rope, Cut Outs, Fabric Effect Flowers, Creative Plaques, Embossing, Basket Weave, Frills, Inlaid Plaque, Swags, Ribbons & Bows, Modelling, Doves and Textured Rolling Pins.

PME Diploma in Sugarpaste Presentation Board



SugarPaste Four Seasons Featuring Bunny, Birdhouse, Harvest Festival & Christmas Choir Boy

In addition, my PME Diploma in Sugarpaste Presentation Celebration Cake demonstrated: Fabric effects, Embroidery Anglaise, Half Ball Molds, Painting and Butterflies
as well as Modelling and cut-outs.

PME Diploma in Sugarpaste Celebration Cake - Vintage Shabby Chic

 It was no misnomer to describe the course as intensive – each Sunday started at 9.30am and finished at c4.30pm, with just one 20min break! There was also a hand-out at the end of the day with a list of preparation that needed to be done for the following week.

Completing the course was also expensive. In addition to the £300+ fee for the course, and despite having a good range of basic cake decorating equipment, I estimate I spent a further £400 on equipment that was deemed “essential”. Most of it I will use in future projects, but some of the techniques we learnt were no longer fashionable and I am unlikely to use the techniques again any time soon. I would have hoped that there would have been equipment available to students to use within the classroom, given the cost of the course, but this was not the case.

I really enjoyed doing the PME Diploma Course in Sugarpaste and am really pleased with the skills I learnt. The course provides a very solid foundation in cake decorating and the core skills that you learn will enable you to produce a high standard of celebration cakes, whether that’s for pleasure or commercial use.

My two presentation pieces earned me a Bronze Award along with my Diploma.

You may also be interested in my other reviews of the Intensive PME Diploma in Sugarpaste: Lesson1, Lesson2, Lesson3, Lesson4 and Lesson5. Pin It Now!