How to make a 'floating' Up House Cake: Part 2

source: http://maries-bakehouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/how-to-make-floating-up-house-cake-part_12.html

And on to the fun bit- the decorating!!

 

 

Starting with the door. Using the drawing I made, so everything was still to scale and in proportion, I cut out a rectangle of brown sugarpaste (fondant) and made the details using small square cutters and the back of a sharp knife. The cutters I used arethese from Cakes, Cookies and Crafts Shop  but I know they are available elsewhere too. They were also used for the roof tiles. A really useful little set of cutters.

 

 

Next, I used peach coloured paste to make the walls of the porch. You only actually need the back and the roof of the porch covered in peach, after studying the pictures again, I took off the side panel and replaced it with a lime green one. The lines are made by pushing the edge of a ruler into the paste. If you want sharper lines you can also use a Dresden tool/leaf shaper to score in the lines.

 

Next, I cut a rectangle of brown paste for the floorboards, and used a wood effect mat to press the pattern into the paste. I then used the ruler again to make the longer lines, and the back of a knife to score in the floorboard effect. If you don't have a wood effect mat you can score wiggly lines in with the back of a knife to create the same sort of effect. The door was then stuck onto the back panel of the porch, sitting on the floorboards.

 

 

I then created the panels for the sides of the house using the same technique used for the back panel of the porch.  Make sure you stick the sides of the walls so they come down and cover the edges of the cake drum board. A slight overhang is all you will need. I added a small rectangle of colour to the front of the bay which represented the cellar windows on the house. I could have done that all the way round the house, but I didn't think it needed it in the end.

 

The windows are a rectangle of grey paste, with two long strips of pink down the sides, and three shorter strips- one at the top and bottom and one in the middle, to make the frames of the window. It's really important to use your drawings, and look carefully at the pictures of the house to get them in the right positions here. Also make sure you are leaving enough space round the outsides of the windows for the added detail.

 

In a cream paste, rolled slightly thicker than the windows, each window needs a long strip for side, one shorter strip to fit in the middle of the two side strips at the top, and then a strip which extends either side at the bottom of the window to create the sill. Measure and cut all of this before you stick the windows on the house. It's sooooo much easier!!

 

To finish off the windows I cut two small rectangles to sit underneath the sill, and marked two lines on it with the Dresden tool, or the back of a knife. I rolled the paste thinner and cut another two small rectangles of paste to add to the top of the frames, then marked a line on the top piece of the frame with a Dresden tool, and stuck the smaller rectangles in the corners. Two lines were then marked on these to match the ones under the sills. All the windows have separate window sills, apart from the windows on the front bay which have a continuous sill under all three of them.

 

Once I had added all the panels for the walls I made a start on the roof. You can just see on the picture below, that the bays have panels underneath the edges of the roof, to help them form their shape. A triangular prism shape of paste is stuck at the top of the wall panels, and smoothed down the front of each one.

 

The Up house roof has two different sorts of tiles- one square and one round, and is laid in three layers of each one. The square ones start at the bottom of the roof and overlap the one below it, but not the one next to it. The first row should hang off the edge of the roof to start with. It's necessary to cut some of them in half to start alternate rows as in the picture below, and cut them to fit the space where they attach to the other end of the roof.

 

The tiles on the bays are all round. Only four rows are needed at the sides of the bay roofs as the brown tiles will make up the rest of the roof. I used a rectangle of brown paste under the roof tiles on the bays to help them keep their shape.

 

 

Where the tiles meet at the top, they need to be finished with a roof tile ridge. This is created using a thin sausage of sugarpaste to help create the point and to support the tiles, then fold a square tile in the middle and rest it on the sausage and glue it in place. Repeat to the end of the roof.

 

 

Once the roof tiles were completed, I shaped the front attic window, marked the panels on the paste and attached to the roof using edible glue. Then I made the roof as before.

 

 

For the steps, firstly I covered the last part of the foam core board that was still bare with brown paste, then added a slightly smaller thin rectangle of paste on top of that, and then one smaller rectangle for the top step. These were glued in place and I scored on the wood grain effect using the back of a sharp knife. I added pieces of brown sugarpaste round the remaining bare board at the front and side, and added the floorboard effect as I did for the rest of the porch.

 

For the posts of the porch, I used the same cream paste that was used for the window sills and rolled small sausages of paste. To help them keep their shape, I inserted sticks of raw spaghetti inside each one, then rolled again to neaten them up. You will need two which will be tall enough to reach from the top to the bottom of the porch, three that are the same size that will be stuck to the steps and one to sit comfortably on top of those. Then two strips the same size to run the full length of the front panel of the porch, three the same length of the side panel of the porch- two at the top, one at the bottom, one which will be the length to fit between the two tall posts, and finally about 12 small pieces the same length to finish the bars off.

 

For the porch, I used two blue rectangles- one to fit along the front of the porch, and one along the side, marking the panels on using a ruler as before. I stuck these in place at the same time as positioning the two tall upright posts, and held them for a minute or so whilst they stuck in place. I added the detailed post just below the panels- I found it easier to make these off the cake, let them dry a little bit, then stick the whole piece on in one go. Then I added the rest of the posts as shown in the picture below.

 

 

And that is the house decorated!!! Now on to decorating the balloon and the board......