How to make a floating 'Up' House Cake: Part 3

source:http://maries-bakehouse.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/how-to-make-floating-up-house-cake-part_1609.html

And finally, how to decorate the balloon and the board.....

 

First of all I covered the cake in cling film (plastic wrap), to make sure no glue could drip on it.

 

 

Next, I pushed a hole into the bottom of a 10" polystyrene egg, about 2/3 of the way up, and then put a few drips of superglue inside the hole, and pushed into on to the pipe.

 

I had trouble sticking the paper covered wires onto the pipe, so I covered the pipe in white stickers first of all.

 

Then dipped the end of the wire into edible glue and pushed this into the polystyrene egg near to the pipe. I repeated this using about 100 wires, so the pipe would be completely covered in the wires, to look like the strings of the balloons.

 

 

Next I made the chimney. I coloured some paste using a mixture of red and brown, cut out some rectangles to make the four sides of the chimney, and shaped them near the bottom at the roof. Then I cut up tiny rectangles of paste, and stuck them to the paste in a brick pattern. Four more rectangles were used for the top of the chimney, raised above the top of the existing rectangles, so the inserted wires would hide inside the chimney. (This is a picture from later on, but shows the making of the chimney well.) None of this was edible, so it wasn't necessary to think about making this part food safe.

 

The wires from the balloon were then stuck to the covered pipe using paper glue, then the bottom ends stuck into the chimney. 

 



Next the balloon was covered in patches of thin coloured sugarpaste using edible glue. This meant that if the sugarpaste 'balloons' on top didn't quite meet, it didn't matter as you would see the colours through and not the white of the egg.

At this point I would recommend leaving this to dry for at least a few hours. I didn't and ploughed ahead, and I had a few sugarpaste balloons falling off, as the weight of the paste was pulling the patches away from the egg. Not a problem as I was able to mend it, but to prevent it I'd leave it to dry for longer.

 

I rolled egg or balloon shapes from different colours of sugarpaste (fondant) and stuck them round the base of the egg, hiding where the wires are inserted into the egg.

 

I continued sticking the eggs up and around the polystyrene egg to the top, flattening the eggs slightly to give more surface area to attach them, and to highlight the 'balloon' shape of each one.

 

Once the egg was covered in balloons, wires were attached from the chimney into the egg, but further out than before.

 

The wooden board was covered in patches of green paste, right up to the dummy underneath the cake. It doesn't need to be perfect, it represents grass so don't worry if it's not smooth. If there are any patches that don't join well to the next one, you can add grass details later.

 

Some sugarpaste was then marbled with brown colouring and roughly rolled into balls to look like stones.

 

The stones were then attached to the sides of the dummy with edible glue.

 

 

I covered the blocks of wood supporting the cake with green paste, adding lumps of paste to form bushes. Then I rolled out the remaining paste and cut lots and lots of calyx shapes, and stuck them onto the green paste on and around the wood blocks. 

 

 

 

The fence was formed by rolling out white paste, marking on a wood effect using an impression mat or a sharp knife, and cutting into two long strips and lots of shorter ones, cutting an arrow shape in at the top of each shorter one. The shorter ones were stuck onto the longer strips at equal intervals and left to dry for a few minutes or so. This could be done ahead of time, and they could be left to dry overnight or longer. The fence posts are white paste shaped into cuboids with a rolled ball stuck on top. The gate is a rectangle of paste, with the top cut into an arch using a large circle cutter and a small round cutter to cut out the detail at the top.

 

The fence is held up on the board using sausages of green sugarpaste. I stuck the sausage onto the board, and cut a slit down the middle of it, adding edible glue and sticking the fence inside it, closing the sides of the green paste around it to support it. Using a Dresden tool or similar, I marked lots and lots of lines into the paste to create the effect of grass.

  

And that's it! We're done! I would love to hear your feedback on this tutorial and cake, and if you do get chance to make one, I'd love to see it too!

If you like what you have seen please feel free to share it, but please do credit it back toMarie's Bakehouse. 

Marie xx