Princess Tiana Cake

My Goddaughter LOVES Princess Tiana. So after my retirement cake, I thought I'd be able to tackle this next challenge! There's a lady on YouTube called Andrea who makes amazing princess cakes who inspired me to add layers of ruffles to the skirt. I was determined to make the whole dress look as realistic as I could so I added lots of detail in the petals and a little glitter on the bodice and flower. This cake was lots of fun to make and I had to work against the clock as this was the first time I had to ice two cakes in one day (the flower cake and this one). I would like to try the other Princesses to add to my repertoire.... I have 4 Goddaughters, so I think I'll get the opportunity in the near future!!

Basketball Cake

What do you make for a guy who loves basketball and comes from New York.....a NY Knicks cake! The ball itself is made of fruit cake and the basketball court base is made of carrot cake. This cake was a real challenge. I loved marbling the fondant to replicate the wooden court flooring. The ball had to be made of fruit cake as it took a while to complete. It's covered with two layers of fondant and dimpled using a number 1 icing nozzle. Once again, I used google and flickr as inspiration and combined ideas to make the finished product. It was a lot of work, but great fun!

Flower Cake

My sister-in law turned 34 last week, so I decided to make her a simple flower cake using her favourite colours. I made a flower arrangement with an open peony and a few roses in varying shades of pink. Around the sides of the cake, I made up some flower shapes using a calyx cutter and finished it with silver baubles. 

I really enjoy making flowers. They take days to complete and can be extremely frustrating when they break, but it's worth all the painstaking work in the end. These flowers didn't require any painting or lustre dust work, this time. I used these techniques on the leaves to make them look realistic. I hope you like it!

Retirement Cake

My Dad retired in July as well, so I decided to make him a cake to celebrate. He was a math's teacher, so I got my inspiration from a few cakes I saw on google images and made a maths themed cake. The two books are rich fruit cake again. The apple is made of marzipan and the maths equipment (calculator, chalk, ruler, set square, protractor etc) are all made of gumpaste. This cake was fun to make.

Welcome to Shani Cakes!

I started doing sugarcraft cake decorating in July and it's rapidly becoming an obsession! I was intrigued how to make exotic flowers out of what essentially is sugar! After hours of trying out various techniques guided by two Alan Dunn books and YouTube, I managed to make this 40th wedding anniversary cake for my parents. Not bad for a first try! Its a very rich caribbean fruit cake (with lashings of alcohol) covered with almond marzipan and ivory fondant. The flowers, leaves and bow are made of gumpaste. Hope you like it!