60 small sugar paste flowers on a towering layer cake can only mean one thing - this is a special occasion.
This birthday cake was made for a very special friend who I have known for a lifetime. We travelled Europe together when we left school, shared secrets, dreams, more gin and tonics than I care to mention, and we laughed and cried together. We married boys who were also friends, had our babies at the same time, and although for many years we lived in different cities, we were always in touch, and finally ended up living in the same town once again. As we grow older, we realise it becomes less important to have more friends, and more important to have real ones.
When I make a cake I always start with a mood board. I can then look at it each day, change colours and rethink my ideas.
As Noels loves flowers, I decided to make 60 small flowers to form a flower garden cake topper. I love vintage colours and I knew they would be just perfect for the type of flowers I wanted to make. I started by mixing my fondant into the colours I needed and then over a week or two made lilacs, rose buds, lavender, lilies, carnations, daisies and hydrangea buds.
The cake was made up of 5 layers of vanilla, and lemon poppyseed, filled with very thin layers of butter icing, so that it wasn't too sweet, and covered with soft green and white fondant ribbon strips. All the flowers were wired so it was so easy to just pop them onto the cake at the last minute.
I am not a professional cake decorator, and the humidity in Durban is pretty high at the moment, so my fondant was less than perfect, but even though this cake was not perfect, it was made with love for a special friend. Happy Birthday Noels.
For the Poppyseed layer I used this recipe - Lemon and Poppyseed drizzle cake.
For the Vanilla layers I used this recipe - Vanilla Wedding Cake
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
