Adventures in Sugarland: July 2013

This is the second of two charity cakes that I told you about a while back. It is not the most original of cakes, but it is sweet in every sense of the word. There is a lovely beehive cake that Martha Stewart makes, she drizzles hers with a sticky honey glaze and bakes it in her own pan which is no longer made. The Martha Stewart pan is highly sought after, there is a campaign to try and bring it back and I saw one change hands recently on ebay for almost $300!

Not having the budget for a vintage Martha tin, I got mine from Nordic Ware. I decided to try a recipe that Peggy Porshcen uses for her Bundt tin cakes. A lemon, poppyseed and almond cake from her Boutique Baking book. If you want the recipe, you will need to buy the book, it will be worth it, this book is amazing.

I had it in my head that I was going to hand mould some bees out of yellow fondant, paint on some stripes, make some wings, then I remembered that I had this lovely Butterfly and Insect Brooch mould by Karen Davies, so I saved myself a bit of time and moulded a few bees.

Here is a little moulded bee. I moulded the bees using a ready made modelling paste from Squires Kitchen.

And a painted bee. I love the way a little colour brings the moulds to life and gives them so much character.

To colour the bees:

I brushed Sugarflair's primrose yellow petal dust over the body of the bee;
Painted stripes with confectioners glaze coloured with black gel colour and
Brushed the wings over with Squires Kitchen fairy sparkle

To make the cake look extra special:

I placed it on a double board (two cake drums stuck on top of each other);
Wrapped the boards with two colours of ribbon and
Used a stylised rose impression rolling pin to pattern the fondant used to cover the board

I think this is my favourite impression pin and even though the design is of roses, I think it has something of the bee about it too.