The Sensational (and not so Sensational) Sculpted Cakes

I often share with my friends on Facebook those images of peoples' cake fails; they are really funny to see, they have me in tears of laughter.



Credit: my husband

I made my wedding cake, admittedly it was a fruit cake and not a sponge, and my husband-to-be made sure that he took over the intricate piping work to ensure it turned out the best it could






Credit: Cake Pop Kate http://www.cakepopkate.co.uk/


Really the catalyst of what was to follow was the first occasion cake I baked and decorated using homemade fondant icing to top my daughter Katie's 1st birthday cake. It turned out to be the grimmest looking Humpty Dumpty imaginable! My husband had to make a mad dash to the supermarket to get a Percy Pig like version in time for the party. I haven't a pic of my Humpty fail for you to laugh at, but above is an example of how it could have turned out. This fine example above was created by cake business owner, Kate Richford, made for a customer on the occasion of a little boy's 1st birthday. Oh the shame!


My family have always been very gracious when it comes to showing appreciation for my flat sponge cakes and my poor attempt at decorating or making novelty cakes. My son says my celebration cakes always taste good, 'even though they're a bit weird' he adds.


In recent years, I have to say I have improved, and the sponge cake recipes I now use, from Rachel Allen and Paul Hollywood particularly, actually do work and they form a better base for stacking and for decorating.


But my poor attempts have become a running joke, so when I pulled from my pile of books due to feature in my outlets, I found one called Sensational Sculpted Cakes: 9 Amazing Designs to Carve, Shape and Decorate by the clever, Rose Macefield. It gave me an idea to post a couple of pics of my inferior versions along side Macefield's works of art.







Above POOCH cake


Credit: Rose Macefield from her book Sensational Sculpted Cakes






Above POOCH Cake

Credit : Me (again, so sorry, Katie!)







GUITAR Cake 'Rock 'N' Roll'

Credit: Rose Macefield from her book Sensational Sculpted Cakes





GUITAR Cake

CREDIT: Me (so sorry, Joe on your 16th!)







The rather sinister looking snowman above, was my attempt at engaging in a blogging campaign. Not just me this time, Joe contributed to this cake fail of 2011






TOY TRAIN Cake

CREDIT: Rose Macefield from her book Sensational Sculpted Cakes





a famous Thomas the Tank Engine cake fail which went viral. Thankfully, not one of mine this time!


CREDIT - The Huffington Post






GET CRAFTY Cake
CREDIT: Rose Macefield from her book Sensational Sculpted Cakes


Lastly, I include one more shot from the pages of Macefield's book (which includes 9 cake designs all in all). It is my favourite so I've pinned it to my Haberdashery themed page on Pinterest which shows sewing themes appearing on different kinds of unrelated items and objects






Me: playing safe with a shop bought cake



And a three examples of attemps below with 'passable' results hahaha