Wild Meadow Wedding Cake

Alice Kayley – Karen Davies Sugarcraft

A cake that oozes the sense of  Spring/Summer days. Botanical and bright, the perfect centerpiece for any wedding or celebration

Equipment

2 x 10” round cakes 4” deep

8” cake 3” deep

6” cake 4” deep

4” cake 4” deep

14” cake drum

8”, 6” and 4” cake cards

1kg Karen Davies sugarpaste or a modelling paste

Karen Davies Wild Meadow mould

Karen Davies Brush Embroidery Butterflies mould or Butterfly & insect mould

Dresden tool

Isopropyl alcohol

Paintbrushes and dusting brushes

Airbrush and colours (optional – powder colours and brushes can be used), green, pink, blue, purple

Powder colours, dark green, brown, lavender, yellow, pink, blue, black, white, orange, silver.

Sugarflair Spruce green paste colour

Cornflour dusting pouch

Angled palette knife

Instructions

Cake Preparation

Stack the 10” cakes.  Place the cakes on board and cards. Cover all cakes with sugarpaste. Dowel the cakes and trim level with each cake top. Roll out a long strip of sugarpaste and use to cover the edge of the cake board.

Use the airbrush to colour the cake and board. Build the green colour up gradually from the board and up the cake. Fade the green on the side of the cake. Add a little blue, pink and lilac further up the side of the bottom tier and to each of the other tiers.

If you do not have an airbrush – mix isopropyl alcohol with powder green colour. Paint the board dark green and the lower edge of the cake. Fade the colour out against the cake – do not have a sharp finish line. Brush powder colours into the dusting brushes on kitchen paper so there is no loose powder. Add patches of colour to every cake.

Mix brown powder colour with isopropyl alcohol and paint trees.

Paint leaves by just ‘dotting’ on the colour randomly over branches. Start with dark green, then a lighter green and finally a small touch of colour.

Colour some KD sugarpaste or a modeling paste green. Dust the wild meadow mould with cornflour. Mould the fern leaves and flower stems in green and white paste.

Curve slightly and leave to dry.

Brush powder colour onto leaves and flowers for a soft effect. Paint flowers for stronger colour. Small white highlights can be painted on also.

Mould butterflies and dragonflies in white and yellow paste. Allow some to dry flat on your work surface and others to dry folded against the mould.

Brush powder colours on to the butterlies and dragonflies for soft shading. Paint for the stronger colouring.

Dust the wild meadow mould with cornflour. Roll the green paste out a little before placing on to the grass so it is not too thick. Roll from the bottom of the grass to the top. Trim the excess paste at the top of the mould with an angled palette knife, your thumb, or remove from the mould and use scissors.

Trim the grass to approximately 1.5inches.

Brush powder green colour between the blades of grass then a little across the top. A touch of white can be added to highlight.

Repeat the moulded grass pieces trimming to approximately half an inch.

Colour royal icing green and place in a piping bag. Use the royal icing to attach the taller grass to the side of the 8inch tier and the short grass to the top edge of the 10inch. Add flowers and leaves.

Attach flowers around the bottom tier.

Attach the butterflies and dragonflies at random working their way up the cake. Small groups of flowers and grass can be added to the top two tiers.

Winter Mitten Cookies

Keep your cakes and bakes warm this Winter with this fun winter mitten tutorial.

Make mittens using our cookie recipes and our range of knit and crochet moulds!

Watch our quick tutorial video and then follow the instructions below!

For our favourite cookie recipes click here >>> ‘How to mould and bake perfect cookies’

Equipment

Cookie dough

Karen Davies Sugarpaste

Mitten Cutter

Either..

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Chunky Rib Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Knitted Piece Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Crochet Piece Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Chunky Knit Mould

And/Or..

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Rustic Cable Knit Mould

Corn Flour

Edible Glue

Various cutters such as Holly and Trees could also be used.

Instructions

1. Make your cookie dough following the instructions in our ‘How to mould and bake perfect cookies’ post.
2. Roll out your cookie dough until it’s 1cm thick and use your mitten cutter to cut out as many mittens as you would like.
3. Place on a baking tray and bake.
4. Once your mittens are baked, allow them to cool. You can either wait until your cookies are completely cool and then follow the steps below, attaching your decorations to your cookie as you go. Or you can create the decorations in advance and then simply attach on top of your cookies once the cookies have cooled.
5. Colour your sugarpaste using food colouring. They look beautiful in either pastel or festive colours. We always use either Rainbow Dust or Sugar Flair food colouring.
6. Start by dusting your knit/crochet effect mould with cornflour and tapping out any excess.
7. Roughly roll out your sugarpaste on your work surface before placing into your mould. Start by using your fingers to press and secure your paste into one edge of the mould. Take a rolling pin and begin to roll from the edge that you have just secured. Roll firmly into the mould until you can begin to see the pattern through the back of your sugarpaste.
8. Tear away any excess either with your fingers or with a palette knife before turning your mould over and peeling back. Your sugarpaste should drop out easily.
9. Use your mitten cookie cutter to cut out a mitten from your moulded sugarpaste. To create a pair, simply turn your paste over so as the plain side is facing up and cut. Before cutting – make sure that the knitted pattern is running in the correct way – down or across your mitten. Place to one side.
10. Now you can mould accessories for your hat using various cutters such as holly and trees or you can mould accessories from our moulds such as Rustic Cable Knit Mould, Sugar Snowflakes Mould, Baby Buttons Mould, Buttons Mould, Flower Buttons Mould.
11. Mould a trim for your mittens using one of our various knit/crochet effect moulds. In the video above we have used the trim from our Knitted Piece Mould. Measure it against the cuff of your mitten before trimming to size with a cutting wheel and attaching with edible glue. You can also make trims using any of the other moulds in our knit & crochet range.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

These cute bunny bottom cookies make perfect Easter treats. Give as gifts or make with the kids this Easter! Can also be used as decorations on cupcakes and cakes.

Equipment

44mm square cookie cutter

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Wild Meadow Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Easter Bunny Mould

Small Rolling Pin

Palette Knife

Edibles

44m square cookies baked using our cookie recipe >> see here <<

Icing Sugar

Apricot Jam

Cornflour

Karen Davies Sugarpaste

Sugar Flair Spruce Green food colouring

Rainbow Dust Chestnut food colouring

Rainbow Dust Tangerine food colouring

Rainbow Dust powder colours  – Autumn Green, Pumpkin Pie, Snow Drift, Pink Candy.

Edible Glue

1. First you will need to bake some delicious cookies using our cookie recipe! See the recipe here!

Make your dough, roll it out on to your work surface and cut cookies using a 44mm square cookie cutter. Place on a lined baking tray and bake!

2. Allow your cookies to cool on a cooling rack.

3. Colour some Karen Davies Sugarpaste pale green using Sugar Flair Spruce Green food colouring. Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll your sugarpaste out thinly on your work surface. Use your cookie cutter to cut enough squares to cover all of your cookies.

4. Once your cookies have fully cooled, spread a thin layer of apricot jam on the top surface and attach a green square on each.

5. Colour some paste a darker Green colour using the Spruce Green food colouring.

6. Dust your Wild Meadow Mould with cornflour and tap out any excess.

7. Roll a sausage of paste wide enough to fill the top quarter of the grass on the mould and long enough to fill the width. Place on top of your mould a quarter of the way down from the top of the grass.

8. Use your fingers to press the bottom edge of your paste into the mould. This will help hold your paste in place whilst you roll the rest up to the top of the grass.

9. Use a small rolling pin to roll your paste up the top of the grass. You may need to dust the back of your paste with cornflour to stop it from sticking to your rolling pin.

10. Make sure your paste is rolled thinly and flat against the mould. Carefully cut away any excess using a palette knife. If you cut over the top of the grass you will see that your paste will remain in the grass strands and any excess will come away.

11. Turn your mould over and peel back to release your grass. You can now dust it with Autumn Green Powder colour.

12. Cut your grass into thirds. This will give you enough grass for three cookies. Repeat steps 7-11 until you have enough grass for all of your cookies.

13. Take a strip of moulded grass and bend it into a circle shape so that both ends meet. Attach the ends together with edible glue.

14. Attach the circles of grass to the centre of each cookie using edible glue. Don’t worry if there is a hole in the middle as your bunny bottom will hide it!

15. Colour different shades of pale Brown sugarpaste using Chestnut Brown food colouring.

16. Dust your Easter Bunny Mould with cornflour and tap out any excess.

17. Roll a small ball of sugarpaste and firmly press into the bunny bottom on your mould. Guide any excess paste to one edge and tear off with your thumb. Make sure your paste is flat at the back before turning your mould over peeling back to release.

18. Dust the pads on the bunnies feet using Rose powder colour.

19. Dust the tails with White powder colour.

20. Attach your bunny bottoms on top of the grass on your cookies using edible glue.

21. Colour some sugarpaste using Tangerine food colouring. Mould carrots from the Easter Bunny Mould. Dust the leaves with Autumn Green powder colour and the carrots with Pumpkin Pie powder colour before attaching to your cookies.

Bobble Hat Cookies

Keep your cakes and bakes warm this Winter with this fun bobble hat tutorial.

Make cute bobble hats using our cookie recipes and our range of knit and crochet moulds!

Watch our quick tutorial video and then follow the instructions below!

For our favourite cookie recipes click here >>> ‘How to mould and bake perfect cookies’

Equipment

Cookie dough

Karen Davies Sugarpaste

Bobble Hat Cutter

Either..

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Chunky Rib Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Knitted Piece Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Crochet Piece Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Chunky Knit Mould

And/Or..

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Rustic Cable Knit Mould

Corn Flour

Edible Glue

Sieve

Cutting Wheel or Pizza Wheel

Palette Knife

Instructions

1. Make your cookie dough following the instructions in our ‘How to mould and bake perfect cookies’ post.
2. Roll out your cookie dough until it’s 1cm thick and use your bobble hat cutter to cut out as many hats as you would like.
3. Place on a baking tray and bake.
4. Once your hats are baked, allow them to cool. You can either wait until your cookies are completely cool and then follow the steps below, attaching your decorations to your cookie as you go. Or you can create the decorations in advance and then simply attach on top of your cookies once the cookies have cooled.
5. Colour your sugarpaste using food colouring. They look beautiful in either pastel or festive colours. We always use either Rainbow Dust or Sugar Flair food colouring.
6. Start by dusting your knit/crochet effect mould with cornflour and tapping out any excess.
7. Roughly roll out your sugarpaste on your work surface before placing into your mould. Start by using your fingers to press and secure your paste into one edge of the mould. Take a rolling pin and begin to roll from the edge that you have just secured. Roll firmly into the mould until you can begin to see the pattern through the back of your sugarpaste.
8. Tear away any excess either with your fingers or with a palette knife before turning your mould over and peeling back. Your sugarpaste should drop out easily.
9. Use your bobble hat cookie cutter to cut out a hat from your moulded sugarpaste. Before cutting – make sure that the knitted pattern is running in the correct way – down or across your hat. Place to one side.
10. Mould a trim for your hat using one of our various knit/crochet effect moulds. In the video above we have used our Rustic Cable Knit Mould. Measure it against the bottom of your hat before trimming to size with a cutting wheel and attaching with edible glue.
11. Roll a small ball of sugarpaste and attach and gently flatten to the bobble on your hat. Lightly cover with edilble glue.
12. Soften sugarpaste using Trex (white vegetable fat). Roll into balls and press through a sieve to create the fluffy bobble texture. Press through until it is the desired length. Use a palette knife to gently scrape the ‘fluff’ off and take over to your bobble. Attach to your bobble. Repeat the process 4-5 times until the bobble is covered.
13. Now you can mould accessories for your hat from our various moulds such as Rustic Cable Knit Mould, Baby Buttons Mould, Buttons Mould, Flower Buttons Mould.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

How To Make Mini Bobble Hat Cakes!

Keep your cakes and bakes warm this Winter with this fun bobble hat tutorial.

Make cute bobble hats using muffins or cupcakes and our range of knit and crochet moulds!

Watch our quick tutorial video and then follow the instructions below!

Equipment

Karen Davies Sugarpaste

Either..

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Chunky Rib Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Knitted Piece Mould

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Crochet Piece Mould

And/Or..

Karen Davies Sugarcraft Chunky Knit Mould

Corn Flour

Blue, Grey, Lilac or Pink Food Colouring

Buttercream/Apricot/Chocolate

Sieve

Knife

Edible Glue

Instructions

1. Colour some sugarpaste in your chosen colour.
2. Take your muffin or cupcake and turn it upside down so as it’s widest point is at the bottom. Trim bottom flat if necessary. Crumb coat in buttercream (jam, chocolate etc can also be used if preffered).
3. Dust which ever knit/crochet effect mould you have chosen with cornflour. Tap out any excess.
4. Roll out your sugarpaste roughly on your work surface and then place on top of your mould. Use your fingers to secure the bottom edge and one side edge down into the mould before using a rolling pin to firmly roll your paste into the mould. You should start to be able to see the pattern through the back of your paste.
5. Turn your mould over and peel back, your paste should peel easily out of the mould.
6. If your paste looks like it’s going to be too big for your cake you can trim a little excess off. But there’s no need to be precise, you’d rather leave yourself with more to work with than too little!
7. Wrap your paste around your cake and use your fingers to gently press and gather any excess together at the top. Use a sharp knife to carefully cut away any excess.
8. Use a Dresden Tool to help disguise any joins. Don’t worry too much about the top as your bobble will cover it.
9. Brush the top of your hat with edible glue and then roll a ball of white sugarpaste and attach on top.
10. Brush around the base of your hat with edible glue and mould a trim from either the same mould or from another one of our knitted effect moulds. Trim to size before attaching using a knife or cutting wheel.
11. Use a Dresden Tool to help push the paste around the top edge of your trim right up against your bobble hat so as there are no gaps showing.
12. Brush the white ball on top of your hat with edible glue. Soften white sugarpaste with some Trex (white vegetable fat). Take a sieve and press a ball of sugarpaste firmly through the sieve. You can press/add more paste to the back of your piece until the strands are as long as you wish. Use a knife to scrape and lift off the ‘fluff’ carry it over to your ball of sugarpaste and use a dresden tool to help you position the fluff around the bobble. Repeat process until bobble is fully covered.
13. (OPTIONAL) You can personalise your hats with various items from our other moulds such as Bows, Buttons, or knitted hearts from our Cable Knit Mould.