Anyways, before I write a novel about our weather, lets get on with this weeks blog. At the end of last week, we received a phone call from a lovely woman by the name of Jen, from the Winchester Nursing Home (located approximately 35-40mins from our shop here in Cardinal). At the nursing home, each month someone is in charge of planning that months' birthday party for all of the residents (how cute) :) Jen was in charge of July, and really wanted to do something special for all of the July "friends". She called us, hoping we could do a special cake for her and the residents - how could we say no! The theme was "Country Quilts" - again, very cute! My mind started racing with ideas as soon as she mentioned the topic; however, once I got off the phone with her, I really had no idea where to start. Quilts are incredible works of are - so much details, stitching, colours, fabrics, designs, etc. How was I going to transfer such detail and design onto a cake? I went home and looked at a few of the quilts I have myself; all extremely beautiful, but with more of an elegant, soft colour look, than the country feel I was going for. I then turned to my best friend: GOOGLE :) Google is honestly amazing, and not surprisingly, when you type "country quilts" into the image search engine, you get a whole lot of results! After looking and searching, I put a few different quilts together and got my final design - I was SUPER excited - still unsure how I was going to pull it off, but excited for the challenge. This blog post is actually going to run through how we did the Country Quilt Cake, the tools/supplies we used and a few step-by-step pictures to go along with it! Enjoy :)
The first thing you need is the cake itself - we used an 11x15 slab for the required number of servings. Luscious Lemon Cake with sweet raspberry buttercream. After filling the cake and applying a few outer layers of buttercream, it was ready to decorate! The first thing we did, was to cut out a large piece of fondant to lay over top of the slab cake, to look as if the quilt were laying on the cake, as opposed to BEING the whole cake. We wanted it to literally look like a piece of a quilt - having a few pulled up edges, some creases, etc. We used one of our "crimpers" with the heart design, and added a stitched edge detail around the perimeter of the fondant "quilt". What you'll need to finish decorating the cake is: pre-coloured fondant (we use satin-ice), textured rolling pins or textured impression mats, 3 different sizes of square cutters, water and a paintbrush.
In order to get the impressions onto the fondant, you need to first start by taking one of the colours of your choosing, roll it out thin, place the impression mat over the fondant, and using either rolling pin or fondant smoother, press the impression mat gently over the fondant, making sure to press hard enough for the impression to make the design on the fondant. From there, cut out approximately 24 little squares using your smallest square cutter. Set them aside, and cover with saran wrap to ensure they don't dry out before you get a chance to put them on the cake. Repeat this with each colour you want to use for your small square. For the larger squares, you'll need 8 of the 2 colours you want to use for the smaller triangles and 4 of 2 colours you want for the big triangles. Again, roll out your fondant, using the impression mats, press in the design of your choice, then using the med and large square cutters, cut your squares, and then using a pizza cutter, slice them into triangles. Cover with saran wrap.
You then want to find the centre of your cake, as this will help keep the quilt centered. Start by placing 4 different colour small squares in a pattern as your center and build out from there until you have a 4x4 square (16 small squares). You're then going to add the larger triangles to form the big squares on the quilt - fit these together. Add 4 more 4x4 squares into the empty blocks of space until you have the complete quilt.
You're almost done! Every single cake that leaves our shop, leaves with a finishing coat of Pearl Lustre Spray. Not only does this "finish" the cake, put when you have so many different colours, and especially when you have used fondant that has been imprinted with a design, the pearl spray really helps to "POP" that design! Voila - The final cake!
Happy Birthday to all those celebrating July birthdays at the Winchester Nursing Home!
You can find all of the above mentioned supplies at www.icinginspirations.ca or www.goldaskitchen.com
We hope you've enjoyed this Step-By-Step Country Quilt blog - let us know if you try it yourself, and make sure to send us pictures!
We hope everyone has an amazing weekend full of friends, family, laughter and joy, and stay tuned for more Cakes From The Country!
Miranda xoxo
Thanks Miranda I wondered how you did that. Looks great!
ReplyDeleteHow did you fix the squares on the fondant base?
ReplyDelete