#hiddenscene

Art trade for @kikokay-k from instagram!

This weekend I will have had my very first trip to Cake International at the Birmingham NEC. And my first time (well duh) entering their competitions. 

So I thought it would be nice to take photos of my progress as I go, so I can look back and remember it, hopefully fondly lol. I hope you enjoy this ramble through my design and creation process :)

I'm entering the Wedding Cake category. Meant to be doing 2 entries, but admitted defeat and have scaled down to the one.... darn, must stop thinking I can do more than I can! 

Right, so onto the cake. I had to design one and the first thing that popped into my head was a Hidden Scene cake with a Parisian theme. Me and my hubby are going away for our extremely late honeymoon to Paris this winter, so it's a Wintery Parisian theme!

Some early notes and sketches. (If you can read my handwriting, you get a pat on the back :p)

So I've got the main idea of my cake down. It's just a case of trying to get that vision into icing, which I usually find quite hard as the rules change a lot, what works on paper may not work in 3D.

I'd decided I wanted my cake to have a White, Grey and Purple theme. After mulling it over, I decided to remove the purple from the front of the cake, as I don't think it'll have as much impact. So went with predominately white, with hints of grey in the flowers and grey ribbon.

The first thing I started on was the flowers. Here's one of the bouquets.

I was going to have 2 of the tiers iced in grey as well, but when I went to test the flower positions on the cake, I actually really liked it all in white! So I did a quick photoshop on it, to see what it would look like grey. 

Still prefer the white. Although the grey is growing on me a bit. I thought it'd probably be an idea to check the ribbon, to see if that added enough grey to it.

Here's the flower position check, in which I was happy with the original idea of having the flowers between the top two cakes. Even if they're on opposite sides from the drawing lol

Today I made a mess....I am very good at mess. If I wasn't a cake decorator I would be a mess maker. On the plus side, I have now iced the 4 cakes and the board!

 Not content with just making a mess in the kitchen, where the floor was very sticky >.> whoops. I also made a mess on my desk. I spent an hour cutting out my template for the Eiffel Tower I plan to make tomorrow. Hoping it's not as useful as a chocolate tea pot and carving up my finger in the process wasn't a wasted effort... we shall see!

Do you see all the little triangles?.... they're everywhere >.> Sorry I'm waffling. Here are some photos! :D

Here's one of the Eiffel pieces. I decided to split them, so that I could fit them around the cake. Unfortunately, I had to start rushing, so the finish isn't very good... booo. Also had plans to make it 3D, but then when I put it against the cake there wasn't enough room.... or time!

The Eiffel on the cake! Showing off its leaning tower of Pisa'ness

Hand painted. I've also added in stars using pearl lustre paints, a banner that says "Veux-tu m'epouser?" or "Will you marry me?", added some dark purple skyline and a few flower bunches. 

Here I'm testing out the size and placement of my petites gens (little people.)

I prefer this pose with the man proposing as it's more in keeping with the banner.

Andddd...... here it is finished. 

Here's my cake! It won a bronze. Planning to go back next year and see if I can beat that :D

If you're wondering why I got a Bronze and not say Best in Show (I kid) then the reasoning was the finish. There were a lot of little defects with the finish on this cake. I had a major rush to get it finished. Dropped it and buckled the board, which I managed to get back in place without major disaster, but it did leave a crack. 

Will I learn for next time? I would hope, but unfortunately, even though I had planned for this to be my sole work for an entire month, I either felt guilty and took on orders or just cool stuff I can't tell you about yet happened.... haha. Sorry! Wish I could. 

So I'll be entering next year in London, CI has set me a challenge and I will beat it :D Maybe see you there?

Oh and Congratulations to everyone that entered and to those that won or placed. 

Much love,