 Wow! My first blog!! I’m not gonna lie, it’s a very scary thing kinda sorta bearing my soul for a few folk to see. Ok, ‘soul’ might be a bit dramatic but by soul I mean my ridiculous obsession with all things cake….and for me at least…it’s all the same thing.
I’ve not always been this passionate about cake. I mean I’ve always loved to bake and I’ve been described to people by my family as the ‘Martha Stewart’ of the bunch. I just shake my head at the comparison,but secretly, I kinda love it. My gran baked, she ran a business from home selling the best cookies and a chocolate cake to die for! She passed that knowledge on to my mom, and although neither of us have been able to properly replicate my Gran’s famous condensed milk cookies….my mom’s baking is not too shabby. Not by a long shot! After I graduated high school I had a few ideas in mind of what I wanted to do with my life and none of it involved food. This is going to sound ridiculous but it never really entered my mind that I could actually go to school to learn the Art of Baking. I just assumed that you started out as a culinary chef and then apprenticed and sorta upgraded to becoming a Pastry Chef. I was young and naive. Don’t judge me! So I went to Pastry School, learned the art of Baking and loved every minute of it. We didn’t spend too much time decorating cakes, it was really just focused on the science of baking, perfecting every type of dough imaginable, whipping up every concoction you read about in every French book. While I was at school I was working in one of Canada’s largest book chains. And of course when you’re going to pastry school and working in a bookstore, it’s only natural that you start gravitating toward the recipe books and baking section. It was here, (perusing when I should have been working) that my new found love of novelty cakes was born. Confetti Cakes by Elisa Strauss. I was hooked. It was one of the only books that came with me over to Scotland, and a book I still use for reference every so often. For me making cakes is not just a means to make a living, it’s my medium. It’s my safe place. It’s a place where I can find therapy when I need it. I’ve found comfort in them. I’ve also been at breaking point with them, where I’ve been ready to throw in the towel because it all just becomes too much. It’s somewhere that sometimes I put too much energy into but at the end of the day I’m not sure where I’d be without cake in my life…I know how crazy that sounds, after all, to many people ‘it’s just cake’. But to me, especially lately, it’s so much more than that. I get to challenge myself everyday and I get to be inventive and creative and I get to escape to a safe place when this hectic life all gets just a little bit too much. But those are stories for another day….and let me tell you, there are loads of them! I’m looking forward to having you on my blogging journey. Now on to the fun stuff and how I made this Honey Bee Cake 🙂 x I first saw this bubble wrap technique on YouTube last year. To see the step by step tutorial you can follow the link here 🙂
|
First I covered a 10inch cake board with fondant that I had coloured with a bit of caramel and yellow pro gel colours. I then used a hexagonal cutter to mark random areas on the board.
Thanks for the tutorial. I look forward to reading more about your cake adventures.
Thanks so much Ella! <3
Found you through a cake group and loving your blog posts! They are fun to read and I love the tutorials. Thanks for sharing with us.
Thanks so much Lisa! I’m so delighted to hear that. I’m trying to get my email server properly sorted so it will be a possibility to subscribe to my posts 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to leave me some feedback x
I’m going to take a leap of faith and attempt to make this cake for my wife’s 60th birthday. Never having done this before it really is a BIG leap!!
Wish me luck and watch this space……
OOh fantastic!! Looking forward to seeing your creation 🙂 x
LOVE!! TY! Pinning it! 🙂
Thanks so much Rachael! <3
thank you! thank you! thank you! all the way from East Africa 🙂 i have had so much fun making this.
have tried to upload it but sadly i couldn’t 🙁
How did you get the wafer paper wings to stick to the bees? I’ll be making a similar cake next week!
Hi Jamie! You can use either piping gel or if you don’t have that, just a teeny bit of water or edible glue. A little goes a LONG way. Have fun 🙂 I’d love to see your finished cake too x
Hi! Love this cake! I am planning on making it for a birthday party on Boxing Day. How far in advance do you think I could make this? I am worried about the chocolate going soft next to the buttercream but ideally need to make it a couple of days in advance of the party it will be for. I have never attached chocolate to a cake like this before so wondered if it would attach to fondant more securely. Thank you!
Hey Chirsty, thanks so much 🙂 you can make it a few days in advance, just make sure the cake issue in a cool place so as not to melt the chocolate. The chocolate sitting next to the buttercream will not make it go soft 💕 I think you’d have a much harder time attaching the chocolate to the fondant xx
Oh my… i’m currently looking for ideas for a novelty cake for my mum’s 70th birthday and found your cake on pinter estate. This honeycomb & bee cake is AMAZING !!! I love it.. I think before my mum’s birthday on November 2020 I will have to have a practice of this cake. Seriously considering doing this… thankyou for brilliant explanat ion on how to accomplish it.
Thanks so much Kirsty! Let me know how you get on with it or if you need any help! It’s really fun to make 🥰❤️😍
I made this cake for my daughters second birthday/ she adores bees! It was a total success and the instructions were really easy to follow. Absolutely loved it! Thank you!!
My daughter and I are planning on making this cake for my four-year-old granddaughter’s birthday party next week. I don’t seem to have luck at all when it comes to melting candy melts. I have tried every method possible and it never comes out the right consistency I am concerned that I won’t be able to get the chocolate to spread on the bubble wrap. Help!Do
Hi Dorie! Candy melts can be quite temperamental. Have you tried using a bit of white fat in to your candle melts? That will help thin it out. White chocolate will melt really easily for this project as well and easier to work with 🙂 x
Hi
Thanks Alot tried mine today came out great! Unfortunately I cannot post a picture i dont have that option.
How hard is it to cut this cake with the chocolate wrapped all the way around?
Do I add anything to the melted chocolate like crisco
Hey! Because it’s white chocolate it’s already quite soft so no definitely don’t add anything to it as it will take ages to set. You can use a hot dry knife to slice if you’re worried about the chocolate breaking when cut x
What did you use to color your chocolate? I’ve been told regular gel colors will make it seize, but I swear I’ve seen others do that. I’m making my cake this week and an debating between using white chocolate or candy melts.
Hey Dana! So that was just white chocolate I used, no colouring. It was probably the Lidl brand, that was always my go to and when melted was quite yellow. (my cakes are vegan now so I don’t use regular white chocolate anymore) Gel colour does tend to seize. I don’t know what wizardry they’re using when people add colour without it seizing. You could always heat up a small amount of milk or cream and add the colour to that and then add to the chocolate 🙂 x