Baked a Cake

As any Caker knows, sugar flowers and rainy weather do not mix. What started out as a great week to reacquaint myself with my love of sugar flowers soon turned to a saggy mess with the arrival of the severe storms we have just experienced in Newcastle.

This past week, my other fabulous workplace, Cactus, celebrated it’s 21^st birthday and to celebrate I thought I would make a sugar flower succulent crown to top a cute little cake, complete with rainbow sprinkles (what party is complete without rainbow sprinkles?)!

While the boy was out playing football, I spent a last Sunday afternoon colouring gum paste (spending the rest of the afternoon with rainbow hands – wearing gloves just isn’t conducive to colouring fondant or gum paste for these little hands) and cutting and molding succulent leaves in beautiful shades on greens and purples. I was really happy with the afternoon’s effort and left them to dry over night, ready for a petal dust shimmer the following day. The following night we were hit with a once in a decade storm – and my nice little succulents started to droop…

The following day, the Cactus office and the majority of Newcastle closed it’s doors and I attempted to salvage the flowers in a container filled with bi-carb to draw out the moisture – it worked a little and the next morning with the weather easing I whipped up a beautiful Italian meringue buttercream dotted with rainbow sprinkles to smother a rich and fudgy chocolate espresso cake (recipe from Call me Cupcake).

Luckily for me, my Cacti loves didn’t mind the droopy flower crown and we enjoyed a slice with a chilled wine – perfect.

I think I will chance my luck and make some more sugar flowers in the next few weeks – perhaps anemones and peonies like the rain a bit more – watch this space.