It's Christmas!

It's Christmas again, and this year I've ended up making four Christmas cakes, one sponge and three traditional fruit Christmas cakes.

Bad Santa. 

Bad Santa

This is the sponge one I did a few days before Christmas for a pre-concert meal at a local restaurant, so considering what was likely to happen later that evening, a Santa that had a couple more than he should have if he was going to drive his sleigh seemed appropriate. Made from flower paste, apart from the royal icing beard, the Father Christmas is made from 18 different pieces so was a little fiddly. The heads around the edges were paste discs with airbrushed eyes and royal icing beard.

A Christmas Trio 

Christmas Trio

These three were all made together, so I marzipanned and covered them with sugar paste one evening, then added all the decorations the following evening. I knew I had a lot to do so, including Bad Santa, I started work on the figures at the start of November and was ready just about on time.

Angels.

Angels

This is my favourites of the three, which I made for my Mum for her at-home the Saturday before Christmas. Holly and ivy around the edge with a silver bell, three praying angels and a three colour message looked really good on the table. The angels were the first figures I made and were the prototype for the santas and got my hand in for the animals. The Merry Christmas is the first time I've tried graduating colours with the airbrush and it turned out really well. The trickiest bit was the bell - even with a mould it was a nightmare.

Pingu

Pingu

This is the family Christmas cake which I produced for Christmas day. I admit that it looks like Pingu's eaten all the Christmas pudding, but it's more firsts - animals and Christmas trees. Robbie the seal was a lot easier than I expected and allowing the white body of Pingu the penguin to dry first meant I was able to do the black without it staining the white. I tried giving Robbie eyes but he just looked scary so I left them off. I'm really pleased with the tree, which is made of piped royal icing. It's a lot easier than it looks apart from getting it stay straight. Doing it again I'd have made the tree a bit bigger and Pingu and Robbie a bit smaller, but apart from that I'm happy with it.

The minimalist one.

Minimalist Christmas

I like Christmas cake, so I had to make one for myself, so I just kind of threw this one together. A lot simpler Santa than on the Bad Santa cake, only 12 parts in this one, just a sack of presents and another tree on top finished with a few trees airbrushed around the edge and I was done. Not my finest hour, but it just goes to show I shouldn't try doing four cakes at once. It's no so much the making and decorating, it's the thinking up the ideas.