Thanks Alex!

Back in time to last year, we were busy building our current home we were over half way and our fantastic Project Manager Alex was off to Australia, to thank him for all his help and everything he had done so far for our house I decided to make him a cake again more practise.

 Theme Building, Builders, Construction

 I didn't have a lot of time so this cake as we found out quite late that he was leaving so I didn't do much searching on Pinterest and just used what I had learnt from making my first figurine. What I forgot to do with this cake was layer it inside which meant it didn't have much height. I had a more luck with covering the cake, no cracks or seams this time though I did have a couple of folds but I managed to smooth out the worst of it.

 This time round I tried a Sitting Figure for my cake, I tried to make this one less cartoon-like so I sculpted the nose rather than adding it. I had a lot of fun again making the figure, there are just so many characters you can make just by making slight adjustments in your sculpting or something simple like changing the clothing around. Every time we had met up with Alex he was in a dress shirt and slacks and to be honest I can't really picture him in a fluro vest and stubbies.

Here is Alex before he got hair and eyebrows.

I had lots of fun with the wee accessories I made. To make them I just fiddled around with the fondant until I got the shapes I was after. I used a mix of colour paste and Cake Decorator's Fluid from one of my cake supply stores Cake and Sugar Art (I have previously tried using Vodka as suggested on a lot of tutorials and websites, however I found the solution to stay quite tacky and not dry. The Cake Decorator's Fluid has a higher alcohol content and I find it dries better and quicker.) to make a "paint" to add detail to my accessories. I haven't come across any specific ratios or a recipe i just go by the look and how it paints and adjust if I need to. Biggest thing to remember is to wait till it is completely dry before touching or placing on the cake otherwise you end up with grubby hands that you inevitably smudge all over you cake, yip lesson learnt the hard way.

The accessories.

Yip my bricks look just like Grain Waves cereal, I couldn't quite get the edges sharp enough.

I got his giant pack of cheap kids cookie cutters for around about $20 from The Warehouse and in there was an alphabet set which was great because I hadn't yet found the stainless steel set which are smaller and for cake decorating for a price that I was willing to pay.

And the finished product.

Not quite sure as to why his face looks so surprised, perhaps I was anticipating his face when he was surprised with the cake?

However surprised Alex still loved the cake and all the other  builders commented on how I had got his shirt just right, apparently they all make fun of him because he wears very tight shirts and there is an inside joke going around about how he is the only one that can get away with it. Their words not mine.

What will be next? Moving house setting up all my cake things and finally having a big kitchen bench I can decorate on rather than using the kitchen table.