sugarpaste Archives - Juniper Cakery | Bespoke Cakes in Yorkshire & the Humber

3rd September 2013 // 1 Comments

Tutorial Tuesday: How to Make a Sugarpaste Owl!

Yay! It’s now September which means that the lovely cosiness of Autumn (or Fall depending on where you are) is just around the corner! Autumn and winter are our favourite seasons here at Juniper Cakery and we get excited when they arrive every year. What’s not to love… lovely vibrant crisp golden leaves, cooler weather, bundling up in mis-matched knitwear, hot cocoa, spiced cakes, Halloween festivities and of course Christmas. With all this in mind this week’s tutorial is an adorable autumnal owl in fetching seasonal shades of browns and rust orange. This little creature will sit perfect on top of cupcakes and forest themed cakes!

What you need for this tutorial…

Sugarpaste / fondant in three complimentary colours
Water
Paintbrush
Round piping tip (use the large bottom for cutting)
Blade modelling tool
Ball modelling tool
Scallop and comb modelling tool
Circle cutters

Step one: Use your chosen base colour to mould what we would describe as an upside down tooth shape as pictured above. Use your finger and thumb to pinch two ‘ears’ for your owl and smooth any stretches/cracks with your fingers.

Step two: Using a small circle cutter and the end of a piping tip cut one small and two extra small circles out.

Step three: Slice the small circle into two halves. Into one of the halves create a ‘feathered’ pattern using the scallop and comb tool.

Step four: Now stick the two extra small circles in place as eyes and the half circle in place as a chest. For extra detail why not cut out smaller circles in an opposite colour and place them on top of the extra small circles, this will add extra dimension to your owl’s eyes.

Step five: Using the piping tip again cut out three circles and add feathered detail using the scallop end of the scallop and comb tool.

Step six: Pinch two of the circles with your finger and thumb to create a tapered ‘wing’.

Step seven: Begin sticking the circles in place overlapping them as you go. Stick the tapered circle on last as this will finish your owl’s wing off nicely.

Step eight: Using a contrasting colour to your owl’s body make a chunky teardrop shape. Use the blade tool to make two slits at the non-tapered end, mould with your fingers to get rid of any sharp/rough edges. Repeat this once more and you now have your owl’s feet!

Step nine: Make a similar, but smaller, shape pinching the edges to get a triangle. Stick between the eyes, poke in two small holes and your owl now has a beak!

Step ten: Stick in place using edible glue by simply sitting your owl on top of them. The weight will secure them and help the glue set.

Step eleven: Roll two small balls of fondant, make an indentation in your owl’s eyes, and press in the two small balls for pupils!

Now you’ve made your very own sugarpaste owl! This can be made in any colour for any occasion and your little owl can be nestled atop a cake and cupcakes!

24th June 2013 // 0 Comments

CAKE101: Some essential tools to invest in No. 3!

Some fondant and sugarpaste accents only need a slight curve to them, for example daisies. Cake decorations like these would need something shallow to help form them and sometimes some unlikely items fit the bill. This weeks CAKE101 offers a tip that we use to set a little shape to more open flowers.

“To help form fondant flowers that only need a shallow curve to them the lids to miniature jam jars (the kind you find in hotels) are perfect! These are great for flowers that need a slight lift to the tips of the petals.”

10th June 2013 // 0 Comments

CAKE101: Some essential tools to invest in No. 2!

Sometimes when you’re filling an order for 100 plus cupcakes that require softly curved fondant petals and leaves you’ll get to a point when you look around only to discover that you have no more room on your forming cups, waves or foam pads. This weeks CAKE101 offers a tip on some essential tools to keep in your tool kit for situations like this!

“To add shape to fondant petals or leaves why not sit them in the curves of paint palettes or even teaspoons. This is especially handy if you run out of space on forming cups, waves and foam pads!”

14th May 2013 // 0 Comments

Tutorial Tuesday: How to make a superhero raccoon!

With warm summer air blowing in through the windows here at Juniper Cakery HQ it’s hard not to be inspired by what’s outdoors. The likely hood of a raccoon strolling through our gardens may be about as high as a raccoon donning a cape and mask but that’s what we love about cake decorating…you can be as insane as you like! Our crazy critter tutorials show you how to customise a cake in a fun, novelty way. This superhero raccoon would be a fantastic addition to any comic book fan’s cake and by following this tutorial you have all the superpowers you need to create one of your very own!

What you will need:
White sugarpaste/modelling paste
Black & green food colour paste by Wilton
Modelling tool set Fondant roller
Paint brush
Edible glue
Cocktail Sticks

Tutorial Tuesday: How to make a superhero raccoon!

Step one: Once you’ve custom coloured your sugarpaste (we chose a black, grey and green colour theme but don’t be afraid to choose your own, or the recipients, favourite colours) take a fair amount of your base colour (we’ll refer to this as grey) and begin rolling it in your hands. Make sure it’s crack free and begin moulding it into a ‘pear’ shape to form your raccoon’s head.

Step two: To make your raccoon’s eyes use a piping tip to cut out to circles in a contrasting colour (we chose a deeper grey) and shape them a little so they’re not perfectly round. Roll two very small balls out of white sugarpaste, flatten them with your fingers and place them on top of the deeper grey sugarpaste with edible glue. Paint in some pupils with black food colour paste and a paintbrush to finish your raccoon’s eyes!

Step three: Give your raccoon a little nose by rolling a small amount of deeper grey sugarpaste between your finger and thumb and stick in place using edible glue.

Step four: To give your little raccoon ears take to small pieces of your deeper grey sugarpaste and mould two triangle shapes between your fingers. Use the non-bulbous end of the bulbous cone tool to mark where your raccoon’s ears will be placed and glue them on with edible glue.

Step five: To give your raccoon a mouth push the non-bulbous end of the bulbous cone tool into the sugarpaste and paint black.

Step six: With your grey sugarpaste begin moulding a similar ‘pear’ shape roughly the same size as your raccoon’s head to form the body.

Step seven: Place a cocktail stick through your raccoon’s body, add a little edible glue and gently slide your raccoon’s head into place.

Step eight: For the raccoon’s legs and arms roll out four ‘sausages’, making two slightly smaller than the other, and taper them ever so slightly at one end. Make three marks on each tapered end using your blade tool to add detail to your raccoon’s paw. Fix in place with edible glue.

Step nine: Now it’s time to create your raccoon’s little bushy tail! Roll out the remainder of your grey sugarpaste in to a ‘sausage’ and taper at one end. Place a small piece of cocktail where your would like your raccoon’s tail to be placed and surround it with edible glue and fix into place. Add stripes using black food colour paste and a pint brush.

How to Make the Mask

Step one: Using the fondant roller roll out your green sugarpaste (or whichever colour you chose) and cut an eye mask shape out of it using your blade tool. Lay the mask over your raccoon’s eyes to see approximately how far they are apart and when you’re sure place the mask back onto a flat surface and begin to cut the eye holes out.

Tip: If you’re find that cutting the small eye sockets out freehand isn’t working try using the smaller end of a piping tip.

Step two: With your left over green sugarpaste after cutting out the mask cut a long strip of sugarpaste approximately 4 mm thick. Place it around your raccoon’s head to measure and once you have it at the right size stick it into place with edible glue. Cut two small ‘leaves’ out of the green sugarpaste and roll a small ball between your fingers and fix them at one side of your raccoon’s head to create a knot! Now your raccoon is masked!

How to Make the Cape

Step one: Work the left over green sugarpaste in your hands and roll it out once again. Using the blade tool cut out an oblong making one end wavy, two ‘leaves’, two ‘blades of grass’ and roll one small ball.

Step two: Glue your cape into place making sure the wavy end is near your raccoon’s tail and gently work it to make it look as though there is wind blowing through and allow to set. Glue the thicker end of your ‘blades of grass’ to where the cape ends and allow them to meet under your raccoon’s chin. Where they meet glue your two ‘leaves’ and ball into place to cover up the seam and create a knot!

Step three: To create a superhero logo cut a hexagon from white sugarpaste using your blade tool, fix into place with edible glue and paint your chosen logo on with food colour paste.

By following this tutorial you now have your very own superhero raccoon! Why not turn your little critter into your own or your loved one’s favourite superhero? Add a Catwoman or Batman mask over your raccoon’s face (it already has the ears!), work in red and gold to create an Iron-raccoon or add a red, white and blue cape for Wonder Woman!

30th March 2013 // 0 Comments

Hoppy Birthday Giant Cupcake

We had lots of fun creating and sharing our Easter tutorials last week! By the end of the week we had to create a fun Easter themed birthday cake for a family member. We decided that our Easter bunny and chicks would be perfect nestled on top of a bright giant cupcake! We teamed our cute little characters with rainbow sprinkles, and a flowerpaste banner coloured with Squires Kitchen’s Bluegrass gel paste colour for a playful brightness. If you need to re-create this cake why not play with different sprinkles and colour; use flower shaped sprinkles on top of green buttercream for a lovely garden theme, or use Oreo crumbles as patches of soil!

To create our giant cupcake we used our giant cupcake pan and the following recipe…

7-8 eggs
453g self raising flour
453g granulated sugar
453g butter

NOTE: If you add cocoa powder to create a chocolate cake add some extra butter or an extra egg to make up for the extra dry ingredients.

To make the cake cream the butter in a mixer then add the granulated sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the eggs for around one minute. Once half of the eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for approximately 5 minutes.

Once fully mixed pour into the ‘cupcake case’ section of your giant cupcake pan. The ‘buttercream’ or ‘top’ section of the giant cupcake is more shallow and needs less time to bake so the batter to this half needs to be added when the ‘cupcake case’ section is half baked (usually around 20-30 minutes).

Set the cake pan with the ‘cupcake case’ section filled only place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/325F/170C. Bake for around 40 minutes to an hour. Keep checking by using a cake tester pushed in and drawn out of the cake’s centre (if the skewer comes out clean then your cake is done).

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Hello! We’re Felicity & Krystle; we create beautiful cakes and confections in Yorkshire & North Lincolnshire!

Since we opened Juniper Cakery our work has featured in international books, magazines & blogs. In 2015 we began creating bespoke cakes and confections to order. We've also created treats for Olivia Burton Watches, Benefit Cosmetics, Boux Avenue, Homepride Flour, The Happy Egg Co., Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Satin Ice, Royal Albert and more! We also write for the popular Craftsy.com blog too!