This week's project was a tractor cake for a colleague. It was a for a joint birthday party for his son and their friend's son. I think his boy was turning 2 and the other lad 4? Not 100% but Kit is apparently tractor mad at the moment and blue is his favourite colour. I'm not sure that New Holland would be every impressed with this, but I suppose as it's blue it'll have to be one (sorry John!) I baked 2 layers of vanilla sponge using my Grandma's fail safe recipe. I sectioned my
Silverwood "mechano" tin in half and divided the mix so it would bake faster and I could sandwich the layers together. That part worked well and was reasonably hassle free. Cutting the cake to the desired shape, crumb coating and applying sugar paste, on the other hand, was somewhat tricky! Not too much swearing involved, but not the neatest job in the world.
The cake needed to serve 10 people so I figured a trailer would be a good use of spare cake. To add a bit of interest, I put some simply made sugar paste sheep and a Sheep dog collie in the trailer. ha ha! Well received commission, so I'm happy. If I'd had more time, might have been fun to put the farmer in the tractor though. I think that would have appealed to the kids more OR perhaps put two little faces in the window as though it were the two boys. Don't know what they look like so didn't want to risk that! Tyres, mudguard and creatures are given a little extra body and support by mixing Tylo powder through the sugar paste. I bought
Renshaws paste - that always seems the nicest to work with and the best tasting to me. All stuff purchased from
A Piece of Cake in Thame (of course!)
