Back in November, I was asked to create a Birthday Cake for my friend’s nephew. He was going to be given a Canon 400D for his present, so it seemed fitting to create a cake which represented it. For an amateur cake-maker like myself, such a cake presented quite a challenge, but I do love to be tested, so I jumped at the chance!
I created my ‘usual’ chocolate cake and, once cooled, cut it to size and sandwiched the layers together with chocolate buttercream. Following a good crumb coat, I put it in the freezer while I rolled out the black fondant and cut some of the dials and buttons ready to go in place. I found the Canon font online and used that to create an authentic looking name on the camera strap. Another technique I wanted to try and one that worked out rather well, was using colourless isomalt for the screen, viewfinder and lens to create a shiny, glass-like effect. Isomalt is easy to melt in the microwave – but it gets incredibly hot, so do be careful.
On the back of this one, another friend asked me to create a Fujifilm X100s cake for her brother. I really enjoy making these camera cakes, but because the level of detail is so high, they can take a long time, and as art was never my strong point, I may have to stick to baking flavourful, simply decorated cakes from now on!
