Fairy Toadstool Birthday Cake
This cake was made for a 60th birthday celebration for a lady who loves fairies.
It is a vanilla sponge cake with vanilla butter cream filling.
The first thing I did with this cake was to make the fairies and pixies so they had plenty of time to harden. I used coloured fondant with gum tragacanth added (see jewel wedding cake)
I made the figures by rolling different sized balls of fondant for the head and body. I inserted a 2 cm long wire into the body and then pushed the head onto the wire. I used a small amount of edible glue between the head and body.
Once I had that shape I could add limbs with rolled sausage shapes of fondant. The fairy dresses and pixie tunics were made from sections of rolled out fondant cut into strips and then frilled or shaped.
The hair was made using a clay gun which forces fondant through holes under pressure - a bit like the Mr potato head game where you can make hair by squeezing play dough through holes.
The wings were made with rolled out fondant which I dusted with edible gold lustre dust and then cut into wing shaped pieces and attached to the back of the fairies and pixies.
The wands were made with short gold wire inserted into little fondant stars which I brushed with a little water and dipped into edible glitter.
The faces were made using tiny balls of black fondant for the eyes and flesh coloured fondant for the nose. I then used a little pink dusting powder to add some colour on cheeks and noses.
I covered the cake with marzipan and rich ivory fondant and then used dusting powder to create shading around the bottom and top of the stalk of the toadstool.
I added a front door using brown fondant and windows with little curtains. I added flower boxes under the windows.
I cut out little tufty green bushes to add around the bottom of the toadstool and shaded them with dusting powder.
The next thing was the red cap of the toadstool. This was made by first rolling out a large circle of rich ivory fondant and covering a cake card with it. Once the excess fondant was trimmed off I used a small, textured rolling pin to create lines all around the outside of the fondant.
Once this had hardened I turned it over and started too make the top of the toadstool. First I rolled a large circle of white fondant and then squashed it into a dome shape. Once I had a shape I was happy with I covered it with red fondant icing.
Next I added large and small ivory circles.
Before placing the red cap I inserted plastic dowels into the main cake . These are vertical rods used to prevent cake tiers from sinking into each other. In this case the red cap of the toadstool was heavy. The cake card on which it sat could rest on the dowels and prevent the cake being squashed as this is really not a good look for a special birthday celebration.
Once the cake was assembled I added the fairies and pixies. They were attached to the cake with royal icing. To finish I sprinkled edible ‘fairy dust’ all over the cake.
I really enjoyed making this cake, although did find myself talking to the fairies and pixies!
Samantha Clark
My mum loved this cake, she screamed when she opened the box and she even filled up!
We really didnt want to cut this cake, so we removed the top of the toadstool and have started cutting from the back so we can save the front design for as long as possible.
The cake is delicious too and not at all sickly as some buttercreams can be a bit much.
I am so pleased with this design, and it made my mums birthday, thanks so so much.