Fireman Sam

JUNE 2013

My first Customer...woo hoo!

One of the girls from my 'day job' wanted a cake for her son's birthday and I was excited about having a Customer. Don't get me wrong, I love making cakes for family and friends, but there's also something special about a 'random' person acknowledging your work.

She provided me with a picture she liked the look of; had to feed 25, chocolate cake, 1 layer round. I did some research on other options for lettering, layout, figure placement and came up with a mix between her idea and some other cool things within my skill range.

 I started the Fireman Sam figure a couple of weeks in advance. To cut a long story short, I made up my colours of gumpaste in yellow, navy, skin colour and tan. I watched a few YouTube clips on how to create a person and set about assembling him.

My first man was a bit fat (not really satisfactory for a fireman!) so I took off the torso and did it again. Problem was that I'd already cut the arms so they are a little shorter than I would have liked. I also should have added a neck piece. The face was quite slender but sank a bit as it dried. I was happy with the eyes, ears and the hat.

The cake itself was a chocolate cake (Donna Hay) and the filling was Better Homes & Gardens chocolate icing which is delicious! I let the chocolate cool a bit too much so it ended up with small choc chips through it.

I made a number '4' from gumpaste with wire so it would stand in the cake. I also made gumpaste red stars and letters to be attached vertically at a later stage. As a last minute idea I made a ladder and it's my favourite part of the cake.

I rolled out a length of black fondant and added a hose nozzle at the end, painted silver.  This lapped around the entire base and up onto the top.

Done!