Tiara for Elena

My friend wanted two cakes for her little girl's birthday; one for school and one for home. She actually wanted the tiara one for school and a Strawberry Shortcake one for home that night, but I got it the other way round! Luckily she didn't mind at all! :)

For the tiara cake, she showed me this photo which she found on Flickr. It belongs to Alexandra Caribe and she makes very beautiful fondant cakes.

I made the tiara a few days ahead, but it was a bit problematic. I put the gumpaste tiara on a round container for it to harden, but as the container was smallish, the gumpaste kept slipping off at the sides and warping the shape of the tiara. In the end, when it had hardened, the shape was a bit off and it also broke in a few places!! I don't think I'll be making this type of tiara again soon!! :)

I did my best to fix the tiara. I used another band of gumpaste around the bottom to hide the cracks and placed lots of red curls around the base to distract from the uneven shape of the tiara!! Luckily it looked okay in the end.

This was the first time I used silver powder. This stuff, as well as gold powder is very expensive, but I found that a little goes a long way! Also the effect it produces is well worth the price.

I brushed the silver powder on with a dry brush. This method unfortunately caused the excess silver powder to drop onto the cake. It made the surface of the cake look a bit 'dirty'! Next time I shall try using a wet brush, or maybe apply the powder before mounting it on the cake.

 Overall, I think the cake looks good. I shall be playing with silver/gold power or luster dust again soon!! ;)


Update: I left a message at Alexandra's Flickr account to let her know I used her design. I know, I should have written first to ask for permission, but it slipped my mind. So I thought I had better let her know. After all it is her beautiful and original design.

Anyway, she was very kind and was happy that I used her design and thanked me for giving her credit! She was so gracious that she even shared some information with me. I had problems with the tiara because I used gumpaste which is not hard enough. She says she used pastillage. I've heard of pastillage before, it dries bone hard. I'll look into pastillage soon I hope...

Thanks again Alexandra! :)