Tutorial Preview
Baby Vampire
with Tracey Rothwell
Skill level:
Intermediate
HD Lessons:
14
10:56
1. Carving the Cake
Tracey starts the cake decorating process by levelling the cakes using a PME cheese-wire style cake cutter and then demonstrates the carving using a 8.5? x 5.5? cake card as a guide.
Ganache is added between the layers of cake (you can find out more about ganache including how to make it here) and you’ll see the basic shape of the pram starts to take shape after carving the simple shapes.
08:36
2. Ganaching
Be generous with your ganache and cover the pram all over, try and apply this smoothly as the black sugarpaste used later on isn’t great for hiding any lumps or bumps. Smooth off your ganache using a scraper and then follow this up using hot water and a palette knife. Leave the ganache to set overnight if possible but if you’re aiming to get this done in a hurry pop the cake in the fridge until the ganache has firmed up.
15:37
3. Covering the Board
The board should be made in advance if possible, we use a 15″ cake drum and a separator that is 4″ round and 2″ in height which will act as a height booster for the heaviest part of the pram.
White sugarpaste is rolled out and then used to cover the board and attached separator and a texture mat is used to apply texture to the board.
Tracey follows this up by trimming the board and then paints the white sugarpaste using the airbrush and some violet chroma colour edible paint + black.
13:22
4. The Wheels
Another part that’s good to make in advance are the wheels of the pram. The wheels are made using a cake card with a diameter of 3″, cut out a cake card to this size and cover with black sugarpaste and white sugarpaste for the details. The white sugarpaste spokes of the wheel are painted with silver edible paint and a skull design is created for the centre.
07:42
5. The Handles
The 4mm armature wire that Tracey uses is great to create the handles of the pram. Bend the wire into two swirled pieces as shown, use pliers to make this task much easier! Add a food safe posey pick to the end, cover the wire with black sugarpaste and leave to dry firm.
15:20
6. The Baby
In this lesson Tracey demonstrates how to create the baby model. The base colour is a baby blue coloured sugarpaste which is applied to a 55mm polystyrene ball, you could opt to use rice crispy cakes or cake scraps to replace the polystyrene if you want to keep everything edible.
18:23
7. Icing the cake
Back to the cake and you should now have a firm, ganache covered cake ready for the icing stage. The cake is covered in sections of black sugarpaste using the panel method (you can view another lesson on this method here)
13:41
8. Icing the Cake (Continued)
The icing of the Baby Vampire cake is continued in this lesson with the missing sugarpaste panels filled in with the black sugarpaste and the front, open section of the pram is covered using a purple sugarpaste.
10:19
9. Add Detail
Extra details are added using black sugarpaste to form a framework of the prams hood.
Create small spiked studs using grey sugarpaste rolled into a cone, these should be added in an even pattern on the hood of the pram.
12:41
10. Add Detail (Continued)
Swags are created to add an extra level of detail using the black sugarpaste. Tracey demonstrates the method to make the swags and ruffled details on the fabric of the pram along with purple roses.
14:15
11. Transferring the Cake
Now for the scary part! Transferring the cake isn’t as difficult as you think but make sure to take your time and follow Tracey’s advice and methods shown in this lesson. Once the cake is at it’s new home (hopefully on the cake board!) you can start to assemble the different parts that have been produced throughout this course. A handlebar is also added to the pram along with some other details.
03:54
12. Finishing Touches
Yay! You’re finally at the end, just some small finishing touches to be added before we can sign this cake off as complete.
Tracey uses the airbrush with the purple colour to add some extra highlights to the purple areas of the cake and also opts to add black edible paint to the black sections which adds subtle yet effective shadow tones.
And that’s it, time to dance and have a drink as the cake is complete! We hope you enjoyed the course with Tracey and please share your images of this cake if you’ve had a go!
01:11
13. Other Ideas
Just a few other ideas that can be used when creating this cake as discussed by Paul Bradford and Tracey Rothwell.
02:47
14. Pro Lesson
What do I charge? And realistic decorating times are talked about along with other business related chit chat in this Pro Lesson featuring Paul Bradford and Tracey Rothwell.
Tracey Rothwell from the Little Cherry Cake Company joins us as a special guest tutor with her Baby Vampire Cake course, which is perfect for Halloween! You will learn how to create the structure of the pram, easy-to-follow modelling techniques for the adorable baby vampire and some very effective finishing details. This tutorial is perfect for decorators with an intermediate skill level but beginners can definitely try this out too as Tracey will guide you through every step of the way. Creating this cake takes around three days when you factor in drying time for decorations.
Enjoy this spooky tutorial then why not share your results on our Facebook Page!
