Old Lady Armchair Cake Decorating and Baking Tutorial

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Old Lady Armchair
with Paul Bradford
Skill level: Easy
HD Lessons: 12
Decorating time: 2-4 Hours
Now Playing
11:11

1. Carving and Ganaching

In this lesson Paul explain how to carve the armchair shape and cover it with luxurious ganache which acts as the perfect crumb coat prior to icing. Refrigerate after this stage to firm up the ganache.

Tip: To add a more personal approach to this cake, ask your customer for a picture of the recipients armchair to match the style of it.

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13:30

2. Icing the Armchair

In this lesson Paul explain how to ice the armchair and how to draw the basic shapes on the model.

Tip: Use a thicker layer of sugarpaste to make it easier to work with and avoid any bubbles.

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04:14

3. Decorations - Part 1

Paul covers and adds details to the cake board. The stitching tool and Dresden tool is used to create neat, circular design elements and vertical lines are added.
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05:08

4. Decorations - Part 2

The board decoration is continued with the addition of a floral pattern. Colour is also added using edible dusts.
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11:11

5. Decorations - Part 3

The armchair element of the cake is now transferred to the board and Paul explains how to make the base of the chair. A trim cutter is used but this is optional as you may wish to use a plain strip.
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07:26

6. The Cushion

Shading is added to the back cushion of the chair to add a nice element of realism. Paul then moves on to make the small cushion for the chair and adds detail with a splash of colour.

Tip: You could make two or three cushions with different patterns to more add variation to the design.

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20:46

7. The Model

Sugarpaste is used to create the different elements of the Grandmother figure, legs, body and feet are created here. Detail is added using various PME tools and some tiny buttons finish the jumper of nicely.

Tip: If making a personal cake, try and match the outfit to something the recipient would wear if possible! 

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09:36

8. The Model (Continued)

Sleeves and hands are now created using sugarpaste and some clever techniques that will be useful for all sorts of cake designs. The arms are then attached to the Grandmother’s body, just the all-important head to go!
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14:38

9. The Head

In this lesson Paul explains how to make the head of the Grandmother and all of her facial details. Royal icing is also piped on to create a necklace.
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14:21

10. Finishing Touches

Paul gives the Grandmother some company by creating the sugarpaste cat, follow along and create your very own!

The cake is finished off by attaching the cat to the chair, then you can step back and breathe a sigh of relief!

We hope you enjoyed this course, please share your pictures with us on our Facebook page here.

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01:19

11. Other Ideas

Paul shares some other ideas for this cake, perfect if you’re looking for ways to make each cake you create completely personalised – especially if you’re selling this cake on a regular basis.
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02:12

12. Pro Lesson

The Pro lesson (for Pro members of the site) goes over costs of the cake, profits to look for and ideal times to create this cake in a professional environment.
The Old Lady Armchair Cake course is a great beginners cake featuring an adorable old lady and her cat, perfect for someone who’s going into retirement or perhaps a cat lovers birthday cake!

The cake tutorial covers basic cake carving, ganaching, icing with sugarpaste and a sugarpaste model. Creation of the cake should take around 2 hours.

Surprised someone with a similar cake? We’d love to see your retirement cake ideas on our facebook page.

Paul Bradford

Paul Bradford

Paul Bradford´s mission is to ‘Empower people to achieve their cake decorating dreams’ by providing a range of cake decorating courses and online tutorials through their website, which currently teaches 195,000+ students.  
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