Owl Handbag Cake Decorating and Baking Tutorial

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Owl Handbag
with Paul Bradford
Skill level: Easy
HD Lessons: 13
Decorating time: Half a Day
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11:10

Highlights

Struggling for time? You’ve come to the right place. We have carefully selected all the key parts of this tutorial which you can view in no time at all to enable you to make this adorable cake!
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07:50

1. Carving and Ganaching the Cake

Strapped for time? Why not skip to the Highlights lesson.

Paul starts off this tutorial by explaining the design and gets straight to carving the shape. You will be pleased to know that the carving is very minimal and easy to do. You are going to love making this cake! After around one minute of carving, it’s onto ganaching the cake in preparation to be covered in sugarpaste. After the front and back have been ganached, place the cake in the fridge for a few minutes and then we can move onto the next lesson.

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04:08

2. Ganaching the Cake

Now that your ganache is firm, it’s time to cut the lips and ganache the rest of the cake. Make sure that you are using hot water and not to soak your smoother too much as it can ruin the ganache.
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02:43

3. Finishing the Ganaching of the Cake

This part is very simple and satisfying – all you will need is some hot water, a cranked palette knife and a large brush. To start of, Paul smooths out any lumps and bumps and then to get it extra smooth brushes over the entire cake with a damp paint brush. Just make sure the paint brush has never been used for anything but cake!
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07:46

4. Icing the Top of the Cake

Paul is using flesh tone sugarpaste by Renshaw, but of course you can use whichever colour you prefer, depending on who the cake is being made for. Simply roll out a long, rectangular piece of sugarpaste around 4mm in thickness and place it along the top of the cake making sure it reaches the cake board on either side. The stitchy tool really is a delight to use and will make this cake a lot quicker to complete as there is quite a lot of stitching work to add on.
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20:32

5. Making a Template and Adding the Frills

A bit of art and craft fun to start us off with this lesson! Creating this template is very straight forward and will make your life so much easier. If you don’t have a frill cutter or would rather do it yourself, simply use any long, narrow object such as a sewing needle or the end of of a paint brush and roll it back and forth right on the edge of your thinly rolled out sugarpaste and this will create a nice frill. Just make sure you leave an even space space between each one by using your finger as a measure.
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12:39

6. Icing the Board and the Front of the Cake

Icing a board is very simple as you will see, but just to add a little interest to it Paul goes around the edge of the board with the stitchy tool. This is where a cake turntable comes in handy as all you need to do is keep your hand steady as you spin the cake. Remember the template you made? Well it’s time to get that ready as you are going to use it to cut out the next part of sugarpaste for the front of the cake.
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05:45

7. Adding the Nose and Eyes

To create the nose, you simply roll a small ball of sugarpaste and then create a slight cone shape by tapering one end. Add a little bit of edible glue to secure it on to the cake and you’re done. Using a circular cutter (2” or 6cm), cut out two circles and secure them in place with a little edible glue. Once they are on, just smooth the edges with your finger.
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8. Painting the Eyes and Adding Blusher to the Cake

Using edible dust and a nice fluffy paintbrush, gently dab the dust on to the cake to create a blush effect on the owl’s cheeks. Dap your brush lightly in the dust as you can very easily overdo it and it can be tricky to undo.
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09:48

9. Adding the Feet and the Zip

First of all, let’s get the cake onto the lovely iced board – just make sure it is centred before rushing ahead as you don’t want to try and move it once it has set in place! For the feet, simply roll a little sausage shape and make two small indentations and you’re done. To create the zip, Paul uses a mould by Katy Sue Designs. You can create your own zip without a mould, but it will just be a little more fidly and time consuming. If you do use a mould, remember to rub some corn flour on it before filling it with sugarpaste to prevent it from sticking.
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11:10

10. Adding the Handles, Ears and Bow

Gather some 20 gauge wires, sugarpaste and florist tape and you’re ready to make the handles. Simply roll out two long, thick sausage shapes using your hands or some cake smoothers and then insert the wire. Put your posy picks in the cake ready to hold the handles to make it food safe. Paul doesn’t need to worry about this step as his cakes don’t get eaten…unfortunately. The rest is just as easy. Paul shows us a quick way to make owl ears and a cute little bow. And now we’re all finished!

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01:11

11. Other Ideas

In this lesson, Paul shares some ideas that you can implement into your version of this cake to make it unique to you. We would love to see your take on the Owl Handbag Cake – please share your photos with us on our Facebook Page!
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01:24

12. Pro Lesson

Paul discusses the cost of making the Owl Handbag Cake as well as what he would charge for the cake – useful tips for every professional cake designer.

Paul introduces us to the adorable Owl Handbag Cake which is suitable for beginners and is a great cake to make for those who want to learn a variety of beginners skills or have a special celebration cake to make for a little girl – the colours can easily be adapted to your preference to create the perfect cake.

We would love to see your take on the Owl Handbag Cake – please share your photos with us 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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