Paris / Horse Jumper Cake

Here is a Sweet 16 cake I did for a young lady who loved show jumping...and who was getting ready to go to Paris. Purple is her favorite color. This cake is a 9", 7" and 5".

The first thing I did was cover the cake drum with white fondant, then use an imprint roller to make the flowery impressions (see below). After it was somewhat dry, I hot-glued the ribbon around the base. This is a grosgrain (ribbed) ribbon; satin ribbons should not be hot-glued or the glue will show through...use double-sided tape with satin ribbon.

I made three different shades of the same color of purple for the buttercream,

for a graduated effect. I wish I had made the middle tier a little lighter. Sigh.

One thing to keep in mind when doing a cake for a customer is to double-check both the day AND the date. I had this cake down in my book for the 25th (a Sunday) and the customer had it down for the day before, on Saturday. So on Saturday, at 4PM, we discovered our error, and the cake needed to be delivered in four hours and it wasn't put together yet! Thankfully the cakes had been baked and cooled that morning, the buttercream had already been made and tinted the three colors, and I knew, in my head, the elements that I wanted to add to the cake.

I got organized very quickly and started with the projects that would take the longest to dry.

That being said, I had originally planned to hand-paint an Eiffel Tower and show jumper but they would not have dried in time. So I went on the computer and found images of both the Eiffel Tower and a show jumper, then printed them out on edible sugar paper.

I cut out the images from the sugar paper, laid them on top of thinly rolled-out gum paste, then cut around with an X-acto knife. I "glued" the images onto the gum paste with a paintbrush that was BARELY wet with water. I let them "set" for about two hours on top of a piece of parchment paper with a tiny bit of cornstarch, just enough to keep them from sticking to the parchment paper. Usually I would let a gum paste item dry overnight. I used gum paste (as opposed to fondant) because gum paste dries quickly and hard and I needed them to stand up independently. 

Above: Once I attached the show jumper edible image to the gum paste, and while the gum paste was still very soft and pliable, I inserted two wires into the underneath side of the horse. You can barely see the wires, above, but you can see one if you look closely at eye level. I then rolled a sizeable chunk of gum paste (underneath the horse) into a rectangle. Using the same-sized wires that I used in the horse, I poked two coordinating holes into the block of gum paste, to match the wires in the horse. I then took the wires out of the block of gum paste. I needed to do this so that after everything dried I could simply insert the horse into the rectangle that it was "jumping" over. (Usually I use strands of dry spaghetti because I like everything on the cake to be edible, but because the horse jumper's gum paste was rolled so thin, the macaroni would have bulged in the back and been unsightly.)

Below:

The "Nancy Batchelor Team," "Joyeux Anniversaire Samantha," and "16" were all done on edible sugar sheets, like the horse jumper and the Eiffel Tower. The flowery image above the "Nancy Batchelor Team," as well as the shapes that "16" and "Joyeux Anniversaire Samantha" are attached to, were made with cutters and molds.

 These two, below, attached directly to the buttercream.

I made the bow, below, out of half fondant / half gum paste, about half an hour before I needed to use it. I rolled it fairly thin, and laid it on top of two dowels to give it a ruffly look, then formed it into a bow. If you want to learn how to make a bow, please email me at: cakesofthehamptons@aol.com and I will be happy to help you. After it was "set," I "glued" the large pearl in place with royal icing, then simply added a little buttercream to the cake drum and placed the ribbons on and then the bow on top of that.

Thankfully I had ready-made flowers in stock; I added them when I got to the delivery site. I added the Eiffel Tower and the horse after I arrived, as well. I learned the hard way never to add a topper until you get to the venue. (I once put a giant lollipop on top of a cake...being top-heavy, it tipped over on the drive to the venue and ripped out part of the cake.)

You can hand-make the flowers or you can buy them pre-made, if you can find beautiful and quality ones online. If you are going to order them pre-made then order them well ahead of time so that you can see if they meet your standards. I have ordered them in the past and usually have not been happy with the quality, but sometimes I get lucky and get some that are gorgeous, like these, below.

Before I left for the delivery, I had the "16" on the cake, the "Joyeux Anniversaire Samantha," and the bow. Once I arrived at the venue, I added the horse jumper and block, the small white flowers, the Eiffel Tower, and the pink roses.

And here you go! A relatively simple, small three-tier buttercream cake!