Welcome to the Cake Decorators Q&A

I want to make this cake for a fundraiser for Newry Hospice, but I would like to make a 9 inch square rich Christmas cake because it would keep much better. How do I attach the red wall board to the floor board ? If I use the top of the cake as the floor, again, how would I attach the wall to the floor. I really would like to make this cake for this worthwhile cause and would appreciate very much any help you can give me to make it possible.
Have made quite a few of your cakes including the teddy bear wrap for the children’s heart trust. It was awesome as are all your cakes.
Many thanks in anticipation.
Kathleen

Hi
I now have 2 of these to make!!!!
Now that I have got all these fantastic ideas I cannot wait to get started. Many many thanks

Kathleen xxx

Hi Kathleen

I made this cake Christmas before last for my step-daughter and copied her actual gothic style fireplace This is what we did:
First make the floor on a square cake drum. Allow it to dry for a least a couple of weeks so it’s good and hard. Use a second drum to make the wall and allow that to dry again for a couple of weeks.
However before you let the icing on the wall dry cut a strip of sugarpaste the depth of the drum at the bottom ( 15mm) to allow the two drums to butt together successfully. ( make sense?)
To attach the wall to the floor carefully drill four guide holes through the back of the wall drum along the bottom where the icing has been removed. Also carefully drill matching guide holes through the side of the floor drum.
Next…. The floor and wall have to be butted together. It helps if one person holds the two drums together and another person gently puts screws into the guide holes to secure them.
When we made the cake we used one and three quarter inch number six counter sunk screws, but you can use whatever you have available as long as they are long enough to keep the wall steady.

This is a fabulous cake to make, as are all the cakes in Paul and David’s book. I hope you raise loads of money for your charity. What a wonderful thing to be doing.

Hope this helps, post back if you need more information. x

Thank you for your help. It is much appreciated. I want to make a 9inch square fruit cake. Hopefully I can work out whether to use the top of the cake as the floor or use a 9inch square drum placed on top of the iced cake and follow Paul’s instructions for the wall. The drum board for the wall would need to be about 9 x 12 inches high. This would also mean that I could prepare the floor and wall in advance as you suggested I am trying to visualise what this would look like. I could make the tree (in proportion) with Rice Krispies and cover as instructed. Can’t wait to get started!!!!!!
Kathleen

HI Kathleen

I made this as a 12″ cake topper and put it on a 12″ madeira cake sitting on a 16″ drum. I decorated the bottom drum with snow and a few trees dusted with white sparkle and snowman made from Patchwork cutter set. It really look beautiful. I think you can have a lot of fun with this design, I could have made all sorts of other decorations like a Dickensian stree lamp and post box , decorated the cake with a front door and even put little christmas lights all the way round. I ran out of time which was disappointing. If you want to make lots of decorations I would urge to start them now to take the stress out of drying. That was one of the biggest problems I had especially with the wall and floor drums. If you make into a topper don’t forget to dowel the cake before placing the fire place on top.
It would be lovely if you posted a picture of the cake on Paul’s face book:
https://www.facebook.com/PaulBradfordSugarcraftSchool?ref=tn_tnmn
and on his google+ https://plus.google.com/+PaulBradfordSugarcraftSchool/posts

Good luck, keeping everything crossed for you! x

Can you tell me where I can find this? I’ve done a search for the night before Christmas cake but it is telling me no courses available?

Hi AnnieLaurie

This is not a tutorial, it is one of the designs in Paul and David’s Christmas book:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Paul+Bradford+and+David+Brice+cake+decorating+book&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=nL8SVoGvDcyz-QGBnoOYBA

You’re welcome Kathleen xx