Potter’s Owl Part 1 Cake Decorating and Baking Tutorial

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Potter’s Owl Part 1
with Paul Bradford
Skill level: Intermediate
HD Lessons: 12
Decorating time: 2 Days
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09:47

1. The design

In this lesson, Paul talks us through his design and how he’s going to put it all together.

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05:05

2. Making the stand pt 1

Paul now gets started on the stand – and even gets some power tools out, to demonstrate what to do with them. Just remember to wear all the necessary protective items such as glasses and gloves etc. Or you could just ask your local DIY shop to do it.

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04:44

3. Making the Stand pt 2

Paul gets the central pole ready, using plastic pipe which he cuts using a hacksaw. You’ll want to do this in a no food zone and wear the appropriate safety items, or get someone skilled to do it for you.

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06:25

4. Making the stand pt 3

Paul now puts the styrofoam balls on the stand. He’s prepared the wing templates already, and explains how he decided on the sizes.

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16:01

5. Making the stand pt 4

Note that the Owl seen in-shot is shown in Part 2 of the Owl Course.

Now it’s time to put the owl on top of the stand. You’ll definitely want a second pair of hands for this part, and be well prepared with your hot glue gun and L brackets.

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09:59

6. Covering the stand pt 1

Paul covers the top styrofoam ball, then uses the same technique for the lower ball.

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04:27

7. Covering the stand pt 2

In this lesson, Paul covers the large plastic pole with sugarpaste in preparation for decorating it.

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11:10

8. Decorating the stand pt 1

Paul begins to decorate the long central pole. He makes long spirals using sausages of sugarpaste, attached with some edible glue.

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06:06

9. Decorating the stand pt 2

Paul has added some more sausages around the balls, and has made some fantastic dragons. In this lesson, he makes the body of the dragons at the bottom of the board.

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16:56

10. Decorating the stand pt 3

In this lesson, Paul finishes the dragons and adds some lovely textured detail, that will really pop when it’s painted later on.

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12:03

11. Decorating the stand pt 4

Paul focuses on the middle of the stand, to see if he can get rid of that ugly join with some creative design work.

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04:54

12. Finishing Touches

To finish it all off, Paul gets out another lovely Karen Davies mould, to help add another decorative layer to the overall design.

Every so often, Paul likes to pull something pretty epic out of the bag. A mammoth project in both time and effort, we’ve split this tutorial over two weeks to make sure everything is covered.
Part one focuses on the stand, and next week’s tutorial will concentrate on the owl and bringing together the entire project.
 This is one cake that’s set to impress, and perfect for an elaborate celebration. Let your imagination soar with this design – whether you create an owl or something else with the skills picked up in this tutorial.
You’ll learn how to create a tall stand from scratch, cover awkward shapes, create numerous decorations including dragons and brooches, modelling work, and more! This cake is ideal for an intermediate cake designer looking for a challenge, and would make a fantastic addition to your cake repertoire.

We’d love to see your take on the Potter’s Owl cake – so make sure you share your snaps 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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