Carrying on the nature theme from earlier this week we have this cardinal cake.

Created for a nature photographer we really wanted to make it look like a photograph on top. But partway through I wanted to go a bit further than just having a square of painted fondant, not quite 3D, but perhaps a layered effect.

I sponge painted the “photograph” backround with mottled greens as an out of focus backdrop then painted the cardinal on a separate piece of fondant, positioned so he looked like he was flying out of the photograph, then a branch in the foreground.

First up came the blue morpho butterfly. A strawberry cake with a vanilla buttercream. After considering my options I decided that painting the butterfly onto the cake was going to be the best method.

So when just a few weeks later I was asked for a monarch butterfly I knew that was going to be the best plan of attack. I never really realised how complex monarchs were until I was trying to paint one!

We’ve been getting a veggie box since the new year, from a company called Greenling. They collect items from local farms and then deliver them to us, right now we get the box every other week. It’s been interesting, we eat more veggies and it forces us to get a bit more creative with them.

When beets came round I was not too thrilled. I’m am not a fan of them and I had to really strain to find a way to cook them in a way I’d actually enjoy.

In the end I settled for this chocolate beet cake, originially by Nigel Slater and adapted by David Lebovitz. I turned it into cupcakes and added a cream cheese icing, then used the extra beets to make some candied chips to garnish the top.

They were actually surprisingly good, better than I expected. The beets added an earthyness that really complemented the chocolate without it tasting strongly, or barely at all. They also added an incredible moistness, three days later they were still delicious!

Farmyard themed cupcakes needed for a 2nd birthday party. I wanted to keep them simple but obviously recognisable, there’d be nothing more embarrassing than a two year old not being able to tell that that thing right there is a cow!

I saw a picture a few weeks previously where someone had done something similar, using a circular base for all the animals, so I decided to try that.

I really like how they came out, though the sheep are definitely my favourite!

When we can figure out how to make a computer screen out of cake we’ll be there, in the mean time the tabletop and keyboard are cake while the screen is a purely sculptural element.

The screen is shown operating a program called Pro Tools, I believe it’s to do with music editing. The cake was set up on a table with some speakers and headphones.

We were given several prints of trees, all in a Japanese style, to use as guidelines for this cake. The picture that really inspired us was in shades of red like a blossom tree, we ended up sponge painting onto the cake to really convey the feel of the image.

I’m not a sport person, when someone asked for a cake with the Texas Rangers logo on top I had to look them up to even see which sport they played, let alone what the logo looked like.

This is a red velvet cake with a cream cheese icing. We made the logo by cutting out lots of little pieces of fondant and arranging them all together.

A baby shower cake with the Chippendale Mupp on top.

Who is he you ask? He’s a character from The Sleep Book by Dr Seuss. It’s only been the last few years that I’ve been introduced to Dr Seuss, I don’t remember ever reading him as a child (help me out here Mum? Did we ever have his books?) so any excuse to expand my collection I leap on!

I have to credit Michael here with his fabulous idea to run the tail over down the side of the cake, I love how it looks.

A cake with a komodo dragon on it? We can do that!

This is a quarter sheet butter cake with our dairy free frosting. We made the komodo dragon out of fondant.