For the Love of Fondant Fancies.

I LOVE cake. There I've said it.
A bit like that song " I hate men ", from Kiss Me Kate. I could set it to words.

But Ill spare you that joy ;)

Now when I came across these,

and these,

and these too,

and certainly these,

on Facebook, I had an idea.

I had been wanting to make, for some time, pincushions in the form of vegetables and fruit.

I made a few to see how they would look....

A carrot, a yellow pepper, a gourd and a strawberry.
I liked them and what is more so did my customers at craft fairs.


The next step I thought, could be little dainty cakes.

Now when I was young my Grannie had a strawberry pincushion - I still have it and use it- and it's made from velvet and is filled with silver sand.
It just so happens that my husband ( who is a garden designer and builder ) was able to get me some silver sand.
The sand is brilliant for keeping pins and needles sharp and rust free. They knew a few things these old time sewers.

So I made a prototype cake in felt.

Nice though it is, it isn't quite what I wanted.

This is where my clever husband comes in again. I asked him if he could make me a former in wood so that I could stretch felt over it to make the seamless shape of a cake. My prototype had been sewn and that was part of my dissatisfaction.

The gadget he came up with is this .....

It's a wooden block which has been sanded on the edges to round it a little just as a cake would be. This block is fixed to a stick and on the other end is a smaller block to tamp down the sand once poured into the moulded felt. This will make little square cakes

I have starched the felt and it's drying in the airing cupboard.

Next...let's see if this works.

It's just an experiment you understand.