You will need:
1 x cake covered in sugarpaste
A set of concentrated food colours (I use Wilton colour pastes)
Sugarflair Superwhite (for making pastel colours)
1 x Cake Decorators food pen (I use the Rainbow Dust pens)
2 x food safe paint brushes (with soft bristles)
1 x paint palette or a plate
30 ml vodka or gin for diluting food colours and cleaning brushes
Thyme
Step 1 Cover the cake with sugarpaste and leave to firm for several hours or even over night
Step 2 Practice your design on a piece of paper before you are ready to start painting. Place your cake on a turntable.
Step 3 Pressing very gently with your food pen draw out your design on to the cake.
Step 4 Pour a small amount of Vodka into a glass. You can use this to dilute the food colours and clean you brushes.
Step 5 Prepare the paint palette with a small amount of each food colour. You can use the food colours neat from the pot or you can add a small amount of vodka to dilute. To make pastel colours, mix the colour with a bit of Sugarflair Superwhite on your palette.
Step 6 Mix a little vodka with the green food colouring to paint the leaves. You can add a small amount of yellow to tone down the colour.
Step 7 Clean your brush in the vodka. Paint the flowers with the yellow and pink food colours. You can mix the pink and yellow to make a peach colour.
Step 8 Decorate the cake with a thyme wreath. Use a small amount of wire to join each stem of thyme together until you have enough to wrap around the cake.
Tips You can use other clear spirits to dilute the colours, however, vodka works best as when evaporated, it leaves no flavour on the icing.
Click here to see some more of my Painted Cakes.