My regular customer... And all roads lead to flowers

He shall remain faceless and nameless (that seems only fair)... but to date, he is officially my most frequent customer and it seems right to have a chat about this. There is beauty and loveliness in both getting to work with someone new and hear their ideas, but to get to do multiple projects with the same person... especially when they're like this person.

He has ordered a total of three cakes from me, but its not really about that, its what happens when he asks for a cake. This person deliberately chooses cakes that he knows will challenge all skills I have acquired to date and will send me down a road not yet travelled. I'm not sure if he just likes to see the look on my face when he tells me his idea (one of mild panic and excitement all mixed together) or that he just wants to see exactly how far we can take this.

He has me on my current quest... to learn how to make flowers... aaahhhhhhhhh. Wait! you say... I have already made flowers (if you were paying that much attention). Those white and dark chocolate roses on a couple of my cakes (see previous post). Yes, and I am proud of them being all chocolately and actually looking like roses, but they are no where in the realm of what I am attempting now. These new babies are to be colourful, beautifully formed and maybe even a little realistic looking. More elements, more complexity, more thought, more skill... just MORE.

I'm taking it easy to start with, something on the simpler side that I can use to experiment with colour... Frangipani.

Here is where I started off, cutting out little shapes, working them on their little foam bed, gluing them together and putting them in their little flour nests to dry I need to stop saying little, but everything is... LITTLE):

Time lapse to a few days later and I got my brushes and dust out to colour things up. I had once reading that steaming things will make them shiny and more realistic... so this is the time to try it. CAUTION: steam is hot and holding something over it can be dangerous... safety first everyone!

Like when you make pancakes, the first one is always a bit of a dud... ill-formed, not quite the right colour and no wheres near as appealing as the rest of the batch. Here is my first 'pancake':

Then came the odd coloured one... cute, but green isn't working for me, it looks mouldy:

Then came the rest of the batch... I think I like them. The shinier ones are more recently steamed, the sheen dulls a little once they dry:

They are all part of a bigger master plan... all will be revealed in February! See you all again soon....