Five Hand-Painted Wedding Cakes

01 Dec 2015

Art-inspired wedding cakes have arrived in the form of hand-painted masterpieces brushed by experts. Would you swap uniform piping for painted icing? Here are five unique designs to help you decide

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Painstakingly delicate and almost too pretty to eat, hand-painted cakes enable those cake cutting shots to take on another dimension at weddings.

The sugary painted petals of Natasha Collins, cake artist and founder of boutique cake company Nevie Pie Cakes, caught our attention due to their intricate designs. And now Natasha has begun teaching her cake painting techniques via her online video tutorials, so you too can learn how to paint your own spectacular fondant artwork.

From extravagant Baroque painting to colourful petals and sleeping foxes, garner inspiration from these unique cake creations from Natasha and the weddings and stories behind her designs.

1. Vintage florals

Rebecca Fennell

The vintage floral cake was for a fashion shoot. I wanted to incorporate a figure, but in a more subtle way and the palette was based on the colours of the dress. I created a similar cake for a couple who liked the fashion cake but didn't want the figure. They were getting married in Scotland so I made the cake in three sections. They drove it up and put it together themselves at the venue. Fortunately it all went smoothly.

2. Baroque

Heather Shuker

This cake was also for a shoot, this time in a fabulous old chapel. I wanted to go a bit wild and layer decoration on to the cake as well as painted elements. Of course if it’s a Baroque theme, it needs plenty of gold details. I wanted to give the cake a more contemporary feel, so I played around a bit with the shape and sizes of the tiers.

3. Ruffles

The ruffle cake was for a couple who wanted something more unusual. They loved ruffles, but didn't want the painted element to be all over the cake. We came up with painted plaques which were glued to the front of the cake with edible glue. Although the painted element is based on a traditional design on a teacup, the whole effect of the cake is quite modern. This is one of my favourite cakes and is a project in my book, The Painted Cake.

4. Black appliqué style

Alexa Loy

This black cake with cutout flowers was in response to a request for a black cake with painting. Sometimes if you paint directly on to black fondant, the black colour with leach into the paint and create a greyed-out feel. So I took inspiration from the ruffle cake and painted the flowers on modelling fondant as this hardens more than the usual fondant, cut them out and glued them to the cake.

5. Colourful painting and a sleeping fox

This orchid and lace cake was based on the couple’s wedding flowers. It was an autumn wedding and the colours reflected that. There was also gold lace on their invitation so we also added that to the cake. The groom’s last name was Jordan and the bride’s last name was Fox, so they asked if I could paint a fox on a river to add a personal element to the cake.

The Painted Cake

Nathan Pask

If you’re a dab hand with a paintbrush and would like to paint your own wedding cake, Natasha’s book, The Painted Cake, offers step-by-step instructions to create 20 projects.
£15
www.amazon.co.uk