When a friend ordered a birthday cake for his fiancée giving the brief that it should be girly and maybe involve shoes, I was very excited! Firstly, most of the cakes and cupcakes I have decorated recently have been for men. Whilst they have been fun, I craved doing something girly for a change. Secondly, I had my eye on a design I’d seen in Peggy Porschen’s Pretty Party Cakes, which I was given for my birthday.

Shoe cake

I love the way Peggy Porschen does candy stripes down the sides of her cakes so I thought I’d have a go at this (the dark pink lines were more successful as I got the consistency of the royal icing better than for the light pink). I also wanted to practise my piped royal icing flowers as I haven’t done any for a few months. So the perfect inspiration for me was Peggy’s Valentine’s Heart.

I also needed to include a shoe in the design so I made one out of gumpaste. I was really pleased with how it turned out and loved the shimmer effect I got when I dusted it with shimmering pale pink lustre. I embossed the inside of the shoe and the bow using an embossing plate.

Gumpaste shoe

I think this has to be one of my favourite cakes that I have made so far as it was such fun to make. The feedback I had was good so I hope Su enjoyed her birthday cake 🙂