I was asked to make a last minute cake for Olivia by her mother, something simple she said, “I’ll get Olivia to call you and tell you what she would like”. Isn’t it funny what people consider to be simple?

Anyway, Olivia clearly had different ideas to her mum and sent me some pictures of some beautiful cakes with ruffles, sugar flowers etc. Olivia also specifically asked for a pink and white cake – three tiers, a big 18 on top, sugar flowers, candles, pearls, her name or a big O, you know something simple. How could I disappoint her with a simple cake. We compromised on the three tiers, reducing it down to two. I think her mum was going to have a heart attack when I told her how much a three tier cake (for the family) was going to cost!

I decided to just use one large ruffle at the front, using a tutorial on sugared productions. This ticked the ruffle box. I then made a pretty frame for her name, added some simple flowers to the top tier and some pearl dragees. I made the number 18 – which I then covered in white fondant and dragee pearls, some of which I painted pink, added a single pink fantasy pink flower, some ribbon and a miniature cake with a candle on top and all of a sudden….tick, tick, tick I’d managed to cover the “simple” list of all the things on the dream 18th birthday cake Olivia had asked for Phew!

Hope you like it. Sam