The Violet Cake Shop™

Sharing inspirations for my designs, and tips I've discovered along the way in my caking journey! <3


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Meet Sir Jacques Steampunkin! A Steampunk Pumpkin Head Cake

It’s almost Hallowe’en and we just revealed a new cake collaboration.  My newest creation has been getting lots of love on Facebook and Instagram and I’ve gotten a few questions and lots of amazing comments, so I thought I’d introduce him here and answer a few of those questions at the same time…

Meet Sir Jacques Steampunkin! 🎃🎃🎃

He is my contribution to the 5th installment of our Sugar Spooks collaboration. 😈👿👹👺💀👻👽👾🤡

He is a culmination of my love of the Steampunk genre and what I imagined a creepy old jack o’lantern would look like. I wanted to do something not seen before. As I was creating him, he started to take on a stately look so I decided to make him a ‘Sir’ lol… I hope people like him as much as I do.

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I’ve been asked what moulds I used and they are a variety of moulds that I’ve found throughout the years, some for cake decorating and others, not.  The cogs, frame and fleur-de-lis are from Mod Podge which are food safe silicone moulds made for use in polymer clay crafting but can be used for creating cake décor as well – just make sure you use them only for food and if you do crafting with clay as well as cake, make sure to get a separate set for use in each.
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The other moulds I used (for the gold vest texture, and to detail the cakeboard – see closeup below) are from Marvelous Molds who make products that I love using in my decorating.  I have used their products for FORever (!!!) and use them in SO many different ways!
For example, to add detail to Sir Jacques’ vest, I decided to use their new Symmetrical  Sequin Simpress Panel.  It’s meant to be used to texture a tier with sequins, easily and quickly.  But I used it here to give a luxe look to his vest which is a characteristic of the clothing often seen in Steampunk.
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Sir Jacques’ pumpkin head is made from rice krispie treats (RKT) that I shaped into a flattened pumpkin shape, only so it wouldn’t be as heavy and round, and would sit better on the cake tier.  I then covered the RKT with a very thick panel of fondant, making sure the seam was at the bottom.  I used my Dresden tool (the flatter end) to mark the grooves and used the length of my right pinky to impress the grooves more until I was happy with the ‘pumpkiness’ of my creation.  Again, unfortunately, I did not take photos and now I wish I had, lol.
I then coloured him with a variety of orange petal dust and shortening (which I know many claim as their own but is a technique I have used since I first started decorating, mostly when using lustre dust).  I then added dark brown in the grooves to create depth.
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Since this was for a collaboration and I wanted to save him to use as a Hallowe’en prop at home, I used styro dummies for the cake tiers.  But this can just as easily be made from real cake, with the proper support for his head of course!
His single goggle is handmade and detailed…using circle cutters, a piping tip to add the outlines for the screws, and an exacto knife to add the slit in the screws.
 His hat is also made from RKT which I shaped into a tapered tier, then iced with ganache and covered with fondant (same as I would if made from cake).
His mouth was handcut and painted.  I then added metal ‘staples’ which were cut from fondant and painted with silver lustre mixed with lemon extract (much better than vodka people!  I swear by it…and smells great too lol).
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Hope you enjoyed meeting Sir Jacques Steampunkin!  I certainly enjoyed creating him.
Happy Caking Y’ALL and have a spooky Hallowe’en!!

You can check out the other seriously amazing pieces by going to our website (http://www.sugarspooks.com/).

It’s an honour to be part of this group again. Big thanks to Avalon Yarnes of Avalon Cakes for spearheading such a talented group and including me in the mix.

I don’t normally do scary or creepy so it was so much fun to be able to stretch my creative wings!!