Repurposing cake

Every year my Mum makes us a small Christmas cake but, this year, we just seemed to have so much food in the house that we never got around to eating it. When it was still lingering in the cupboard in February, I had a flash of inspiration: why not repurpose it as a Simnel cake? I could then devote my time to decorating rather than baking.

On Good Friday I started the transformation. The first step was to gently peel off all the old icing and marzipan. Luckily it came away quite easily without causing too much damage to the cake underneath. Looks yummy already - Mum makes the best Christmas cake ever!

Originally I planned to leave the sides uncovered like the other Simnel cakes I'd seen. However, as they were quite sticky from the jam Mum had used to stick on the original decoration, I decided to recover them with fresh marzipan. The top and sides were then embossed with a PME impression mat. It's at this point that the idea of a traditional Simnel cake was abandoned and I went with a decorated Easter cake instead. Much more opportunity for prettifying!

The flowers were made from white fondant icing coloured with Sugarflair paste concentrate: the colours were melon and grape violet. I only used a tiny amount, dipping a cocktail stick in the pot and then kneading the colour through the icing. There was far too much icing for this cake so the remaining flowers and the butterflies will be used for other projects.

Making Easter Bunny (pattern from an old Asda magazine) was my favourite part. He's made from white and yellow marzipan and the details were painted with dark chocolate. The flower centres are chocolate too.

And finally, the finishing touch of a couple of pretty ribbons and it's all ready for the reveal...

Ta-dah!!! I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. Not what I'd planned at all but sometimes you have to go with the flow and where the inspiration takes you. It's also made me want to have a go at a proper iced cake. Chickpea's birthday is in May so you never know.

OK, all that remains is for me to wish everyone a very Happy Easter! Hope you're enjoying the long weekend and the sunshine. x