Sometimes you want to scream and shout “I’m 60. Yaayyyy!” and when that happens you want your ’60’ to stand to attention. Don’t you? I know I would. So that’s what I planned for this cake. Robert was going to be given an electric guitar for his birthday so the cake was themed around that. His wife sent me a picture of the  guitar and told me that the colour scheme for the party was purple and silver. She had some really great ideas for the cake and after I sent her a sketch of my design she made a few tweeks and the look was set.

I really wanted the ’60’ to be standing up so I made it a few days before I baked the cake – so it had time to dry and would be able to be handled. This is how I made it…

How to make a silver sugarpaste number

If you want silver letters and numbers you should mix up some grey sugarpaste. If you want gold use a pale yellow colour paste. Cut out the Numbers and letters.

Place the cut out’s onto baking paper so they can dry without sticking to the surface they’re on. I left these for three days and turned them over at the end of each day so the back could dry too.

To make them stand up I use a little royal icing underneath each number to make them ‘stick’ to the cake, but just to be on the safe side (especially when you have to drive a long way to deliver the cake) I use cocktail sticks in the larger numbers and really thin food standard Sugarcraft Wire (the kind you use to have stars on like these) in the tiny ‘th’ to give you something to stick them in with. Gently push these into each digit soon after you cut them out so they can dry in place. If you try to add them once the digits are dry they tend to crack and break.

Use some edible Metallic Silver Liquid food colour to get a really good shine. This tiny pot goes a really, really long way! Make sure you stir it really well as the silver pigments sink to the bottom of the pot and that’s where the sparkle comes from!

Give the numbers a coat. Work quickly as it dries practically instantly. Avoid going over areas more than once as it mottles and goes a bit bumpy. If you aren’t happy with the finish you can always wait for it to dry then do a second coat. No-one will know!

And there you have it. One rocking 60th birthday cake- complete with silver 60 and an electric guitar !

enjoy!

EmmaMT

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