It's in the bag ....

I've never really been 'on-trend'. In my younger days I owned a few pairs of platform shoes, some denim flares, and one pair of red dungarees when they were in fashion but that was many moons ago! I've never really splashed the cash on handbags either so you could have picked me up off the floor when I discovered the cost of a genuine Prada bag on their website whilst pulling together ideas for this cake. Anyone got a few grand to spare??? Interestingly you can't filter according to price - seems that as the old saying goes ... If you need to ask the price you can't afford it!

Lovely Lottie, my son Owen's girlfriend, is celebrating her 21st birthday this week - and she really does know her handbags. I hope she likes this cake I've made for her, because I can't afford to buy her the real thing! Owen suggested I made a red velvet cake which is one of her favourites and a recipe I've never tried before. Basically it's a chocolate cake with the addition of buttermilk, vanilla extract and an unhealthy amount of red food colouring! I don't know why but I imagined from it's name it would have more exotic ingredients than that. Anyway it cooked nicely and cut cleanly with a sharp knife into a wedge shape.

My main worry was making the handles strong enough to stay upright when attached to the body of the bag and making sure they would survive the car journey from London to Shrewsbury. I made some modelling paste (see How to ... section) by adding 1 teaspoon of gum tragacanth powder to 225g/8oz black fondant, kneaded it in well, wrapped  it in a bag and left it to do it's magic for a few hours. I also mixed a small amount into some white fondant to make the zip and rings. The texture becomes firmer but still pliable and, after modelling into the required shape, will dry hard when exposed to air. I used modelling paste to make the tonearm for Gareth's turntable cake.

I moulded 2 handles, a triangle shape for the logo and a banner for the birthday greeting in the black fondant. Using the white fondant I moulded a few rings and a zip which, once dry, were 'painted' with a Antique Gold edible lustre dust diluted in a little clear alcohol.

And finally the lettering - my tried and tested method is to choose an appropriate font in a style and size suitable for the space available and in keeping with the design of the cake. Onto a sheet of white A4 paper from my computer I print two or three lines of the same text - this allows for piping mistakes or breakages. On a smooth surface I lay a piece of see-through parchment paper over the page of text, securing with tape if needed. Making up a very small quantity of royal icing and using an appropriate size piping tube I carefully pipe out the letters, leaving them to dry hard before attempting to peel them away from the paper. I sprayed the letters using an edible gold shimmer spray before fixing them to the fondant using a tiny dab of black royal icing.

Once all the component parts are modelled, dried and painted I carefully assembled the cake. Using quite a stiff mixture of royal icing I fixed the handles to the sides of the cake supporting them from below using plastic spacers for a few hours to give the icing 'glue' time to dry hard. I also tried to ensure they dried upright and stayed apart in the right positions. Finally the lettering was fixed in place.

So from a fashion disaster (that's me) to a fashionista - a very happy 21st Birthday Lottie xxx