If you're lucky enough to live close to Essex in the UK you might want to check out Venus Cakes (http://www.venuscakes.com/) - Look at this eye-poppingly gorgeous wedding cake done in steampunk style. I love the bright colours and the sense of whimsy about it.
From her blog:
The category for this one was Steampunk and so far I have only come across one lady (after a comment on my blog) who knows what steampunk is.
Steampunk is a genre of fantasy which came into prominence in the 1980’s/90’s.
It incorporates elements of the Victorian era such as steam power but also encompasses Victorian clothing such as corsets.
Lindsay (the lady who left the comment), as you are familiar with this genre you may be able to give a better explanation than I have so please feel free to leave a comment.
If you are familiar with stories/ideas by Jules Verne or have seen The Extraordinary League of Gentleman (huge submarine) you will get an idea of the style.
It is quite whimsical and it possible to give pretty much anything the Steampunk treatment.
The bride to be for this cake is planning on a wedding with a show feel and the cake needed to be a real show stopper.
I wanted to make this cake really extravagant with a kind of fairground feel to it. I also wanted to include a corset tier as the bride to be had said that she wanted to include some feminity for her female guests.
Another design feature of the cake which I have used all over is cogs as these reflect the industrial/steam power element of steam punk.
The main colours on the cake were rich purple, red and pale blue.
The purple and red are rich colours which look fab with the copper and brass on the cake. The pale blue is a good contrast to the red.
The bottom tier is decorated with gold bands around the top an bottom which have imprinted details on them to give them a look of steel bands.
On the front of this tier are various sized hearts in different shades of gold and copper.
These are raised up from the surface of the cake.
On top of the hearts are different sized cogs linking the hearts together - this is the romantic part of the cake!
The next tier is the corset part of the cake. This is my favourite part of the cake - I love the shape of it. It has blue and red stripes all with a stitching detail.
The front of the corset has a section covered with more cogs and the back has a section with laces and tiny metal look flowers.
The corset is finished with gold swags and gold and copper flowers.
I used lustrous dusting powder to achieve a metal finish on the flowers and gold parts of the cake.
I added tassels around the bottom of the corset just because I really like them and if I was going to wear a corset I would want some tassels on it.
The centres of many of the flowers on the cake are filled with coloured piping gel.
Piping gel is a clear edible gel which can be coloured and piped onto a cake.
It has a high shine and is perfect for creating effects such as water or gemstones. It is not as firm to pipe as royal icing so needs a frame of some sort.
The next tier up is the train part of the cake and represents the steam power element again. The bride to be had said that she would like to see some machinery in the cake.
Train wheels work very well on a round cake. I laid them over purple sugar paste which meant they stood out. I then wanted to make the rods that go between the centre of the wheels.
I am sure that steam train enthusiasts would tell me that rods is not the right name but they will all be busy reading steam train blogs.
I had to make these separately so that they could set hard before putting them onto the wheels.
I used a 5″ dummy to lay them onto so that they would set with a curve which would fit neatly around the side of the tier. There are more cogs in the centre of the wheels.
Next up from this is the carriage part of the train which has pale blue windows and gold doors.
The cake is topped with a gold and cooper dome which has an old fashioned pier look. This dome also has tassels on it.
I think I’ve captured steampunk in this cake but also love the decadence and whimsy of it.
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