I fell in love with the concept for this cake, designed and made for a twin brother and sister celebrating their 80th Birthday, having had a few messages and ideas bandied around with the client about their interesting heritage and childhood years we eventually happened upon a lovely and unique idea for their cake.

They had spent a lot of their childhood in Poland and often speak about the Tram journeys they would take on the old gas powered Polish Trams, which ran past the local church.  I was sent images of both the tram and the church and asked if I could recreate a photo cake of the church and a model of the Tram made from modelling paste going across the front of the cake.

I particularly liked the idea of having these images as part of the cake but decided that the Tram being made as the cake itself against a backdrop edible image of the church would carry much more impact and seem much more unique and special to celebrate their 80th birthday. I also much prefer to sculpt larger models from cake as opposed to smaller models from sugarpaste.

The cake and board were all handpainted and detailed, the edible image backdrop was printed and then detailed on top slightly with some paint to blend into the style of the painted board. The finishing touch was added with a childhood photograph of the birthday boy and girl.

Another wedding cake for a truly unique and individual couple – and again I LOVED making this one. Half of the work was done for me in respect of the fact that the Bride is a fellow creative spirit and basically directed me as to the patterns she would like on each tier and that she’d envisioned it as a wonky cake. Well it just HAS to be a wonky cake if it’s based on anything Tim Burton doesn’t it?

Then taking inspiration from the Wedding Scene in the film, the other requests were to have the stretched fireplace as a topper and the animated statues from the same scene to appear on the cake too. I sketched up the design according to their requests and they were really happy to see their design on paper – so the next task was to create it in cake

Each tier was carved from a rich chocolate cake filled with creamy vanilla buttercream and all patterns crafted from sugarpaste.

The stand on which it sits, is brilliantly effective, and was made by the creative couple from a wrought iron and glass planter filled with purple cellophane and fairy lights to create the eery glow.

I made the statues and fireplace from a non toxic modelling material so that they can be kept as a keepsake from the wedding cake. To echo the eery glow of the stand I placed hidden LED lights into the fireplace.

   
One of the best parts about making this cake was the research; it’s always such a hardship when you have to watch one of your favourite films as part of your job. The other was getting to work with a unique couple and creating yet another offbeat wedding cake – thanks for the awesome brief and congratulations on your wedding day

This wedding cake needed to be (in the words of the bride) “traditional with a quirky twist” and to incorporate the feeling of a vintage classic wedding cake with the edginess of some classic rockabilly tattoo designs. The colour scheme was to be in keeping with the vintage theme to fit in with the venue decor.
So nothing too garish but a definite nod to the tattoo designs that the couple loved and both felt reflected them and their individuality.
I absolutely relished this brief and with all of the ideas given to me by Helen I  came up with the sketch to the left which the bride and groom loved.
As often happens the design evolved slightly from the very first sketch to the finished piece but all the elements remained the same;

On setting up the cake I was blown away by how stunning the venue looked.
Vintage china sat at each place setting whilst skull centrepieces sat on the tables. A Mr & Mrs Skull, complete with top hat and birdcage veil, sat proudly on the top table, surveying the room.
Handmade heart garlands were strung across the ceiling, sheet music backed the seating plan and vintage wedding photos of the bride’s and groom’s parents sat at the cake table.
It was an absolute triumph of design and planning and I felt so happy to see the cake nestling amongst it all.
Congratulations, Helen and Jamie, on your wedding day and also for surpassing your own brief of traditional with a quirky twist. Thanks for choosing Mamma Jamma to make your cake, it was an absolute pleasure.
To all those other offbeat bride and grooms out there - mail me on laura@mammajammacakes.co.uk with your requirements so that we can produce a cake exclusively for you on your unique day.

A perfect cake for Gracie-Marie on her first birthday, she has been a Elmo Fan since the tender age of 4 months old! Also a cake that I loved making as I also used to adore Elmo when I was younger.
This all cake covered in red sugarpaste with individual strands of “fur” twisted and textured to cover the bulk of the body. The presents and mini cake in front of Elmo are all sponge cake too – I just hope that the birthday girl is as pleased with it as her Dad was when he collected it. came to collect.

My friend ordered this for her sister’s baby shower cake, she was insistent that she wanted a cake like the vagina one I have previously made but with a redheaded baby crowning from it! Granted it’s not pretty – but childbirth just isn’t!
So here it is;

Yes it is a beautiful, amazing, wonderous thing in itself, but as a process there aren’t any ways you can make it look sweet and rosy. My friend knows that when people ask me to sculpt a cake they tend to be on the realism side rather than the cutesy side –  It’s just how I am as an artist. This was not the nicest googling experience I have endured either – but it is sculpted as true to form as I can find. I know it will offend some people, but it is a piece of cake art and art isn’t always pretty.
This is a chocolate cake with vanilla white chocolate buttercream filling, handcarved and handpainted to achieve the mottled skin effect.

This was a great design to come up with! I was asked by the customer if I could make a cake all about Las Vegas for her partners 40th birthday celebrartions. He is a bit of a gambler and a fan of the bright ,lights and fun times of Las Vegas.
I love it when a customer presents an idea to me and then leaves me to get on with the design element to it – I came up with a quick sketch depicting the idea to have it adorned with poker chips, bank notes, coins and of course the Las Vegas Sign!
One thing I always tell my customers is that the sketches I provide are a general idea of the final cake – very rarely do my cakes turn out exactly like the sketch as that is all part of the process. Once the cake starts to take shape in front of me, then I may need to make changes to produce the cake to a better finish.
Here the difference was made in the way the poker chips were displayed, they looked great sandwiched between the 2 tiers so that the top tier appeared to float above them, the normal coins were omitted altogether and a fan of edible dollars was added to the top instead – creating a frame for the playing cards (the highest hand in Poker) then the Las Vegas sign created the focal point to the centre of the cake.

Another packet of Monster Munch anybody?
This crisp packet cake is again freehand painted onto the icing, no edible prints used.
The best part about making this cake was the fact that I had to buy a multipack of these snacks – I ADORE them! And perhaps slightly ashamed to admit that over the course of 3 days researching and making I scoffed all six packets (and I thought it was all the cake offcuts that have seen me put on the pounds!)
The Monster Munch at the side are made from sugar paste/fondant.

An unusual handpainted, aztec inspired design. This cake was created for a photo shoot where the theme was carnival and inspired by fashion, Aztec design was (and is) really coming into it’s own at the time so I decided to take inspiration from there and really up the wow factor with bright zingy colours and a nod to the 1960s.
My aim was to give it an appearance of having been painted onto earthenware in a rustic but precise manner, so contrasting sharp lines with distressed texture.
Personally I love it – perhaps not for a wedding or such but was a chance to get creative with the paints and push the boundaries a little seeing as there were no constraints!

The weekend before Christmas 2011 witnessed the most surreal of parties – for the guests all harked from 1980s cartoons or TVprogrammes and onlookers were treated to the sight of a giant pink Care Bear dancing with Mario, in turn Mario was actually married to his brother Luigi and in the corner of the bar My Little Pony was seen swishing her mane seductively at Shredder.
This shindig was an awesomely themed surprise party thrown for my friend Shredder’s (real name Andi) 30th Birthday by his rather sexy My Little Pony (Debbie) wife and with him being a die-hard Transformers fan (he has an Autobot tattoo on his arm to highlight his complete devotion) Debbie knew exactly the cake he would love – Optimus Prime – but of the classic 1980s design!
I could not wait to get started on this cake and was eagerly anticipating attending the party in my SuperTed guise with my husband as Mumra (he refused to be my sidekick Spotty – spoilsport!!) Frustratingly things did not quite go to plan on all counts as just after the cake had been collected both my kids came down with a sickness bug meaning we could not send them to their Grandparents for the evening . So as it turned out SuperTed and Mumra would not be dating each other that evening and they instead sat at home wrapping Christmas Presents!! (Of course we still donned the outfits – how could we not?)
The cake itself threw up a LOT of challenges, I had originally wanted to make a fully standing complete model of Optimus, budget and time constraints put paid to that, and in hindsight this was a good thing as even just the bust of him there are LOTS of straight angles and sharp corners to perfect!! He was a tricky old cake to make it has to be said!
To add an extra Mamma Jamma edge to him I turned to my trusty food colours and cross hatched Mr. Prime which really brought him to life before my eyes – I feel it added a depth and dimension to the finished piece. The board was covered in vintage edible images, comic strips and stats of Optimus Prime.
The best part is that Shredder LOVED the cake so the only downside was not getting to attend the party; One day, SuperTed, you SHALL go to the ball

Oh yeah and also Andi’s awesome Shredder outfit was made secretly by his wife from Papier Mache – how cool is that? Talented lady!!

A stunning, unique cake created for a 1950s rockabilly themed wedding. The bride and groom knew that they wanted swallows, anchors and stars on the cake and the rest was left to us.

The cake topper was designed and created especially for them to keep as a keepsake after the wedding; it depicts their names and wedding date on the ribbon. The red sugar paste rope was hand twisted and tied in a reef knot to give a nod to the analogy “tying the knot”.