From my reference library - "How to Decorate a Cake"

Food is definitely a part of holidays and cakes are a part of the celebrations, whether they are a simple iced cake or an elaborate work of art.

This book "How to Decorate a Cake - Let Anne Anson Show You" was published by Tala a British company that produced the equipment for cake decorating.

The back of the book shows what the hostess and housewife can accomplish with help from Anne Anson and Tala.

The following four colour illustrations from the book show finished decorated cakes and the Tala decorating utensils used to create them.

These five small cakes were made from cardboard tubing, thick acrylic paint, coarse crushed glass glitter, and vintage milliner's fruit for a Christmas window display that I did for Hillside Shopping Centre. I will be creating a sculpture around these five cakes and other colourful desserts.

Three large cakes, a sample from about twelve cakes in all, used in the same window display were created using metal jelly and cake moulds painted and glued together. Faux fruit, fake candies, and coloured pebbles were added during the window installation to make them appear even more elaborate than shown here.

Here is a close-up of the installation showing the cakes, pastries, and candy on the table. There are more pictures of the window display here.

This sculpture that I created, a working party horn, is a "Portrait Party Horn" of Byron the pastry chef. Byron is the pastry chef at Lovey’s Tea Room in the heart of Jollity Village. Whenever he is invited to a party he always arrives with a very tasty treat. Go to my Etsy listing to purchase my "Portrait Party Horn – Byron the Pastry Chef".

Confiserie Roggwiller, St.Gallen, Switzerland.

My wife and I had gone into St. Gallen one day on our own to just explore the town. We were wandering up one street and I happened across these very tempting window displays for  Confiserie Roggwiller St.Gallen.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so no more talking just enjoy the images.

A tray of marzipan delights. After looking at this post, check out this post that I did about homemade almond paste. I love marzipan and almond paste.

I love elaborate pastry creations, as well as humble homemade pies and desserts, and have been inspired to use them in my sculptures, here and here, as well as props for my window display jobs here, and here.

Other cake and pasrty posts that you may enjoy are here, here, here, and here.

Display props - it's all smoke and mirrors.

Yet another late blog post! This post was supposed to go up before Christmas in answer to two comments that I received about props that were made for the display. My apologies go out to Caroline and Wendy. Click on each picture for a better look.

I received this comment when I first published photos of the Hillside Shopping Centre Christmas window display -

"I too love images of cakes and pastries and jellies from the Edwardian era. When I saw the first image on another blog I thought it was from a book of that era! Did you use plaster to make the cakes? I do a gingerbread/candy display in my kitchen for Christmas and would love to make a faux cake.  Thanks, Carolyn."

Carolyn, I hope that you are reading this blog post. I do apologize for not posting this earlier, sickness and the busy season delayed everything. Better late than never I suppose. Can you tell what blog that you saw this image on? I would love to see what they said.

I used paper pulp to create the summer window display cakes and pastries. It was labour intensive to create the moulded cakes and it also took a while for them to dry. It is very wet on the West Coast in the Autumn, Winter, and Spring so that was not an option. I would have taken far too long to produce them as well.

I decided to buy as many cake and jelly moulds I could find at the second hand stores to create the cakes. I washed the moulds in order to get rid of any grease that may be on them and then spray painted them with flat white spray paint. I mixed about seven different colours of artist acrylic paints and then began painting the tin moulds. Some colours, yellow and green in particular, needed several coats of paint in order to get an even rich colour.

Once the basic iced cakes were painted and dry I drizzled white or chocolate brown paint from a plastic squeeze bottle to hide paint edges as well as make them more interesting to look at.

This photo was taken for a blog post to show what the cakes would possibly look like when finished.

All of the cake stands were created using wooden pillar candle holders and wooden plates of various sizes and shapes. I didn't want to use glass cake stands in case anything fell over and broke. I also wanted specific colours to tie in with everything else.

The finished cakes in the window display. All of the flat surfaces on the cakes were covered with coloured gravel. I did this for several reasons, the first and most important was to hide the joins where I hot glued the metal moulds together. I also wanted to have a different texture on the cakes, it also gave quick added detail to the prop cakes.

I have a large group of candies that I made a couple of years ago for some items that I never did make but hope to in the future. I placed these around the cakes so that they appeared much more elaborate than they actually were.

These small cakes were made from 4" wide cardboard cylinders cut about 3" to 4" high. Cardboard was glued to the top of the cylinders. I collect cardboard tubes of all diameters and lengths for projects like this.

I mixed a  modelling compound with the white acrylic paint and used a palette knife to apply the paint. Once the paint was dry I glued coloured glass glitter at the base of the cakes. Each cake is decorated with vintage milliners fruit on a base of green grass chenille.

Wendy Kolar Mullen sent me a message on Facebook -

I LOVE the Giant Peppermint Sticks!! What did you use to make those? Very clever...the display is Gorgeous...fantastic job...sure to delight many Holiday shoppers :0)

Here is how I created the giant candy sticks, cardboard cylinders and fused edge acetate florist ribbon. This method is quick and easy, no paint involved and the results are far superior as the edges are crisp and clean.

The base colour, your choice, is a 3" wide fused edge acetate florist ribbon wrapped around the cylinder. Most cylinders are spiral wrapped so follow the direction of the spiral and you won't have any bumps showing in the ribbon. Put a piece of tape on the end of the ribbon stuff the ribbon end inside the tube and firmly tape the it in place.

The second ribbon is a 1 1/2" ribbon that wraps around the cylinder overlapping the base ribbon edges, hiding them. Tape the ends and push them in the ends firmly taping them down.

From this point you can add one or two more ribbons. These ribbons can be 1/4" to 3/4" wide, wrapped around the cylinder. The ends are attached exactly the same as before.

Cap the ends with a piece of white card glued in place. Wrap the candy sticks with cellophane, tying each end with a narrow wired ribbon, leaving a tuft of cellophane at each end. That's all there is to making the candy sticks.

That beautiful fur covered chair in the window was the chair from the Spring window display. It was stripped of it's flowers and looks like this inside!

I have installed Hillside Shopping Centre's Christmas display.

I am totally fascinated with cakes, pastries, and food presentation from the Edwardian era and earlier. I also love contemporary French pastries. Check out these past blog posts about cakes and pastries here, here, here, and here.

The summer window that I created for Hillside had a few cakes and pastries in it; I wanted to expand on this theme for this year's Christmas window. All of the images are fairly large so click on them and browse to your heart's content!

I took this photo inside the window so that you can get a better look at a selection of the delectable treats. The colour scheme was completely influenced by the cakes and pastries. I love bright colours and wanted to get away from the traditional red and green but still make the setting a Christmas fantasy.

The gifts at the base of the table are wrapped in very bright plastic tablecloths from the dollar store. The tops are decorated with a variety of items that you don't readily connect with Christmas but the addition of silver or gold tinsel, ice encrusted evergreens, and whimsically bent bottle brush trees magically turns them into fantasy Christmas presents. The floor has a bold black and white check pattern to counter balance the bright busy colours.

A look at the left side of the window with all of the desserts and gifts that would delight any child... or adult for that matter! The banquet table is covered with a beautiful tie dyed, embroidered, and bespangled sari.

The right side of the window has a polar fleece covered chair/throne. Halfway through the installation of the window I had one woman mention to me that she would be back later for tea.

Here is the finished window display. I had so much fun assembling this window. At one point I felt delighted and excited; I hope that the same feeling comes across to everyone that sees it.

This small window display is for advertising the Hillside Shopping Centre's gift cards. I like the addition of the tinsel, bottle brush tree, and grapes; it helps to get rid of any stuffiness but still be elegant.

I am off to my studio, it desperately needs a cleaning.

Gift Wrapped Boxes and Fancy Cakes.

Here is a sneak peek at some of the props for the Hillside Shopping Centre Christmas window display. I wanted to go with VERY bright colours that are not associated with Christmas.

The red box with the purple ribbon is going into a small window display advertising the shopping centre's gift cards that are for sale at the customer service desk. The rest of the parcels will be on the floor underneath a banquet table filled with cakes and pastries displayed on cake stands and plates.

It is quite surprising that once you add a little sparkle from tinsel wire, some ice encrusted evergreens, and  a few comically twisted bottle brush trees It all says, "Merry Christmas"! I have added some very un-Christmassy touches to the tops of the gift boxes such as fireworks and out of season fruit but those traditional touches pull it all together.

I bought this giant ice cream cone bank last year at Christmas. I put a strand of fresh water pearls in it for my wife. I had bought three bags of fresh water pearls at Salvation Army for about $6 and strung them all together into about a 30" necklace, that was a very good buy to say the least!

All of the parcels are wrapped with plastic table cloths from the dollar store. Not a very green choice but the colours are wonderfully gaudy. A banana, an apple, an ear of corn, purple grapes, three ranunculus blossoms, and three purple iris; what more could say, "Merry Christmas"?

The magician's hand with wand is a very old prop that I liked so much I kept it. The playing card quite mysteriously floats above the parcel.

This is just a sample of the cakes that will be going on the banquet table. The cakes set the colour palette for the window. I made all of the cake stands as well from wooden candle pillars, wooden plates, and gold plastic chargers.

There are these five mini cakes as well as pastries, fruit, and candy that will be used to fill in any spaces on the table and on this stand.

I bought the stand at Sally Ann. The first day I saw it I carried it around the store and just before I was going to pay for it I put it back. I didn't think that I could use it. It was an ugly brown stand with gold printed brown leatherette on the tray areas. I bought it the next day, spray painted it with browns, burgundies, purple, and a dusting of gold to allow the other colours to show through and, "Voila", a very interesting gilt surface that doesn't yell "GOLD". The aqua paint that I mixed was a happy accident that works beautifully with the gilt surface.

The window will be going in tomorrow. I will take pictures of it and do a post about it in the next few days.

The Autumn window display at Hillside Shopping Centre.

I love creating window displays. I like the grand scale of a window display. I like to use the ordinary in new ways. It is fun to stop people, to give them something new to look at. Hopefully it gives them a lift during the day. In a window that has merchandise in it the main reason is to sell that merchandise for the retailer.

Very seldom does a chance come along to do a window display that gives the designer carte blanche with the design and installation. Michele Paget, the marketing director at Hillside Shopping Centre has given me this amazing opportunity.

This is the Autumn window display for Hillside. I told Michele that the Autumn window would be a scarecrow with produce around the base, except the scarecrow would be a ball gown created with leaves and flowers.

I love the drama of the curtains swagged back to reveal the lush display of flowers, leaves, and produce.

Here is a closer look at the dress. It is on a wooden platform that has four antique iron casters from an old safe. The slight height variation gives distinction to the dress.

Try this technique at home in some of your displays around the house. I have used this platform at home when I have done displays in our hallway. Have a look at these past displays here, here, and here. This link, here, shows you how I put the hallway displays together.

The swagged curtains are held up by cording that I had used in one of the hallway displays at home. I created the two tassels to go along with the cording. They look elaborate but were relatively quick to make.

There are three tall candle holders that I made a year ago that I decided to use in the window. The candle holders are supposed to look as though they are beaded ropes that are rising in the air; very much like the fabled Indian Rope Trick. The "rope" is a metal rod covered in antique, vintage and repurposed beads. Each bottom end of the rope is finished with a beaded tassel. They add a sense of mystery and drama to an already dramatic window.

The vignette at the base of the swagged curtains. Almost everything that I use in the window displays I buy at Salvation Army and various other thrift stores. The chrysanthemums and grasses are in a large, and heavy I might add, green florists container.

At the base off the arrangement is a very old beaten copper plate holding some fruit and flowers. Off to the left you can see the bases of the candle holders with their tasseled ends.

That is this Autumn's window display. The Christmas window will be going in in mid November.

  Don't forget the EHAG Emporium... 

  tomorrow October 31 at 9:00 PM EST  

  (6:00 PM for everyone on the West Coast.)  

Here is a sneak peek at one of the pieces that I will have for sale.