Five minutes with... Surrey cake designer Eleanor Gerrish

Renowned local baking guru Eleanor from Designer Cakes by Elle shares her top tips for creating an on-trend big-day bake.

Celestial
Beautiful galaxy cakes make a bold statement. The black sugarpaste base is set off with bright, electric colours blended with white for an ethereal feel, either dabbed on by hand or added with an airbrush. White speckled 'stars' are added with paintbrush flicks and larger stars painted on in white or silver. A liberal application of disco dust finishes this sparkly masterpiece. Add 'galaxy' cake pops to the cake to showcase our solar system.

Geometric
For a modern, contemporary venue space, geometric designs can really add to the look. Incorporating squares, hexagons or triangles using metallic stencilling or applique tiles or cut-outs, adding chic, even edgy visual interest.

Metallic ombre effects
Beautiful colour-layering can blend your feature colour/s through the shades into a metallic finish. Add a metallic drip on each tier or accents of distressed silver or gold leaf for a unique finish.

Marble effect
By marbling the colour through the sugarpaste, the varied swirls create sleek stone-like effects. Tonal greys, pinks and peaches or aquas… the possibilities are endless. Picking out the flow of the design with silver or gold brushstrokes really accents the patterns. Finish with statement sugar or fresh flowers for a real work of art.

Textured cakes
Add sugar ruffles with painted metallic edges, edible sequins or moulded elements for texture on sugarpaste. Panels of sugarpaste with a crackle effect create a stand out modern look. An edible glitter tier combines texture and shine. Buttercream can be ridged across, down or diagonally across the tiers, with either straight or curved lines or dabbed on with a palette knife in natural-looking strokes and swirls.

Nearly naked cakes
Rustic, yet more stylised than a naked cake, cake layers are filled then coated with a minimal scraping of buttercream to reveal glimpses of the cake edges beneath. The tiers still feature the modern sharp-edge look. Vary the tier flavours to bring added colour interest. Adorn with clusters of fresh flowers or gently encircle with green herbs for a truly mouth watering design.

Colour block cakes
Colour adds so much fun to your wedding day and why not extend this to your wedding cake. Define each tier in a different colour or take it further by colour-blocking sections of each level, having curved panels of colour or detailed patterns such as hexagon tiles or mosaics. Think Tiffany blue and fuschia pink paired with gold and white or hot oranges, with yellows and white… let your colour-creativity flow!
For a more subtle take on this trend, have a white cake but add bold coloured flowers in between the tiers in colour-blocks e.g. one tier with hot pink florals, one with strong orange tones, one with bright reds etc.


For more inspiration visit her website www.designercakesbyelle.co.uk