Bank Holiday baking - Jubilee style

With the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations gripping the country, I though it only fitting dedicate my baking this weekend to the celebrations.

So, as I was invited to a Queen's Jubilee party on Sunday I offered to bring a cake. I've once again used the recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery for their Chocolate Guinness cake that I made a few weeks ago (see here for recipe).

This time, instead of covering the cake with cream cheese icing, I decided to use rolled fondant to cover the cake and decorate it in a jubilee themed union flag.

Chocolate Guinness cake covered in butter cream and rolled white fondant.

After covering the cake in white rolled fondant I decided to add the base decorations of polka dots. I simply rolled out some red and blue modelling paste and used the large end of a nozzle from my piping set to cut out some large polka dots. Then it's just a matter of simply wetting them with a little bit of warm water (I soaked a clean blue cloth with cooled boiled water and then just rested the dots on it to absorb a bit of water so as not to destroy their shape by over handling) and attaching to the cake.

Guinness cake covered in rolled fondant and polka dots made from modelling paste. 

Next was the flag to top the cake. I simply printed out a template of the flag and cut it up into it's components before tracing the pieces out in red and blue modelling paste that I had rolled out. I left mine resting on some spoon handles to give it a 3D look when placed on top of the cake.

Flag made of modelling paste.

Finally, the assembly. I made the mistake of putting the flag onto the cake a bit early so some of the flag cracked a little. (I left it drying for about 6 hours. I would recommend leaving it for at least 24 hours to dry completely before moving it, especially if it needs to hold a shape).

Chocolate Guinness cake complete with Jubilee decorations and Union flag.