Steampunk Seahorse cake

Create an under the sea fantasy cake with this awesome Steampunk Seahorse tutorial by Ralitsa Kamburova.

Create an under the sea fantasy cake with this awesome Steampunk Seahorse tutorial by Ralitsa Kamburova.

The cakes:

To decorate:

Equipment:

Method: The gathered sugarpaste tier

Cover your cakes in blue and gold sugarpaste as shown, but don't spend a lot of time smoothing them because they will be covered later.
Roll a piece of sugarpaste/gumpaste mixture (50:50) and cut it into irregular pieces.
Dust the back of a paintbrush or veining tool with cornflour to prevent it from sticking, then place the sugarpaste over and pinch the ends together. Gather the piece by pressing the piece from left to right and set aside. Make 15-20 pieces at a time, then start to attach them to the cake.
Brush a small area of your cake with edible glue or piping gel. Use the back of a paintbrush to attach the pieces to the cake, arranging them vertically or horizontally to keep the billowing effect. Continue until the bottom tier is covered.

The golden corals tier

The sparkly tier

When covering a cake with edible gelatine glitter, cover your cake in the same colour as your glitter. Prepare the acetate sheet and scraper. Add 8 tbsp water to two packs of Dr. Oetker gelatine and leave it to swell. Melt the gelatine over boiling water and colour it blue using the Americolor Royal Blue Airbrush Colour, Rainbow Dust Pearl Pacific Blue Dust and a little bit of Americolor Pearl Sheen airbrush colour.
Spread the gelatine over the acetate sheet and leave it to dry for a couple of hours or overnight. Cut it into small pieces and grind it in a coffee grinder. Sift it and grind any larger pieces again. Brush your cake with edible glue and sprinkle it with the edible glitter.

The steampunk seahorse

Make a template of a seahorse on card and cut it out. Roll out a piece of black sugarpaste mixed with tylose, then place your template over it and cut it out using a craft knife. Insert the wire and leave to dry.
Using the cog gear mould, make some cogs from black sugarpaste. Later we will cover the seahorse with cogs and lamellas.
For the body, make lamellas using the ellipse cutter, small dot cutter and star modelling tool. Cut an ellipse, then cut small pieces in the middle to create an '8' shape. Using the star modelling tool, make small dots around the lamella.

Cut two small dots and place them on the lamellas.

For the middle chain parts, create a small sausage, press slightly in the middle and then press on top to flatten it. Use the ball tool to create the shape, then impress circles with the small dot cutter. Make a tiny little ball, flatten it, indent a line with the back of the craft knife and place it in the middle.
Use a variety of metallic colours to make your cogs lifelike. Attach your cogs to your dried seahorse using edible glue or piping gel. Use lamellas for the body, slightly overlapping them, then add more cogs to the rest of the body. Place the chain in the middle of the body, as shown in the picture. For the seahorse's fin, roll a small piece of black sugarpaste and pinch it with your fingers – pull the lines for the fin and dust it with metallics as you wish. The magnolias are optional.