Handbag Cake - Step by Step Tutorial

 

This cake was so much fun to make, my daughter decided that she would love this grown up handbag cake for her birthday. So much so that she drew it out on a sheet of paper, -having seen a cake she liked on the blog previously - detailing the exact colours she wanted and the style she wanted, it made for a very easy cake indeed when it came to buying all the supplies we needed 😊

Of course when you are making your own cake, feel free to personalise it, change the colours or even the basic style, perhaps you would prefer a flat stitched handle or the handles affixed to the top of the bag beside the clasp and laying down the side of the bag.

This is the beginning of a wonderful word of amazing people with your baking skills!!
 N.B. This cake does require some skill to make but I hope that I have written and photographed it in such a way that it should give you the confidence to make it yourself, perhaps even making it again and again!

Serves  6-8

Ingredients

2 qty 8 inch Round Cake 

1 qty Simple Vanilla Buttercream 

500g Pink sugarpaste

250g Black sugarpaste

50g White sugarpaste

Cornflour or icing sugar for dusting

Equipment

Long blade knife 

Parchment/Greaseproof paper

Cake Board

Crank handle spatula

Rolling pin

Cake smoothers/polishers

Boiled and cooled water

Small clean make up brush
Crimper tool (optional)
Kitchen paper

Sharp knife/Pizza cutter

Edible glue
1tsp Vodka (optional)

Method

Allow the two cakes to cool completely before beginning to carve or ice the cakes. 

Using a long blade knife, level the top crust of the cake. This is important because if the cakes are not level the finished cake will be difficult to crumbcoat and subsequently cover with sugarpaste. I didn't level my cakes correctly and it made the job harder when it came to covering the cake! 

Cut the cake so that it will stand upright, sandwich the two cakes together - top crust to top crust, leaving the smoother bottoms facing outwards (how very GBBO of me!!) - with half of the buttercream and place it on a piece of parchment/greaseproof paper or directly onto your cakeboard.

I placed my cake on a sheet of greaseproof paper to make it easier to transfer it to my covered cakeboard - a covered your cakeboard makes for a more professional look or to disguise a previously used board -this is how I cover all my cakeboards. Brush the board with a small amount of boiled and cooled water, dust your work surface with icing sugar, roll out 200g of black sugarpaste large enough to cover the entire board, lay the sugarpaste over the board and smooth outwardly with the cake smoother, trim off the excess and allow to dry completely.

Carve the cake using the long bladed knife, gently shave off the straight edges from the cake. All the while tapering the cake -narrow at the top and gradually widening at the bottom, just like a handbag in real life. 

Crumbcoat the entire cake with buttercream smoothing out all the edges, a crumbcoat seals in all the crumbs hence the name. 

Dust your entire work surface and roll out the pink sugarpaste into a large circle. Carefully, using both your rolling pin and your arm to support it, lift the sugarpaste and place it centrally over the cake. Gently ease the sugarpaste onto the cake and smooth it into place starting at the top working downwards. Use the heel of your hand to prevent tearing the sugarpaste, work swiftly but carefully. 

Once you are happy that the sugarpaste covers the entire cake, trim off the excess. Use the cake smoothers to give an even finish to the cake.

I trimmed the excess from the four corners of the cake using a very sharp knife, the uneven edges seen here will be covered later with the black trim. Place the cake onto your cakeboard if you haven’t done so already.

Using the cake smoothers to help you, roll out long strands of black sugarpaste, dab the edge of the cake with the boiled and cooled water and stick the black trim into place. This will cover and unsightly seams in the pink sugarpaste.

Using the cake smoothers again, roll out two  fat 30cm pieces of pink sugarpaste for the handles.

Using a crimper tool, decorate the handles (optional). Set aside the handles, to dry slightly.

Dab a small amount of the boiled and cooled water onto the top of the cake where the clasp would be.

Roll out a 25cm long piece of white sugarpaste, flatten it slight with the cake smoother and fix it to the cake adding a small rectangle as the clasp. Use the pad of your thumb to smooth out any sharp edges. 

Make four 2x2cm squares in pink sugarpaste and decorate with the crimper tool.

Working quickly but carefully attach the handles to the cake as follows, dab a small amount of edible glue just below the half way line at the front of the cake. Gently attach one of the handles to the cake, supporting it with large wads of kitchen paper -you might want a second pair of hands for this job - repeat this process at the back of the cake. Once the handles are in place, cover the base of the handles with the decorative squares, gluing each into place. Leave to dry for at lease a couple of hours or overnight. The cake can be left out of the refrigerator as it is ambient temperature safe - the beauty of buttercream rather than fresh cream ;)

Note: Using sugarpaste alone will mean that once dry, the handles of the handbag cake could be easily broken if knocked against, it happen to me. This is a common problem but can be fixed, when I am making this cake again I will use a small amount of Tylose (Tylo) powder which, once kneaded into the sugarpaste used for the handles will strengthen it so that no accidents will occur again!

This next step is entirely optional but I got the tip from Yolanda Glampp of How to Cake It. When Yolanda was making her Kate Middleton Handbag cake she painted a small amount of clear alcohol a.k.a Vodka onto the entire cake to lift the flat appearance of the sugarpaste and give it a more realistic appearance. With this tip in mind I decided to make a small rosette -which I attached to the cake using a wooden toothpick - then painted it and the black trim around the cake with the vodka, giving the appearance of patent leather trim to the cake!

Ta da!!