1. Making the Legs
The model is created from the bottom section up, so the first stage is creating the legs and socks using sugarpaste attached over the wired armature.
2. Making the Kilt
With the legs in place we can start to create the kilt. The kilt consists of red sugarpaste with a tartan design added using a black edible food pen, the tartan is then wrapped around the midsection of the piper and trimmed to fit.
3. Marking the Cake
4. Royal Icing and Stars
With the equal sections of the cake marked, a 1.5mm piping nozzle is used to pipe royal icing onto the cake.
5. Making the Body
A dark green coloured sugarpaste is selected to create the body of the piper, this is a nice contrast from the red kilt and can be attached using the same method as the legs. Details to the jacket can be added using a stitching tool and small strips of white sugarpaste.
6. Arms and Bagpipes
The arms are added next using the same dark green sugarpaste as the jacket, the bagpipes are created with the same red sugarpaste as the kilt and tartan design is added using an edible black food pen. Some other smaller details are also created and added to the bagpipes and Scotsman model.
7. Bagpipes (Continued)
More pipes (drones) are created using florist wire, black sugarpaste and white sugarpaste to add to the bagpipe. A fetching red sugarpaste ribbon finishes the bagpipes off nicely.
8. Making the Head
A small polystyrene ball is used for the head, sugarpaste can then be used to build up the facial features like the big inflated cheeks. Once the head is attached you can add the detail to the face and make sure everything is in the correct proportions.
9. Adding the details
Extra details are added to the face and onto the pipers clothing. The mouthpiece is simply a black piece of sugarpaste with florist wire which can be inserted into the bagpipes to make it look like the piper is really piping!
10. Numbers and Icing the Board
Ice the board using the wrap-around technique and try to keep the icing as even as possible. Paul uses the fantastic Claire Bowman gold dust combined with alcohol to paint the realistic gold finish onto the number 1’s.
11. Adding the Model to the Cake
Paul uses a dummy cake during this lesson so we can simply insert the model and numbers directly into the cake. If you’re using a real cake remember to use posy picks to separate the metal wire and the cake and avoid any potential contamination.
