The Cutest, Most Personal Cakes You'll Ever See

I've admired Lorraine McKay's work for years.   Her signature style and glorious gift is in sculpting the sweetest (no pun intended) sugarpaste sculptures of her clients to adorn her cakes.  Take a look at a few examples of what I mean:

Look at that detail!  The plaid on the kilt!  The lace on the dress!  The gumpaste jewelry, the hair!  And yes, it's all edible.

There's bad news and good news.

First, the bad news.  Lorraine doesn't make many cakes any more.  She's too busy.  Besides, she's from Scotland, so most of our readers would have been out of her delivery zone, anyway.

The good news, she's too busy teaching!  She's put together some amazing tutorials on her website, and travels the globe teaching workshops on how to make amazing figures like she does.

DIY brides charmed by Lorraine's work, take note.  Doing this kind of modeling work pretty much just involves dusting off your old preschool playdough skills and a little bit of practice.  Lorraine's tutorials at her website, Extra Icing, are detailed, helpful, thorough instructions that show you how to make incredible sugarpaste doppelgangers of your own.

Here in the United States, this kind of work is often done with gumpaste, rather than sugarpaste mixed with CMC (as Lorraine uses).  Lorraine has more information about the exact ingredients she uses in her tutorials, but if you're going to give it a try, it might be simpler to find a commercially prepared gumpaste.

If you decide to give it a try, I really like working with Satin Ice brand gumpaste.  Far better than the Wilton brand widely available at craft stores, it's well worth seeking out online or at cake decorating supply stores.