Bailey's Bottle
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Bottle of Baileys & Cups
 
 

 
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Two 3 1/2 inch cakes for the bottle, & one 2 inch for the cups.
The bottle was meant to be life size - I measured the diameters of the bottle of baileys & drew out the cross section on graph paper. I knew there'd be 1/2 inch of marzipan all round ( 2 layers , each 1/4 inch) so I drew a line 1/2 inch inside of my original line & that gave me the diameter of the cake I needed (i.e. 3 1/2 inches)
 
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Cake top trimmed
I pinned greaseproof paper round as a guide & cut top of biggest cake level
 
 
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Sides trimmed.
I turned cake over, stuck a 3 inch cake board on bottom & trimmed (electric carving knife) from edge of cake board down sides to outer bottom corner so as to slope sides- then turned cake over again & it looked like this picture.
 
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Next cake added.
I stuck the smaller 3 1/2 inch cake on top, with layer of marzipan in between, then pinned a 1 1/4 inch diameter paper circle on the top (got the dimensions from my pencil drawing) & used that as a guide to angle the sided of this cake, as in picture
 
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Pushed in a dowel
It went right to the bottom
 
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Shaped bottom of dowel
Added marzipan at bottom of dowel and smoothed it to shape
  
  
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First marzipan
Did the marzipan in 2 halves with vertical seam down middle cause the original bottle has a vertical seam- I used 1/4 inch spacers to get a controlled thickness when I rolled marzipan out (BIG thanks to the maestro Christine for telling me about those!) cause I knew the thickness of the final covering had to be the same as the marzipan I was painting the labels on, or the labels wouldn’t sit flush with the cake sides
 
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More marzipan.
The bottom layer finished

 
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Back label.
Painted it on 1/4 inch thick white marzipan, using paste colours & gold luster powder diluted in vodka.

I stuck some greaseproof paper over the real label on the original   bottle, & traced the design- then pinned that paper on top of marzipan & traced over the design again with a smooth, blunt but fine-ended "scriber" (wrong end of sewing needle held in pin-vice), which gave a lightly indented mark on the marzipan
 
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Finished back label.
Painted & trimmed label. I wrapped it in waxed paper & it kept sufficiently moist & pliable for a couple of days. 
 
 
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Top layer marzipan.
First half of black marzipan added
 
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Rest of black marzipan.
2nd half of black marzipan added, plus an extra bit at the top to form the bottle cap
  
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Back label 1.
I pinned the paper tracing of the label on to the side of the cake, & cut round it with a scalpel, & removed the top layer of marzipan
 
  
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Back label 2.
The painted label stuck in to the "excavated" shape
 
 
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Front label 1.
Excavated space for front label
 
 
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Front label 2.
Front label added
 

Making Cups 

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Cake for cups 1
Trimmed level
 
 
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Cake for cups 2
Cut in two
 
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Cake for cups 3.
Sugar paste on tops
 
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Cake for cups 4.
Sugar paste added to sides.

The handles I made from 50/50 sugar paste & flower paste. The saucers from flower paste, left to dry on cornflower-dusted china saucers
 
 

Copy written © 2004
 By Christopher Bailey the author of the above work