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Grey Ombre Wedding Cake- The Story Behind The Design

March 1, 2020      Leave a Comment

Today I am sharing the story of my grey ombre wedding cake design. From how the design almost didn’t happen, the meaning behind the design, how it went viral and sparked a trend for grey wedding cakes and how it went on to be featured by Preston Bailey, The Cake Blog and on Neighbours!….

Grey ombre wedding cake

Back in 2014 I had an enquiry from a couple who wanted a wedding cake in the style of a mountain. They loved walking in the mountains of the Lake District and wanted to incorporate this into their wedding cake design. Novelty cakes are not my specialty, so I wasn’t sure if I would be the right designer for them. But, the couple also told me they also had another style in mind with ruffles. I set to work thinking about how we could incorporate the elegance of the ruffles with the story that was so important to them, and that is how the grey ombré design came about. The grey ombré ruffles were to represent the mountains of the lake district, finishing with the ruffled effect continuing on top of the cake, to represent the snow on the top of the mountain. The couple loved this more conceptual idea! 

After the wedding, when I posted the wedding cake on Instagram I had never seen such a reaction to a cake design. The likes and comments flooded in so quickly and within minutes I had a message from Carrie at The Cake Blog asking if I would like to take part in a feature about the cake! You can read the feature here. It went on to become the most read feature on The Cake Blog that year! Since then the cake has been pinned thousands of times on Pinterest and has become one of my most popular designs. I have created many variations of this design and in many colours.

Grey ombre wedding cake

The popularity of this style was initially a surprise to me as it was quite different from my usual style- with no sugar flowers! But it sparked a trend for grey wedding cakes for me. This became a really popular colour palette for my wedding cakes for a few years following this.

One a the first books I read when starting my business was ‘Dear Preston- doing business with our hearts. A practical and friendly guide to running your own creative service business’ by Preston Bailey. I would definitely recommend this book To anyone working in a creative business! So I was really excited when my grey ombré cake was featured on the Preston Bailey Facebook page. It received so many lovely comments and also some funny ones too, as it had been described as a ’50 shades of gray cake’ on the post. Some commenters didn’t think this was an appropriate theme for a wedding cake ?. Little did they know the true meaning behind the cake!

The grey ombré wedding cake was also featured by Sam Saboura, host of TLCs Something borrowed something new, which was really fun, because my Mum and I love watching that programme!

The design has since been recreated by wedding cake designers all over the world. I love it when I get sent photos from other cake designers of their grey ombré creations or questions about how I make it. I even saw a version of this wedding cake design on Neighbours recently!

It has been really fun to look back at the story behind my grey ombre wedding cake design. I am taking part in the March Meet the Maker challenge on instagram this month. With todays challenge being STORY. You can follow along with the challenge on instagram and I’ll be posting weekly roundups here on the blog.

Iridescent Anthurium Sugar Flower Tutorial

Today I’m sharing our brand new iridescent anthurium sugar flower tutorial. A FREE step by step video tutorial on how to use petal and lustre dusts to create a iridescent effect on sugar anthurium flowers. Also know as unicorn anthuriums, these are such a fun flower to make and colour. I first saw these flowers…

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#MeetTheMaker

Earlier this month I took part in the #meetthemaker challenge over on instagram. A 6 day challenge designed to tell you a bit about the story of my business, with a new prompt each day.  Say Hello The first prompt in the #meetthemakerweek challenge was ‘Say Hello’. So I’m saying hello and telling you a little about…

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Sugar Flower Inspiration

Today we’re going to be talking about sugar flower inspiration. I’m going to be sharing some of the different ways I find inspiration for my sugar flowers and cake designs and we’ll also be chatting to sugar flower artists Maggie Austin, Arati Mirji and Jacqueline Butler about the inspiration behind their beautiful work. About 8…

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Sugar Flower Making Essentials

When I was just starting out in my cake business and I was a brand new cake maker, I thought that I needed every single piece of equipment to help me make beautiful sugar flowers. I could see all the amazing products available and thought I needed them all! Can you relate! ? If you’ve…

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Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop

Today I am sharing some details about my new FREE Lovelace Rose Sugar Rose Workshop A FREE step by step video workshop on how to use petal dusts to Raise the Level of Artistry in your Sugar Roses  In this Workshop, you’ll learn : -1-How to transform your sugar roses using petal dusts making the shift from creating standard sugar…

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How to mix the Perfect shade of Dusky Pink for Sugar Flowers

Today I’m sharing my new guide- ‘How to mix the Perfect shade of Dusky Pink for Sugar Flowers’. Dusky pink is the most requested colour by my brides, when I’m making their wedding cakes, so I have made a lots of different shades of dusky pink over the years. I use food colouring gels to…

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This month my sugar flower artistry members are wo This month my sugar flower artistry members are working on Calla Lilies. I love the colour of these Picasso Calla Lily sugar flowers! Using petal dusts really brings these flowers to life and helps to highlight all the details. #sugarflowerartistry #picassocallalily #sugarflowers #sugarcallalilies #cakedesign #cakedecoration #weddingcake #cakestagram #sugarcraft #purple #sugarruffles #flowersofinstagram #flowerart #flowercraft #sugarflowerclass
I’m really looking forward to getting started on I’m really looking forward to getting started on the Sugar Rose Artistry Masterclass with all my lovely new students next week. I can’t wait to see all the beautiful sugar roses that you create!

Thank you so much to everyone who signed up for the waiting list after enrolment closed yesterday. If you’re interested in joining us next time, make sure you’re signed up to the waiting list so you'll be the first to find out when Sugar Rose Artistry opens for enrolment again, as well as receiving an exclusive discount. 

Charlotte x

#sugarroseartistry #amesiarose #sugarroses #sugarflowers #cakedesign #sugarart #sugarflowerclass #cakeartists #sugarcraft #petals #petaldust #creativity #lovewhatyoudo #
Such beautiful work by my Sugar Rose Artistry stud Such beautiful work by my Sugar Rose Artistry student Chantell!

Sugar Rose Artistry is designed so that once you have learnt all the foundations of sugar rose making and petal dusting, you complete 5 sugar rose petal dusting projects to practice and consolidate all your skills. So that by the end of the course you will have mastered colouring and dusting techniques and created you own unique style. 

Then moving forward you can apply the techniques you have learnt to create any variation of sugar rose. It was so lovely to see my student Chantell, share a picture of a new variety of rose that she had created today, using all the techniques she had learnt in the course! The possibilities really are endless once you have mastered the foundations!

Enrolment for Sugar Rose Artistry closes on Sunday 31st January. (In 2 days!!!) You can send me a message for more details if you’d like to join us.

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful work Chantell!

#sugarrose #sugarflowers #sugarroseartistry #cake #cakedecorating #sugarflowerclass #sugarflowercourses #cakeartist #studentsuccess #prettyflowers #creativelearning #rosesarebeautiful  #sugarcrafting #flowerpaste #gumpaste #sugarruffles
As well as all our petal dusting projects, in Suga As well as all our petal dusting projects, in Sugar Rose Artistry you can learn all the foundations of sugar rose making including two different sizes of sugar rose, calyx and a spray of leaves. Even if you are a beginner, we break everything down, step by step, so that you’ll have everything you need to master sugar roses.

You will also learn how to dust, glaze and assemble an ivory rose, so that you can elevate the artistry in your work and take your roses to the next level. 

I talk in more details about the course in my Lovelace rose workshop. (You can still catch the replay)

#sugarroses #sugarflowers #sugarflowertutorial #sugarflowerclasses #sugarroseartistry #flowersofinstagram #flowers #flowerart #cakeartistry #cakelife #cakeacademy #sugarcraft
Some lovely testimonials from my Sugar Rose Artist Some lovely testimonials from my Sugar Rose Artistry students! Enrolment for the course closes at the of this week and we get started on 8th February. If you'd like to join us and raise the level of artistry in your sugar roses you can find all the details in my profile. #lovetolearn #cakegoals #sugarflowers #sugarflowerart #sugarflowertutorial #sugarroseartistry #petaldust #studenttestimonial #sugarflower #sugarflowerclasses #learnflowers #flowers #flowerstagram
Scroll across to see some beautiful student work f Scroll across to see some beautiful student work from inside Sugar Rose Artistry! #sugarroseartistry #sugarflowers #sugarflowerclass #sugarroses #cakeclassesuk #cakecourse #learnsugarflowers #studentwork #cakedecorating #creativeclasses #proudteacher
Here are some of the sugar roses that you can lear Here are some of the sugar roses that you can learn how to make in 'Sugar Rose Artistry!'

 First you'll learn all the foundations of sugar rose making including how to make two different sizes of roses, calyx and leaves. Then you'll learn the foundations skills and techniques of petal dusting and complete your first colouring project- an ivory sugar rose. Next you’ll have the chance to practice and consolidate all these skills by taking on a new sugar rose project each week, until you have created all of the beautiful variations shown here! By this point you will have you will have mastered sugar rose making, colouring and dusting techniques and created you own unique style! 

Which rose would you most like to learn to make?

#sugarroseartistry #sugarroses #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #sugarflowers #vintage roses #petaldust #sugarroseartistry #cakedecorating #cakesofinstagram #howto #caketutorial #flowersarebeautiful
Enrolment is now OPEN for Sugar Rose Artistry- A m Enrolment is now OPEN for Sugar Rose Artistry- A masterclass in creating and colouring sugar roses & the art of pricing sugar flowers.  You can find all the details at the link in my profile. #sugarflowercourses #sugarroses #sugarflowers #sugarroseartistry #sugarflowerclass #cakeclasses #cakesofinstagram #cakedecorating #cakedesign #petaldust #vintagesugarroses #cakeclassesuk #sugarart
Thank you so much to everyone who came to the firs Thank you so much to everyone who came to the first of our Lovelace sugar rose workshops today and for all your lovely comments. Here are just a few of them! If you missed todays session, you can still join us for tomorrow's workshop or catch the limited time replay. #sugarruffles #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #sugarflowers #sugarrose #sugarroses #petaldust #cakedecorating #cakedesign #thankyou #lovelace #sugarroseartistry
A sneak peek at tomorrow’s Lovelace sugar rose w A sneak peek at tomorrow’s Lovelace sugar rose workshop #sugarflowers #sugarroses #sugarflowercourses #sugarflowerclass #petaldust #roses #cakedesign #cakeart #sugarroseartistry #cakevideo #flowersofinstagram
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