Hi friends!
Today I get to share with you a super cute clutch purse cake I made for one of my daughter’s friends! It was a last minute cake but so quick and fun to make. I even took a few pictures of the process for you all! This was my first time doing a clutch style purse which always makes it fun, but usually ends up being more difficult than I had thought it would be!! Therefore, I have a few lessons learned for you!
It truly looks “FULL” of cake!! Haha! – a little fuller than I had wanted, but hey…it had to have cake somewhere right!?!? – or it wouldn’t have been a cake! At least that’s what I kept telling myself!
In order to create this cake, you only need ONE layer of cake! I had one coconut cake layer (about 3/4″ thick) left over from creating a wedding cake for my friend Summer from Cake Paper Party (YES, she got married! I’ll have to post that cake sometime soon too!). I also had some yummy white chocolate coconut buttercream left over and didn’t want it to go to waste! So, I set out to see who had a birthday coming up that I could create a little cake for. And, by the Lord’s sweet grace, my daughter’s friend Megan was having her 16th birthday! A sweet 16 birthday is always in need of something sweet! – perfect!
Megan’s family goes to our church but is also a neighbor who my daughter absolutely loves and looks up to. She says, “Mom, when I grow up, I want to be sweet and kind and an amazing pianist like her!” I think Megan knows Raquelle is smitten by her and has taken her out to yogurt and invited her over to play piano with her! How sweet is that!!?!?
I just love love love this amazing young lady because she has given my daughter inspiration. It makes me ask myself…who am I inspiring? – who am I taking under my wing to share life’s treasures with?! I know my kids are of course the #1 answer to that question, but there are SO many more who need us…people who are walking just a few steps behind us even. I hope we all will look to invest in others more and become mentors to people who need good quality, strong, loving mentors in their lives. I’m going to be praying about this one for sure and asking the Lord to open doors to where I can continue to inspire others! We’ll see what He brings! – I’ll keep you posted!
Back to the cake!! Ready for a little “How to”??
I’ll have to walk you through it because I realized I only took TWO pictures! Yikes!! I was in a hurry to bust this one out and I just forgot to stop and take photos. So sorry friends! But, it’s pretty straight forward!
The first thing I did was take that cake layer (again it was 3/4″ thick x 6″ round) and cut it in half. Then I added a dollop of buttercream on top of one layer (a nice big dollop), stacked the other layer on top creating a half circle shape. Then I crumb coated it with a thin layer of buttercream and froze it wrapped up in several layers of plastic wrap (it was a few weeks until her birthday)…see picture below.
Now, to get the shape, I started by cutting off the bottom corners like this (see below).
I was inspired by this little coin purse..it helps to have inspiration for what shape you want it to take on. Knowing I only had a tiny bit of cake to work with, and it was already in a half moon shape, I had to be selective on my inspiration. :)
At this next point, I only have “after” photos to share while explain the rest of the process. I actually carved the top rounded edge off a bit to make it look thinner on top and fatter at the bottom. Then I scooped out a bit of the buttercream in the middle on the top so the metal clutch part would sit down a bit after I put the fondant on. Here’s a side picture of that. Hopefully you get it!
And yes…the metal strip was a little crooked. Cake is not supposed to be perfect…it’s supposed to be eaten! LOL!
The little fold or gather (whatever you’d like to call it) at the end of the clasp section was made by just allowing the fondant to fold like that. It’s not cake under there…it’s air. But, let me first explain my “lessons learned” with covering this little baby with fondant! Eeek!
I tried covering the entire thing in one layer of fondant but it just didn’t look right. The fondant I was using ended up being on the dry side and gave me problems. But, since I was in a hurry I just kept going thinking I’d luster dust it or something to make it look better. But after I luster dusted it…I hated it even more. Remember…luster dust brings out any imperfections…it DOES NOT hide them!! Oh silly me! It’s like my break from the cake world for 4 months fogged my brain over a bit.
But…I kept moving forward thinking the ruffles would hide it all! So, I created the sweet little ruffles in the front by making two 1″ wide ribbons of thin fondant for each outside run and one 1-1/2″ ribbon of fondant for the center. I used my sugar shapers for the frilling of the sides but you can use a ball tool too. For the two side runs of ruffles, you only need to frill one side since the other side is under the top ruffle. The top band of course needs both sides frilled.
I laid the outside ribbons on first, then laid the next ones closer to the center recessed in 1/2″ from the previous ruffle. Then I put the top one on that had both sides frilled/ruffled. I repeated that process on the other side making sure to line everything up with the finished side so it would look like a continuous ruffle.
That’s when I had to stop and make lunch for everyone. Good thing though! Because while I was making lunch I knew the fondant job just wasn’t going to work for me…it was too messy. YES, I’m a freak! So, after lunch I carefully peeled off the ruffle piece (which was one big piece now) by cutting the fondant under the side ruffles and peeling one side off in one big piece. I did that to the other side too and my daughter freaked out! “Mom, you’re ruining it!” I also wondered if I’d ruined it…but I kept thinking…it’s so small…I can just remake the ruffles if I had to. So, onward HO! I laid the ruffle panels upside down and scraped off a bit of the extra fondant and some of the buttercream, flipped it back over and put it under some saran wrap to keep it from hardening up.
Then I took some more fondant, added some corn syrup to it (because the corn syrup re-hydrates it and smooths it out), kneaded it real good so it was nice and elastic and covered each end/side to the half way point with two pieces. I didn’t do one big piece again. Then I put the ruffles back on to hide the seams of the two pieces of fondant coming together in the middle. And Voila! – perfection…well…how about MUCH better!
Okay…for the clasp! It was real easy. I just rolled out a thick piece of gray fondant about 3/8″ wide and 1/4″ thick and scored the thinner edge (which is the top) to make it look like two pieces of metal coming together…but it’s really only one with a scalpel line put into it. Super fast! I made the ball clasps by hand. The two tiny wide “V” shapes below the balls were rolled out fondant I let dry. The balls dried for a bit then I carved out a tiny hole in the bottom of them the same size as the “v” shaped clasps, added a little Tylose glue to the hole and stuck the balls right on top of the “V” clasp thingy…whatever that’s called! It worked great! The balls stayed put.
OH, and make sure to paint all the silver with some lemon extract and silver luster dust BEFORE placing them on your cake. It’s much easier that way!
My daughter helped me with the stitch line and all the little pearls. Those where her ideas! So sweet!
It was a very cute cake! Next time I’ll try to make the top of the cake even thinner like my inspiration photo so it’s not so puffy and full looking on top. But, all in all the cake was a success and Megan was totally blessed and surprised! My job was done!
Thanks for looking!
Here are a few tools I used for this project! Thanks for supporting this blog by purchasing these items through my affiliate links…
Wow Jessica, this is amazing! I love it! Can I feature your tutorial on my blog? Although I’m just building my website (still a little rough) but you can view it and leave comments
Yes for sure! Thank you! Please just link back to my blog somewhere in the post. Thanks!
It’s Jessica Battistelli!! LOL!! Oh my goodness, Summer got married?!!!! Yaaaay! I'm so happy for her!! I can't wait to see her cake! I know it's gorgeous because it was blessed by your hands! I just love your clutch purse! Superb!
This cake is so beautiful! I love seeing your creations.
Thank you SO much! xo!
To answer your question- you inspire us( your craftsy students and readers)! Thanks for your awesome ideas and classes. This cake is so sweet and elegant- your daughter’s idea really gave it that final, realistic touch- she has a good eye for design just like her mom!
I had to look twice to even see that the clasp was made out of fondant. It looked so real. Just watching your first online class and loving how easy you make things.
Thank you for allowig God to use you to be an inspiration and mentor to so many. It’s hard to come by in this industry for some reason! Thank you for your tutorial also! I’m surprising my aunt with a church lady’s hat and matching purse for her 60th birthday and this is exactly the style of clutch I was looking for! You’re awesome and I pray that your blessings continue to flow in abundance!
Oh thank you LaTisha! May the Lord bless the work of your hands as you bless your aunt!! xo!
Hiya Jessica,
I’m from the U.K I love your little purse tutorial what a lovely colour too, are you
on you tube, as I would love to watch your video
Thanks again
Dianne
I think it’s a perfect clutch purse cake. It’s amazing. And to answer your question, “ who are inspiring.”….. I would have to say every cake decorator wannabe with your stunning tutorials. Love all your Craftsy classes. You are blessed with a gift of art. Thank you. And Brightest Blessings