Bakery room box, part 2

I concluded my previous post about my bakery room box on a promise to make more bread to fill the shelves. I had great fun making various breads and cakes. I will not describe every item step be step, but my ambition was to make them as realistic as possible. I used pictures of real bread and cakes, and in most cases I employed or developed the methods I learned at a miniature-bread class last year.

Let's start with bread. This is the sourdough bread I made in class.

Making it with an instructor, I learned the basic techniques: how to shape, how to create texture using various tools - not necessarily expensive tools: a toothpick and a tooth brush will serve you well. Then how to paint with chalk pastels for realistic effect. Here for instance we used five different shades, starting with the palest yellow and moving on gradually to the dark brown for the crust.

So when I finally decided to try and make my own breads I used these initial skills, and the rest was imagination and practice. Many years ago I made my first food items from air-drying clay because I thought it was easier. However, with polymer clay such as fimo that I am using now, you have better control over your project, and when baked it won't crumble. Otherwise it is of course a matter of preference.

As I said, I used pictures of various breads from internet, and I wanted some whole loaves while others cut in halves to show the texture.

For wheat breads, I mixed white clay with just a little yellow, scored, went over with a tooth brush, then toothpick and needle. The bread that looks like a bag is a Russian kalach. In the top row it's obviously a French baguette, a challah, another Russian specialty that looks like a large bagel, and some ordinary bagels. Before baking, I painted them with chalk pastels, in some cases adding white on top to look like flour. After baking I varnished the bagels, but not the other breads.

For rye breads, I obviously used dark brown clay, shaped, scored, added texture and a bit of while pastel to imitate flour. It is particularly important to pay a lot of attention to the halves for them to look natural.

I can of course make more bread for variety, but I have little interest in making more than one of each kind - except for the bagels.

For cakes I likewise used internet images, but a couple of cakes I baked full-sized as well. I showed the Swedish "princess cake" in a previous post. The challenge with cakes is that you want to cut some slices to display the inside.

Front row: sponge cake, cheese cake, carrot cake. Back row: "princess cake", Russian Easter cake, marble sponge cake and chocolate roll.

For sponge cake, I mixed white and yellow clay, make a central hole with a piece of round dowel, scored, added texture on the outside, then cut out a slice and worked on the inside. Painted with three or four shades of pastel on top of each other.

For cheese cake I cut a circle of white-and-yellow mix and a circle of white on top of it, and worked on texture; then diluted suitable shade of red with liquid fimo and covered the cake. I made several mistakes with this cake; for instance, I cut the slice after adding the topping, and it ran into the cake and ruined the effect. So in the next attempt I cut the slice first and added topping to it separately. This was a good lesson for the carrot cake where I also cut the slices before adding the icing. You cannot see it in the picture, but there are teeny tiny shavings of orange inside the cake to represent carrots.

The Russian Easter cake, kulich, I actually made some months ago, for Easter. It has this specific shape, and there are raisins inside.

For the marble sponge cake I made two rolls of yellow and brown and twisted them a bit, then worked on outside texture, cut two slices and worked on the inside.

For chocolate roll I rolled out dark brown and white clay, put them on top of each other and rolled up, like you would with a full-size roll cake. Cut off at both ends, then cut two slices and worked with toothpick and needle for texture.

In case you wonder how long it takes to make a cake, if you are a beginner like me, I'd say two-three hours. That's unless you make a big mistake and need to start all over again. In this scale, even a little mistake is usually visible, and it's easier to start again than try to correct.

When it comes to cakes, possibilities are endless, but there is only so much space I have so I think I will stop at least for the time being.

Finally, small breads, tarts and biscuits. I showed cinnamon rolls and hazelnut biscuits in a previous post and I also showed how I made wooden trays.

This display includes iconic Swedish marzipan rolls, croissants, chocolate chip cookies and doughnuts. Making such tiny things takes a lot of patience, but it's fun, and again there is a lot more I could make if I had more space in my shop.

Finally, I could not resist the temptation of making something that every bakery with self-respect would offer: a wedding cake.

This is the only cake I didn't make from fimo, but from three plastic bottle caps that I glued on top of each other - they already have nice texture on the sides. I then made all these paper roses and a few hearts; each rose has three punched layers. A lot of work, but I like the result.

Now that the products were ready, I had to go back to the shop itself and the display.

As with all room boxes and vignettes (and maybe with dollhouses as well), the eternal dilemma is whether to fix the objects or keep them loose in case you want to change or add something. I usually compromise by attaching small things with craft dots that are easy to remove. But in this case I really want all stuff to be loose - at the risk of everything getting messy when I move the box from my workbench to the book shelf where it will stay.

First, I will show the cabinets with bread because it will be hard to take pictures once the counters are in place.

The bottom compartment has two plastic breads I had before; my bread is better, but they can be there,  almost invisible.

It took me ages to make the bagels hang the way I wanted.

Finished project:

Well, a project is never finished, unless it is given away. I may add, change, replace, rearrange. But for now I will view this room box as finished to my satisfaction.

Bakery room box

 Recently, I have been making a lot of miniature breads and cakes.

 

I have never been good with clay, but some time ago I attended a workshop where I learned some basic techniques that made me more confident to experiment. Now I have a variety of stuff that demands nice display, and what can be better for displaying cakes than a bakery. I have been planning to make a bakery for a long time, but as usual I need to find an interesting point of departure. It is tempting to buy a shop kit, but that's not much of a challenge. I needed, firstly, an open cabinet, and secondly, glass counters. I also considered having some cafe-style tables and chairs, but decided they would obscure the cakes.

Now, my most important insight about starting a new project, even when you have a good idea of what you are doing, is to go through your stashes. When you, like me, have been collecting rubbish for years and years, as well as buying stuff you don't need at the moment but might need some time in the future, you totally forget what you have. In this case, I was looking for something else when I found these two cabinets.

 

The one on the left I bought many years ago and never used in anything because it is too large for a 1:12 project. I tried to use it as a book shelf, but it didn't work. The one on the right I bought at a car boot sale during one of my very last weeks in Cambridge, mostly as a farewell souvenir, because it is also too large, but I thought I might use it in a project one day, and as you see I was right. Just what an old-fashioned bakery would have. Scale won't be a problem in this particular project.


Rummaging further through my supplies, I found small transparent plastic boxes, probably from fancy chocolates, that I use for sorting small things. Suddenly I saw typical bakery counters!

I am getting cardboard boxes with my grocery deliveries that are just the right size for a room box. The first step was, as usual, just to put in what I have for a rough sketch.

The table  is something I made a while ago to practice making furniture from craft sticks.

 

It didn't match the cabinets so I painted it dark. The till is a metal pencil-sharpener.

Then I needed to decide on floors and wallpaper. If you wonder why I put so much energy in floors and wallpaper in my room boxes when my focus is on displaying something - it is absolutely essential. Sloppy background will ruin your project. So sometimes planning and building backgrounds takes longer than the rest of the project. When small things are to be displayed, too conspicuous backgrounds may kill them. Floors and wallpaper must go well together. They must obviously also go well with the rest of the objects. Sometimes it takes several attempts before you strike it right. Fortunately, I now have a good-quality printer so I can print several papers and test. I don't think I ever get it right at first attempt.

Eventually I decided on pretty Art Nouveau paper from Jennifer's page, my favourite site for printies. With such a colourful wallpaper, floors should be more discreet, and after long deliberations I choose a conventional, but unbeatable pattern.

Now on to details. Large cakes can be displayed on cake stands and platters, but for smaller cakes and biscuits I needed trays. Again, going through stashes is helpful.

These came with sets of miniature cutlery, and they fit precisely into my counters, but of course they needed to be painted. This looks more realistic, doesn't it.

First preliminary fitting:

Now I need to make more bread and cakes to fill the shelves and counters.

Come back soon.

Miniature baking

I have recently been teasing my Facebook friends by posting alternatively pictures of real and miniature cakes and biscuits.

When I posted this picture of Swedish cinnamon buns most friends thought they were real which I viewed as a compliment for my crafting skills.

I had to disappoint them:

Then I posted a picture of traditional Swedish "princess cake", and most people figured out it was a miniature, probably because I displayed it clearly on a miniature table.

I went on and posted this:

Of course you can see that these hazelnut buttons are real. But I thought it would be a challenge to make them in 1:12 scale.

I attended a course some time ago, when it was still possible, and learned some basic techniques. Not all miniature cakes can be made exactly the same way you bake for real; sometimes you have to cheat a bit.

First, obviously, I took two pieces of fimo clay. I happened to have a suitable shade of brown, otherwise you have to mix, as I did with layers of princess cake.

 

I baked them and then grated on a citrus grater. There must be better ways of doing it, but that's what I did.

 

The next step was when I had to cheat. I tried mixing the gratings with liquid fimo to make batter, just as you would with real biscuits, but it didn't work. So I decided to make a solid base and cover with grated hazelnuts.

This picture shows four steps: roll, cut into small bits, roll into balls and flatten.

Then I made a big mistake. I started covering the base with a mix of gratings and liquid fimo, but fortunately realised quickly that I needed to paint them first. Lesson learned. I painted with chalk pastels, starting with warm yellow, then light and dark brown. It is important to paint all over, on the edges.

Then I covered each biscuits with gratings. It takes time and patience, but if you are in a hurry you probably should not be making miniature food. 

To make hazelnuts for topping, I simply rolled out the same brown fimo and made tiny balls.

The biscuits are ready for baking.

However, I thought it was a shame to through away the failed biscuits so I made them into chocolate chip cookies.

35 minutes later:

As a first attempt and without any instructions, I think I did well.

To conclude, I want to point out that proper tools and materials are essential. They not just make the process easier, but ensure a much better result. Twelve years ago when I made my first food I thought I could do with what I had at home. Now I know better. So if you are considering making miniature food more than once, invest in quality tools.